Crazy Gambling Story

Not the highest amount won but definitely the most interesting/entertaining.

I hinted at this in the JRB thread but thought it deserved it's own thread.

Background. JRB is playing Joey Gray $100 a game one pocket. JRB gets all the breaks and the first person to make a ball wins. This was at Pool Sharks during BCA Nationals 10+ years ago.

A poker player named Crazy Mike walks in and asks JRB to play 300-600 blinds heads up limit hold em at the Bellagio. JRB says maybe later he is playing pool.

Crazy Mike flashes a wad of cash and asks if anyone would like to gamble playing pool. He says he has never played pool before in his life. Just came to the place JRB was at to talk to him.

Chip Compton says sure I will play. What do you want to do? Crazy Mike asked him if he was good and Chip said yes.....

They finally agree to play 8 ball $100 a game. Crazy Mike gets all of the breaks and 5 consecutive ball in hands before Chip gets to shoot. Chip is also playing one handed. I have no idea how this game was negotiated.

So Crazy Mike misses and Chip runs out. Crazy Mike peels off $100 and said lets play again. Crazy Mike is in a really bad game which I would not have thought possible before they started. He is probably 50/50 to make any shot with ball in hand. When he does make a ball, he takes ball in hand again instead of saving them for when he misses.

Crazy Mike loses every game. Spot increases from 5 ball in hands to 9 ball in hands over the course of maybe 7-8 games. This mind you, is before Chip even shoots one handed. Now they start going back and forth.

The most memorable game was when Crazy Mike had ball in hand on an 8 ball hanging in the corner pocket. He makes it and cue ball follows it in. He turns around and asks chip what does that mean? Chip says you lose. Crazy Mike says so I owe you $100? Chip says yes. Crazy Mike peels off $100 and says rack again.

To be a high stakes poker player you have to have a complete disregard for money which Crazy Mike displayed here. He never got upset or acted like he got hustled in any way.Someone once said it is just a way to keep score. I was glad to be there to witness it in person.

I have seen other five to six figure matches at Pool Sharks but this really is the best memory I have. Thanks for reading.

straightline said:

Sounds like an episdode from Lifestyles of the Fat. I met a guy who said he peeled off 50K into a fire. It's just tokens if you got 'em.

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Makes me think of Wolf of Wall Street and fun coupons.

alphadog said:

Thanks for posting it gave me a laugh.

A guy told me he was in a pool hall when a stranger walked in looked for a cue of the wall. Sighted down 3 or 4 pounded them against his palm , selected 1 walked over to a 9ft table and spread 30 to 40 c notes on the cloth. Asked anybody play?

The regulars got together and discussed who this stranger is and can we play him? No one knew him so they pooled their money and between the 5 of them had 200 so they figured their best player could fire 3 $100 barrels at the stranger. (3 barrels yeah these were pool players).

They were going to play 8ball. The stranger was terrible and it looked like he was going to quit after 4or5 games so they started offering spots. Spots kept increasing the break,ball in hand,balls off the table,shoot the 8 at anytime. After the players had won about 3G the stranger had enough.Player said
I will play 1 handed as he racked the balls. Stranger says ok and tries to break 1 handed. The players were rolling on the floor laughing at the poor dupe.

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That;s funny. Sounds like the opponent just wanted to have a good time. Probably had it set in his mind that he could lose all of it and it would not be a big deal when he walked in.

PoolBum said:

Did Chip agree to this game before ever seeing Crazy Mike play?

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I believe the game was Chip's idea. I don't remember how in the world that game was agreed on in the beginning. I had never seen Chip before so had no idea how well he played either.

Maybe Chip just went with his gut and felt like Crazy Mike was telling the truth. Might be worth a couple hundred to find out as poker players in Vegas have been known to blow large sums of money playing pool. Notably Dippy Dave.

Duane Remick said:

I think Pool Money is considerably less than POKER MONEY ….
I hear of 10-20 K AND MORE In 1 hand of poker
I remember years ago
Gabe Owen Playing the Dippy Dave
Gabe goes to 18 'Dave to 4 , I think … Race to maybe 20 ?????
Gabe grinding it out to win the 20 k
dippy just trying to learn how to play 1 hole a little

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I was there one time while dippy dave was playing Gabe Owen and Corey Deuel. Races to 10 one pocket for 10k. I think the spots were 17-4 and 16-4.They took turns and rested while Dippy played non stop. All of the sets were close but Dippy didn't win any of them.

I have a good poker friend who used to play in the biggest games on Full Tilt sometimes. He got into a PLO game with 40k buyin. One of his friends had half his action in the game. Couple bad beats and he goes and tells the guy who had half that he was sorry but he lost a lot of money. His friend said how much did you lose? He says 100k. His friend just laughed and said you had me worried for a minute when you said you lost a lot of money..... Then he just sends him 50k no big deal. It was a completely different world back then.