i took a little morphine and played 45 minutes the other night, i played terible it has been so long,
all you have to do to play with a Barry(what ever that is?)
, or a Gus(we all know who he is-the grandmaster) is come to Vegas, if your lucky I might have a Bushka and a Tad or to you can hit balls with. Actually this offer is for damn near anyone, no drunks, druggies or thievs allowed. I 'm not a show off, let me tell a short story about me and then a shorted one about a 8pt Gus that was loaded x5 perhaps the biggest 8pt he ever made.
I grew up in a almost poor home, my parents worked their asses off and did just ok, we never missed dinner but had old junky cars, 800sqft house that was falling apart etc. But they taught me well-i loved them more than anyone ever I am a only child, I took what I learned and made some $$$ not to show off but so I didnt have to live like that, I hated not having a air conditioner and using ice packs in the summer nights or a space heater in the winter. I didnt want to make $$ to be a snob, elitest. $$$ dosent make a person superior to others or better some how. So I set out from a young age to figure out how to make a good living and what I would do with what I made.
Along the way I was 19 and finding out all sorts of things in the world I met people, one guy was Barry Benttencourt(SP?) who owed a pool room, I was proud to show him my McDermott D-26 that my dad bought me, it was alot for my dad and I appericated it-and still do. Barry aske me if I ever heard of Gus, I said "No, who is he". Barry Benntoncourt told me everything about Gus, they were friends. He took out the cue and said here play with it, I was a C player at the time. Barry Benncourt knew that I could hold a cue and just asked that I be careful with it and not ding it, I said that I would be very careful with it, he walked away, I played with it for 30-45 minutes with it maybe an hour. Never once did he come up and bother me, He just let me do my thing with it, I told him I wouldnt move balls with the shaft so I wouldnt ding it etc. He trusted me.
When Barry B. came back he had a big smile on his face, and asked what do you think? I was at a loss for words, at that point in my pool career(for lack of a better word) I had played with alot of different cues mostly mass production stuff, Joss East, McD, Muecci, Mali, there werent as many custom cue makers in 1985 like there is now. I was amazed, wow I played so much better, I said I want to buy one, he said do you know what they cost-I had no clue. I didnt care I just had to have one. He told me a plain one was around $1000-$1500 unless Gus built you one, he continued to educate me that I had no shot of that. I had no shot of spending that much on a cue. I aquired my first Gus a little over a year ago-22 years later. I had other chances but just couldnt pull the trigger. there is magic in Barry and Gus's cues. Even as a C player I could tell the difference. The difference has nothing to to with the price of the cue its the love that goes into the workmanship of the cue, I cant pit my finger on it what it is but WOW you can feel it when you hit a ball, like a home cooked meal with love v. out of the box.
The point of my story, its not a who has the most, best, rarest Szam its about sharing them, I remember that night he let my use that cue with out question 23 years later. He has since passed on, I met him that night. Thats whats its all about in life. People mistake me sometimes and thats cool but I like to share not show off, 90% of the time the other 10% sure its fun to show off a bit. But the real pleasure in life is to give people memories they wont forget.
), I love catching the details even on cues that are a thousand times inferior to yours - but it still is awesome to see 'what's inside'.
