Hustling Costumes or "Action Aids"
- Thread starter crawfish
- Start date
We have a guy here, in Raleigh, named "Willie the cabdriver" or Foxy Willie. He got the name from hanging out in a pretty low end strip club called the Foxy Lady. Two bartables. He lived and scraped out a pretty good existence in there. I looked him up one night, though. I charged him a little. He will play for days at five and ten. He gets down four or five games, and that's all folks. Really funny character. He had made some big scores there.
Pushout said:
The same! "Sun Tan" is a take off on his last name, Suden. He's another guy that has been dead and buried a couple of times, only to reappear years later. Yes, years later.
jay helfert said:
I read an article in an early issue of Billiards Digest, about him, Keith McCready, Cole Dickson, and Bucktooth. It was about how the money stays in circulation, going from player to player {hustler to hustler}. Maybe over Spring Break I can get my BDs cataloged on my computer. I have, I think, a complete run, from September of 1978 to the present. I was going to do it before and the motherboard died on my old computer.
The best I ever heard of was a hustle my Grandfather pulled off in the 50's. The effort that he put in was amazing. A truly turned out hustler friend of his worked for a guy in New York who was a well known organized crime associate. The connected fellow had many buisness as fronts for the organized crime syndicate. My grandfather's friend got him a job for one of the guy's buisnesses it was a sign painting buisness or something of the sort (a few details are hard to remember) and for a month my grandfather toiled at work every day. The work crew would get paid weekly and on that day they would go to the social club that the gangster operated out of. The whole time my grandfather was working there he kept telling the story of how his aunt whom had no other family had passed recently and he was getting a huge inheritance, and selling her home. At the social club they had two perfectly maintained pool tables that seen a ton of action. The foreman of the sign painting buisness was a fair player, but not as strong as his boss the mobster. During the month my grandfather hung out at the social club for as much time as he could and gambled with anyone that would bet. He established himeslf as a pretty fair player, but he made sure that his speed was still a bit under the degenerate gambling mobster. After a month of the ruse he informed everyone that he had to go back to Ohio to sell the house and settle the estate, but he would be back in a few weeks. He showed back up in the city and hung out at the social club everyday drinking and gambling like it was his last days on earth. My grandfather made sure he would flash a large bankroll while in the club. The gangster (whom by the way was not a made member La Costa Nostra since he was not Italian, but he was a very very high ranking assosciate) asked my grandfather if he wanted to play some and my grandfather played him for a week losing a few thousand but keeping it close each day. After another week of playing the gangster my grandfather told him he was going to move south and invest his money. That was the key to getting the gangster to substancially raise the bet. Over the course of three days he proceeded to win 90k in the early or mid 50's after he won the money he returned home. He told me it almost was not worth it since he lost 30lbs had to work a month and spend a few weeks setting up the mark while slouching off almost 5k as seed money. The funniest thing was he told me that was the only time from 1945 till he was an old man that he ever held a job.
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huckster said:
Dandy Don strikes again! No one else would ever had the moxie and determination to make a big score in a spot like that (with the one exception being Jack Cooney). Your grandpa had no fear, riding into town alone and going after the biggest game he could find. He wasn't afraid to go anywhere and lay down his hustle.
I never saw a better "pure" pool hustler in my life. He could beat good players shooting combinations and billiards on the nine (and it respotted), and they thought he was just lucky. I watched him lay it down in Dayton and Cincy playing good players. I remember thinking, who is this little fat guy who keeps on getting lucky and winning.
When they brought Joey Spaeth to Merguards to play him, Joey took one look and wanted no part of the old man. I think Clem had brought Joey in to get fleeced (What a guy!). I'm not sure but something funny was going on. Everyone knew Joey was the best player around, and he refused to play the "lucky" old man.
Years later at the Dayton tournament, I had to play Joey in the One Pocket. I asked him why he wouldn't play Don Willis some 9-Ball about ten years before. He said, "Are you kidding? I couldn't beat the man. He already broke me in Columbus the last time I ran into him." That's when it finally dawned on me that all the stories I heard about him were true. He had fooled me too. I didn't think he looked that good. Just lucky!
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Damn Huckster, your grandfather was a bad a$$ mo fo!! That is a crazy hustling story. I can't believe that he would go and try to hustle the mafia. He must have had a way about him to spot such a whale. How did he know that the guy would go off for so much? Amazing!!
here is a cool story 100% Gods honest truth:
it was in 88 or 89, in Great American Billiards(now Hardtimes) in Sacramento there was a tournment going on, one of those big 2 times a year kinda tournments so there were people from everywhere there, but for what ever reason nobody could seem to match up, all the stake horses,players,rail birds, etc were sitting around talking, everyone was done trying to get a game the vibe was just bad, something unusial back then in that joint. Every in the room knew or recognized everyone else so anyone walking in would be noticed right away, if banger walked in they would get 10 steps in the door and realized they were in the wrong place and just turn around and walk away, it was Ames mister-so to speak.
Anyways at around 2 AM in walks this guy wearing overalls(the jeans with the suspenders attached) and a Amish beard that was 6" long, he just was wondering around between the tables there was one open table the rest were nickle and dime action, he walked out, this got everyone talking. We all thought this guy missed the bus back to where ever the hell he came from, he was in a trance. So for the next 15 minutes or there abouts we were all trying to figure out who the hell it was as there was little else to talk about on a slow night. He had everyone in the room fooled, nobody knew who he was.
So about the time we all forgot about this misfit looking guy he walked back in and he did the same thing again, except one thing he saw a house cue laying there and went over to the one table that was empty and the balls were there, he tossed 9 balls on the table, then he looked around to survey the room again, ofcourse everyone was watching him, he got down on the first shot and his cover was blown, it was Dave Ferroni Jr who at the time was a very strong player, his stroke told the world who he was, but he could have trapped everyone in the room and taken down the rail too, he could have got the 5 and the break fom anyone there, i mean nobody knew it was him. And once the $$ is posted, its posted thus it was his for the taking, but he didnt care. His dad had/has a pool room in Merced Ca 2 hours away from Great American. Dave had been in 5 dime action more than once so he was a well seasoned player his dad taught Kim Davenport and his sons how to play, he came from good stock. He was fireing in balls for 15-20 minutes to the best of my recollation and layed the cue on the table and walked out. I have never seen him again.
He had a tough time with his partents getting divorced or something and lost his mind, last i heard he was homeless, i hope i'm wrong. i remember when he looked like a kid with a surf board he was very good looking and his girl was too, he played strong for the $$$, but something in him snapped. That night he could have played anyone in the room starting at the bottom and made a pile of $$$, there may have been 3 or 4 stronger players at most. But instead he walked out dazed and confused, from a good looking kid to a Amish farmer. Sad.
it was in 88 or 89, in Great American Billiards(now Hardtimes) in Sacramento there was a tournment going on, one of those big 2 times a year kinda tournments so there were people from everywhere there, but for what ever reason nobody could seem to match up, all the stake horses,players,rail birds, etc were sitting around talking, everyone was done trying to get a game the vibe was just bad, something unusial back then in that joint. Every in the room knew or recognized everyone else so anyone walking in would be noticed right away, if banger walked in they would get 10 steps in the door and realized they were in the wrong place and just turn around and walk away, it was Ames mister-so to speak.
Anyways at around 2 AM in walks this guy wearing overalls(the jeans with the suspenders attached) and a Amish beard that was 6" long, he just was wondering around between the tables there was one open table the rest were nickle and dime action, he walked out, this got everyone talking. We all thought this guy missed the bus back to where ever the hell he came from, he was in a trance. So for the next 15 minutes or there abouts we were all trying to figure out who the hell it was as there was little else to talk about on a slow night. He had everyone in the room fooled, nobody knew who he was.
So about the time we all forgot about this misfit looking guy he walked back in and he did the same thing again, except one thing he saw a house cue laying there and went over to the one table that was empty and the balls were there, he tossed 9 balls on the table, then he looked around to survey the room again, ofcourse everyone was watching him, he got down on the first shot and his cover was blown, it was Dave Ferroni Jr who at the time was a very strong player, his stroke told the world who he was, but he could have trapped everyone in the room and taken down the rail too, he could have got the 5 and the break fom anyone there, i mean nobody knew it was him. And once the $$ is posted, its posted thus it was his for the taking, but he didnt care. His dad had/has a pool room in Merced Ca 2 hours away from Great American. Dave had been in 5 dime action more than once so he was a well seasoned player his dad taught Kim Davenport and his sons how to play, he came from good stock. He was fireing in balls for 15-20 minutes to the best of my recollation and layed the cue on the table and walked out. I have never seen him again.
He had a tough time with his partents getting divorced or something and lost his mind, last i heard he was homeless, i hope i'm wrong. i remember when he looked like a kid with a surf board he was very good looking and his girl was too, he played strong for the $$$, but something in him snapped. That night he could have played anyone in the room starting at the bottom and made a pile of $$$, there may have been 3 or 4 stronger players at most. But instead he walked out dazed and confused, from a good looking kid to a Amish farmer. Sad.
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Fatboy said:
Amish farmer hustlers always get the cheese. IMO
For some reason, I just knew we'd enjoy this thread. Here's another one.
Early nineties in Raleigh. 6'4" or so guy was sitting on the sofa watching the Thursday night tourney. Ellin, Coltrain, and about fifteen that could match up with anyone. Also about twenty "B" players were all in the tournament. Coltrain comes up to me.
"That tall guy wants to bet $300 a set. What can I give him?"
The guy turned his head to the side. "You can give him all of yours and my money if you give him anything. It's Bob Ogburn."
Flip-flops, beard, beads. I just love Bob. Or is it Bud Osborne? See, back then, Coltrain was so used to me telling him to give guys weight, it freaked him out when I said "even." Damn, that kid was solid.
Early nineties in Raleigh. 6'4" or so guy was sitting on the sofa watching the Thursday night tourney. Ellin, Coltrain, and about fifteen that could match up with anyone. Also about twenty "B" players were all in the tournament. Coltrain comes up to me.
"That tall guy wants to bet $300 a set. What can I give him?"
The guy turned his head to the side. "You can give him all of yours and my money if you give him anything. It's Bob Ogburn."
Flip-flops, beard, beads. I just love Bob. Or is it Bud Osborne? See, back then, Coltrain was so used to me telling him to give guys weight, it freaked him out when I said "even." Damn, that kid was solid.
I can't say what he might have spent
But I can tell you he was a lot like me when I worked the strip clubs, it was all business. I worked the pool tables til closing time, and didn't give my money to dancers. I did however take a couple to breakfast after hours.
I promise you, he ain't gay, and is married to a very attractive female player today
BRKNRUN said:Hmmmm.....18...That means he must have took down about 8k from the patrons...(since I am sure he dropped about 4k in lap dances...unless he is gay of course)....
But I can tell you he was a lot like me when I worked the strip clubs, it was all business. I worked the pool tables til closing time, and didn't give my money to dancers. I did however take a couple to breakfast after hours.
I promise you, he ain't gay, and is married to a very attractive female player today
Many great stories here.
on my post above about Dave Ferroni Jr, if anyone knows how he is please let me know,
my favorite move in a bar is when a table is empty but there are people watching, i toss a c-note on the box when i reach down for the balls and am racking them, i make it a point to ignore everyone until they walk up. man do I get bites, sure I have lost doing that but I have won alot more than I have lost, i have won 80% of the time with that move, and i'm not a good barbox player.
my favorite move in a bar is when a table is empty but there are people watching, i toss a c-note on the box when i reach down for the balls and am racking them, i make it a point to ignore everyone until they walk up. man do I get bites, sure I have lost doing that but I have won alot more than I have lost, i have won 80% of the time with that move, and i'm not a good barbox player.
Ferroni Jr and Billy Ray
Fatboy, I have not seen or heard about Dave Ferroni Jr in a long time (more than 5yrs). I did hear from someone who knows his family that he actually got into relegion and was a little extreme, shot his eye out with a BB gun and said god told him to do it.
In regards to Billy Ray, I have seen him a couple of times in the past year in different cities out west and he is not doing well. He lives in his car, his game is several balls below where it used to be (even on the bar box) and he is no longer athletic (his vices have finally caught up with him). Billy was fun to watch as he always loved to gamble and said some of the funniest things (because he was a little crazy). Jay I know you beat him in your pool room one time, but did you have any other good stories about him? He did play pretty good at one time, how good do you think he played
Fatboy said:
Fatboy, I have not seen or heard about Dave Ferroni Jr in a long time (more than 5yrs). I did hear from someone who knows his family that he actually got into relegion and was a little extreme, shot his eye out with a BB gun and said god told him to do it.
In regards to Billy Ray, I have seen him a couple of times in the past year in different cities out west and he is not doing well. He lives in his car, his game is several balls below where it used to be (even on the bar box) and he is no longer athletic (his vices have finally caught up with him). Billy was fun to watch as he always loved to gamble and said some of the funniest things (because he was a little crazy). Jay I know you beat him in your pool room one time, but did you have any other good stories about him? He did play pretty good at one time, how good do you think he played
Fatboy said:
Here's a nice move along the same order. Used this Thursday night.
Guys are playing $20/game and posting up with money on the rail. After winning, the player is putting one $20 in their pocket. Immediately after one player wins and its your turn, just put up $40, rack, and walk away before they have a chance to pocket their winning $20.
Another good move is to side bet on a cheap game and do everything you can to keep the player in cash. We have actually won $5 and given a guy $25 change from a $20 just to keep him playing so we can side bet.
iba7467 said:
I like the second one...
The first one though is a little "iffy"....If this is an ongoing challange table that has been established at $20 a rack and you try and post up $40 before the winner has a chance to pull off his $20.....You better watch that the winner does not pull off $40 and slip it into his pocket...maybe thinking he frogot to pull the $20 off after the previous rack he won...... then when you win you only broke even....(group arguement begins)