Gabby Mike Danner

gregcantrall

gregcantrall

Just Don't Dog it. 🤷‍♂️
Silver Member
Speaking of drunk stoned posting:

This thread will be my tribute to Mike.:salute:

From him I learned so much. And we did get stoned a time or two.:cool:
 
One of my favorite times with Gabby was playing scotch doubles after hours in Rusted's (I think it was basement). Small bet maybe $5 a stick. Mike would leave me perfect, then just go stand where he wanted to shoot from next. We cleaned up. This was when I was a true B.

Mike kept putting all the women touring pros on me. I beat them all.:thumbup:
 
gregcantrall said:
Speaking of drunk stoned posting:

This thread will be my tribute to Mike.:salute:

From him I learned so much. And we did get stoned a time or two.:cool:
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I knew Mike from the time we were teens in Ohio. I lived in Dayton and he lived 25 miles down the road in Middletown. My first "road trip" took me right into his path and we battled all day and long into the night for $3 a game. I may have won $15 when we quit and I drove back home. The "road" was a little too tough for me at 19! I needed a couple of years more seasoning before I was ready to try again. My second trip took me from Oklahoma to Florida and back across the country all the way to sweet California, the land of warm weather and zillions of aspiring "hustlers." I found my new home. :grin:

Mike and I did play play one more time at the Reno tournament during after hours since I was the TD that year. Harry Platis backed him I believe and we played One Hole for fifty a game. I still had my full game back then and I took Mike down, winning every game we played (maybe four or five). We had a good time anyway, laughing and joking about our lives in Pool. His extendable bridge was one of the most innovative tools I had ever seen at the time. Mike was a very clever guy and often a traveling partner with Wade Crane.
 
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jay helfert said:
I knew Mike from the time we were teens in Ohio. I lived in Dayton and he lived 25 miles down the road in Middletown. My first "road trip" took me right into his path and we battled all day and long into the night for $3 a game. I may have won $15 when we quit and I drove back home. The "road" was a little too tough for me at 19! I needed a couple of years more seasoning before I was ready to try again. My second trip took me from Oklahoma to Florida and back across the country all the way to sweet California, the land of warm weather and zillions of aspiring "hustlers." I found my new home. :grin:

Mike and I did play play one more time at the Reno tournament during after hours since I was the TD that year. Harry Platis backed him I believe and we played One Hole for fifty a game. I still had my full game back then and I took Mike down, winning every game we played (maybe four or five). We had a good time anyway, laughing and joking about our lives in Pool. His extendable bridge was one of the most innovative tools I had ever seen at the time. Mike was a very clever guy and often a traveling partner with Wade Crane.
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Great reply Jay!

I got to know Mike in the 80s. I was introduced to the White Spot, in Fife WA, Wed nite tournament. In 1982. Not sure when Mike started coming to them. The White Spot had a weekly $5 tournament that was known. A bi-yearly $35 race to 7 bar box 9 ball tourney that fielded close to 64. It was the Big show for bar box. Even saw Swanee there once. I watched Dan Louie come back from 0-6 in a race to 7 in the finals. Not once but twice.



In the course of all those tournaments and encounters sweating action matches at Harry's in Lynnwood, Mike filled my head with knowledge, guess that is why we call him Gabby.
 
gregcantrall said:
Great reply Jay!

I got to know Mike in the 80s. I was introduced to the White Spot, in Fife WA, Wed nite tournament. In 1982. Not sure when Mike started coming to them. The White Spot had a weekly $5 tournament that was known. A bi-yearly $35 race to 7 bar box 9 ball tourney that fielded close to 64. It was the Big show for bar box. Even saw Swanee there once. I watched Dan Louie come back from 0-6 in a race to 7 in the finals. Not once but twice.



In the course of all those tournaments and encounters sweating action matches at Harry's in Lynnwood, Mike filled my head with knowledge, guess that is why we call him Gabby.
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Mike was a great guy and knew the game as well as anyone. He made his way around the country pretty good in his lifetime. I saw him in many places over the years. I do know he spent several years in the Northwest. He liked it up there, maybe his favorite place. Neither of us ever moved back to Ohio though.
 
I am pretty sure the last time I saw Mike was in the mid-90s 95-97. My wife and I managed the Thunderbird Lodge in downtown Chico, CA. Team players in Chico was on most players map. The room owner, Jeff made his money in the stock market and made it known that he did not mind gambling $10,000 on Charles. Charles had his own money and would gamble. I had watched Charles gamble up a couple thousand of his own money more than once.

We comped rooms to pool players. Out of respect.

So Mike comes into town with a player named................John Smith. No really! One pocket wizard.
We checked them into a room and I explained the lay of the land to Mike. Told him who Charles was and how he thought one pocket was his secret game. Told him the owner was always in on Sundays around noon. Mike had some killer green from Seattle with him also. Lots of crystals. Oh yea where was I? My advice was start with 9 ball then let Charles change the game. Last word was don't be seen talking to me.

Sunday morning, Charles is on his table. In walks John......looks around walks up to Charles and asks to play some one pocket. $10 was the bet...........John Smith proceeds to lay down the best one pocket I have ever seen, winning 10 straight.

About half way through the debacle Mike comes over to my table and sits down just shaking his head and muttering. "Might as well just head straight to Hard Times in LA, throw open the doors and shout,'who wants to gamble.'" :eek:
 
As far as I know Mike was the instigator(for the lack of a better word) of the corporation that played Harry at his place in Lynnwood. They all hung out at Harry's place and the standard deal was when Harry came in they all had to empty their pockets and that was the bet. They then got to pick a player with the spot that was appropriate for each.
 
gregcantrall said:
As far as I know Mike was the instigator(for the lack of a better word) of the corporation that played Harry at his place in Lynnwood. They all hung out at Harry's place and the standard deal was when Harry came in they all had to empty their pockets and that was the bet. They then got to pick a player with the spot that was appropriate for each.
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Not quite, but close...LOLThere was a group of players that made up the entertainment for Harry, Mike Z, Todd Marsh, Mike D, fly boy Jimmy. They emptied their pockets to see if they could come up with enough to match up with Harry in his first bet, then decided who would play Harry based on the spot....and who Harry would NOT play. Mike Z was off limits to play if he was broke and Harry knew that. I watched Harry play Mike Z once for $50 a game 9ball, H3 gave Harry the last 5 balls, wanted the first break. Harry agreed, so Mike broke and ran the first 6 racks, Harry quit and threw Mike 3 $100 dollar bills and said he quit, said Mik3 must be broke to play like that.....he was....LMAO

Gaby, Mike D is my ex father-in-law...LOL
 
Mike Danner was a nice guy. Lived in New Orleans/Baton Rouge for a few years (toward the end of his life). He didn't play much pool during that time. He had gotten into an auto accident, was injured pretty good and didn't play a lot of pool but as you mentioned, he would share his pool knowledge with you.

Mike could jump the cue ball over an object ball even if the cue ball was in the middle of the table, using his "Stretch System" bridge.

joeya
 
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