Ronnie Allen Gaff Shaft mystery question

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deanoc

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Who made the shaft for Ronnie that he would use when matching gaff games

heplayed people with a spot using only the shaft

win a free comic book if you can name the cue maker and explain how it was made?designed

Just a fun game on a slow night during a crisis
 
G

garczar

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
deanoc said:
Who made the shaft for Ronnie that he would use when matching gaff games

heplayed people with a spot using only the shaft

win a free comic book if you can name the cue maker and explain how it was made?designed

Just a fun game on a slow night during a crisis
Click to expand...
I saw him play with only the shaft here in Tulsa once. What he did was put a roll of coins, dimes iirc, in his hand and butted the shaft up against it. He tortured the guy.
 
Duane Remick

Duane Remick

AzB Gold Member
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garczar said:
I saw him play with only the shaft here in Tulsa once. What he did was put a roll of coins, dimes iirc, in his hand and butted the shaft up against it. He tortured the guy.
Click to expand...

WOW...
What a mechanic ,
And then some :)
 
D

deanoc

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
good story.but not the one i was told by the cue maker

this method sounds good also

ronnie used many schemes overthe years i bet most of us have our own ronnie allen stories

I bet I have the most heartfelt

My wife never heard of ronnie or Willie mosconi unless they came by to visit
so unlike most pool groupies june treated Ronnie like just another friend

She asked him about his wife and family, it bacame a tear jerker

I wish I knew his wife,I bet I could tell her stories about how much Ronnie loved and missedf her,
howthey met,their dating and other things
wholesome things


You guys may think you know Ronnie,and you do,but not the Ronnie that we knew

Sorry to stray from the great gambling stories that i know youguys like.

If someone ask real nice perhaps I will share some stories about the names that some of you have only heard.

Back to the quiz,who knows the shaft story?
 
pt109

pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
I don’t know the cue maker....but I was told the shaft weighed over 20 ounces.
 
D

deanoc

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I was afraid you might win the contest when i started it

I always love to hear your stories

I think you have been around the block a time or two

I bet I hold the record for being theabsolute worst player to ever play every good player inthe world


Now when I pracice at home I honestly can not believe how bad I play


my average run isabout 6 balls,but one day i ran 56,then i thought i was improving but
it turned out 6 is still about average
 
jrhendy

jrhendy

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
deanoc said:
Who made the shaft for Ronnie that he would use when matching gaff games

heplayed people with a spot using only the shaft

win a free comic book if you can name the cue maker and explain how it was made?designed

Just a fun game on a slow night during a crisis
Click to expand...

He had one of his Balabushka shafts weighted, and I believe Ernie at Ginacue did it for him.
 
M

maha

from way back when
Silver Member
he had a weighed shaft and had one like it that wasnt so he could show the good one if he had to.

he also had his own set of balls he carried around and demanded or tried to demand they use them rather than the junk balls in the room. a couple of those were a tiny bit off.
he had some cool golf gaffs as well.
 
jay helfert

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
Gold Member
Silver Member
jrhendy said:
He had one of his Balabushka shafts weighted, and I believe Ernie at Ginacue did it for him.
Click to expand...

Bingo, you beat me to it. I hit balls with his special shaft. Must have been about 15-16 oz. Ronnie would play good players One Pocket even up with just the break and shoot one handed with the shaft. He killed them playing that way. One time he told me that the break was worth four balls to him. He was f'ck'g Awesome! Even Allen Hopkins told me the other day that no one played like Ronnie. Hoppy beat just about everybody at One Pocket (Bugs, Shorty, Grady, Steve Cook) but he could never beat Ronnie. He said that Ronnie would have killed Efren, so there's someone who agrees with me. I've never seen anyone play the game like Ronnie. He shot shots that I've never seen before or since. Allen H. said much the same thing. He said Ronnie came with shots from nowhere that turned the whole game around.
 
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pt109

pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
maha said:
he had a weighed shaft and had one like it that wasnt so he could show the good one if he had to.

he also had his own set of balls he carried around and demanded or tried to demand they use them rather than the junk balls in the room. a couple of those were a tiny bit off.
he had some cool golf gaffs as well.
Click to expand...

When Ronnie came to the Rack in Detroit...they tell me he went out to Saffron’s and bought
two sets of Hyatt Centennials and gave them to the counter...stipulation..anybody could
use them....but he always had to get a set on demand.

Ronnie knew the importance of quality in equipment.
 
jay helfert

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
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One other thing. Before Ronnie got his special shaft, which I believe resides in the Glenn collection, he would palm a roll of dimes in his hand when he held the shaft to play. You would be surprised what a difference that made. Try it sometime if you don't believe me.
 
D

deanoc

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Ernie told me the story over a pizza pie one day when i visited him at his new shop in
North Hollywood right before he went back into cue building

Ernie had quite a few stories of his own,not just bout Ronnie.

The story I was seeking more light on myself about the gaff shaft

ernie explained he made Ronnie a shaft to use that would allow him to
play with only the shaft. If memory serves me,Ernie made the shaft to weigh

and balance like a normal cue thus enabling Ronnie to perform his magic.

I once owned Ronnie's Balabushka and sold it to my good friend Mark Griffin,
strangely as we were talking about the cue and its provenance Ronnie came in and over and
stepped into the conversation identifying his old cue

A funny thing happened,,Mark as many of you guys know,is a very good businessman
and so he wanted to pay less than I was asking for the cue. First he questioned if it was Ronnies cue,
but Ronnie showed up to help me there.

Ronnie moved on to talk with Mary the owner of the pool room there in Vegas.Cuetopia at Swanson and Twain.

Well, now Mark points out that the shafts are not full 13, this is usually excellent ammunition for bargaining so Mark points out"these shafts can't possibly be over 12 and a half mm,Dean"


Here is the funny part,Ronnie hears him and shouts over about 2 tables,"of course they aren't,how else can you expect to play with them?"

I held out my empty hand while Mark counted out the mallards with a very long face.

Ronnie left so Mark says"Dean tell me the truth what did you pay Ronnie for that performance?"


I was naturally offended

Paul Mottey suggested that we play some captain one pocket to ease the pressure and of course win a few bucks since he was the only one who could actually play

just another day at the pool room,but who would have ever thought those days would end? It seems like only yesterday and now Ronnie is gone forever,seems like only yesterday I was buying half a dozen Mottey cues a t a time,I could always get a new one with a simple call,and now the one Mottey that I have only has one shaft.

How does it happen so fast,we were young and fun,laughing and kidding each other in action at the drop of a hat never thinking it would end.

Last time I saw Ronnie I threw in with him to play Bumper Man some one hole with the wing or one handed,when I walked out the door I didn't even say good bye,but it was,and it was forever
 
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Buckzapper

Buckzapper

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Hopkins didn't beat everybody. I saw Efren give him a large financial trimming in 85. Efren gave him the 15 ball and all the breaks in rotation. If it wasn't close, the play would not have gone 2 days like it did. 2nd day, Efren put the hammer down and took the nest egg.
 
jay helfert

jay helfert

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Buckzapper said:
Hopkins didn't beat everybody. I saw Efren give him a large financial trimming in 85. Efren gave him the 15 ball and all the breaks in rotation. If it wasn't close, the play would not have gone 2 days like it did. 2nd day, Efren put the hammer down and took the nest egg.
Click to expand...

I was talking about One Pocket. But you are right about Efren beating him and everybody else (Sigel, Hubbart, and others) at Rotation.
 
G

Gatto138

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
jay helfert said:
One other thing. Before Ronnie got his special shaft, which I believe resides in the Glenn collection, he would palm a roll of dimes in his hand when he held the shaft to play. You would be surprised what a difference that made. Try it sometime if you don't believe me.
Click to expand...

Was he playing with just one hand or did he use his bridge hand too? I’ve never seen a one handed match so it’s hard to comprehend how some shots could be played well in one hole. Like being frozen on a ball in the stack and having to kick or play a touchy shot. Seems incredibly hard, I can see why he could get a lot of bets that way. There’s a guy around that’ll bet playing “jaw ball” where he runs out a rack of 9 by shooting the cue ball out of his mouth. He gets to break using a full cue though. I always like to bet because if he has a cluster or two balls touching after the break he probably can’t get out. Gaff games are fun to watch. Jaw ball is kinda gross tho
 
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garczar

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
jay helfert said:
One other thing. Before Ronnie got his special shaft, which I believe resides in the Glenn collection, he would palm a roll of dimes in his hand when he held the shaft to play. You would be surprised what a difference that made. Try it sometime if you don't believe me.
Click to expand...
That's what he did when i saw him. He didn't have a cue so he borrowed a shaft from a local builder and used the dimes. What i remember the most about that deal was he kept trying to get people to go in on some funky real-estate deal. Carried around the racing form with him too. Oh yeah, let's buy in a real estate deal with a horse player. He sure was entertaining i'll give him that.
 
jay helfert

jay helfert

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Gatto138 said:
Was he playing with just one hand or did he use his bridge hand too? I’ve never seen a one handed match so it’s hard to comprehend how some shots could be played well in one hole. Like being frozen on a ball in the stack and having to kick or play a touchy shot. Seems incredibly hard, I can see why he could get a lot of bets that way. There’s a guy around that’ll bet playing “jaw ball” where he runs out a rack of 9 by shooting the cue ball out of his mouth. He gets to break using a full cue though. I always like to bet because if he has a cluster or two balls touching after the break he probably can’t get out. Gaff games are fun to watch. Jaw ball is kinda gross tho
Click to expand...

One hand only with the shaft. It was pretty amazing what he could do with it, just about as much or more than he could playing with a full cue one handed. He could reach out and poke the cue ball and make it go anywhere he wanted. Even draw the ball! You had to see it to believe it and I did, many times. I must have seen him run eight and out with the shaft a hundred times! I want to see Efren or any other "modern day" player do that!
 
Frankenstroke

Frankenstroke

2 Gus Szamboti cues
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Any personal friends of Mike Lebron here?

He had a break shaft made of metal, like titanium. Must have weighed a ton.
 
G

Gatto138

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
jay helfert said:
One hand only with the shaft. It was pretty amazing what he could do with it, just about as much or more than he could playing with a full cue one handed. He could reach out and poke the cue ball and make it go anywhere he wanted. Even draw the ball! You had to see it to believe it and I did, many times. I must have seen him run eight and out with the shaft a hundred times! I want to see Efren or any other "modern day" player do that!
Click to expand...

Just saw a video on Roy’s Basement FB page of Filler playing some guy one handed in 8-ball, with other guy taking 4-6 balls off. I doubt he’s practiced much because he plays about as well 1 handed as I do. Most people I see trying this can’t shoot unless they rest the cue on the rail. I played Reed Pierce years ago and he fired the 9 in one handed but just holding his cue in the air. One-stroked it,, It was super impressive. But he’s an action player from that old school era of players. So I’m guessing it’s prolly more of a gamblers way to entice people into games.
 
jay helfert

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
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Gatto138 said:
Just saw a video on Roy’s Basement FB page of Filler playing some guy one handed in 8-ball, with other guy taking 4-6 balls off. I doubt he’s practiced much because he plays about as well 1 handed as I do. Most people I see trying this can’t shoot unless they rest the cue on the rail. I played Reed Pierce years ago and he fired the 9 in one handed but just holding his cue in the air. One-stroked it,, It was super impressive. But he’s an action player from that old school era of players. So I’m guessing it’s prolly more of a gamblers way to entice people into games.
Click to expand...

Reed was always very good at shooting "up in the air!" I've seen some amazing displays of this with Ronnie the best at One Pocket and Little Sergio the long time best at 9-Ball.
 
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