In 1990 I was living in Oceanside and managing a mortgage office in Rancho Bernardo. The only pool room at that time was College Billiards, a ways away and not much action unless you wanted to play Swanee, so I did not play much pool and my hobby was drinking and playing the horses.
It was a very stressful job and I could not get to the bar fast enough after work. My partner had a trailer at Rosarito Beach and most weekends were spent there playing the horses at the Caliente Race Book and of course more drinking. I realized I was overdoing it and missed playing pool. I know the Markulis family had opened a new pool room in Bellflower in the late 80’s and decided to spend a weekend up there checking it out. I had played in their first room in Norwalk in the early 80’s.
I walk into the pool room that is full of old friends and players I knew and there is Big Bertha, the 6 x 12 snooker table I started playing on in the late 60’s at Verne Peterson’s Billiard Palace in Bellflower. I played snooker and golf for years before I started playing any serious pool and this was where I was going to spend my weekends from now on. Other than Denny Searcy and later on Parica, I could hang with anybody playing liability snooker and beat most of them playing golf.
Bertha was non stop action and I was getting my share after getting back in stroke a bit. I was still drinking too much during the week, but weekends were at Hard Times. I finally resigned my job at the mortgage company and had them transfer me to the Orange County office so I could be near the pool room.
I was in heaven, playing in two nine ball tournament every week and lots of play on Bertha. About that time Moro Paez made a big score at the poker room and our liability snooker game escalated from $5/10 a point, which is still a game you can win or lose quite a bit of money at, to $50 a point. We played three long sessions in the course of a week, and when the smoke cleared I was around 8k winners. There were so many players getting in and out of the game because of the action that had no business on that trap table, that the money was flowing.
The regulars beside me were Kim Davenport, Moro, Francisco, Ernesto, Little Al, Hutch and others who would jump in when their was a spot open. McCready tried it a few times without success (They changed the game to payball once and he BBQ’d them, but that’s another story.) and there were others that would fire the toothpick at the lumber yard because of the action. Davenport was the big winner after a week and I was close behind. I looked around one time we were playing and it was all the Mexican players and me. I told them just to call me Juanito Hernandez from Zacatecas. For the high amount of the bet, there was a lot of comraderie in the game.
Word must have got out because they even flew a Canadien to play the end of the week. He called himself Frank James, played left handed and could play. He hit the bathroom every 1/2 hour or so and played as good on that table as anyone except maybe Denny Searcy. They kept playing after I finally wore out and I asked the stake horse the next day how they did. He said they won around 6k but the doctor bill was $3,500. Frank stayed around after the stake horse left and played Hawaiian Jimmy some one pocket and went busted and lost his snooker cue.
Lots of fond memories of this place. There may never be one out west like it again.
It was a very stressful job and I could not get to the bar fast enough after work. My partner had a trailer at Rosarito Beach and most weekends were spent there playing the horses at the Caliente Race Book and of course more drinking. I realized I was overdoing it and missed playing pool. I know the Markulis family had opened a new pool room in Bellflower in the late 80’s and decided to spend a weekend up there checking it out. I had played in their first room in Norwalk in the early 80’s.
I walk into the pool room that is full of old friends and players I knew and there is Big Bertha, the 6 x 12 snooker table I started playing on in the late 60’s at Verne Peterson’s Billiard Palace in Bellflower. I played snooker and golf for years before I started playing any serious pool and this was where I was going to spend my weekends from now on. Other than Denny Searcy and later on Parica, I could hang with anybody playing liability snooker and beat most of them playing golf.
Bertha was non stop action and I was getting my share after getting back in stroke a bit. I was still drinking too much during the week, but weekends were at Hard Times. I finally resigned my job at the mortgage company and had them transfer me to the Orange County office so I could be near the pool room.
I was in heaven, playing in two nine ball tournament every week and lots of play on Bertha. About that time Moro Paez made a big score at the poker room and our liability snooker game escalated from $5/10 a point, which is still a game you can win or lose quite a bit of money at, to $50 a point. We played three long sessions in the course of a week, and when the smoke cleared I was around 8k winners. There were so many players getting in and out of the game because of the action that had no business on that trap table, that the money was flowing.
The regulars beside me were Kim Davenport, Moro, Francisco, Ernesto, Little Al, Hutch and others who would jump in when their was a spot open. McCready tried it a few times without success (They changed the game to payball once and he BBQ’d them, but that’s another story.) and there were others that would fire the toothpick at the lumber yard because of the action. Davenport was the big winner after a week and I was close behind. I looked around one time we were playing and it was all the Mexican players and me. I told them just to call me Juanito Hernandez from Zacatecas. For the high amount of the bet, there was a lot of comraderie in the game.
Word must have got out because they even flew a Canadien to play the end of the week. He called himself Frank James, played left handed and could play. He hit the bathroom every 1/2 hour or so and played as good on that table as anyone except maybe Denny Searcy. They kept playing after I finally wore out and I asked the stake horse the next day how they did. He said they won around 6k but the doctor bill was $3,500. Frank stayed around after the stake horse left and played Hawaiian Jimmy some one pocket and went busted and lost his snooker cue.
Lots of fond memories of this place. There may never be one out west like it again.
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