I know Archie well, and nothing about him surprises me. He is the greatest pure gambler I have ever known. I've played him, backed him and bet against him.
First time I ever met Archie was in a little bar in L.A. 30 years ago. I had just beaten a decent player out of a few dollars playing $10 Eight Ball, when Archie asks me to play. I didn't know him but said okay. I tell him we're playing for ten a game and ask him if that's okay with him. He says no, he wants to play for fifty a game.
Naturally my asshole puckers up a little, and I wonder who this guy is. I won't play him now until I find out more about him. A friend of mine tells me the guy is a big gambler and doesn't play that good. He says I have a chance to make some money. So now I agree to play. We flip a coin and he wins the toss and breaks 'em wide open, making nothing. I get down and go to work. I make a nice run out with a few good shots. Archie hands me fifty and say he's done! He tells me he just wanted to see if I'd dog it for the cash.
Later on, when Archie won all that money, I suggested to him that he invest some of it, like ten mil. He would have gotten a lifetime income, maybe fifty or sixty grand a month. Nothing doing though. Archie didn't want anyone handling his loot but himself.
Years later I had my poolroom at Hollywood Park and Archie comes strolling in one day with his partner in tow. I was playing nearly every day then and in dead punch. We shoot the shit a while and pretty soon he asks me how we can play. After some negotiating I give him 9-5 for 500 a game. I win $2,500 that day and $3,000 more the next. He got me to change the game to 9-5 and the break the second day. I felt like I could give him anything and win. He played that bad.
Archie doesn't come back for like a week (I think he was practicing somewhere). Now he comes back in and we get to talking and he convinces me to give him 7-3. OOPS!!! I got Archied!! I won the first game and he won the next seven. My manager finally took me aside and said "What are you doing Boss? You can't win at this game". He did me a big favor. I was totally going off, at 500 a pop. Somehow I came too after my little conversation with my manager, and I pulled up. I told Archie we are going back to 9-5.
We haven't played again since. Thank God! He scares me!
