Just want to let the players in Omaha know that I'm coming ahead of time. I'll be there WED Night. Lessons start Thursday night.
I'd like to share this story again on the on the road thread. It was one of my most memorable road trips. With one heck of a player and person.
They have one of the biggest pool legends in Omaha and he's a living legend because he's still alive. His name is John Shuppit. I don't know if I spelled it right. This guy ran around the country torching everyone.
He was one of the best bar table players in the country back in the 80's and part of the 70's also. He had to quit because of his neck trouble. When he would get down to shoot his head would keep turning to the right. He couldn't keep it straight.
John and myself hooked up in the early 80's, don't know the exact year, for a very memorable little road trip. I'm going to share this story here again and hopefully some players in Omaha will read this.
John was not only a great pool player but a top shelf person also. He's got the pool bug finally again but he's playing left handed. He heard about my Perfect aim and gave me a call when I was in DesMoines. He asked me when I could get over there to show him my Perfect Aim.
I'm in Davenport right now until Wed and was going to go down to St Louis. John's call was a game changer for me. I'm heading to Omaha and will be there not only to show John but a few of his friends. The good news is that I'm going there for a week so I will be doing many lessons.
If Omaha turns out anything like the other places I've been to i might have to stay there for longer. I can only do 2 or three lessons a day.
Want to say Hi to Sam Yancey. I think I'm buying him dinner or he's buying me dinner, either way we're going to eat for sure. How's your aiming going?
To schedule the Perfect aim lesson before i get there ad insure you getting a time that will work for you call 715-563-8712. I'm Geno......
Here's my John Shuppit road story.
Dave Matlack and John came to a tournament in Rochester Minnesota back in the late 70's , early 80's. I don't remember the whole story but the car they were driving was broke down in Eau Claire Wi.
We all got knocked out of the tourny but i made a pretty good score playing Tony Coleman from Michigan. I went back to the room and slept for a day while Tony was playing everyone, Danny Medina, jeff carter and a few others.
Tony had asked me to play some $50 a rack 9 ball the first day but i told him no. I wanted to be ready for the tourny. As I walked in the door the last night of the tourny Tony asked me to play some for $50. I told him I'd play for $100 a rack. He said bet $200 a rack. I didn't say another word but started screwing my stick together.
I beat him out of $2800 and he didn't hardly get to shoot.
John Shupit was there and he seen what had happened and started telling me about their bad luck. Him and Dave. It was almost Christmas and he said he had to go home with some cash to make it work.
I told him lets go hit some towns. He replied lets do it. Now i don't know if he went with me because he knew I could play or he knew i had a bankroll?
We headed up to Duluth Superior. i figured nobody up there would know him. it turns out they didn't even know me hardly.
As luck would have it we went to the bar that has the action and there was these 2 millionaire brothers that owned a vending company. They knew little about pool but just enough to think the locals had a chance against John and myself.
We never brought in a cue stick but we played with the worst bar cue in the house. There was almost no tip on it. You had to hit center ball mostly or it would miscue. Sometimes it would just go CHINK when we hit the cue ball.
We kept playing these guys they kept bringing in and John and myself would act like, You play him, no you play him. back and forth. I don't think we lost a game.
I think we won about $1,500 to $2000. Then the action settled down. John was talking to one of the brothers about playing gin. john came over and asked me what I thought. I asked him how he played gin. He said pretty good. I told him pretty good don't get it with my cash. He agreed.
they kept coming up with more games and finally asked to play cribbage. John asked me how i play cribbage. I told him I got the stone cold nutz. That was one of my road games. One of about 10.
We started playing for $200 a game I won about 4 games in a row if i remember right. One I skunked him so we were $1000 ahead. I wanted to raise the bet but i was afraid to scare'em off. They owed us the $1000. we were giving them the courtesy of just keeping a running total with the money from cribbage.
Then out of the blue he says lets play for $500 a game. I wanted to act like I was scared so i told him I'd rather just play for the $200. He replies, well then maybe we won't pay you guys then.
I said then, Looks like we're playing for $500 and I won't quit until I'm busted and you can put what i said in the bank. John looked at me kind of funny. But he knew that wasn't going to happen.
His name was Tommy and he acted like he thought he had the nutz. Each time we dealt the cards the other would strip shuffle for the other. This was the rules if we were going to play. This guy was going to have to beat me on the square. Not put cards where he wanted. He kind of shuffled the cards a little funny, in some of the other games that I played in on the road that meant trouble, plus he had that we don't cut attitude. I don't think he was trying to cheat but you never can tell.
I think we only played 3 or 4 games for $500. The last one we played it was my crib and the guy needed 11 holes to win. he had a jack, 4 and 2 aces in his hand. There was a face card cut and that gave him 10 holes with his hand. One short of winning the game. He gets to count his hand first. He leads first so he doesn't have to peg a hole as we're playing down the cards. If i don't let him peg a hole he needs 11 to win the game.
I'll never forget this cribbage game. John knows how to play cribbage a little and his eyes were glued on the game.
As we're playing out the cards it came down to me having 2 cards left to play and he had one. I had a 5 and an ace. I looked at his cards played so far and the best hand he could have was 10 and that was if he had an ace left to play. I looked right at him and said, You got to have an ace left there and that gives you 10. Anything else and you can't win.. I played the 5 and watched him lay down the ace. He never pegged a hole and we won the game.
John looked right at me and said, How the hell did you know he had the ace.
I told him that's the only hand that he'd have enough to get out on if he pegged a hole.
They quit after that game and we got the cash. John was pretty excited. We made a score and Christmas was going to be OK.
During this trip john was having trouble with his neck. I nerve or something pinched. He'd be down on a shot and his head would like start turning all by itself to the right I think. He'd jerk it back kind of and it would drift right over again.
I don't think he knew Perfect Aim back then so it wasn't that he was trying to correct his Aim.
Anyway, I called him months later and he had quit pool he said and was living happily ever after. He said he had started selling insurance.
Anyway, I sure wish he wouldn't have quit because that is one guy i would have loved to have been on the road with.
His favorite phrase back then was Take it down. Get the cash.
John Shupit was a real warrior back then and a great part of our pool history in this country.
Pretty nice guy also.
And John, If you read this post somehow let me know how close I was on the money.
I think we won 4 to 5 grand that day and what a day it was.
GENE ALBRECHT
http://www.perfectaimbilliards.com
The nice thing about being on the Road Again teaching and playing is that every week is a new story. What Fun.
One man, a Van and the Road....
He carries a lot of stuff with him wherever he goes but he kept it neat and on his side of the room so it was all good.
It not only can be pretty painful but it's hard on your pool game too.:help: And believe it or not, when they say you come close to death your whole life passes before you like a movie, the only thought I had was how am I going to play pool now. 
