Keith McCready: Toughest Gamblers Ever

Russ Chewning said:
1. Gas prices. Too expensive to drive long distances.

2. Hotel prices. Too expensive to sleep.

3. Information exchange on player speeds has gotten MUCH more efficient. Cell phones and the internet make it easy to get a player identified from a picture within minutes, and an exact speed measurement. This kills games.

4. Cost of living as a whole has gone up. People cannot survive on the road without with a minimum of $100 a day. In Keith's day, you could probably survive on $40-$50 a day, and be doing okay.

That's about it. Anyone, feel free to put in anything I missed.

Russ
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5. Proliferation of gambling such as Indian casinos, state run lotteries, card rooms, etc.
 
Russ Chewning said:
That's about it. Anyone, feel free to put in anything I missed.

Russ
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How about the fact that you can gamble in almost every state in the nation. Lottos, scratch offs, dailys, internet gambling, river boats have cut into the degenerate gamblers bankroll. They can get their fix just about anywhere.
 
Russ Chewning said:
1. Gas prices. Too expensive to drive long distances.

2. Hotel prices. Too expensive to sleep.

3. Information exchange on player speeds has gotten MUCH more efficient. Cell phones and the internet make it easy to get a player identified from a picture within minutes, and an exact speed measurement. This kills games.

4. Cost of living as a whole has gone up. People cannot survive on the road without with a minimum of $100 a day. In Keith's day, you could probably survive on $40-$50 a day, and be doing okay.

That's about it. Anyone, feel free to put in anything I missed.

Russ
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Many stake horses wised up to the dumping in pool. Now they dump the rail.
 
Russ Chewning said:
4. Cost of living as a whole has gone up. People cannot survive on the road without with a minimum of $100 a day. In Keith's day, you could probably survive on $40-$50 a day, and be doing okay.
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If you made $100 a day you would go broke. It takes probably double that on average to survive on the road. Even cheap rooms are up to 40 a night.
 
Keith, write your stories down. They don't need to be in order. Pay attention to the details or you'll lose the players. Soon enough you'll have a book.
 
cost of living

Russ Chewning said:
4. Cost of living as a whole has gone up. People cannot survive on the road without with a minimum of $100 a day. In Keith's day, you could probably survive on $40-$50 a day, and be doing okay.
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I would have to say cost of living would be the #1 reason.

40-50 a day to live on the road was plenty.

There was more work available therefore more people with perceived discretionary income.

M.C.
 
I believe Keith meant Mark Vitore.
Mark used to stake Efren and Little Alex against Keith too.
I can't believe Jack Cooney, Tobey and Efren did not make Keith's top list.
I dunno if anyone ever gave Keith 10-7 but if my memory serves me right Efren did back in '95-'96 at Hard Times. Little Alex staked Efren.
 
Loss of Heart

These days most aspiring players are AFRAID to get in the box and mix it up unless they are stealing.

They don't want to gamble. They want to bark all day and wear the other side down until the other side caves in and takes the worst of it. And then when they finally get the game they want they are such nits that they quit winner, refuse to adjust, and worst of all WON'T raise the bet even if the sucker wants to without adjustment.

Basically the general level of nittiness is the reason that there is no gamble anymore.

But there are in fact places left where they still bet a decent amount on a regular basis but they still are pretty nitty about it.

Thanks for the stories Keith! Hey, miss Efren Reyes of typing.....where is the biography of the Earthquake! We will make do with the 70s til now and you add more chapters for his upcoming road stories later.

Where can I send you $19.95 for the first copy?
 
im not here knockin keith, i have all the respect for him cuz i know hes a great player, but the one story i have about him is this..

i was in hard times one time with jeremy jones over 10 years ago before anyone really knew him, he wasnt a world beater but he still played realllllly good..anyways, no one really knew him but keith recognized him when we walked in.when jeremy finally got a game, he went to the restroom before he started playin and keith followed him in and basically said he wanted part of our action else he was gonna knock our action!!!..didnt really have a choice..
 
deadwhak said:
im not here knockin keith, i have all the respect for him cuz i know hes a great player, but the one story i have about him is this..

i was in hard times one time with jeremy jones over 10 years ago before anyone really knew him, he wasnt a world beater but he still played realllllly good..anyways, no one really knew him but keith recognized him when we walked in.when jeremy finally got a game, he went to the restroom before he started playin and keith followed him in and basically said he wanted part of our action else he was gonna knock our action!!!..didnt really have a choice..
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Nothing wrong with that. A man has to protect his home court. Happened to me several times. The other alternative is to walk out of the bathroom and tell the world that you are a world beater and want to bet high and let them stack it up betting on Keith against you.

If you want to steal then be prepared to share it if you don't want to be outed.
 
keith is unbelievable, really. in my experience with him he conducted himself well and hardly ever complained when he lost.... something very few modern players can claim.

tough gambler though? on whose money, his own? i remember he used to say out loud..... "i gotta act like this, it keeps the backers comin." i personally think he just loved to play and really didnt mind being in a bad game cus he knew he could win if he played good. you really HAVE to love him and his style, especially considering most players nowadays.
 
JB Cases said:
Nothing wrong with that. A man has to protect his home court. Happened to me several times. The other alternative is to walk out of the bathroom and tell the world that you are a world beater and want to bet high and let them stack it up betting on Keith against you.

If you want to steal then be prepared to share it if you don't want to be outed.
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Gotta go the other way on that John. In my circle, if someone tried that, they might not come out of the bathroom or they went home very early and very sick.
 
JoeyInCali said:
I believe Keith meant Mark Vitore....
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Joey, are you pretty sure that is how you spell Mark's last name? For another pool-related project I am working on, his name popped up several times, and I have no idea how to spell it.

If anyone else can spell Mark's last name, please feel free to chime in here! :p

JAM
 
JB Cases said:
...Hey, miss Efren Reyes of typing.....where is the biography of the Earthquake! We will make do with the 70s til now and you add more chapters for his upcoming road stories later.

Where can I send you $19.95 for the first copy?
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Believe it or not, it's just about done. I have sent several draft chapters of it to my friend, who is acting as my copy-editor, and she came with some great suggestions. She knows nothing about pool, but is an English major and a scopist for a court reporter. If anything, the book will be punctuated correctly, with no typos. LOL! :p

If I had devoted as much time to writing that as I do on this forum, as you can see by the number of my posts, I'd have been done long, long, long ago.

AzBilliards Forum is starting to become a thorn in my butt, in more ways than one, but the one thing I am thankful for is meeting people just like you, John. There are some rare genuine pool gems here, no question about it, and you're one of them. :)

JAM
 
watchez said:
Many stake horses wised up to the dumping in pool. Now they dump the rail.
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Let it be said that some stakehorses, especially the real greedy ones who don't know how to cut up the money right, deserve to be dumped next time out of the gate. That's when the pool players wise up.

JAM
 
JAM said:
Let it be said that some stakehorses, especially the real greedy ones who don't know how to cut up the money right, deserve to be dumped next time out of the gate. That's when the pool players wise up.

JAM
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Wow, I can't believe what you just wrote.
 
JAM said:
Joey, are you pretty sure that is how you spell Mark's last name? For another pool-related project I am working on, his name popped up several times, and I have no idea how to spell it.

If anyone else can spell Mark's last name, please feel free to chime in here! :p

JAM
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I believe the correct spelling is Betor.
 
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