hi
8ballEinstein said:
There were several legendary Morro/John Schmidt matchups at Hard Times also. One that I saw was $1000, race to 13. Morro got up three sets and they upped the bet to $3000. The matches were close up to this point and I would've bet against Morro here because stamina should've favored the young guy. Morro won two more sets before they quit - at 10 o'clock the next morning!!
Of course John had his share of big wins too. Overall, I can't say who came out on top. They are both real tough competitors.
first off morro is a great guy.
in 98-2000 i played him on my own money about 7 times .
i was fairly unknown on west coast and thought of as a shortstop.
i built about a 8 thousand dollar bankroll in a years time playing no more than 200 a set.
i was running 100 -200 regularly and nobody knew it.
i walk up to morro and ask for 7ball for 100 a game. we play 4 games break even he quits and says lets play even.
i wasnt mad i was flattered and thought wow he dont think he can give me 7 maybe im good enough to try even.
some of the battles we had went like this as best as i can remember.
now remember at the time hes a super feared legend in la and im betting my own and scared to death of him.
we play races to 11, 700 a set, first to get 3 sets ahead wins.
we play for like 18 hours and he wins.
next time same thing i win.
then we play races to 15 for 2000 put up two sets i lose both sets .i play scared and lose bad go outside and smash my cue into a million pieces.
the set that almost ended my career before it started was this.
we decide to play 8ahead for 3000.
i play morro and he wins the first 5 games ,im dogging ,tired scared etc.
somehow i get on the hill from there in like an hour.i miss a 5ball to get out and win .
over the next ten or so hours i get on the hill 7 times and lose the set after about 12 hours.
he then comes in 2 at the wpc in cardiff.
so i say im going to play him now so if i win i know i beat him when hes playing well.we play race to 15 for 1500 i win 15-7.
next we play race to 15 for 1000 he has me 6 to 0 . i win 15 ,7.
my confidence and game goes up because of these battles and the next few times i play him i beat him pretty soundly again to where he avoided me.
the 2 guys i played the most and learned the most from was morro and cooney.
it cracks me up when people say im a nit.
morro and cooney will both attest to the fact that i played them for 1000-3000 a set on a regular basis betting my own in very close tough games.
the first time i played jack was in 99 i believe.
at the time i had 22000 saved from playing people and jack knew it.
i had only played a few games of 1hole at the time .
i played prospeed 14.1 and rotation pool but had no clue how to play 1hole.
well what better way to learn than by playing one of the best in the world for huge chunks of your own money.
i remember vividly how are these matchups went.
this is over the course of about 3 months.
first match was 4 ahead for 500 jack stalled and beat me after 10hours.
i said bet 2000 same game he beat me 4 in a row.
a few days later i play 2 ahead for 500.
i lose 2 sets in a row.
he thinks im stupid im sure by now.
but i told my friend nick who was with me im losing but im starting to see how to play the game.
so now i play him races to 4 for 1000.it goes hill hill.
we start over and add 1000.goes hillhill again we start over and add 1000.
it goes hillhill again we add another 1000 and agree this is it, play it out.
hill hill i need one he needs 11 .
he wins the game.im sick
so now im stuck 7500 in about a week on my own money.
cecil tugwell told me i was not breaking right .
so i went back and practiced my break like he showed me for 4-5 hours and called jack and said i want to play 5 ahead for 2500 put up 2 sets.
now remember i just lost 4000 2 days before .i was one game down after 12hours and lost 4dimes.
i didnt ask to adjust i just said lets play again.everybody that knew me said you cant win your crazy.i said i can do this i shoot way better and im learning how to move as we go.
this time i won the first and second set in about 4 hours getting 5000 of my money back.
i didnt see jack for about a month so the next time we played we played even but we only played 200 a game and i won 5 in a row and we never played after that.
so lifetime im 1500 loser to jack but probably won 100,000 because he got me into 1hole which i how i made 90 percent of my money between 99 and 03.
jack was the greatest guy to play,he never argued or whined . he was a perfect gentleman when he won or lost.
i think he was super cool and belongs in the 1hole hall of fame.thanks for all you taught me jack. even though you were trying to take all my money i still liked playing you more than anybody.you moved unreal and if i move half as good ill be fine.
