Lester Smulowitz

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westcoast

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
In this clip at 23:05, Danny mentions Lester Smulowitz- never heard of him before. He states that he beat Earl 40 games leading up to Earl's first major victory in Tahoe in 1983.

Whatever happened to him? Must have been a very talented player if that story is true (Incardona was incredulous).

 
Lester was from a very wealthy family. He played good but not quite good enough to beat the top guys. He played in several big tournaments in the 80's, usually cashing in the middle of the field. Then he just dropped out of sight in the pool world. I'm sure he went into the family business and is probably a wealthy man today. Smart guy!
 
westcoast said:
very interesting- he attended Princeton!
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It's interesting in the article he mentions winning like $1000.00 in a week when others are making $3.00 an hour. For those who actually did hustle pool in those days or earlier that was the truth. Although making a $1000.00 in a week would be few and far between. Making $200 or $300 a week almost effortlessly when a decent job paid maybe $4.50 before taxes an hour was a reasonable choice at the time.

There was no job I could have gotten that paid more then I was making playing pool. I was a pretty decent player but I knew many who were just above average players that did pretty good in the bars playing pool. Unfortunately, many who had nothing to fall back on when it all seemed to end, and it did, were already so spoiled they could not hold jobs. There was always the memories of the easy money that haunted them as they cashed their $140.00 paycheck they put in 40 hours for.
 
middleofnowhere said:
It's interesting in the article he mentions winning like $1000.00 in a week when others are making $3.00 an hour. For those who actually did hustle pool in those days or earlier that was the truth. Although making a $1000.00 in a week would be few and far between. Making $200 or $300 a week almost effortlessly when a decent job paid maybe $4.50 before taxes an hour was a reasonable choice at the time.

There was no job I could have gotten that paid more then I was making playing pool. I was a pretty decent player but I knew many who were just above average players that did pretty good in the bars playing pool. Unfortunately, many who had nothing to fall back on when it all seemed to end, and it did, were already so spoiled they could not hold jobs. There was always the memories of the easy money that haunted them as they cashed their $140.00 paycheck they put in 40 hours for.
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Yeah kind of like when sticking up Liqueur stores was an honorable profession until closed circuit security TV became all the rage.
A golden era ended.
 
middleofnowhere said:
It's interesting in the article he mentions winning like $1000.00 in a week when others are making $3.00 an hour. For those who actually did hustle pool in those days or earlier that was the truth. Although making a $1000.00 in a week would be few and far between. Making $200 or $300 a week almost effortlessly when a decent job paid maybe $4.50 before taxes an hour was a reasonable choice at the time.

There was no job I could have gotten that paid more then I was making playing pool. I was a pretty decent player but I knew many who were just above average players that did pretty good in the bars playing pool. Unfortunately, many who had nothing to fall back on when it all seemed to end, and it did, were already so spoiled they could not hold jobs. There was always the memories of the easy money that haunted them as they cashed their $140.00 paycheck they put in 40 hours for.
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At that same time high level players were broke. There is more to the story.
 
I knew Lester and played him a few times. Solid player. I recall he broke soft and tied up balls whenever he could. He loved to outsmart his opponents in the safety game.

Funny side note on the Lester / Earl match up: Lester beat Gary Pinkowski out of some money so it was Gary that brought the unknown Earl to play Lester. Gary told me he warned Earl to not play Lester cheap. Earl didn't listen and played him $20 a game. Gary was backing Earl and was REALLY mad. That's the story Gary told me anyway...
 
fjk said:
I knew Lester and played him a few times. Solid player. I recall he broke soft and tied up balls whenever he could. He loved to outsmart his opponents in the safety game.

Funny side note on the Lester / Earl match up: Lester beat Gary Pinkowski out of some money so it was Gary that brought the unknown Earl to play Lester. Gary told me he warned Earl to not play Lester cheap. Earl didn't listen and played him $20 a game. Gary was backing Earl and was REALLY mad. That's the story Gary told me anyway...
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So Danny was telling the truth? He beat Earl 40 games?
 
almost all top players were always broke for these reasons

1. used drugs
2. didnt know how to quit and lost too much when the game wasnt an expected win
3. gambled at other things they didnt do well.

if you didnt do any of those things and gambled regularly you couldnt help but have lots of money.
 
Lester visits down here in Naples, Fl. from time to time. His parents had a place here. He was seen down here this past winter and he plays at a place that I play down here sometimes when he visits. I did not see him here this year, but some that I know saw him and say that he still plays real well.

I played him some 14.1 here once, six years ago, and he seemed like a very nice guy from every aspect. He knew the game real well and he always seemed to know where the cue ball was going to end up. Funny story is that I entered a pool room one afternoon and Lester was the only guy in there, I went right up to him, not knowing him, and asked to play some. He ended up beating me pretty good that day at 14.1 and when we were leaving he said that he thought I was perhaps looking to hustle him.

Everyone down here always says good things about him. His family once owned a large PA. brewery- one of the oldest breweries in America, and I believe it sold out many years ago.

For those that remember, back in the 50s and 60s they held a National Football punt, pass, and kick contest for young boys- well Lester won that national title one year as a young boy- so he had some natural athletic talent for sure. I believe that he dropped out of Princeton to try to play pool as a pro for a living.

I hope to catch up with him down here next year and even the score:):)
 
measureman said:
Yeah kind of like when sticking up Liqueur stores was an honorable profession until closed circuit security TV became all the rage.
A golden era ended.
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Not really, there is no hustling involved. This was in the day when almost every bar had a table and it was open to challenge. You put up your quarter or name on the board.

Dozens of people may be in an out of the game in the course of the night. If you stick around for the night you may grind out $40 or $50.

You were just an invisible man attracting no attention to yourself. There were so many bars you could go weeks and not revisit the same place.

What esetentaly killed it was bar leagues.
 
westcoast said:
In this clip at 23:05, Danny mentions Lester Smulowitz- never heard of him before. He states that he beat Earl 40 games leading up to Earl's first major victory in Tahoe in 1983.

Whatever happened to him? Must have been a very talented player if that story is true (Incardona was incredulous).
Click to expand...
Lester used to come to Binghamton, NY and play in the New York State 9 Ball Championship every year. Was well known in the north east.
 
middleofnowhere said:
Not really, there is no hustling involved. This was in the day when almost every bar had a table and it was open to challenge. You put up your quarter or name on the board.

Dozens of people may be in an out of the game in the course of the night. If you stick around for the night you may grind out $40 or $50.

You were just an invisible man attracting no attention to yourself. There were so many bars you could go weeks and not revisit the same place.

What esetentaly killed it was bar leagues.
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I would always try to get a 2 dollar ring game going. It was almost always worth 50 to me to get one going. When the casino's hit town that ended the easy action.
 
if you dont monoplize the game you can get a three ball game in most places with regulars.
most will just burn it out and then complain how there is no action around.
 
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