Alvin Thomas "Titanic Thompson" stories?

JoshStodola

JoshStodola

My stroke is garbage
Silver Member
Anybody on here know the legendary hustler Alvin Thomas or play/bet against him? I would really like to hear some true stories. Not just pool either, I wouldn't mind hearing about his golf game, I have heard that none of the pros would even play him and he refused to join the tour because he'd "have to take a pay cut" LOL

For those who don't know, here is a briefing on the fellow: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_Thompson
 
JoshStodola said:
Anybody on here know the legendary hustler Alvin Thomas or play/bet against him? I would really like to hear some true stories. Not just pool either, I wouldn't mind hearing about his golf game, I have heard that none of the pros would even play him and he refused to join the tour because he'd "have to take a pay cut" LOL

For those who don't know, here is a briefing on the fellow: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_Thompson
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The one I remember was he was at a big horse race with a bunch of high stakes gamblers. He was trying to figure out a way to take them off. So as driving around he saw a truck full of watermelons. He bought the load under two conditions the driver had to drive by the hotel they were all staying at this time exactly and the driver had to offload the truck right then and there so they knew exactly how many there was. As they all gathered in front of the hotel waiting to go the track Titanic asked for odds or something in that nature can't remember he could guess how many melons on the truck. All the guys fell for the bet and Titanic nailed and won a big score doing it. Pretty smart!
 
Story I heard about him playing golf--He was at the Homestead and teeing it up with Sam Snead and an old buddy that since passed by the name of Slick Yeaman. Yeman would travel with Snead during his hayday and told me the following.
Thompson would bet on anything and was a fare golfer, but no way in Sneads calibar. They got a few small bets out of him but he lost everyone of the bets he made with them that day--that was until they got in --He had placed bets with other people at the club that he would out drive Snead on atleast 4 occasions while they were out--Slick said on all 4 short par 3's Thompson hitting last easch time hit his driver straight as an arrow at least a 100 yards past the green
From what I was told he made some serrious money on that bet--the ones playing with him thought he had lost his mind
 
JoshStodola said:
Anybody on here know the legendary hustler Alvin Thomas or play/bet against him? I would really like to hear some true stories. Not just pool either, I wouldn't mind hearing about his golf game, I have heard that none of the pros would even play him and he refused to join the tour because he'd "have to take a pay cut" LOL

For those who don't know, here is a briefing on the fellow: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_Thompson
Click to expand...
There have been at least two biographies about him including one in the last two years. The one by Carlton Stowers is pretty good.

He was a very good golfer. After beating someone by a little, he would offer to play them left handed. You can guess the punch line.

He'd bet that he could throw a walnut over a 5-story building. Of course walnuts are too light to throw that far but not if you have a deal with the sidewalk vendor to have your special mercury-filled walnut at the ready.

He bet a big strong country boy that he couldn't carry a brick to the roadhouse in the next town and put it up on the counter. After carrying a load with one arm for a few miles and without rest, your arm doesn't work so well.

He bet that his dog would fetch the stone he threw from the bottom of a pond with lots of stones. He'd mark the stone and throw it. He had previously marked all the other stones in the pond.

He'd hire cars to drive by in a specific order and then bet on license plate numbers.

He would change road signs and then bet on how far it was to the next town.

Or at least, that's how the stories go.

People don't bet like they used to.
 
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He also made a bet where there were flies landing on cubes of sugar--he would bet on which one and win--He had painted clear insect repellant on different sides of the cubes --people musta bet on everything back in those days
 
Pushout said:
I bought the book by Kevin Cook at the US Open last year. Good read.
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I think Kevin's book is the best biography of Titanic. If you check the paperback edition of Kevin's book, you can read about how Alfie Taylor and I beat Titanic on a card proposition.:smile:
 
I was lucky

Enough to travel the road with Ti when I was young...and he was old. And, I did join him while he worked his magic on the golf course. I did write about him in my book a little but my brother, Jack, played a lot of golf with him. Many people know Ti could play right or left handed but what people didn't know was he could play pretty damn good left handed with right handed clubs.
Alvin was the only person I ever hung with who carried thousand dollar bills.
Keep it nice. Alfie
 
JoshStodola said:
Wow how is these even possible?!
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I think that has been said about most of the things Ti did.

I have been told when he was in the Fort Worth area, he used to tell guys he could throw the key to their car into the door lock for several steps away.
The stories say he always came back inside with the $$$'s.
 
I was on the Titanic with Thompson. We swam all the way to Argentina together then hustled our way back to the USA. I still have a cue I made from the wooden planks on the ship. It is for sale, willing to give a discount to azbilliards forums members.
 
JoshStodola said:
Wow how is these even possible?!
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To shoot right-handed with a left-handed club, you turn it upside down.
The first pro I worked for played long drive with our club champion every
year for 20 years ( he used the left-handed driver swinging right)...he won
every year...longest of 20 drives....
 
JoshStodola said:
Wow how is these even possible?!
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I was thinking the same thing. My guess would be back then they played with blade style clubs so they were flatter on the opposite side. Now knowing he was a hustler he likely had some sort of customization done to the clubs as well.

You would have a hard time doing that with cavity back style clubs of today


Getting the key into a car lock intrigues me that is like throwing a coin into a pay phone money slot never have I figured out how that works
 
pt109 said:
To shoot right-handed with a left-handed club, you turn it upside down.
The first pro I worked for played long drive with our club champion every
year for 20 years ( he used the left-handed driver swinging right)...he won
every year...longest of 20 drives....
Click to expand...


When you say upside down do you mean he used the non face side of the club head, or that he used the club head facing forward but reversed. So the club face was verticle as opposed to horizontal
 
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