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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: SUCKERVILLE, U.S.A. Looking back at your life you can see certain turning points where you have a choice to go down one road or another. You choose one, or it is chosen for you, and everything changes. Why did the right road take the wrong turn? Well, not everything...

He came from 'War torn Europe' to NYC then directly to South Haven, a year later they moved to Chicago.

Some of the Best is yet to come!

Part 3 Everything in Detroit was big time, so I guess it makes sense that one of the all-time great suckers also played there the legendary Rosey, whom we all called “Airplane Bill" (don’t ask me why). He was fabulously rich. Airplane had more money than all the rest of us put together. But at...

Part 2 Eventually we figured there was no use hanging around and started to back out of the place. “Sorry we didn't get to show you our game," I said to one of the old-time sweaters standing in the doorway. “That’s all right," he drawled in his redneck way. "I almost got to see a pretty good...

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: ON THE ROAD AGAIN Bensinger's closed down for good in the 70s. After that there were still great pool rooms like the North Shore Billiard Club on Clark Street, but as time went on the hustling game in Chicago began to fade. By then I had been playing in my hometown for...

Part 2 After the day's action I asked Nagy if he wanted to try again tomorrow, and he said no thank you. Smart move, Gene! As we used to say about East Coast straight pool players: "They want to play a hundred points for donuts and a cup of coffee.” Well, I’m sure they have stories about us...

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: HALL OF FAME Because I mentioned Bugs Rucker this is as good as place as many to shift my attention from the rogue’s gallery to the truly great pool players I have known over the years. Bugs is right at the top of my list of great hustlers and real friends. North Side, South...

Thanks G!

Eric, if you have time, read through the partial pages of the chapters so far. You won't be disappointed.

I have the outline, as you can see, I'm writing it every day! Just giving a 'Preview' of some pages. It's in my hands now. BTW, He turned 80 two days ago.

Part 3 On the North Side of Chicago some of my best friends belonged to an immigrant family from Ireland. In the 1950s the newspapers started calling them "The Fighting O'Shea’s" because they were all great amateur boxers. Tom O'Shea later became a great boxing coach around Chicago. He's even...

Part 2 One of the best showman hustlers who worked his trade around Bensinger’s and other Chicago pool halls for many years was a guy named Lee Kaplacki. But everybody called him “Reno”. Reno usually showed up in the pool hall dressed like a house painter. He'd have a painter’s cap and overalls...

Really, a cast of characters CHAPTER FOURTEEN: A GALLERY OF ROGUES I've been a successful pool hustler for most of my life. I've won tons of money. I won't go into exactly how much because I never kept track. But what I remember even more than the money is the people I won it from. Their...

Growing up CHAPTER THIRTEEN: A LIFE ON THE EDGE My chosen profession was Hustler. I earned advanced degrees in that discipline, so if I wanted to show off my knowledge I could rightly call myself “Doctor ***********”. But since no true hustler wants to show off his real game we'll forget...

Moving on up CHAPTER TWELVE: BENSINGER'S Back in the 1960s when I started playing on the North Side of Chicago there were dozens of pool halls. But there was one pool hall that had a reputation for being Number One, the place where you had to go if you wanted to find the famous players and...

Honing His craft CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE BASICS OF POOL HUSTLING To get at the money the hustler requires a different set of skills. He has to watch people. He has to be a kind of amateur psychologist analyzing people's strengths and weaknesses. He's always on the lookout for a likely mark...

PART THREE: A BENSINGER'S BOY Never play if you can’t win. The name off the game is to win. I was the main man who people feared and lost their money too. I beat hundreds of people playing pool. I was the king and the best hustler. Nobody was in my class. And I won 95% off the time. I was in...

Wrapping up a wild lifestyle CHAPTER NINE: CARNEY KID ON THE ROAD Around this time a young guy named Jack Kerouac wrote a book called "On the Road". It was about bumming around the country and meeting all kinds of strange dudes along the way. It was about getting baptized into life beyond...

Getting down to business CHAPTER EIGHT: CARNEY KID: RIVERVIEW PARK For most kids, the teenage years are the ones you remember as school days. You mostly run with the herd or with your clique of friends. You play sports or act in the school plays or take up a musical instrument. You...