Interesting early gambling experiences!
- Thread starter Brozif
- Start date
for the OP
This is for Brozif, gentle folks and those with sensitive stomaches had best stop here. It is an ugly story but my first gambling experience I have cause to remember.
I was playing pool on the strip in Port Allen when I was fifteen, barely fifteen. I was six foot tall and 160 pounds. I also had longish hair and a beard, not the best look for most of the hard country places I hung in long before country was cool as the song says. If your beard wasn't gray it automatically made you one of those damned hippies.
As I have said many a time, I stunk at pool when I started. I was anything but a natural. All Nick's Steakhouse had left was the name and a ratty bar upfront where a few lost soul hardcore alkies spent their evenings. Drinks were cheap at 90 cents a mixed drink and that is what I was usually soaking up while trying to learn to play pool in the dark cavern that was once the restaurant.
Sometime before I found Nick's somebody had piled all the restuarant tables and chairs in a corner, putting pool tables in the back and trying to start a pool hall, a venture long given up on. There were no windows or lighting back there except when someone turned on the light over a pool table. The pool tables were huge old monsters as I remember, maybe five by tens. Badly neglected as were the cues and balls of course but there weren't any nice places letting fifteen year olds drink hard liquor and practice pool so this was my nightly home.
In a lifetime of traveling I haven't found anyplace rougher than the strip was then. A family "the family" owned almost the entire strip and the law. Fights never brought the law, a cutting didn't unless somebody died, shootings might, depended on who did the shooting. While Nick's was dead there was some flow from across the highway on the weekends and I partied pretty much the whole strip so I did know the lay of the land. A few weeks before this incident somebody had staggered in the front door badly cut up and fell by the bar. He stayed there for thirty minutes or an hour until somebody got tired of walking around him and drug him over by a wall. Some drunk lady eventually decided he might need help an hour or so later. Have to say that I was in fly on the wall mode that early in my pool and partying stage and didn't get involved myself. However this incident was plenty to remind me you were on your own in Nick's regardless of what happened.
Enough of setting the scene, on with the meat of the story. As usual I was the only one playing pool in the back, towards the middle of the cavern to not disturb the drinkers at the bar, as if anything could. A man came back to the table wanting to play. Sure, I never turned down any competition. A modest bet was made and we played. I mentioned I was awful, I lost. Back when a lot of people put in a hard week of work for fifty dollars I toted a lot of cash relatively speaking. The man tried to collect ten times what the bet had been for. He was "huge" seemed so at the time. Three or four inches taller, over a hundred pounds heavier and not much of it fat.
No experience dealing with this kind of thing but I wasn't new to fighting. When he came at me to collect by force I snapped the house cue in my hands and jabbed him in the face with the pointy end, very hard using both hands. Ripped a cheek open very deeply pretty much mouth to ear. Major damage and it slowed him enough I had time to bolt for the door. A few nights later I was back playing pool in Nick's and never heard a word about the incident.
The part of the story I rarely tell, the bet was one dollar. The amount the man tried to rip me off for was another nine. I was doing hard manual labor in a family business fifty to eighty hours a week and bringing home a dollar an hour or less. I had started the job a few years earlier at thirty-five cents an hour. Forget overtime, that wasn't even a consideration. I might drop a week's pay or more in a night drinking and gambling but somebody taking a day's pay was a whole 'nuther matter!
Would I do the same thing again now? Pretty much, I'm not big on people taking what is mine and the vast majority of trouble I got into over pool was when betting five dollars or less. People betting more money were more seasoned and I rarely had trouble with them. Too, I did a little growing after I turned fifteen.
I did learn the value of a broken cue that night. I never used another one seriously but I broke a few dozen more before I was twenty. I kept a twenty dollar bill in my shirt pocket when things started looking like they were going south and I'd throw it on the bar on the way out the door holding a broken cue in both hands chest high most of the time. Owners/bartenders were happy to get $20 for a junk house cue and I was almost always welcome back when I showed up again in a few weeks or months.
Hu
This is for Brozif, gentle folks and those with sensitive stomaches had best stop here. It is an ugly story but my first gambling experience I have cause to remember.
I was playing pool on the strip in Port Allen when I was fifteen, barely fifteen. I was six foot tall and 160 pounds. I also had longish hair and a beard, not the best look for most of the hard country places I hung in long before country was cool as the song says. If your beard wasn't gray it automatically made you one of those damned hippies.
As I have said many a time, I stunk at pool when I started. I was anything but a natural. All Nick's Steakhouse had left was the name and a ratty bar upfront where a few lost soul hardcore alkies spent their evenings. Drinks were cheap at 90 cents a mixed drink and that is what I was usually soaking up while trying to learn to play pool in the dark cavern that was once the restaurant.
Sometime before I found Nick's somebody had piled all the restuarant tables and chairs in a corner, putting pool tables in the back and trying to start a pool hall, a venture long given up on. There were no windows or lighting back there except when someone turned on the light over a pool table. The pool tables were huge old monsters as I remember, maybe five by tens. Badly neglected as were the cues and balls of course but there weren't any nice places letting fifteen year olds drink hard liquor and practice pool so this was my nightly home.
In a lifetime of traveling I haven't found anyplace rougher than the strip was then. A family "the family" owned almost the entire strip and the law. Fights never brought the law, a cutting didn't unless somebody died, shootings might, depended on who did the shooting. While Nick's was dead there was some flow from across the highway on the weekends and I partied pretty much the whole strip so I did know the lay of the land. A few weeks before this incident somebody had staggered in the front door badly cut up and fell by the bar. He stayed there for thirty minutes or an hour until somebody got tired of walking around him and drug him over by a wall. Some drunk lady eventually decided he might need help an hour or so later. Have to say that I was in fly on the wall mode that early in my pool and partying stage and didn't get involved myself. However this incident was plenty to remind me you were on your own in Nick's regardless of what happened.
Enough of setting the scene, on with the meat of the story. As usual I was the only one playing pool in the back, towards the middle of the cavern to not disturb the drinkers at the bar, as if anything could. A man came back to the table wanting to play. Sure, I never turned down any competition. A modest bet was made and we played. I mentioned I was awful, I lost. Back when a lot of people put in a hard week of work for fifty dollars I toted a lot of cash relatively speaking. The man tried to collect ten times what the bet had been for. He was "huge" seemed so at the time. Three or four inches taller, over a hundred pounds heavier and not much of it fat.
No experience dealing with this kind of thing but I wasn't new to fighting. When he came at me to collect by force I snapped the house cue in my hands and jabbed him in the face with the pointy end, very hard using both hands. Ripped a cheek open very deeply pretty much mouth to ear. Major damage and it slowed him enough I had time to bolt for the door. A few nights later I was back playing pool in Nick's and never heard a word about the incident.
The part of the story I rarely tell, the bet was one dollar. The amount the man tried to rip me off for was another nine. I was doing hard manual labor in a family business fifty to eighty hours a week and bringing home a dollar an hour or less. I had started the job a few years earlier at thirty-five cents an hour. Forget overtime, that wasn't even a consideration. I might drop a week's pay or more in a night drinking and gambling but somebody taking a day's pay was a whole 'nuther matter!
Would I do the same thing again now? Pretty much, I'm not big on people taking what is mine and the vast majority of trouble I got into over pool was when betting five dollars or less. People betting more money were more seasoned and I rarely had trouble with them. Too, I did a little growing after I turned fifteen.
I did learn the value of a broken cue that night. I never used another one seriously but I broke a few dozen more before I was twenty. I kept a twenty dollar bill in my shirt pocket when things started looking like they were going south and I'd throw it on the bar on the way out the door holding a broken cue in both hands chest high most of the time. Owners/bartenders were happy to get $20 for a junk house cue and I was almost always welcome back when I showed up again in a few weeks or months.Hu
This is for Brozif, gentle folks and those with sensitive stomaches had best stop here. It is an ugly story but my first gambling experience I have cause to remember.
I was playing pool on the strip in Port Allen when I was fifteen, barely fifteen. I was six foot tall and 160 pounds. I also had longish hair and a beard, not the best look for most of the hard country places I hung in long before country was cool as the song says. If your beard wasn't gray it automatically made you one of those damned hippies.
As I have said many a time, I stunk at pool when I started. I was anything but a natural. All Nick's Steakhouse had left was the name and a ratty bar upfront where a few lost soul hardcore alkies spent their evenings. Drinks were cheap at 90 cents a mixed drink and that is what I was usually soaking up while trying to learn to play pool in the dark cavern that was once the restaurant.
Sometime before I found Nick's somebody had piled all the restuarant tables and chairs in a corner, putting pool tables in the back and trying to start a pool hall, a venture long given up on. There were no windows or lighting back there except when someone turned on the light over a pool table. The pool tables were huge old monsters as I remember, maybe five by tens. Badly neglected as were the cues and balls of course but there weren't any nice places letting fifteen year olds drink hard liquor and practice pool so this was my nightly home.
In a lifetime of traveling I haven't found anyplace rougher than the strip was then. A family "the family" owned almost the entire strip and the law. Fights never brought the law, a cutting didn't unless somebody died, shootings might, depended on who did the shooting. While Nick's was dead there was some flow from across the highway on the weekends and I partied pretty much the whole strip so I did know the lay of the land. A few weeks before this incident somebody had staggered in the front door badly cut up and fell by the bar. He stayed there for thirty minutes or an hour until somebody got tired of walking around him and drug him over by a wall. Some drunk lady eventually decided he might need help an hour or so later. Have to say that I was in fly on the wall mode that early in my pool and partying stage and didn't get involved myself. However this incident was plenty to remind me you were on your own in Nick's regardless of what happened.
Enough of setting the scene, on with the meat of the story. As usual I was the only one playing pool in the back, towards the middle of the cavern to not disturb the drinkers at the bar, as if anything could. A man came back to the table wanting to play. Sure, I never turned down any competition. A modest bet was made and we played. I mentioned I was awful, I lost. Back when a lot of people put in a hard week of work for fifty dollars I toted a lot of cash relatively speaking. The man tried to collect ten times what the bet had been for. He was "huge" seemed so at the time. Three or four inches taller, over a hundred pounds heavier and not much of it fat.
No experience dealing with this kind of thing but I wasn't new to fighting. When he came at me to collect by force I snapped the house cue in my hands and jabbed him in the face with the pointy end, very hard using both hands. Ripped a cheek open very deeply pretty much mouth to ear. Major damage and it slowed him enough I had time to bolt for the door. A few nights later I was back playing pool in Nick's and never heard a word about the incident.
The part of the story I rarely tell, the bet was one dollar. The amount the man tried to rip me off for was another nine. I was doing hard manual labor in a family business fifty to eighty hours a week and bringing home a dollar an hour or less. I had started the job a few years earlier at thirty-five cents an hour. Forget overtime, that wasn't even a consideration. I might drop a week's pay or more in a night drinking and gambling but somebody taking a day's pay was a whole 'nuther matter!
Would I do the same thing again now? Pretty much, I'm not big on people taking what is mine and the vast majority of trouble I got into over pool was when betting five dollars or less. People betting more money were more seasoned and I rarely had trouble with them. Too, I did a little growing after I turned fifteen.
Hu
Wow! That is a scary situation you found yourself in. You obviously handled it well. That story may have turned out differently had the guy came back to Nick's. You obviously grew up in a different era where things were handled much differently. I know there's still a lot of talk about people getting hurt by welching on bets and stuff, but I have never seen it personally.
I'm not sure why Jack didn't get physical with me. He was definitely upset and threatened to. I'm not going to say it was because of my size, but I was a big boy. I'm only about 5'9", but at that time I was a very stocky 180 lbs. I was in the Air Force and dedicated time to working out. I was a young man at the time, and he was considerably older and you could see that the years of drinking and smoking had worn hard on him. That's not to say that I think I could have taken him. I never understimate anyone. Never judge a book by it's cover! There's no such thing as a fair street fight. Whatever is around can and should be considered a weapon!
Thanks for the story and for seeing the true reason and purpose of the thread.
rule of thumb
My brother has a rule of thumb, never fight fair if someone is over waist high. I learned the hard way it is a good rule to follow.
I have to admit that I do sometimes miss the old days and the old Hu. I did learn early if the poop is going to hit the fan anyway make sure you are the one throwing the first bucket! Glad you liked the story. There were many narrow escapes in my first few years playing pool. Then I got a lot smoother making my escapes with the cash and had grown enough that few wanted to try to strongarm me. Now I have gotten old, gray, and lazy and as you mention anything around can become a weapon, preferably my .45!
Hu
My brother has a rule of thumb, never fight fair if someone is over waist high. I learned the hard way it is a good rule to follow.
I have to admit that I do sometimes miss the old days and the old Hu. I did learn early if the poop is going to hit the fan anyway make sure you are the one throwing the first bucket! Glad you liked the story. There were many narrow escapes in my first few years playing pool. Then I got a lot smoother making my escapes with the cash and had grown enough that few wanted to try to strongarm me. Now I have gotten old, gray, and lazy and as you mention anything around can become a weapon, preferably my .45!
Hu
My brother has a rule of thumb, never fight fair if someone is over waist high. I learned the hard way it is a good rule to follow.
I have to admit that I do sometimes miss the old days and the old Hu. I did learn early if the poop is going to hit the fan anyway make sure you are the one throwing the first bucket! Glad you liked the story. There were many narrow escapes in my first few years playing pool. Then I got a lot smoother making my escapes with the cash and had grown enough that few wanted to try to strongarm me. Now I have gotten old, gray, and lazy and as you mention anything around can become a weapon, preferably my .45!
Hu
Yes! .45 Noted! Note to self...don't piss off Hu!
I got your message and I do apologize for what I said. I have a feeling what you did was more out of being naive. Age is not a factor, one can be naive at any age when out of their element. Having said that, some mentioned the guy was playing with air barrels but I think this was not the first time he has put up the cue and felt he did have something of value to gamble with be it not money. He after all could have just said I will pay you tomorrow and left you with nothing.
He however give you the cue to hold worth far more then the debt and came back when he said a pretty honorable thing to do considering. He maybe even would have even given you extra for your trouble. What he got in return for his trust in you that his cue was safe was to have his cue stolen. I have a feeling if he called the cops he would have gotten the cue back, gambling not withstanding. Then again it could have been far worse, people are killed over much less. Gambling and dealing with strangers requires careful thought and consideration, you have no idea who they are or how they think.
A very close call I had happen to me was a guy who didn't want to pay me in a bar and I said forget it it's no big deal, I could tell this guy could be trouble. I guess I insulted his integrity and that was worse. He tried to stab me from behind and a couple of guys at the bar got him before he got me. I honestly thought I was defusing the situation telling him he didn't have to pay but it didn't matter.
I have a friend who beat a guy out of $40.00 in a bar and the guy he was playing left. When the bar closed my friend was getting in his car and about to leave when he saw the guy walking up to his car. He rolled down the window thinking the guy was going to say something like, "Will you be around tomorrow we can play some more"? The guy by the was was not even mad when he left the bar earlier. I guess he waited in the parking lot though because when he walked up he never said a word and shot my friend in the face.
I know some on here remember this story because the guy who was shot was a well known bar player, good player. He didn't die but he was never the same.
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I appreciate and accept your apology. And I know I shoud just accept it and go away, but something in your post didn't quite set right with me.
I didn't steal his cue! He chose to put it up as payment for not having the $600 that he owed me. In turn, I will admit that I made an honest, although be it a stupid mistake, because of my inexperience with gambling. Labeling me a thief for it seems a little extreme.
Unless you meant that the guy who bought it stole it. In that case, since he did know the true value of the cue, then I would agree with your statement.
Either way, thank you for taking the time to read over the thread again and giving me another chance. I do not want the lable of being a *****, thief or a liar. You are all my pool forum brothers and sisters and want to keep it as civil as possible.
It was a poor choice of words I am sorry. I type fast and often am doing other things when I may sign on to see what is being talked about. The guy who bought the cue from you is the strangest element of the story. He gave you a lot of money for a cue I am sure you would have sold for much less. He in effect he made you an offer you could not refuse. I am sure he thought the guy would be back and wanted to get the cue from you as quickly as possible.
Those who live in glass houses....
You're trying hard to defend yourself here and I can appreciate that. I really enjoyed your story but I find it a bit hypocritical of you to so quickly call the guy that bought the cue from you a thief. What he did was shady for sure, but he didn't steal the cue anymore than you did.
Please keep posting. I really did enjoy this post and your Intro to APA (paraphrasing) post as well.
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I agree that it seems the guy who bought the cue from Brozif is the real d-bag. He knew the other guy didn't want to sell it and waited for an opportunity where he could get it from someone else.
Brozif was new and didn't know what he was doing. Really, out of the three, he was the most innocent in the transactions. The gambler shouldn't have played for more than he had. Anything that happened after his air barrel was partly his fault. The guy who bought the cue knew what he was doing also in getting a cue he wanted away from someone who didn't want to sell it.
What are the Rules Of Gambling. If I go to the track or Casino can I gamble until broke..... lose everything...run up a debt...give them my watch and say I'll be back? What did Brozif do wrong other than rightfully look out for number one. His opponent should have said he was broke when he went broke....and asked for a rematch some other time....or gone directly to a Mac machine. He repeatedly made bad decisions. People like that are called losers. Just keep losing and getting deeper in debt.
Me...I don't have any real stories other than I got "beat"(not get paid) enough to not play pool for $$$. A $3.00 trophy is fun to play for....and hopefully I would get a Mickey Mouse watch if they were Bullshitting about the Trophy
Me...I don't have any real stories other than I got "beat"(not get paid) enough to not play pool for $$$. A $3.00 trophy is fun to play for....and hopefully I would get a Mickey Mouse watch if they were Bullshitting about the Trophy
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A lot of us have done embarrassing or stupid stuff learning the ins and outs of pool. But, after the beating you took on here, I doubt many will share.
I'll just say that at one point in my "career", I actually bragged about my hollow fiberglass cue with a screw on tip.
I haven't seen one of those in years. :thumbup:
Yeah, that is kinda the way I see it. It's always better to post up. It takes all the guess work outta whether you're gonna get paid.
That was a Scruggs? I only got $200 for it. Oh well, that's what you get for firing air barrels.
A lot of us have done embarrassing or stupid stuff learning the ins and outs of pool. But, after the beating you took on here, I doubt many will share.
I'll just say that at one point in my "career", I actually bragged about my hollow fiberglass cue with a screw on tip.
YOU too? Mine was Green Weinie in color!
You're correct. I shouldn't have worded it that way and immediately regret my decision.
The way I should have worded is that he GOT a steal, but only he knew how good of a steal it was. He was the one that offered me the $2500 knowing that the true value was $4000. He said that he had made a lot of offers to the original owner to buy the cue, but he always refused. The cue now being in my possession, he saw an opportunity and made me an offer that I didn't know I should have refused. So he got a steal!
That's how I should have explained it. Thanks for showing me the error of my ways!
according to a few of these post I might be a douche and a nit. If the guy would have been up front and told me hey I am busted but I will play you for another $600 and use my cue as collateral until tomorrow. Then I would have held the cue as agreed. But had I just had a $600 air barrel fired at me the cue would have been mine to do as I please. The only other choice would have been one of going home hurt.
There are oh, so many things in this that scream BS!!!