Lassiter gambling stories?

Aaron_S

Aaron_S

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have read tons of great gambling stories on this forum, but I don't recall any that included Lassiter. He must have gambled, since gambling and starving to death were about the only two options for most pool players. I also remember his comment on the "Legends of the Fall" video when asked if he preferred exhibition play over competitive play; he said "No sir, I prefer money pool", lol. Anyone have any stories they can share about this great player?
 
macguy said:
I have no gambling stories but I met him a few times. Once I was in some innocuous pool room in North Carolina. I was sitting at the bar and a guy comes up and stands next to me. He says in a southern drawl, "Are there any suckers in this establishment"? I turn around and it's Lassiter. Unfortunately there was no one there for him to match up with and he left after a short time.
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Wow, what an opportunity. I totally agree; you would have remembered the experience long after the sting of losing the money had worn off. I don't think anyone believes me when I tell this story, but I once played both Keith McCready and Scotty Townsend for low stakes in New Orleans one night. I'm just a banger, and I'm not rich, but if any top player wants $5 nine-ball action, lol, they've got it. If I learn ANYTHING, then it's money well spent.
 
> George Fels wrote a column called "Heart" in BD a long time ago,that told a story about Lassiter playing a guy in Norfolk 100-60 in 14.1 and was losing 58-8,and ran 92 and out for 5000 bucks in the late 40's. Tommy D.
 
My favorite Lassiter story is once he was suposed to be matched up with Bugs back in the days of one shot roll out. So the fisrt game Bugs gets bad on the 9 and rolls out to a long rail bank end to end Lassiter promtly cuts it in Bugs breaks his cue and the Stake horse says where are you going Bugs says where would you suggest I push next time.
 
Never played

RAG said:
My favorite Lassiter story is once he was suposed to be matched up with Bugs back in the days of one shot roll out. So the fisrt game Bugs gets bad on the 9 and rolls out to a long rail bank end to end Lassiter promtly cuts it in Bugs breaks his cue and the Stake horse says where are you going Bugs says where would you suggest I push next time.
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Bugs and Lassiter never played. The story has been around a long time. It usually features Harold Worst as the cutter and various other guys as the pusher outer.
the Beard
 
I was in the Navy in the late sixties, and my ship was home ported in Norfolk. On the weekends, I'd take the bus downtown and shoot pool all night at St. Elmo's Billiards.

I was practicing alone one Saturday afternoon, when one of the regulars came over and said I should go ask "that old man sitting on the rail" to play some nineball. I didn't want to, but the guy said he thought I could take him, so I went over and asked the old man if he wanted to play (I was about twenty one, so anyone over fifty seemed ancient).

He declined, so I put on my best front, and offered him the eight. He politely declined again, so I went back to my practice table.

Everyone started laughing at me, saying "Do you know who that is?" By that time, I had guessed it was Lassiter by the razzing I was getting, so I went over to apologize. I held out my hand to shake, and he shook it with his left.

I saw him on ESPN when they reran the Legends of Pocket Billiards. They were filmed about twelve years after the episode, and he didn't look as old, even then, as I had remembered.

Anyone else remember St. Elmo's? I played there on and off between '67 and late '70. Everyone had a nickname. They called me Sailorboy. I "took lessons" in straight pool to fifty points from Sam Bass every weekend for $20. Kept him in beer money.

Another colorful regular was "Cash McCall". He smoked Tiparellos and ran a bartending school on Granby St. I liked to watch him play one pocket.
 
I remember cash.we played a little of 14.1 and some 9 ball for small bets. but he and myself enjoyed it so what the hell. St elmos was up stairs if i remember correctly. and wasn't there a bar across the street that served 3.2 beer to the young sailors. there also used to be a portrait studio down stair.Isn't that also the place where the old saying was coined...

A guy walks into a pool room and says does anybody want to gamble and Luther stands up and the bettor says. Everybody but you mr lassiter".........................mike
 
st. elmo's haha you know a guy named joe neemi?



JohnnyP said:
I was in the Navy in the late sixties, and my ship was home ported in Norfolk. On the weekends, I'd take the bus downtown and shoot pool all night at St. Elmo's Billiards.

I was practicing alone one Saturday afternoon, when one of the regulars came over and said I should go ask "that old man sitting on the rail" to play some nineball. I didn't want to, but the guy said he thought I could take him, so I went over and asked the old man if he wanted to play (I was about twenty one, so anyone over fifty seemed ancient).

He declined, so I put on my best front, and offered him the eight. He politely declined again, so I went back to my practice table.

Everyone started laughing at me, saying "Do you know who that is?" By that time, I had guessed it was Lassiter by the razzing I was getting, so I went over to apologize. I held out my hand to shake, and he shook it with his left.

I saw him on ESPN when they reran the Legends of Pocket Billiards. They were filmed about twelve years after the episode, and he didn't look as old, even then, as I had remembered.

Anyone else remember St. Elmo's? I played there on and off between '67 and late '70. Everyone had a nickname. They called me Sailorboy. I "took lessons" in straight pool to fifty points from Sam Bass every weekend for $20. Kept him in beer money.

Another colorful regular was "Cash McCall". He smoked Tiparellos and ran a bartending school on Granby St. I liked to watch him play one pocket.
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Hand shake

JohnnyP said:
Everyone started laughing at me, saying "Do you know who that is?" By that time, I had guessed it was Lassiter by the razzing I was getting, so I went over to apologize. I held out my hand to shake, and he shook it with his left.


You got it right. Wimpy wouldn't shake hands with his right hand. That was his stroking hand. He was paranoid that somebody would squeeze his hand too hard or something. He treated his right hand like a violinist treats his.

the Beard
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My grandfather told me quite a few stories about Wimpy. Jimmy Reaid's site had a nice story about wimpy and my grandfather echoed Jimmy's thoughts exactly on Wimpy's hypochondria. The one thing that sticks with me about my grandfathers memories of Wimpy's game was that for over twenty years a couple different players were labled the best nineball player of the time but Wimpy was always excluded from that list because only he and my grandfather played a diffrent game than the other champions. Kinda how Cliff is the best one holer, well except Efren.
One story that amazes me was my grandfather was staying with Wimpy in Norfolk and no one would play Lassiter roll out nine ball that is why my grandfather was there. Don was getting the action and they both were reaping the benefits. A West Coast player came to town with a steakhorse and wanted to play Wimpy 200 dollar nineball which was a sizeable amount in the 50's? Wimpy proceeded to beat the player like a drum my grandfather said he never missed a ball he shot at for over 3 hours!!! The roadie and his backer thought my grandfather was the money man and after being stuck over 4k they quit. Somehow they got into a game with my grandfather for 500 a game not knowing he was as strong as he was. The roadie lost another few thousand to Don and the stakehorse complained that he came across the country to make a mint and no one ever missed in Norfolk. In 2 hours of play Don missed four balls (on purpose) and Wimpy didn't miss because at that time he wasn't expected to.
 
Lots of stories about Wimpy in the book, "Hustler Days". Section about Cornbread Red and MN Fats too.
 
By the time I came around in the 60's, no one and I mean NO ONE, would play Wimpy. All the top players, Red, Kelly, Ronnie, Richie, all of them just left Wimpy alone.

He was without equal at 9-Ball and Straight Pool and just didn't care for One Pocket.

Only man I ever heard of challenging Lassiter in the 60's was Harold Worst. He was a little hot after losing a match to Wimpy in Johnson City. I don't know for sure if they ever played, outside of a tournament.
 
Kelly tried him

jay helfert said:
By the time I came around in the 60's, no one and I mean NO ONE, would play Wimpy. All the top players, Red, Kelly, Ronnie, Richie, all of them just left Wimpy alone.

He was without equal at 9-Ball and Straight Pool and just didn't care for One Pocket.

Only man I ever heard of challenging Lassiter in the 60's was Harold Worst. He was a little hot after losing a match to Wimpy in Johnson City. I don't know for sure if they ever played, outside of a tournament.
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A little known story of Eddie Kelly is when he went to Elizabeth City, NC, Wimpy's home court, and played Wimpy Nineball to a draw, in the 60s. I think he was on the road with Ronnie at the time. What I dont know, is what they played for or how long they played. I dont think it was for big money. What I do know is that their daily liquor bill was monstrous, and good as they played, it was hard to win enough to keep them both in booze.

the Beard
 
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