Hey, I'm so glad y'all are enjoying my book, stories about local guys you might know and thugs you might have heard of way back when. More Cotton tales on the way but ya gotta read 1st edition to get the full effect ! Richie Austins cd's are coming soon ! What a story he had ! The time he played Greg Stevens on a bar box, rules, the winner can't quit, Greg pulled up ! Guess what happened ?
"Confessions of a Pool Hustler"
- Thread starter bobbycotton
- Start date
I'll bet you have some great tales, Robert.
Can you post a page or two so we can get a feel for the writing?
"confessions of a pool hustler"
Yup, I'll put up a couple of pages in a few minutes, I hope y'all will enjoy !Oh yeah, Richard gave Greg 2 options when he quit winner !
Yup, I'll put up a couple of pages in a few minutes, I hope y'all will enjoy !Oh yeah, Richard gave Greg 2 options when he quit winner !
Confessions excerpt "Magoo from Magee"
“MAGOO FROM MAGEE”
So, while Sam and I were still back in Corbin, we run into Don, a friend of Sam’s—a pimp—who lives there in town. (I didn’t like him. I thought he was sleazy and he also fought Pit Bulls for money which really pissed me off.) He stakes pool players and knows a lot of action spots all around Kentucky. Don had two or three girls that he would take out every night, about 70 miles down the interstate, and drop them off at a truck rest area on the side of the freeway. They would go from truck to truck turning tricks all night. I’d ride with them sometimes ‘cause he would tell them to be "nice to me" on the way(ha-ha). We’d drop them off and pick them back up in the early morning before the sun came up, and they’d hand over the money.
Don said he knew where there was a hell of a spot in the mountains to get some pool action. He said the last two players he brought there got beat, but he thought I could beat the guy because I was playing really good on the 4 x 8’s. I asked him where we were going and he said up to Sand Gap, Kentucky. It was way up on the top of the mountains. It looked like something out of the movie, Deliverance. I asked him who we were going to go play and he said we were gonna go play a guy named “Magoo” who was from Magee, Kentucky. I started laughing. “We’re going to go play Magoo from Magee…. yeah, right.”
So, we get to the poolroom in Sand Gap and it was snowing and bone-chilling cold outside. We ask the poolroom owner to call Magoo from Magee. We get him on the phone and he said he’d be over to play in about an hour. About 45 minutes later, he comes walking in wearing a Shell service station uniform; he was a really funny hillbilly guy. I asked him what he wanted to play for and he said all he could afford was $5 a game. I said okay. There were about 40 people in the poolroom and they all wanted to bet on Magoo. We start playing 9-ball for $5 a game and we’re betting anywhere from $10 to $50 on the side. Before we started playing, I asked the house man where the bathroom was ‘cause I needed to take a piss. He pointed to the back of the poolroom and said to go through that door. I walk back to the door (I gotta’' piss like a race horse), opened it and it’s a straight drop about a mile down!!! No bathroom, no yard, nothing, just a mile down to the bottom of the mountain. I yelled out, “Where is the bathroom???” Magoo yelled out in-between laughs, “Man just pull out your pecker and go.” Good thing I didn’t have to take a dump because I don’t know how that would have worked. I guess that I would have to back up to the door and hang my ass over the edge! I went ahead and pissed out the back door, luckily I didn’t fall out the building— and real lucky I looked first!
I wound up beating Magoo and winning close to $500 with all the side action. He didn’t have a ride back because somebody dropped him off, so we had to give him a ride back home to Magee which was 40 miles away. We joked around the whole time as we were taking him back, he was such a nice guy! He played really good and he never missed any balls, he just didn’t know how to play it safe. I’m ducking when I have a tough bank or something and he’s selling out shooting at un-makeable tough shots that he should be playing safe on. We were playing shoot-to-hit-the-ball, and if you miss the ball there was no ball in hand like there is now, it was just shoot to hit the ball, and you had to make an honest effort. That’s how we played up there, honest effort. He didn’t know how to shoot and play safe, he just went for everything. He was a hell of a player, he just needed to learn to play safe!
“MAGOO FROM MAGEE”
So, while Sam and I were still back in Corbin, we run into Don, a friend of Sam’s—a pimp—who lives there in town. (I didn’t like him. I thought he was sleazy and he also fought Pit Bulls for money which really pissed me off.) He stakes pool players and knows a lot of action spots all around Kentucky. Don had two or three girls that he would take out every night, about 70 miles down the interstate, and drop them off at a truck rest area on the side of the freeway. They would go from truck to truck turning tricks all night. I’d ride with them sometimes ‘cause he would tell them to be "nice to me" on the way(ha-ha). We’d drop them off and pick them back up in the early morning before the sun came up, and they’d hand over the money.
Don said he knew where there was a hell of a spot in the mountains to get some pool action. He said the last two players he brought there got beat, but he thought I could beat the guy because I was playing really good on the 4 x 8’s. I asked him where we were going and he said up to Sand Gap, Kentucky. It was way up on the top of the mountains. It looked like something out of the movie, Deliverance. I asked him who we were going to go play and he said we were gonna go play a guy named “Magoo” who was from Magee, Kentucky. I started laughing. “We’re going to go play Magoo from Magee…. yeah, right.”
So, we get to the poolroom in Sand Gap and it was snowing and bone-chilling cold outside. We ask the poolroom owner to call Magoo from Magee. We get him on the phone and he said he’d be over to play in about an hour. About 45 minutes later, he comes walking in wearing a Shell service station uniform; he was a really funny hillbilly guy. I asked him what he wanted to play for and he said all he could afford was $5 a game. I said okay. There were about 40 people in the poolroom and they all wanted to bet on Magoo. We start playing 9-ball for $5 a game and we’re betting anywhere from $10 to $50 on the side. Before we started playing, I asked the house man where the bathroom was ‘cause I needed to take a piss. He pointed to the back of the poolroom and said to go through that door. I walk back to the door (I gotta’' piss like a race horse), opened it and it’s a straight drop about a mile down!!! No bathroom, no yard, nothing, just a mile down to the bottom of the mountain. I yelled out, “Where is the bathroom???” Magoo yelled out in-between laughs, “Man just pull out your pecker and go.” Good thing I didn’t have to take a dump because I don’t know how that would have worked. I guess that I would have to back up to the door and hang my ass over the edge! I went ahead and pissed out the back door, luckily I didn’t fall out the building— and real lucky I looked first!
I wound up beating Magoo and winning close to $500 with all the side action. He didn’t have a ride back because somebody dropped him off, so we had to give him a ride back home to Magee which was 40 miles away. We joked around the whole time as we were taking him back, he was such a nice guy! He played really good and he never missed any balls, he just didn’t know how to play it safe. I’m ducking when I have a tough bank or something and he’s selling out shooting at un-makeable tough shots that he should be playing safe on. We were playing shoot-to-hit-the-ball, and if you miss the ball there was no ball in hand like there is now, it was just shoot to hit the ball, and you had to make an honest effort. That’s how we played up there, honest effort. He didn’t know how to shoot and play safe, he just went for everything. He was a hell of a player, he just needed to learn to play safe!
Last edited:
Another excerpt: Walking Naked Down the Road
WALKIN’ NAKED DOWN THE ROAD
So, another story I like to tell is while I was in Knoxville, Tennessee one time, my buddy, Roy and Michigan City Sam were in this cocktail lounge at The Family Inn and Sam says, “Let’s go over to this bar that a friend of mine owns and try to play his son, Jody, some 9-ball.” They just liked to gamble and didn’t really care if they lost a few hundred ‘cause Jody loved to play. They had plenty of money and they liked action. We head over to the bar that evening to try to play Jody, and it’s a wild hillbilly joint in the mountains way out in the middle of nowhere. Sam’s friend, who was the owner of the place, was Babes Findlay, he was a connected guy out of New York. He was actually a close friend of the governor of Tennessee. So Babe’s son Jody was a pretty good pool player. A lot of people were leery of going out there to try to play him because if you got out of line and were shitty-acting, and beat him out of his money, and we heard there was a good possibility they would rob you and take the money back.
Well, Michigan City Sam who was also a well-known tough guy, knew Babes real well and they were good friends. So, the three of us went out there and Sam introduced me and Roy to Babes and Jody. We sat around and shot the shit for a while and then me and Jody played some 9- ball for $20 a game. I beat him for a few hundred and he didn't care. We had a good time playing each other. He was a nice guy, but nobody you would want to **** with. We got along real good, me and Jody. W all sat around drinking beer and cutting up old stories, we really had a good time. We hung around the bar for a couple of days and partied and we all became pretty good friends.
The next weekend, me and Roy and Sam are back in the cocktail lounge in Knoxville where all the action was. There was a pool player there from Florida named Kenny and he had this loud- mouth backer with him who thought he was a bad ass. I tried to play Kenny some, but he said he didn’t want to play ‘cause I played too good. So they’re asking me about a couple of spots to go to in the area where they might get a game, and they mentioned about going over to play Jody. I said, “Yeah, he’s good action and he will blow $400-500 if you beat him, but I’ll give you a word of advice, if you go out there and play him, (I told Kenny this, his loud-mouth backer was up at the bar drinking beer) you need to be a gentleman because you can’t go out there and act ignorant, ‘cause these are some really, really bad guys.” About that time the backer comes over and says, “Well, I overheard what y’all are saying and I’ll go out there and do whatever the **** I want.” I said, “Well, I’m just giving you a warning before you go, I know these guys pretty well and you better not go out there and get out of line!”
So they go out there and play Jody, and they get into a disagreement over something and Kenny’s backer tries to get on the muscle with Babes. Jody and Babes took back the money that they won, and their entire bankroll, stripped them naked and threw them out of the bar and sent them walking down the road. I don’t know how they got back to where they were going. This story got around town real quick ‘cause there are only a few places where all the pool players hang out and news travels fast. Everybody knew Babes Findlay and how bad he was and he isn’t the guy you want to **** with.
A week later we’re back in that bar in Knoxville and Kenny and his loud-mouth backer are in there. I’m laughing my ass off, and I said, “I hear you guys got naked and went walking on down the road.” And the backer says, “ Yeah, but I think I’m gonna go back out there and get my money back.” I said, “I’ll tell ya’ what you better do, you better chalk it up to experience, ‘cause you’re ****ing with some of the baddest guys in the country.” Babes Findlay had a lot of juice in that area, since he was good friends with Ray Blanton, the governor who pardoned all those murderers on death row in Tennessee (he got impeached about a year or two after I met Babes.). Phil Austin, Richard Austin’s brother, paid Blanton a lot of money to try to get Richard off of death row, by the way. Blanton was impeached before the pardon went through. It was bad luck for Richard because he would have been pardoned for sure. Anyway, Ray Blanton got impeached and Richard stayed on death row until he died of a heart attack on June 7, 2008.
WALKIN’ NAKED DOWN THE ROAD
So, another story I like to tell is while I was in Knoxville, Tennessee one time, my buddy, Roy and Michigan City Sam were in this cocktail lounge at The Family Inn and Sam says, “Let’s go over to this bar that a friend of mine owns and try to play his son, Jody, some 9-ball.” They just liked to gamble and didn’t really care if they lost a few hundred ‘cause Jody loved to play. They had plenty of money and they liked action. We head over to the bar that evening to try to play Jody, and it’s a wild hillbilly joint in the mountains way out in the middle of nowhere. Sam’s friend, who was the owner of the place, was Babes Findlay, he was a connected guy out of New York. He was actually a close friend of the governor of Tennessee. So Babe’s son Jody was a pretty good pool player. A lot of people were leery of going out there to try to play him because if you got out of line and were shitty-acting, and beat him out of his money, and we heard there was a good possibility they would rob you and take the money back.
Well, Michigan City Sam who was also a well-known tough guy, knew Babes real well and they were good friends. So, the three of us went out there and Sam introduced me and Roy to Babes and Jody. We sat around and shot the shit for a while and then me and Jody played some 9- ball for $20 a game. I beat him for a few hundred and he didn't care. We had a good time playing each other. He was a nice guy, but nobody you would want to **** with. We got along real good, me and Jody. W all sat around drinking beer and cutting up old stories, we really had a good time. We hung around the bar for a couple of days and partied and we all became pretty good friends.
The next weekend, me and Roy and Sam are back in the cocktail lounge in Knoxville where all the action was. There was a pool player there from Florida named Kenny and he had this loud- mouth backer with him who thought he was a bad ass. I tried to play Kenny some, but he said he didn’t want to play ‘cause I played too good. So they’re asking me about a couple of spots to go to in the area where they might get a game, and they mentioned about going over to play Jody. I said, “Yeah, he’s good action and he will blow $400-500 if you beat him, but I’ll give you a word of advice, if you go out there and play him, (I told Kenny this, his loud-mouth backer was up at the bar drinking beer) you need to be a gentleman because you can’t go out there and act ignorant, ‘cause these are some really, really bad guys.” About that time the backer comes over and says, “Well, I overheard what y’all are saying and I’ll go out there and do whatever the **** I want.” I said, “Well, I’m just giving you a warning before you go, I know these guys pretty well and you better not go out there and get out of line!”
So they go out there and play Jody, and they get into a disagreement over something and Kenny’s backer tries to get on the muscle with Babes. Jody and Babes took back the money that they won, and their entire bankroll, stripped them naked and threw them out of the bar and sent them walking down the road. I don’t know how they got back to where they were going. This story got around town real quick ‘cause there are only a few places where all the pool players hang out and news travels fast. Everybody knew Babes Findlay and how bad he was and he isn’t the guy you want to **** with.
A week later we’re back in that bar in Knoxville and Kenny and his loud-mouth backer are in there. I’m laughing my ass off, and I said, “I hear you guys got naked and went walking on down the road.” And the backer says, “ Yeah, but I think I’m gonna go back out there and get my money back.” I said, “I’ll tell ya’ what you better do, you better chalk it up to experience, ‘cause you’re ****ing with some of the baddest guys in the country.” Babes Findlay had a lot of juice in that area, since he was good friends with Ray Blanton, the governor who pardoned all those murderers on death row in Tennessee (he got impeached about a year or two after I met Babes.). Phil Austin, Richard Austin’s brother, paid Blanton a lot of money to try to get Richard off of death row, by the way. Blanton was impeached before the pardon went through. It was bad luck for Richard because he would have been pardoned for sure. Anyway, Ray Blanton got impeached and Richard stayed on death row until he died of a heart attack on June 7, 2008.
I've been savoring the book since just after Christmas. I'm just about at the
end but almost don't want to finish it just yet. It'll be like saying goodbye and sometimes having to say good bye sucks.
I've had dogs all my life. Met a lot of people that makes me like animals and dogs even better.
The fact that Robert has a soft spot for dogs shows what kind of a person he is deep down.
end but almost don't want to finish it just yet. It'll be like saying goodbye and sometimes having to say good bye sucks.
I've had dogs all my life. Met a lot of people that makes me like animals and dogs even better.
The fact that Robert has a soft spot for dogs shows what kind of a person he is deep down.
Last edited:
"confessions of a pool hustler"
Hey thanks Hog Rider, I'm glad that you are enjoying the book ! I have so many stories to tell that I couldn't fit into this book ! I have to get them down on paper while the people in the stories are still around. I've loved dogs and all animals since I was a kid. They have made my life more enjoyable for sure. But I must say, it ain't easy on the road finding a room sometimes with a pet ! I snuck ole Ginger in many a motel, haha ! Your friend, Robert
Hey thanks Hog Rider, I'm glad that you are enjoying the book ! I have so many stories to tell that I couldn't fit into this book ! I have to get them down on paper while the people in the stories are still around. I've loved dogs and all animals since I was a kid. They have made my life more enjoyable for sure. But I must say, it ain't easy on the road finding a room sometimes with a pet ! I snuck ole Ginger in many a motel, haha ! Your friend, Robert
I was talking to a guy who I know here at the Derby, I dont know his name but I see him here every year and we talk often and for long periods of time. He is a real good guy who loves pool, was in the military and lives near by here. The other night there was a group of us standing around and your book CPH came up and my friend said "CPH is the best pool book he has ever read". He said it was very well written, I explained to him that I know Cotton and its all true and real, and how the book was put together, from audio to paper-word for word-to the extent speech can be translated to writting, we dont write like we talk. He really loves it, What sucks is every vendor here should have copies for sale, and they dont. I'm telling everyone about it, for 2 reasons, #1 Cotton is my friend and I want him to do well, but #2 and as important is its a damn good book thats fun to read, really fun and thats great for people and pool too!!!
I dont want to sound like a pitch man but if you dont have this book, buy it. Its not for kids, its real raw and not Disney Land. It is fun puts you in the spots that he was in, you really feel like your there because the writing is so good. Cotton was smart he didnt try and write the book, he took his lifes stories and had them written professionally, so what you get is 100% truths, feel, emotion and everything else written in a way thats easy to read(unlike this post), I have been working on my writing skills cause I'd love to write books but being a story teller and a writer are 2 different things. Cotten tells the stories(alltrue) and the Professional writer (his sister-nice break there has written over 20 books) so it dosent get any better.
Cotten has many many more stories and perhaps we will get lucky and get a book a year for a few years, the pool world and IMO even non-pool players would love his current book. He could do a little bit of a revision for the masses so they understand a few things that all pool people know that are assumed in the currrent book. Its so well done hard cover, great quality paper, easy one the eyes print, bts first beatiful cover jacket on it. Its a 10/10 book in all ways to judge it. I'm honored to be in it, I had no idea he(cotton) was going to write a few pages about us. I thought he was just going to mention my name, we took a few pics for fun-I didnt expect him to use them.
I did make one contribution to this book I'm very proud of, Cotton has played with the same cue the whole time, in 73 or 74 Bill Stroud built him a cue-it has survived the whole time, I said to him having a picture of that cue in the book, your weapon of mass destruction should be in your book. Cotton at first didnt think much about it, I had Kelly go take a pic of it, and I really got on Cotton and told him "People will be interested in the cue, especially the cue collectors" He did put that pic in the book, and I think its great-a small addition to the book, but for me its huge and to be in his book is a honor.
please share this post with people you know by telling them about the book, its really that great. Even if I didnt know Cotton, I'd still say the same things-except about the cue pic, obviously. So my recommendation isnt cause he is my friend its cause I love pool and want to share good things about pool with my friends here.
this was my writing practice today, not very good-itshard to write, but I didnt get up until 5pm, the Derby does that to me, LOL.
Best
Fatboy:smile:
PS: Cotton, I saw Jack(our kitty cat who is a rail bird) the other night he is great. He came over to sweat some $500/game one hole. He is real healthy and not limping around-we think he fell off the roof a while back, I hadnt seen him since earily Dec. He is a outside cat that lives at my house. Jack loves to sweat action. I told him we were betting high and he listened and went and layed down in the towel basket, most of the time the bets are smaller and he gets under your feet when your playing-but after I told him we wernt betting practice $$$ he moved to the basket right then, he is a great rail bird thats a cat. I'll get a pic of him some day,for AZ. Perhaps in your next bookwe put a picof Jack in it.:smile:
I dont want to sound like a pitch man but if you dont have this book, buy it. Its not for kids, its real raw and not Disney Land. It is fun puts you in the spots that he was in, you really feel like your there because the writing is so good. Cotton was smart he didnt try and write the book, he took his lifes stories and had them written professionally, so what you get is 100% truths, feel, emotion and everything else written in a way thats easy to read(unlike this post), I have been working on my writing skills cause I'd love to write books but being a story teller and a writer are 2 different things. Cotten tells the stories(alltrue) and the Professional writer (his sister-nice break there has written over 20 books) so it dosent get any better.
Cotten has many many more stories and perhaps we will get lucky and get a book a year for a few years, the pool world and IMO even non-pool players would love his current book. He could do a little bit of a revision for the masses so they understand a few things that all pool people know that are assumed in the currrent book. Its so well done hard cover, great quality paper, easy one the eyes print, bts first beatiful cover jacket on it. Its a 10/10 book in all ways to judge it. I'm honored to be in it, I had no idea he(cotton) was going to write a few pages about us. I thought he was just going to mention my name, we took a few pics for fun-I didnt expect him to use them.
I did make one contribution to this book I'm very proud of, Cotton has played with the same cue the whole time, in 73 or 74 Bill Stroud built him a cue-it has survived the whole time, I said to him having a picture of that cue in the book, your weapon of mass destruction should be in your book. Cotton at first didnt think much about it, I had Kelly go take a pic of it, and I really got on Cotton and told him "People will be interested in the cue, especially the cue collectors" He did put that pic in the book, and I think its great-a small addition to the book, but for me its huge and to be in his book is a honor.
please share this post with people you know by telling them about the book, its really that great. Even if I didnt know Cotton, I'd still say the same things-except about the cue pic, obviously. So my recommendation isnt cause he is my friend its cause I love pool and want to share good things about pool with my friends here.
this was my writing practice today, not very good-itshard to write, but I didnt get up until 5pm, the Derby does that to me, LOL.
Best
Fatboy:smile:
PS: Cotton, I saw Jack(our kitty cat who is a rail bird) the other night he is great. He came over to sweat some $500/game one hole. He is real healthy and not limping around-we think he fell off the roof a while back, I hadnt seen him since earily Dec. He is a outside cat that lives at my house. Jack loves to sweat action. I told him we were betting high and he listened and went and layed down in the towel basket, most of the time the bets are smaller and he gets under your feet when your playing-but after I told him we wernt betting practice $$$ he moved to the basket right then, he is a great rail bird thats a cat. I'll get a pic of him some day,for AZ. Perhaps in your next bookwe put a picof Jack in it.:smile:
"confessions of a pool hustler"
Well Well, thank you "Fatboy" for such a nice comment on my book ! I do have many more stories to tell and I'm working on that right now. Every morning I wake up and remember something silly or crazy that happened to me when I was on the road for all those years. There is alot that I can't talk about, I could just tell you those while having a beer ! Oh on the writing I actually did write about 85% of the book, all the fancy words my sister wrote, haha ! In the next printing there will be 3 corrections, first, szamboti, then Magazine Mike is alive and Surfer Rod did not beat Jew Paul pitching coins outside of the rack, haha, he told me himself last week, thanks Rod ! Thanks again to my friend "Fatboy" you're an asset to pool ! Your friend, Bobby Cotton
Well Well, thank you "Fatboy" for such a nice comment on my book ! I do have many more stories to tell and I'm working on that right now. Every morning I wake up and remember something silly or crazy that happened to me when I was on the road for all those years. There is alot that I can't talk about, I could just tell you those while having a beer ! Oh on the writing I actually did write about 85% of the book, all the fancy words my sister wrote, haha ! In the next printing there will be 3 corrections, first, szamboti, then Magazine Mike is alive and Surfer Rod did not beat Jew Paul pitching coins outside of the rack, haha, he told me himself last week, thanks Rod ! Thanks again to my friend "Fatboy" you're an asset to pool ! Your friend, Bobby Cotton
This book is about pool "back in the day" Robert brings it back to life!
Last edited:
"confessions of a pool hustler"
Hey I'll see y'all in Valley Forge next month ! I'm sharing a booth with Kamui tips. Y'all stop by and let me know if you enjoyed my book, I hope you did !
Hey I'll see y'all in Valley Forge next month ! I'm sharing a booth with Kamui tips. Y'all stop by and let me know if you enjoyed my book, I hope you did !