Be careful what you wish for, you might get it! (Wimpy)
- Thread starter L.S. Dennis
- Start date
L.S. Dennis
Well-known member
I remember seeing Willie play for the first time somewhere around 1962 or 63'.He could shoot lights out then, I can't even imagine how he must have played ing 40's and 50's!
I played Willie an exhibition match in 1964 and he ran 85 balls perfectly.
You wouldn't be Gunther....would you.
I beat Rhinestone Ray in the 8 ball tournament with the 3 foul rule. He broke and ran to the 8 ball and left it directly in front of the corner about a foot out. I was brand new to tournament play but had studied the bca rule book. With 7 balls I couldn't find any way out (given My ability) as a couple were crossed up and close to the side rail. So I played a safety, a weak one at that. He just scoffed and picked up the cueball and handed it to me. So I found a second safety that allowed me to maneuver another ball closer to the married 2 near the rail. His response to the first safety was duplicated. I summoned the tournament director who had mentioned bca rules and asked if the 3 foul rule was in play. "Yes" was his answer. My first 2 safeties were hooks that allowed one rail kicks that had a chance to make the 8. My third was much tighter and required 3 rails through the 7 blockers. Now he puffed up and in the same dismissive manner said, "I will bet a hundred dollars I'll hit it this time." I politely declined. He went three rails and did hit it only to have whitey go in off. I won $45 and spent 70 celebrating my first tournament victory.
Gunther was the second player I encountered in the same part of town. He could see how green I was and sort of took me under his wing. The first time we played for a dollar long enough that he said to me, "we don't have to play for the dollar anymore. " I said, "No I will pay for the lessons." Or something to that effect. I had already given him enough to cover his beer consumption for the evening. Shrug. Gunther tipped me to a 3 ball game at the Royal Bear near Boeing in Auburn. Ah those were the days.
There was a time when I would go to the Two Eleven and play Portland Slim last pocket 8 ball for the lessons. He was in his 80s and told stories the whole lesson. At 5 a game it was a huge bargain. One story was when Willie came through, Portland Slim racked for his straight pool exhibitions. He had seen Willie run a hundred when he had consumed so much alcohol that he was holding onto the rails as he circled the table.
Slim's age was slowing him and after about an hour and a half he would begin to fade. When I got it back to even, I would pay the time buy him a beverage and thank him. He didn't need the money but enjoyed our playing.
Well if your not Ray or Gunther....how about Cocomo?
My first visit to the White Spot Wednesday 9 ball tournament, Cocomo saw how Green I was and got my whole allowance that night. Shrug
Probably $20 
I paid for lessons.
It’s funny I just said this to a friend recently. We were talking about coming back to pool leagues since not playing since before covid really. We noticed so many young faces new to the game that reminded us of us when we were in our 20s trying to get good and beat the local players that were considered the one’s to beat. It dawned on my that those guys were in their 50s when we were chasing them down and now here we are in our 50s beating those young kids that our trying to chase us down but the gap gets thinner all the time lol I know Father Time always wins but I’m not going down without a fight. 
Ah the key word here is Fight. In the sense of, "on the fields of friendly strife", I mean.
The last actual physical fight ..."I won by 30 yards" is my favorite jk followed up with, "I studied Runfoo ".
Oops that's the wrong clip. There's more than one say it again though.