Ismael Paez

Everyone...

Well, everyone cant be perfect all the time. Bad days, bad rolls, etc happen. Maybe a potato cip bag crumples each time you go to final stroke in a very tough predicament. Arse-holistic outbursts can be a players way of saying "I'd rather be a butt-face than be trapped." \, and unless we are in his shoes, we have not a clue.

Does the story BELONG here? is it a story consistent with his long term behavior? Is it at least funny?

bumpypickle said:
So I guess nobody has a negative story about this guy? I've got a good one about his character but if I write about it then everyone will throw a little fit.
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J. Learned Hand said:
Alas, you have finally outed yourself. I always knew you were cheating me when I couldn't make a ball on your rack. Furthermore, now I know what that "and his hair was perfect" Tom Cruise tomfoolery was all about. When he runs his hand over his hair he's preparing for the slug-o-matic!
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The things I learn on the www.
 
J. Learned Hand said:
Alas, you have finally outed yourself. I always knew you were cheating me when I couldn't make a ball on your rack. Furthermore, now I know what that "and his hair was perfect" Tom Cruise tomfoolery was all about. When he runs his hand over his hair he's preparing for the slug-o-matic!
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The way Vincent played I would imagine the slug rack was his best weapon. The guy couldn't play a lick! How else could he beat Keith McCready?

What in the hell are you doing up at 4:30 am??? No excuses today on the golf course! You will get PWNED!
 
john schmidt said:
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.
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John, this is your all time greatest post on AZ. What a recap is all I have to say. I knew you had played Morro many times and Jack some One Hole. I heard you and Morro played real close and broke about even, and that Jack had the best of it playing One Hole. But now we get the real scoop from the horses mouth. It isn't too often that players come on here and give us the real lowdown on what went on. Thanks for this amazing post!
 
john schmidt said:
ive played for decent to big money, cjwiley,tony chohan,scott frost,keith mckready,ronnie alcano,santos sambohan,james waldon,john hager,ignacio chaves,king kong,efren reyes,cliff joyner,jeremy jones, gabe owen,jose parica, jason kirkwood,danny harriman,brady gollan,ronnie wiseman,bob hunter,leonardo andam,corey duell,chris mcdonald, amar kang,bryce avila,sam manoele,victor castro,johnny ervolino, john dohrety,allen hopkins,jimmy wales,bill cress,stephan cohen,corey harper,neil fujiwara,ivica putnick,berne yenke,marcus chamot,jack cooney, morro,rodney morris,kim davenport,ernesto dominguez,tang hoa,alex pagualion,scotty townsend,jimmy fusco,two great players from europe but cant remember names,richie richeson,tony watson,evgeny stalev,.

thats most of the ones off the top off my head. theres 100 more who are less known but played good.
i played 90 percent of these guys on my own money.
anyway for the people who say i have no gamble i just havent got to you yet.
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Yeah but when are you going to play some good players? :eek:
 
Originally Posted by bumpypickle
Now I am being threatened because I have a different opinion about one of your so called professionals.





My strong advice is that you listen to your community and *maybe* make a little more effort to be less abrasive.

You've ignored other's here.....you can chose to ignore me but not a real good idea. Know what I mean?



PS...yes, I have a standing pledge to support our Pro's who post here. I value them at a much, much higher level than ANY ANONYMOUS POSTER AND ALWAYS WILL.
 
Cheeecago

senor said:
The first time I ever saw Morro he matched up with David G a couple of times. David handled him the first time they played. The second time they played they agreed to quit even.

The second time they played the obvious difference in the match was that David could not make anything on the break, whereas Morro was making a ball on the break the majority of the time. David was studying Morro's rack intently, but could not find anything visibly wrong with it.

After the second match had ended they got in a little woofing match with David calling Morro out on giving him the slug rack. Chicago, Morro's stakehorse, in a hilarious mixture of shock and anger, yelled at David in his spanglish accent "My man is a professional! He don't need to give bad racks to beat you!" It was truly priceless. We laughed about that for days, wondering in Chicago actually believed what had come out of his own mouth.

Later, or maybe the next day, David was still wondering how Morro was slugging the rack. We finally came to the conclusion that it must have been the fried chicken he was eating. He was rubbing the grease that was on his hands on the rack!

For all of you aspiring rack mechanics out there, a little bit of grease or oil on the balls gets them to stick together. So whenever you see someone run their hands through their greasy hair and then rack, they're trying to put the slug on you!
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Here's me and my buddy Chicago. Chicago loves action!! akaTrigger was trying to get us to say cheese, but Chicago wasn't smiling saying queso! LOL.
 

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jay helfert said:
Closer to 1998. Morro beat him once at Hard Times getting the eight, but Earl is ahead overall.
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Jay

The week before I played Morro in 1988, I believe that they he had finished high in the Sands Reno event, or the World Championships (I forget which) - I know this is probably a question for Terry Ardeno - but I believe you may know which tournament that was - he had one hell of a month in June of 1988 - finishing high in 2 pro events and snapping off the bar box event in Vegas.

Does anybody have that info? Terry or Jay?
 
All about Senor Ismael "Morro" Paez. He's my friend for nearly thirty years now, and what a welcome addition to the west Coast pool scene he has been. There are no more entertaining pool players alive than Morro and Keith and both are West Coast guys.

You just have to see Morro rack the balls one time. He does some things with his hands that are simply unique. Joe Tucker could devote one entire chapter to the famous "Morro Rack."

Morro has always been a class act as long as I've known him. Honorable in gambling, he is one guy who won't take an air barrel or ask for a gapper. If he wins he is gleeful and if he loses, he is disconsolate. All his emotions are right there for the world to see.

He is one of the few humans I have ever borrowed money from. I went broke one year in Reno and my ATM was maxed also. I had a game with Larry Humphries ($50 short rack Banks) and no cheese. I asked Morro for some help and he whipped $500 on me, just like that. I felt so good that I beat Larry out of $400. :)

Another time, Harry wanted to play me some $500 One Pocket and I was a little short. I only had a little over 1K on me, so I asked Morro if he'd like a piece. He said sure and handed me a G whiz. Now I had two grand, enough for four barrels. We ended up chopping up two grand ourselves a few hours later. :o

Pool could use about ten more guys like Morro Paez. JMHO of course.
I'll never forget the shot he played on Sigel at the Southern California Open in 1988. He was hooked on the four ball near the side pocket, and he couldn't even kick at it, balls were in the way. So he jacks the cue straight up in the air and shoots a full 180 degree masse shot and makes the four ball in the side. The cue ball went forward about six to eight inches, reversed and came straight back into the four ball. AMAZING doesn't even begin to describe the shot and in a match with Mike Sigel, the tournament favorite. Morro went on to win the match, Sigel never recovered from his shock of seeing Morro execute a shot like that against him.

A helluva guy in my book. I'm glad to know the man. And by the way, he's a great family man too.

P.S. And Morro has always been a fearless gambler, never afraid to take on anyone, even on their home court. I remember the trip he made to Detroit in the late 80's. He played the best players for huge amounts and won a ton, and I mean a ton. Guys were calling me and asking who is this guy? He claims to be from California. I just told them he plays good and likes to bet high. All true!
 
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jay helfert said:
Closer to 1998. Morro beat him once at Hard Times getting the eight, but Earl is ahead overall.
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They did match up in Vegas sometime in the late 80's or 90ish for 20K, Morro getting the 8, at Cue-Topia. I believe it was after one of those World Championship tournaments at the Sahara.
 
Blackjack said:
Jay

The week before I played Morro in 1988, I believe that they he had finished high in the Sands Reno event, or the World Championships (I forget which) - I know this is probably a question for Terry Ardeno - but I believe you may know which tournament that was - he had one hell of a month in June of 1988 - finishing high in 2 pro events and snapping off the bar box event in Vegas.

Does anybody have that info? Terry or Jay?
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Blackjack,

Paez finished tied for 3rd with Bob Hunter in the 1988 Southern California Invitational, which was won by David Howard ($10,000) and Efren in 2nd
($6,000).
Paez finished tied for 17th in the 1988 World 9 Ball Championships and in the June Sands Regency Open, he tied for 9th.
At the Hard Times 9 Ball Open, Morro was 3rd behind David Howard and Earl Strickland.
In the over-all Pro Money list for 1988, Morro finished at 17 with $12,700 in tournament winnings.
 
Terry Ardeno said:
Blackjack,

Paez finished tied for 3rd with Bob Hunter in the 1988 Southern California Invitational, which was won by David Howard ($10,000) and Efren in 2nd
($6,000).
Paez finished tied for 17th in the 1988 World 9 Ball Championships and in the June Sands Regency Open, he tied for 9th.
At the Hard Times 9 Ball Open, Morro was 3rd behind David Howard and Earl Strickland.
In the over-all Pro Money list for 1988, Morro finished at 17 with $12,700 in tournament winnings.
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Thanks Terry!

I would imagine that those dollar amounts would only account for the PBT events, and not the smaller events that he was winning/cashing in. I know he won $5000 for winning the Huebler Cup, so those numbers are deceptive.

The other 2 events I was referring to were the Sands, and World 9 Ball.

Thanks again, you are the man!
 
Does Morro post here?

Mr. Wilson said:
Originally Posted by bumpypickle
Now I am being threatened because I have a different opinion about one of your so called professionals.





My strong advice is that you listen to your community and *maybe* make a little more effort to be less abrasive.

You've ignored other's here.....you can chose to ignore me but not a real good idea. Know what I mean?


PS...yes, I have a standing pledge to support our Pro's who post here. I value them at a much, much higher level than ANY ANONYMOUS POSTER AND ALWAYS WILL.
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Are you saying that this forum is only for people that all have the same oppinion about something? The fact that this is called a forum would imply that different opinions are welcome. A thread is started about a well known player and everyone writes about what they know about this person, good or bad I would think. If this is not the case then it should not be called a forum. I have seen so many threads about different players that are in jail or known drug users or theives or whatever and all anybody can say is "he's a great guy" or "he played good". What is that about? I enjoy reading many of the threads on this forum but if you are going to limit the conversation to "positive only"
then I will no longer participate. Chris Capp aka bumpypickle
 
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Bumpy,

Just tell your story, as long it is something that is not heresay and that you actually witnessed.

Lets hear it
 
Human moves...

bumpypickle said:
Are you saying that this forum is only for people that all have the same oppinion about something? The fact that this is called a forum would imply that different opinions are welcome. A thread is started about a well known player and everyone writes about what they know about this person, good or bad I would think. If this is not the case then it should not be called a forum. I have seen so many threads about different players that are in jail or known drug users or theives or whatever and all anybody can say is "he's a great guy" or "he played good". What is that about? I enjoy reading many of the threads on this forum but if you are going to limit the conversation to "positive only"
then I will no longer participate. Chris Capp aka bumpypickle
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Chris,

Of course you have every right to tell your story. Like Draw said though, hopefully it was first hand.

We love hearing from the Pro's here on AZ. While I don't think Ismael is a poster here, this thread did produce some great stories about top level action. Thanks John.

I must admit, I have done things in my life that I'm not proud of. I carry the burden of guilt in those things. I wonder how I would feel is someone decided to publicize those things NOW. It would be very hurtful.

It's your call. Just remember.......whatever indiscretions Ismael may have had......He appears to have learned from them and made many friends along the way.

We're watching Chris now. What kind of moves will Chris makes in his life.

Stick around Chris. It's more fun with some that challenge the norm. Just be mindful of OUR feelings too.

Sincerely,

Ray Hansen
aka. Bigtruck
 
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