My friend Charlie

W

wincardona

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I was browsing the tournament talk area and happened to look under Derby City Classic and saw Charlie Chaplin.I'm sure if you have ever been to the DCC you've seen Charlie, I would like to set the record straight on him.Charlie Chaplin's name is Bunny Rogoff ,and he was the best road scuffler there has ever been.His target bets ranged from 50 cents to $20 a game.He would often wear a truck drivers outfit with a large wallet in his back pocket attached to a chain.He played the drunk sucker in the bar part flawlessly.But what I really admire about Bunny is that he is the most honorable person I have ever met,bar none.The reason I know so much about him is because I grew up in the same city where he lived Pittsburgh Pa.He beat me when I was 16 years old,but that's ok he beat about 50,000 other people as well.His win loss record makes Jack Cooney's look like he can get the four and the snap.So,the next time you see him you'll be looking at a man with a lot of character,if you know what I mean.
 
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My one and only trip to Vegas a year or so ago at the IPT event, I met this gentleman for the first time. He knew all the players quite well.

One night, Keith, Allen Hopkins, Mike the Poker Player, a Cigar magazine writer, and Bunny Rogoff all pooled our monies together and shot craps.

You should have seen this motley crew around the dice table. As we were traveling through the casino, everybody smiled when they saw Bunny. I found him quite charming, an older gentleman with a life-long passion for pool. We got along great!

My one and only picture of Bernard Rogoff below. :)

JAM
 

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He was in Phoenix last week at the Desert Shootout. Dressed as Chaplin naturally. :)
 
From what I've read and seen here, he seems like a real character. I'm not doubting what you say, but I find it funny that you describe him as the most honorable man you have ever met right after you say that he played the drunk sucker part flawlessly (which I take to mean that he pretended to be something he's not to get people's money). I'm confused.
 
bsmutz said:
From what I've read and seen here, he seems like a real character. I'm not doubting what you say, but I find it funny that you describe him as the most honorable man you have ever met right after you say that he played the drunk sucker part flawlessly (which I take to mean that he pretended to be something he's not to get people's money). I'm confused.
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It's called hustling. The best part of the history of pool IMO. Hell, I was helping people by day as a nurse and playing the drunk act and many other acts at night hustling pool. So I guess I was was a good guy during the day and a thief at night. Johnnyt
 
Johnnyt said:
It's called hustling. The best part of the history of pool IMO. Hell, I was helping people by day as a nurse and playing the drunk act and many other acts at night hustling pool. So I guess I was was a good guy during the day and a thief at night. Johnnyt
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LOL! And there's an honor among thieves, so they say! :D

JAM
 
bsmutz said:
From what I've read and seen here, he seems like a real character. I'm not doubting what you say, but I find it funny that you describe him as the most honorable man you have ever met right after you say that he played the drunk sucker part flawlessly (which I take to mean that he pretended to be something he's not to get people's money). I'm confused.
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Different type of "honorable". It means more like he (Pots & Pans) would not hustle a friend, borrow and not pay back, steal, make a move on your woman. He would pick up a tab even if one had not been picked up for him, etc. It's like a soldier. He's still got killing to do, but while he's killing, he only kills the enemy and doesn't rape and steal along the way. Rogoff is still a pool player / hustler who will make games and hopefully, make games where he has an edge. That's not being DIS-HONORABLE, that's plying your trade smartly.
What Billy is saying is that Rogoff also has character and integrity.
 
Johnnyt said:
It's called hustling. The best part of the history of pool IMO. Hell, I was helping people by day as a nurse and playing the drunk act and many other acts at night hustling pool. So I guess I was was a good guy during the day and a thief at night. Johnnyt
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Thank you Johnny, and yes it's called hustling and you can be a hustler with honor. imo. I let Bernard borrow $300 around the year 1985,I didn,t see him untill about 10 years later,and when we ran into one another he said " hey gov here's that $300 I owe you,thought I forgot didn't you?" There has been many times when we cut up money that he won when I wasn't present and every time it was right on,every time.He doesn't owe a dime to anyone,at least that I know of,plus he always does what he says and to me that counts for something,doesn't it?He can be annoying at times but that's ok, he's paid his dues.
 
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the charlie chaplin thing he has been doing for some time right? I saw him in 2006 and 2007 at the DCC dressed that way. Why does he dress like that? I'm assuming its part of his hustling act...or is it something else?
 
Terry Ardeno said:
Different type of "honorable". It means more like he (Pots & Pans) would not hustle a friend, borrow and not pay back, steal, make a move on your woman. He would pick up a tab even if one had not been picked up for him, etc. It's like a soldier. He's still got killing to do, but while he's killing, he only kills the enemy and doesn't rape and steal along the way. Rogoff is still a pool player / hustler who will make games and hopefully, make games where he has an edge. That's not being DIS-HONORABLE, that's plying your trade smartly.
What Billy is saying is that Rogoff also has character and integrity.
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Hear, hear, well said Terry.... and more, tis true..........
 
wincardona said:
I was browsing the tournament talk area and happened to look under Derby City Classic and saw Charlie Chaplin.I'm sure if you have ever been to the DCC you've seen Charlie, I would like to set the record straight on him.Charlie Chaplin's name is Bunny Rogoff ,and he was the best road scuffler there has ever been.His target bets ranged from 50 cents to $20 a game.He would often wear a truck drivers outfit with a large wallet in his back pocket attached to a chain.He played the drunk sucker in the bar part flawlessly.But what I really admire about Bunny is that he is the most honorable person I have ever met,bar none.The reason I know so much about him is because I grew up in the same city where he lived Pittsburgh Pa.He beat me when I was 16 years old,but that's ok he beat about 50,000 other people as well.His win loss record makes Jack Cooney's look like he can get the four and the snap.So,the next time you see him you'll be looking at a man with a lot of character,if you know what I mean.
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Billy--

Thanks for the post. I've seen him at a number of tournaments and never really knew what to make of him - he's very eccentric. Someone told me he used to be a hustler and I wasn't sure if they were messing with me.

Based on what you said, I can see why he torched-in 50,000 other people. Probably with the same lost, alzheimer-drunk-like act.

He was always very nice to me, quick with a joke - and offering flowers to girls I had no chance with. Good guy :)

Dave
 
Exactly

wincardona said:
Thank you Johnny, and yes it's called hustling and you can be a hustler with honor. imo. I let Bernard borrow $300 around the year 1985,I didn,t see him untill about 10 years later,and when we ran into one another he said " hey gov here's that $300 I owe you,thought I forgot didn't you?" There has been many times when we cut up money that he won when I wasn't present and every time it was right on,every time.He doesn't owe a dime to anyone,at least that I know of,plus he always does what he says and to me that counts for something,doesn't it?He can be annoying at times but that's ok, he's paid his dues.
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Even though I don't know him personally, I have met him a couple of times. And Billy is so right about someone being able to be a hustler, but still have honor and integrity. Too many people think that if you hustle pool, or gamble for a living, it's ok to dump a backer. Or maybe cheat a friend out of his money by setting him up in a bad match. Maybe it's just that he came from a different era, when a guys word meant something.
 
Ole Pots and Pans loves to watch Earl play and has sat beside me for many matches, he calls Earl (Strychnine) and says playing Earl when he was young was just liking taking posion, a fast death. This year at DCC he was warned by the promotion team for talking even though he was not hurting anybody, and he just walked off silently. I have read somewhere that he was one time a world champion pool title holder but don't know for sure. He is a character and very smart about pool players.--Leonard
 
wincardona said:
Thank you Johnny, and yes it's called hustling and you can be a hustler with honor. imo. I let Bernard borrow $300 around the year 1985,I didn,t see him untill about 10 years later,and when we ran into one another he said " hey gov here's that $300 I owe you,thought I forgot didn't you?" There has been many times when we cut up money that he won when I wasn't present and every time it was right on,every time.He doesn't owe a dime to anyone,at least that I know of,plus he always does what he says and to me that counts for something,doesn't it?He can be annoying at times but that's ok, he's paid his dues.
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Don't misunderstand, I don't mind hustlers AT ALL and in fact have always been fascinated by the cleverness and sheer guts many of them have.

I am no moralist about that practice but NO...there is no "honor" in fakery and taking unfair advantage of others so as to relieve them of their money.

Again, dog eat dog is fine with me becasue that is the way the world functions but let's not try to make silk purses out of anything...except silk!

Finally, a person who is dishonorable...by any reasonable interpretation of that word...when they are hustling, can certainly be honorable in every other thing they do in life....and I am sure that one or two hustlers in history have been just that!

(-:

Jim
 
poolcuemaster said:
I have read somewhere that he was one time a world champion pool title holder but don't know for sure. He is a character and very smart about pool players.--Leonard
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Leonard,
He never won any major championships. He was a good but not great player. He is very smart about other players and is top shelf at clocking.
 
When he sits beside you be prepered to hear a couple of jokes.

I love that leather jacket he wears that says "Honest, I need the eight".

One of his best lines is "I'm the best player in the country, but I don't do too well in the city"

We should all be happy that we are sharing the same time on the earth with him. He is one of the good guys.
 
The Guv'ner

He was also known as the Guv'ner. Here's a little excerpt from the GosPool:

Greatest Bar Room "Lemon" Hustler:
Bernard "Bunny" Rogoff (aka Pots and Pans). I have seen Bunny spill a glass of wine on a sucker's chest to lemon him up. I later discovered that Bunny's drunk act wasn't really an act. One beer would put him into orbit. To quote the great Rogoff, "I finally figured out that I had a booze problem when I realized I was hustling pool in bars that didn't have any pool tables."

Bunny is one of all the old-schoolers favorite guys. When we think of "pool hustling" our thoughts go immediately to the master, Bernard Bunny Rogoff. If any of the players haven't had the privilege of Bunny rooting for them in a match, they really missed something. Him sweating for you is worth at least a ball. He sweated my bank match with Steve the Lizard Smith in Vegas one year. I couldnt have won it without him, and the Lizard agreed. His sweat for me made the Lizard very uncomfortable. To be a top sweator you have to be able to understand the game and the psychology of competition. You dont just mindlessly root. Long live The Rogue.

the Beard
 
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