It was a while back, maybe 10-15 years ago. Bobby Landy is an old friend who worked in the oil industry as a traveling salesman. He played a lot of pool in his time. Bobby is probably 75 years old now and still play some good pool.
Bobby asked me and Joe Villalpondo and New York Blackie if we wanted to take a road trip and go to a tournament in Florida. I believe it was Fort Walton but it wasn't Starcade Billiards, Hot Shot's if I recall correctly. Not sure if they are still around or not.
Anyway Bobby is talking to New York Blackie who could still play pretty good back then. Bobby tells Blackie that he won't have to spend a dime on the trip. Bobby would cover ALL of his expenses; EVERYTHING...... Bobby's only stipulation was that the entry fees of Blackie, food expense and hotel would have to come off the top before they split any winnings. New York Blackie then commenced to telling Bobby that the only way he would go is if Blackie got half of all of the winnings and if any of us (including himself) booked ANY losers, that would not come off of the winnings. He also said, Bobby would have to cover his expenses, pro bono.
Well, Blackie didn't make that trip.
So Little Joe, me and Bobby go on the road for about 3 days to this tournament. We don't do any good in the tournament and were trying to match up with someone. We found one guy who wanted to play a two hundred dollar set of one pocket and I was chosen to play him. Bobby put up the money with the condition that we split the 200 bucks if I win. I was good with that but I didn't know the guy I was playing and it was gambling. After some see-sawing in the race to 3 or 4 (I can't quite recall), I am shooting on a striped ball at my hole for the hill game. Some of the details are getting a little foggy in my mind but the gist of the story will soon be clear. I've told the story before and some of the details might get twisted around but not intentionally. Anyway, I'm down on this shot and everyone is sitting around watching up play and I bear down on the shot and VERY SLIGHTLY, touch the cue ball with my cue. The cue ball couldn't have moved more than 1/16". I stood up, grimmacing at the shot but now seeing that my opponent wasn't approaching the table, I "angrily" reach into the pocket as if to count my balls. My opponent still doesn't come to the table and no one says anything. Now I am playing for our road trip money and everyone is counting on me to win this cash. It's our only gambling match of the trip and I have larceny in my heart and want to lay the blame of that larceny on my traveling buds but the truth is I wanted to win real bad and if my opponent was going to call a foul on me, I wasn't going to call it on myself. I did my little acting part pretty good and no one was the wiser.
We collect the $200 and are headed home driving back from Florida. About 45 minutes into the trip, neither Bobby or Joe V said a thing about the match except that they were happy I got the cash. Then Bobby starts asking me about when I was shooting that 14 ball and he wondered why no one but him saw me touch that cue ball with my cue. I must have turned 30 shades of red. My ears started burning and my face was flush. I was so embarassed that I had been caught cheating but I was amazed that Bobby could see me touch that cue ball when he was further away from the table than my opponent and practically anyone else in the pool room. Bobby always had good eyes and even in his 70's he still plays pool without glasses. That's about the extent of my cheating. I just wanted to let you guys that I wasn't always a Saint. :grin:
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
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