who would you say is one of the best pool hustlers of all time,and their hustle,story if you have one.
One of the best pool hustler.
- Thread starter richiebalto
- Start date
Minnesota fats in my opionon was the best hustler,to play the speed that he did and make a fine living at it(big beautiful home,big new cadilacs,carrieing big fat bank rolls)he made the right game much more than the wrong game,when you can talk(hustle)like the fat man did you had to be the best.
Artie bodendorfer(check spelling)is high on the list also i would say.
Can it be anyone other than Jack Cooney (and Barbara)?
Hmmmm
Good Choice. He made a ton at pool, rarely ever lost a match for the cash,and only gave up pool because he could make even MORE money in other gambling endeavors in sin city.
As a teenager I was lucky enough to see him play 30 years ago. Freddy the Beards book has some very funny stories regarding Artie (and just about everyone else) but I don't think I could do them justice repeating them here! Hopefully Freddy chimes in here !!
Good Choice. He made a ton at pool, rarely ever lost a match for the cash,and only gave up pool because he could make even MORE money in other gambling endeavors in sin city.
As a teenager I was lucky enough to see him play 30 years ago. Freddy the Beards book has some very funny stories regarding Artie (and just about everyone else) but I don't think I could do them justice repeating them here! Hopefully Freddy chimes in here !!
Forgot about him,i heard he payed all the players off,one way or the other,he is the best people hustler in the world,like u said he is still hustling people to buy his products,very smart man,i dont know how honest,but he knows how to make the money!
Just about everybody says that (forget about him) or something similar, however he put 12 million of his own money up and did a great deal for pool in doing so. In fact I don't think you can name a lot of people who put that much money in to this great game trying to give the pros a chance to make a decent living. Just my opinion,anyway back to your question I think that you would have to put Miami right up there he had Miami's pool room in Paterson N.J. and traveled all over. He was one of the best one handed players if not the best one handed player that ever played the game. He could play real good with two hands also,and he looked the part. With his sharkskin suits and alligator shoes he always walked around with a knot in his pocket and big diamond rings on all eight fingers. His hustle was easy he was short in stature and had an accent and he would just walk up and ask for a game. I'm sure if he could get a spot he would have and then play you even and then give you a spot and when you lost all those ways and were starting to unscrew he would say I don't want you to go away mad I'll give you a chance to get your money back and play you one hand to two and if you bit on that you were sunk. Luckily for me a friend came up when I was sitting in the chair and whispered to me do you know who your playing, that's Miami well that's all I had to hear cause I already heard the stories and by the way thanks my friend. I think he lives in Detroit now and I heard he still plays good onepocket anyway thanks for listening.
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He made an impression on me.
UJ Pucket, once came into the infamous Sport Palace of New Orleans, He carried a large brown paper bag under one arm and a cue under the other.
He walked in like a politician scanning the room for votes, except his eyes were harder and colder than a seasoned politician. His goal wasn't to romance his constituents but to intimidate whomever met his eyes.
As he sized up the room, I was mesmerized by the length of his arms and how tall he looked but I was even more impressed by the way the crowd revered this tall lanky man. No one said a word, if they did it was very quiet murmurs to one another, not loud enough for him to hear.
He wasn't there for more than few minutes and as he scanned the room, he barked out, "Which one of you wants to play some pool? I've got a little money in this bag and you can make a bet for part of it or all of it". That wasn't enough to impress a young lad of 30 years of age, but when he turned the bag upside down on the main pool table in the middle of the room, large sums of money in different denominations rolled together and held together with rubber bands spilled on the table. It was all I could do to hold in a loud "OOOOOH".
The adrenaline was pumping inside of me like I was running a marathon. I just new that the heros of my pool room, Al Werlein, Earl Heisler, New York Blackie and a slew of other top playing hustlers were going to just steal this big brazen man's dough. As I waited with eyes that must have looked like saucers on a dinner table, I couldn't believe that no one jumped up to play for a part or all of this money because, if there's one thing that the Palace was known for it was GAMBLING. Gambling was done 24 hours per day, seven days a week by one and all back in those days. There was hardly anyone who hung out at the Palace as we used to call it that didn't gamble. Even if they didn't play pool, they would at least be making side bets on the knowledge they had acquired at this school of iniquity.
As the minutes move by in slow motion, with UJ scanning the room looking into each and every eye. When he looked into my eyes, I could only cower because I wasn't in his gambling class but I didn't even know who he was. To me he was just a big, tall, lanky fellow who almost reminded me of a school bully I once went to school with. Now, UJ wasn't looking for a fight and he was looking for a pool game and not one single person would look him in the eye and take him up on his offer. That was the day when I realized that my pool hall where I had come to cut my teeth, was just a very nice pool room with very average players in it. Here was the first genuine road player that I had ever seen and he put the fear of God in every single person in the pool hall, including our own Earl Heisler.
It was a night of awakenings, the realization that my pool hall, the Sport Palace had just average pool players and this man had scared the doo-doo out of every single person in the room.
UJ went over to one of the tables with that pile of money, rolls lumped together one on top of the other, rolls of 20's, 10's , 50's and yes 100's, all laying on the table waiting for someone to take their fare share, yet no one bellied up to the table like a man. Not only that but no one even had the nerve to ask for a spot. It was that day when I realized that there was more talent in other parts of the country than what we had there in New Orleans.
UJ was at the table next to the pile of money and there was new cloth on the table. It was the main gambling table and UJ knew instinctively that it was the best table in the house and he pulled out his cue and spread a couple of balls on the table and his big, long, sweeping arms began pumping like a locomotive engine already moving down the track. When he finally pulled the trigger, the cue ball hit the object ball and the the object ball disappeared, but the big surprise was what happened to the cue ball. It bounced off of the object ball and started to arc around the table as if he has put masse on the cue ball. I had never seen such a stroke in all my days. Remember, I was just a baby in pool years and the seasoning that I was to bear had just started. Like everyone else in the pool room, I stared, mesmerized as he hit ball after ball never missing a shot. All of us were in awe of this giant of a man in more ways than one.
UJ was my first real road player that I had ever seen and even today he still remains in my mind as the most feared road player I have ever seen.
JoeyA
UJ Pucket, once came into the infamous Sport Palace of New Orleans, He carried a large brown paper bag under one arm and a cue under the other.
He walked in like a politician scanning the room for votes, except his eyes were harder and colder than a seasoned politician. His goal wasn't to romance his constituents but to intimidate whomever met his eyes.
As he sized up the room, I was mesmerized by the length of his arms and how tall he looked but I was even more impressed by the way the crowd revered this tall lanky man. No one said a word, if they did it was very quiet murmurs to one another, not loud enough for him to hear.
He wasn't there for more than few minutes and as he scanned the room, he barked out, "Which one of you wants to play some pool? I've got a little money in this bag and you can make a bet for part of it or all of it". That wasn't enough to impress a young lad of 30 years of age, but when he turned the bag upside down on the main pool table in the middle of the room, large sums of money in different denominations rolled together and held together with rubber bands spilled on the table. It was all I could do to hold in a loud "OOOOOH".
The adrenaline was pumping inside of me like I was running a marathon. I just new that the heros of my pool room, Al Werlein, Earl Heisler, New York Blackie and a slew of other top playing hustlers were going to just steal this big brazen man's dough. As I waited with eyes that must have looked like saucers on a dinner table, I couldn't believe that no one jumped up to play for a part or all of this money because, if there's one thing that the Palace was known for it was GAMBLING. Gambling was done 24 hours per day, seven days a week by one and all back in those days. There was hardly anyone who hung out at the Palace as we used to call it that didn't gamble. Even if they didn't play pool, they would at least be making side bets on the knowledge they had acquired at this school of iniquity.
As the minutes move by in slow motion, with UJ scanning the room looking into each and every eye. When he looked into my eyes, I could only cower because I wasn't in his gambling class but I didn't even know who he was. To me he was just a big, tall, lanky fellow who almost reminded me of a school bully I once went to school with. Now, UJ wasn't looking for a fight and he was looking for a pool game and not one single person would look him in the eye and take him up on his offer. That was the day when I realized that my pool hall where I had come to cut my teeth, was just a very nice pool room with very average players in it. Here was the first genuine road player that I had ever seen and he put the fear of God in every single person in the pool hall, including our own Earl Heisler.
It was a night of awakenings, the realization that my pool hall, the Sport Palace had just average pool players and this man had scared the doo-doo out of every single person in the room.
UJ went over to one of the tables with that pile of money, rolls lumped together one on top of the other, rolls of 20's, 10's , 50's and yes 100's, all laying on the table waiting for someone to take their fare share, yet no one bellied up to the table like a man. Not only that but no one even had the nerve to ask for a spot. It was that day when I realized that there was more talent in other parts of the country than what we had there in New Orleans.
UJ was at the table next to the pile of money and there was new cloth on the table. It was the main gambling table and UJ knew instinctively that it was the best table in the house and he pulled out his cue and spread a couple of balls on the table and his big, long, sweeping arms began pumping like a locomotive engine already moving down the track. When he finally pulled the trigger, the cue ball hit the object ball and the the object ball disappeared, but the big surprise was what happened to the cue ball. It bounced off of the object ball and started to arc around the table as if he has put masse on the cue ball. I had never seen such a stroke in all my days. Remember, I was just a baby in pool years and the seasoning that I was to bear had just started. Like everyone else in the pool room, I stared, mesmerized as he hit ball after ball never missing a shot. All of us were in awe of this giant of a man in more ways than one.
UJ was my first real road player that I had ever seen and even today he still remains in my mind as the most feared road player I have ever seen.
JoeyA
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