Biggest money match you have ever seen?
- Thread starter bigshooter
- Start date
wow mason nice take. by the way this is John V.C. I finnally got my account validated lol.masonh said:
Russ Chewning said:Aside from the fact that Jay H. sez it took 3 days, even otherwise I'd bet my left testicle that it didn't take 11 days.
Pool stories have a tendency to grow as they get older.
Russ
He is talking about a different match Russ. This was in Vegas and the match with James was in Louisville.
P.S. Jack won both. :smile:
Fatboy said:
This REALLY happened. Baldwin was the President of the Mirage at the time, and had access to big bucks. They started out for 100 a game and it quickly escalated. Archie had only a few thousand dollars to his name when the game began. They played off and on for several days, and Archie did in fact win over a million dollars in cash!
From there they went to a private room at the Mirage and played heads up poker. Archie doubled his winnings playing poker. Finally Baldwin was done, but Archie then asked if he could play Dice in the casino and would Bobby have them raise the limits for him. BOOM, he wins two million more! Now he had a monster bankroll and took on Las Vegas. All casinos were now fair game for Archie.
Archie ran his bankroll up over thirty million within a couple of months. It was the greatest roll in Vegas history. He had emptied out the cage at the Horseshoe downtown, and had TEN MILLION in $5,000 chips in a box there. They were forced to buy back some of the chips from him.
The IRS got wind of all this and charged Archie four million in taxes. He claimed losses against winnings and they allowed most of it. He did have to pay them four mil though. He had well over twenty million left, spread out in cages across Vegas. Over the next two years, Archie spent and lost most of the money. A couple of years later, he was running around Vegas claiming he was broke. He was down to his last few hundred grand.
Since this monster score, Archie has several times run up over a million in winnings, but has never approached his once in a lifetime score. Doubtful he ever will. But it certainly isn't for lack of trying. I saw him last trip and he was hanging around the WSOP trying to get staked.
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jay helfert said:This REALLY happened. Baldwin was the President of the Mirage at the time, and had access to big bucks. They started out for 100 a game and it quickly escalated. Archie had only a few thousand dollars to his name when the game began. They played off and on for several days, and Archie did in fact win over a million dollars in cash!
From there they went to a private room at the Mirage and played heads up poker. Archie doubled his winnings playing poker. Finally Baldwin was done, but Archie then asked if he could play Dice in the casino and would Bobby have them raise the limits for him. BOOM, he wins two million more! Now he had a monster bankroll and took on Las Vegas. All casinos were now fair game for Archie.
Archie ran his bankroll up over thirty million within a couple of months. It was the greatest roll in Vegas history. He had emptied out the cage at the Horseshoe downtown, and had TEN MILLION in $5,000 chips in a box there. They were forced to buy back some of the chips from him.
The IRS got wind of all this and charged Archie four million in taxes. He claimed losses against winnings and they allowed most of it. He did have to pay them four mil though. He had well over twenty million left, spread out in cages across Vegas. Over the next two years, Archie spent and lost most of the money. A couple of years later, he was running around Vegas claiming he was broke. He was down to his last few hundred grand.
Since this monster score, Archie has several times run up over a million in winnings, but has never approached his once in a lifetime score. Doubtful he ever will. But it certainly isn't for lack of trying. I saw him last trip and he was hanging around the WSOP trying to get staked.
P.S. Included among his losses was a 440K loss to the aforementioned Toby Fleharty playing 9-Ball. This was the money Toby used to buy into the Cue Club.
Slim v. Efren
I was in Dallas several years ago at CJ's and saw Efren play Amarillo Slim play a set of one hole (12-5 I believe) for 50K. No doubt there were six figures bet including the rail. Me and my buddy emptied out on Efren (even borrowing a dime to put in the fire). I believe it was a race to five. With the score 4-2 Slim, we thought it was money gone as Slim lined up a routine straight in for all the cheese. He missed, hanging the ball. Efren brings it from there all the way to the bank. It was unreal.
At that same tourney, Rafeal got robbed by Matlock at 3-Cushion. IIRC he busted the entire hispanic contingent as they figured RM to be the nuts in this spot. We knew the "real score" and won a dime or so on the rail flying under the radar. Kim Davenport played Luat a race to 21 for 5-10K that same night. Luat fell dead for our money, but we managed to come out pretty good winner nonetheless.
Those sure were some great times.
I was in Dallas several years ago at CJ's and saw Efren play Amarillo Slim play a set of one hole (12-5 I believe) for 50K. No doubt there were six figures bet including the rail. Me and my buddy emptied out on Efren (even borrowing a dime to put in the fire). I believe it was a race to five. With the score 4-2 Slim, we thought it was money gone as Slim lined up a routine straight in for all the cheese. He missed, hanging the ball. Efren brings it from there all the way to the bank. It was unreal.
At that same tourney, Rafeal got robbed by Matlock at 3-Cushion. IIRC he busted the entire hispanic contingent as they figured RM to be the nuts in this spot. We knew the "real score" and won a dime or so on the rail flying under the radar. Kim Davenport played Luat a race to 21 for 5-10K that same night. Luat fell dead for our money, but we managed to come out pretty good winner nonetheless.
Those sure were some great times.
Ringo
I think Johnny Morrow also went by "Johnny Ringo."
cincyman said:
I think Johnny Morrow also went by "Johnny Ringo."
J. Learned Hand said:
I was there for most of that one. I think the spot was 15-4.
I meet Slim that day, funny guy.
I was sitting with someone Slim knows so he comes over and visits a little while.They had already made the game but everybody was busy getting the side bets down.
When the mutual friend asked Slim what he thought about the game, Slim says "I don't think I'm gonna like it, even my driver has $10,000 bet against me."
Most money on ONE game.
I was in Slick Willies on Westhiemer in Houston the night Lil Hand (Gus) and Fly Boy played the single game of 9-ball for $16k.
I actually worked at that Slick Willies location for many years. I was there all night, every night for a period of years that will always provide fond memories. I watched the rise of JJ seemingly "overnight." He still a good friend to this day.
We had some good players at that spot. Gabby, Franco, Lil' Hand, Fly, The Strickland Brothers. Plenty champs stopped by including Medina, Bustie, Luat, Townsend, Petey Horn and even Corey as a young phenom.
There was serious action every night. That was truly a great spot.
We had some good players at that spot. Gabby, Franco, Lil' Hand, Fly, The Strickland Brothers. Plenty champs stopped by including Medina, Bustie, Luat, Townsend, Petey Horn and even Corey as a young phenom.
There was serious action every night. That was truly a great spot.
I wonder if we know each other Jbullerjr. Being from Texas, as we are, it is a plausible possibility.
J. Learned Hand said:
Efren was giving Slim, 16-5! That was the same tourney where Earl ran the ten racks for a mil.
jay helfert said:
yep, saw some of that too
Did you see this?
Johnny Archer is running out, gets a very cold roll and hooks himself bad.
Whole crowd is silent.
A baby squalls in the crowd, Johnny's head spins to the stands. Everyone looks a little nervous, not sure what he would do.
Johnny says "I know kid, I feel the same way."
LOL
J. Learned Hand said:
Possible, I'm not a player of much fame. Just been around the game for awhile.
I was a 19 yo college kid back in the Slick Willies heyday and could hardly hit the end rail. I did go up there quite a bit as I was instantly drawn to the game and the people involved.
Got a bit better over time and spent alot of time at Bogies before it became the action room of choice in the Houston area.
I moved to the DFW metroplex in 1991 and continued to hang around the game. CJ's place, Rustys in Arlington and Fort Worth. Meet Erman Bullard and became very good friends(WOW!!! you should hear some of his old war stories)
Joined BCA league for the first time in 1994 and have been to Nationals pretty much every year since. My game has continued to improve and I am trying to make it better every day.
I am better known as Jimbo around the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
James "Jimbo" Buller
Fatboy said:
Archie the Greek, if it's the same one, is in Vegas right now, staying at Keith's friend's house. I heard an interesting story about him, but just got a few of the details.
He was broke one day and borrowed 30 bucks from a friend. He then went into one of the casinos (can't remember the name) and parlayed it into more and more and more. They even opened up a separate table for him to throw the dice, as it was HUGE amounts. He ended up winning a couple million dollars. True story. This is all hearsay on my end.
Archie the Greek has been playing all month in the poker tournaments. We also received a call from Harry P. a couple days ago who said he's en route to Vegas. He's also going to give the poker tournaments a shot this week!
I read a week or so ago where Jay Helfert was staying at your house playing in poker tournaments. This week, they're still going on. Do they have month-long tournaments in Vegas for poker?
JAM
ETA: Didn't read Jay Helfert's story when I originally write this post, but his version I am sure is much more detailed and accurate than the above-referenced version I am relaying.
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I did not witness this game, but there used to be a player from Detroit (I think) named Rosey. He was pretty well known for his high-stakes gambling. Rosey lost $370,000 and some change to Keith McCready in Las Vegas playing pool. There is more to the story, but I'll just leave it at that, since I didn't witness it. Again, this is all hearsay on my end. :wink:
JAM
JAM
JAM said:
They played twice. The first time Billy won for I think 8k. Pops is sleeping or else Id ask. The 2nd time was for 20. Im pretty sure it was for 14 with the rest of his bets on the rail. Not sure exactly. Sorry for the sketchy info JAM. The guy sleeps 20 feet from me and I dont know the whole story, go figure.
Oh and Jimmy, this was more than several years ago. lol. Id guesstimate late 80's early 90's. Ill post more accurate info later
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Imagine if pool players just saved 5% of their winnings and put it in a bank for when they couldn't be competative anymore? That's all I can think of when I hear these big money stories about pool & casino's.
For the ones that are still at it with their own money...more power to them. I'm sure the ones that made it and lost it had a very colorfull life...but now what? Johnnyt
For the ones that are still at it with their own money...more power to them. I'm sure the ones that made it and lost it had a very colorfull life...but now what? Johnnyt