Michael Eufemia stories?

George Fels said:
The one inaccuracy I've seen in this thread is that despite his generally dismal record in tournament play, he was considered a very good money player. I was told this by Rusty Miller, who was Lassiter's stakehorse at one point and has probably seen more big-money pool than anybody else on the planet. "If he's betting $500, you want in," Miller said. "Talk about a guy who gets the advantage of the last 64th-of-an-inch of roll..."

It's true that the Golden Cue in Queens did offer a standing bet that he would run 200 before the room closed for the night. Big Steve the Whale, by the way, died of a heroin overdose. There are apparently plenty of people who wish it had been a bullet in the head. GF
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That could be viewed different ways, He may have been careful and a good game maker.
How did he stand up in tough computation with equal players. I was going by what Marcel Camp said, but Camp was a gambler who did not need the best of it to get up and bet. He had very little respect for non gamblers. You could also interpret the quote from Miller as, "You want in because if he is betting $500. he has a lock".

I know what you mean though, being a bad tournament player though does not mean bad money player. Toby Sweet and Big Bob come to mind. Bob would actually dog it in tournaments, mean time later that night be betting high in front of an even bigger crowd and play perfect. Toby would go 2 and out time and time again. To my knowledge, Bob only won one tournament, one of those Legends tournaments. I don't know if Toby ever won a tournament.

Talking about Big Steve, he looked real bad before he died, he looked like he had Aids or something.
 
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Bobby said:
What did his meltdown look like? Did he just start missing easy shots? Did he look visibly nervous?
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He had no tempo and was taking too long on shots. He missed shots he would never miss in practice, and he would get out of line and hook himself. His speed control just wasn't there. The more he messed up the more he got down on himself. That just made it worse.
 
... Willie had people that saw the whole 526,that Mike's 654 ...
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It was 625. I think that when talking about records, it's important to get the numbers right.

Eufemia wrote a book about pool but it never got published. A few photocopies are circulating. I wish the family would release the material and allow it to go into print. It would take several months of work to finish.

I was sitting next to him watching one of the Asbury Park tournaments (1976/7) during one of Crane's matches. Crane did not always choose the simplest way to get out, perhaps going three cushions when one would do. At one point, Eufemia commented with some distaste, "What a showboat."
 
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