MY Road Story.....

Though not technically a "road story", this does involve going into a strange poolroom and asking to play the top gun for money.

I make a trip up from Fort Lewis, WA to Portland, OR to play in a weekend bar tournament. Same old champions are all there: Glenn Atwell, Mike Zimmerman, J.D., Tor Lowry, etc.. I get trounced my second match, and felt I had not quite gotten in stroke yet.

Tournament director said it would probably be a few hours before I played again. I asked where is a good place to practice and play some cheap sets. He gives me a location, and says the owner's son will play some. "But watch out, he's pretty good.."

I find the place and go in and ask for the owner's son by name. He's not there, so I jump on the "player's table", a Gold Crown by the entrance and hit a few balls.

A kid about 10-11 years old comes up and asks if he can play with me. I say sure.

Then, for whatever reason, I fall into absolute dead stroke, and procede to play like Earl Strickland, and I put down a five pack on this kid, acting like it's the most natural thing in the world.. Then, I say "Well, I better get back to the tournament, nice playing you."

The funny part of this story, is what do you think the owner's son thought when the kid tells him some dude came in asking to play him, and then puts down a five pack while waiting? (Besides "Damn, that dude can't stall at all.")

Russ
 
Russ Chewning said:
Back + Forward + tap tap + Back + tap tap + Forward + tap tap = ULTRA COMBO

Russ
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C-C-C-COMBO BREAAAKKERRR!!!!!!!!

I have beaten that game with EVERYONE.... Jago was my favorite, though....

If I could find a full size arcade first edition, I'd jump all over it...
 
amusement is over-rated

:( these stories are boring me. I know I am supposed to be diplomatic and say "wow" but I just kant.:confused:
 
showtime said:
:( these stories are boring me. I know I am supposed to be diplomatic and say "wow" but I just kant.:confused:
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Sez the 22-post "shortstack". Yo showtime.. I'm ALL IN!

(Oops.. I resorted to insulting his post count.. I'm so ashamed..:o :D )

Russ
 
trickdaddy said:
Bobby used to tell me about a friend of his that could bump the pinball machine and make the ball go from the bottom to the top without causing it to tilt. Sound like you?
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I had a hand-full of 6 card machines I could make money on in the Jackson area, Trickdaddy but I called Bobby Headrick earlier tonight just to let him know that JoeyA had related the war story here. Bobby refreshed my memory of Joey's special talents with the pinball machines. Where I could beat a hand-full in the area, Joey could beat virtually all of um. There were a few you couldn't look at without tilting but they got no action from anyone. Joey not only beat the payoff machines. He gambled it up pretty good on the flipper machines too.

I was at the local all night bar-dance-hall-pool room in Jackson in the late 70s. I had gone in with just $20-$30 and had pumped up to a little over $200. About 4AM, now here's a name you older guys are going to remember, Detroit Bob Dancer, walks in. Dancer and I had done things together and knew eachother's speed. I needed the 8 so I asked for the 7 ball. No go. Dancer offers the last 2 and I pass.

There are at least 20 flipper type pinball machines in the place so Dancer points to one of the machines and says, "Let's play for $100." The ironic thing is he had just pointed to the one machine in the joint I had mastered. I owned the top 10 high scores on that machine. I agree and flip a coin. Dancer wins and tells me to go first. This was a 5 ball machine and at any time a top player could hold the machine for an hour with just one ball. I get bad rolls on the first 3 balls and dog my brains out on the last 2 and he wins. So what, I got another barrell. We play again, same thing, I dog it. Dancer later finds out he out ran the nuts and refuses to play that machine again.
 
Russ!!!!!!!!!

When you get back to the mainland you should consider becoming a touring pro. It might suit you better than free OJT for a cuemaker. Just something to think about. Boy I sure hope this post doesn't have neg. effect on my KARMA.
Pinocchio
 
JimmyB500 said:
I knew guys with big callouses on their hands from constantly playing. They could work that ball up one row then up another row sometimes. Awesome........
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Jimmy, I believe you may have witnessed some of the best players. I thought I was one of the few who could actually knock a ball out of an existing hole by hitting upward and under the front portion of the top of the pinball machine which was desiged for hitting. I could hit it with an explosive smack that would jar the balls from 25 all the way to 19 and then use the ball to go in another hole or get it to go into the ball return to take a shot at another winning number. Doing this without tilting was the key to success. But as I developed my craft, I did not have to rely on this method of cheating, although in those days I was a desperado and wouldn't hesitate to give a lonely machine a couple of quick hits to see if I could dislodge the balls for another shot at the money. I never got higher than the 19-22 balls which was the second row from the bottom.

Pinball machines were a fun part of my life. When I moved back to New Orleans, Mike Brewer told me that they had $1.00 per game pin ball machines in Las Vegas. Visions of thousands of dollars being won every day surfed through my head until I convinced the wife that we needed a vacation in Las Vegas. It was about 1981 by this time and I knew I could beat any pinball machine that was in fact beatable so off we went. I rented a car and traveled to every honkytonk we could find. What I found was nickel and dime pinball machines which they had bolted to solid walls. When you hit the pinball machine with any force it was just like hitting a brick wall, and the balls didn't move much to make a difference. On top of that, they tilted quite easily. So much for my retirement package and NO Las Vegas didn't have ANY dollar per game pinball machines. Mike Brewer must have had an opium dream about the dollar a game pinballs.

There are no pinball machines in Louisiana any longer except collector ones. They are outlawed here in Louisiana. We now have video poker and casinos to remove excess cash from patrons of the exciting and rewarding life of gambling.

I saw many people lose their pay check playing those damned pinball machines but it would take all night to do that and sometime maybe two days. The pinball machines generally speaking would tighten up on giving odds if you beat on it enough. Also the more you played it, the looser it got. I watched the donaters and when they left I set in like a hungry wolf. Now you can go off for your pay check at the casino or the video poker machine in a matter of minutes or in the case of the video poker machines a few hours.

JoeyA
 
hemicudas said:
I had a hand-full of 6 card machines I could make money on in the Jackson area, Trickdaddy but I called Bobby Headrick earlier tonight just to let him know that JoeyA had related the war story here. Bobby refreshed my memory of Joey's special talents with the pinball machines. Where I could beat a hand-full in the area, Joey could beat virtually all of um. There were a few you couldn't look at without tilting but they got no action from anyone. Joey not only beat the payoff machines. He gambled it up pretty good on the flipper machines too.

I was at the local all night bar-dance-hall-pool room in Jackson in the late 70s. I had gone in with just $20-$30 and had pumped up to a little over $200. About 4AM, now here's a name you older guys are going to remember, Detroit Bob Dancer, walks in. Dancer and I had done things together and knew eachother's speed. I needed the 8 so I asked for the 7 ball. No go. Dancer offers the last 2 and I pass.

There are at least 20 flipper type pinball machines in the place so Dancer points to one of the machines and says, "Let's play for $100." The ironic thing is he had just pointed to the one machine in the joint I had mastered. I owned the top 10 high scores on that machine. I agree and flip a coin. Dancer wins and tells me to go first. This was a 5 ball machine and at any time a top player could hold the machine for an hour with just one ball. I get bad rolls on the first 3 balls and dog my brains out on the last 2 and he wins. So what, I got another barrell. We play again, same thing, I dog it. Dancer later finds out he out ran the nuts and refuses to play that machine again.
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Heh heh.. This reminds me of when I used to hustle at a videogame called "Fast Draw Showdown". It's a light gun game with a fairly realistic weight 6 gun replica, and it measured your draw time after a green light allowed you to draw.

I was the absolute ruler of the game for nearly 3 years on Fort Lewis, WA. My average draw time was somewhere around .30 seconds. And since the game fouled you if you drew early, that's actually a reactionary draw time.

I'd wait around until I saw someone put up a few good times, and then I'd act like I'm drunk and "talk junk" to a friend within earshot of the new hot gun. I'd brag that my friend got lucky to beat me, and that I could beat anyone in the bar, even handicapping them by only placing my hand on the butt of the gun, and allowing them to place their finger in the trigger guard ready to pull.

To those who know the game, offering to do an actual slap pull like this against someone with their finger already on the trigger was bigger than giving the orange crush in pool.

Fortunately, I had a faster-than-the-eye-coud-see draw. Seriously. I watched another REALLY good drawer one time, one who was a bit slower than me. You literally could not see the gun leave the holster.

Those were good times. Noone who had not both put some SERIOUS time into the game AND have incredible reflexes stood a chance. If they were moderately fast, there were even opportunities for an extended hustle, like giving them 3 draws to your 4, and you have to beat their total time with yours. In that kind of bet, I'd sometimes pull a .18 second draw on them. I saw this game hold a record draw of .18 sec for 9 months until it was reset.

Russ
 
AuntyDan said:
Heh. When I was at college I became addicted to Pinball, but the only thing you could win was replays. So I'd cruise waiting for the high-scores to reset automatically as they did every few weeks, because I knew I could beat the default factory high score standing on my head. Then the trick was to beat it by just enough to get the replay, then deliberately lose so the high score would only increment a little more. In 30 minutes I could pile up a dozen free games then sell them to someone waiting to play for beer money.

It got so bad I had the palm blister problem too. My solution was to buy a pair of football goalie's gloves, which have big rubber pads in the palms, and cut the fingers off them. I looked like a total prat of course, so no change there.

My favorite machine for this was Terminator 2, man I owned that puppy.
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One day I will dig out the old Jackson newspaper article about me playing pinball (flipper kind). I too used to beat on those machines, "biffing" the silver ball back up into play after it had already come down the side exit of the table. As a young man that was my first regular income, playing pinball machines (flipper kind) running it up to the maximum of 15 or 20 games, then selling the games to the "rich" kids who came to play at the Bowling Alley on Saturdays and Sundays. I would take the machine back once it got down to 5 games and then run it back up until a hunger pain struck me whereupon I would take my new gains and buy a hot dog and a coke. My palms had black dots in them, the result of busted blood vessels and callouses from repeated poundings. :-)
JoeyA
 
trickdaddy said:
Bobby used to tell me about a friend of his that could bump the pinball machine and make the ball go from the bottom to the top without causing it to tilt. Sound like you?
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I'm just getting to reading all of the posts and already answered that one. I'm sure Bobby was talking about me. Man what a talent. I shoulda been on the Johnny Carson show. :-) There's an old saying, something about "wasted youth". God, I had a good time trying to make a dollar as a young man.
JoeyA

Come on AZers, keep YOUR Road Story coming.
 
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I Dreamed Of Pinball While I Slept (instead of goils)

JoeyA said:
One day I will dig out the old Jackson newspaper article about me playing pinball (flipper kind). I too used to beat on those machines, "biffing" the silver ball back up into play after it had already come down the side exit of the table. As a young man that was my first regular income, playing pinball machines (flipper kind) running it up to the maximum of 15 or 20 games, then selling the games to the "rich" kids who came to play at the Bowling Alley on Saturdays and Sundays. I would take the machine back once it got down to 5 games and then run it back up until a hunger pain struck me whereupon I would take my new gains and buy a hot dog and a coke. My palms had black dots in them, the result of busted blood vessels and callouses from repeated poundings. :-)
JoeyA
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I wish that you would dig out the newspaper article and post it up ( I ask for so very little ).
I liked this machine: http://bingo.cdyn.com/techno/silver_sails/
but the Laguna Beach machine was my favorite.
Doug
(did you ever prop up the front feet, so the ball would roll slower ? Machines that leaned to one side or the other were 'feeding troughs'... LOL :-)


Edited to include: If you go to the machine on the enclosed link and click on ANY feature shown, it will put up a colorized view of the THAT feature on the board.... way cool... imo




.
 
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I've seen it done

Smorgass Bored said:
(did you ever prop up the front feet, so the ball would roll slower ? Machines that leaned to one side or the other were 'feeding troughs'... LOL :-)
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I had a guy that worked for me that hit the 25 hole machine at the old Riviera Club every night to start his evening. He always won, usually fairly legally. However if legally wouldn't get it done he was known to stomp a paper matchbook a time or two and put it under a front foot of the machine. Guaranteed winner but the club was owned by a fine Italian family who helped shore up around the pillars of the Mississippi River bridge, not folks you wanted to catch you doing such things.

A friend's brother died from shooting air barrels for only a couple thousand in a poker game with them and when the friend came back from Chicago, naturally upset, he was cut up badly enough that he looked like a road map after they sewed him up. He spent many months in the hospital and was barely a shadow of himself when he finally got out. I don't know if he ever really recovered.

I tried the pinball machine a few times but it and the poker weren't my cups of tea. I cut my teeth playing pool in one of those low dives when I was too young to get in anywhere else. Adult money was all that was required. By the time the pinball wiz was working for me, the pool tables were paying much better with a lot less risk.

Hu
 
Smorgass Bored said:
I wish that you would dig out the newspaper article and post it up ( I ask for so very little ).
I liked this machine: http://bingo.cdyn.com/techno/silver_sails/
but the Laguna Beach machine was my favorite.
Doug
(did you ever prop up the front feet, so the ball would roll slower ? Machines that leaned to one side or the other were 'feeding troughs'... LOL :-)


Edited to include: If you go to the machine on the enclosed link and click on ANY feature shown, it will put up a colorized view of the THAT feature on the board.... way cool... imo



.
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OH God, that was "Wei Cool"! ( in honor of www.cuetable.com).

Boy, if that color video doesn't bring back the memories. It sure got my blood pumping. ( Bobby Headrick, don't tell me I can come play your machine and then bar me when I get there after beating on it for a few hours and consistently winning some dough.)

Since we're going down pinball memory lane, I will share with you some things that were done in New Orleans on occassion before I learned out to "biff" my way to financial freedom: I tried lifting the machine and placing it on top of my toes, making the ball fall slower but it put me in an awkward position where I could not hit the machine as effectively and also increased the machines ability to tilt easier. The lifting of the machine on one side was not as effective as playing the machine straight up, because the tilt mechanism was as one other AZer described. It was a metal ball suspended by a piece of thin piano wire and if it touched the edges of the electronic metal hole it would tilt the machine. I didn't like tilt. The other thing that I did when I cheated (yes I cheated, when I was young and foolish and didn't know any better and was just so blind for a buck that I would stop at little to beat those machines) (Hell, those machines robbed just about everyone, at least that was my excuse back then. :-) ) was to "accidentally" spill Barq's root beer down on top of the glass. (Back then I never drank beer). The root beer would make its way into the electrical circuits and the machine would start doing "multiple electrical gyrations" which would move the odds on the machine without putting any additional coins in except for the first coin to start the game. You had to do this when Al Morales (at City Park Ping Pong and Billiard Lounge) was very busy because to me it looked almost like a strobe light going off and on. Al, if you and Peaches are still around, I'm sorry for what I did. It was scary because he Al carried a pistol close at hand and was a bit crazy and would bar you if he caught you cheating but I swear I don't remember him barring anyone, ever. I think he would just fix the machine so you couldn't beat it and he would hope that you would play it some more. LOL.

The other thing that I was privy to in the form of cheating those 25 hole machines was the use of a drill and a coat hanger. I saw a guy use a hand drill and a small drill bit drill a hole in the side of the machine near the center of the machine just below the glass level and insert a coat hanger with bent end and use the coat hanger to press down the numbers. Those numbers most often pressed down were 16, 17 & 18 as that would give you two in the blue or three in the blue which paid out the "big bucks", I think 300 and 600 games. I have to confess, I never cheated that way, but probably only because I didn't own a drill. VBG.

I guess I justified cheating back then because the machines themselves, at least owning them and parking them for knuckleheads to donate their paychecks, was just like cheating as well as my own insatiable desire to not be broke. The machines took many a paycheck from the working man in bars and pool halls all over New Orleans. Luckily, I found out there was another way to make money and climb out of poverty or I would have wound up in jail. I have to thank that millionaire in Laguna Beach California who gave me a ride when I was hitch-hiking as a young marine for the advice he gave me when I was 19.
JoeyA
 
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