For a while he traveled around in his own caddy limo. He lived out of that car. One time I saw him out back of a poolroom putting a tip on his cue in the back of the car. He had his own little work shop set up in the car. He actually showed me how to retip a cue while on the road. I thought Greg was a pretty nice guy. And very smart too. For the last 15-20 years of his life he owned and ran successful poolrooms.
All you heard about his pool playing exploits are true and then some. He spotted the world the seven ball. If you walked in the door at LeCue in Houston, he would automatically give you the seven. Unless you were Buddy Hall. About the only other guys who could have played even with him in the early 70's were Richie, Wade Crane, Denny and Bernie Schwartz.
And I doubt any of them wanted to go looking for Greg. I did see Bernie beat him at the Stardust around 1970 or 71. Bernie beat everybody that year. If you want to know how good some of these guys played, think of Shane, Ralf, Alex or Ronnie Alcano's top tournament speed and translate that to a money game. Shane has that big power game that reminds me of some of the old time greats.
The best pool I ever saw in my life was when two great players were gambling. With one exception. When Earl was in his prime as a tournament player, I never saw anyone run so many racks match after match. He was in another league. But Greg Stevens could do that gambling, and often did hit guys with fives and sixes. The difference was Earl did it so nice, perfect cue ball control and one great shot after another, and he made it look easy. I used to say that Earl looks like he is playing on a bar table.
The only other player who ever made pool look so easy was Keith. And the only other players who moved the cue ball like Earl was Jose, and now Dennis. Efren was just as good too, but in a different way, and so was Buddy and Sigel.
