"Proposition" wagers in the pool room

sizl

sizl

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
For most of us that frequent pool rooms we often see proposition wagers such as throwing quarters to the spot, throwing a set of keys in a pocket of a pool table from 20 yards,etc. One of the BEST ones I have ever seen was the guy that threw a quarter in the slot of a payphone from about 3 feet away. I have more, but I want to hear your stories.
What is the most amazing proposition wager that you have witnessed?

I would rather not hear any names, I am not trying to slow down anybody's hustle.
 
A "real" or "fake" bet is always the best.

I bet $20 those are real...

I think they are fake, lets make it $50...

Excuse me, miss, can I ask you something...
 
A few propositions that I've seen:

I'll bet I can jump the cue ball off the table and have it roll into that boot (or shoe) over there.

I'll bet you can't drink a gallon of milk and avoid puking for an hour.

A man saying I'll bet I can beat the nine-ball ghost in one rack wearing high heeled shoes.
 
For most of us that frequent pool rooms we often see proposition wagers such as throwing quarters to the spot, throwing a set of keys in a pocket of a pool table from 20 yards,etc....
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There are lots of propositions outlined in the book "The Unsinkable Titanic Thompson". One was when he bet that a strapping farmboy couldn't lift a five-pound brick up onto the bar in a tavern. The trick was that the kid had to carry the brick from several miles away. By the time he got to the tavern, his arms didn't work any more.

Wikipedia claims the book is ludicrous. That's not the way I'd describe it. It's available for $20 including shipping from:

http://www.palmermagic.com/titanic_thompson.html

and well worth the price.

Another proposition I heard of -- don't remember where -- was to knock over a bowling pin at the far end of an alley with a deck of cards. You have to throw the cards one at a time.
 
sizl said:
For most of us that frequent pool rooms we often see proposition wagers such as throwing quarters to the spot, throwing a set of keys in a pocket of a pool table from 20 yards,etc. One of the BEST ones I have ever seen was the guy that threw a quarter in the slot of a payphone from about 3 feet away. I have more, but I want to hear your stories.
What is the most amazing proposition wager that you have witnessed?

I would rather not hear any names, I am not trying to slow down anybody's hustle.
Click to expand...
I might make a proposition bet his name was Danny Greer? Right...lol?...oops...not meaning to bust his action, but I think everybody might know him from that trick!
 
I have seen them all.I one pissed over a greyhound bus.One hit the qb 6 rails and hit another qb with a dime on top of it and not knock it off.Hitting the spot on a table within 6 inches throwing it from 30 feet.
 
One of the funniest I've ever seen. Pool related, but a well known former pro player was in the Fort Smith, AR area on a regular basis for awhile. At a bar called Shooters, he would find a newcomer and bet them that, within 3 attempts, he could hit the cue ball from the headstring, make it launch into the air from the foot rail and catch it in his shirt pocket. He ALWAYS wore a pocket T-Shirt and I had NEVER seen him lose this bet. Well, we were all hanging in shooters one night and this gentleman had been drinking quite a bit. He's talking himself up and makes the bet with this guy. He sits the cue ball on the headstring, fires it, it bounes off the foot rail and, airborne, heads right towards him. He reaches up to grab his pocket and catch the ball... he was wearing a plain T-Shirt... no pocket... The ball hit him in the chest and fell to the floor. The guy he had bet with, said "Want those other two tries to find your pocket?" The loser was NOT a happy camper.

Later,
Bob
 
pooltablemech said:
I might make a proposition bet his name was Danny Greer? Right...lol?...oops...not meaning to bust his action, but I think everybody might know him from that trick!
Click to expand...


I saw someone else throw a quarter into an older coke machine. Same cue tossed some keys into the cue ball return on a pool table in less than 3 trys from about 35 feet.
I did see DG stop a quarter on top of a wooden barstool from exactly 20 feet once. I just died like it hit foam.

I won $100 with the following
I bet that I can get two pool tables side by side together (touching).
I will stand on one side near the end and then take by shoes off to get barefoot. I jump better barefoot. Then jump over both of them side by side BUT not long ways.

It works better if not written and when using on a slight drunk guy.

I saw a guy throw a playing card and make it stick in a watermelon from about 25 feet. He also had a guy hold out his hand to his side and walked
back ten yards and hit the guy hand with a card 4 out of 5 times. The bet was he could do it 4 of 10.

I will be that you can't sit in that chair while I walk around you three times. I wont touch the chair.
 
frankncali said:
I saw someone else throw a quarter into an older coke machine. Same cue tossed some keys into the cue ball return on a pool table in less than 3 trys from about 35 feet.
I did see DG stop a quarter on top of a wooden barstool from exactly 20 feet once. I just died like it hit foam.

I won $100 with the following
I bet that I can get two pool tables side by side together (touching).
I will stand on one side near the end and then take by shoes off to get barefoot. I jump better barefoot. Then jump over both of them side by side BUT not long ways.

It works better if not written and when using on a slight drunk guy.

I saw a guy throw a playing card and make it stick in a watermelon from about 25 feet. He also had a guy hold out his hand to his side and walked
back ten yards and hit the guy hand with a card 4 out of 5 times. The bet was he could do it 4 of 10.

I will be that you can't sit in that chair while I walk around you three times. I wont touch the chair.
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There used to be a guy around, I am sure someone here knew him, named Steve Simpson who could pee over a car in an arc. He also could spit the cueball out of his mouth and make spot shots.

Quote
"I saw a guy throw a playing card and make it stick in a watermelon from about 25 feet. He also had a guy hold out his hand to his side and walked
back ten yards and hit the guy hand with a card 4 out of 5 times. The bet was he could do it 4 of 10."

I can actually do that. I can also throw a card over 75 feet up to a 100 feet in something like a gym with no air moving..
 
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pooltablemech said:
I might make a proposition bet his name was Danny Greer? Right...lol?...oops...not meaning to bust his action, but I think everybody might know him from that trick!
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I honestly was not referring to anyone in particular. I was just trying to be respectful of people with an "edge", and not give any of the SUCKERS any info.
 
frankncali said:
I did see DG stop a quarter on top of a wooden barstool from exactly 20 feet once. I just died like it hit foam.
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I have seen him in action several times, he is a showstopper! I saw him bet a guy that he could make a quarter land on the leaf of a ceiling fan with the fan set on low speed............after the guy pre-designates the leaf by putting a piece of tape on the target leaf. STRONG!!
 
My uncle could jump up from a flat-footed standing position and land on his feet on the bar...that's like a 48" vertical jump! He was too old to do it for me, but my aunt said he made a ton of money on it over the years.

Jeff Livingston
 
Bob Jewett said:
There are lots of propositions outlined in the book "The Unsinkable Titanic Thompson". One was when he bet that a strapping farmboy couldn't lift a five-pound brick up onto the bar in a tavern. The trick was that the kid had to carry the brick from several miles away. By the time he got to the tavern, his arms didn't work any more.

Wikipedia claims the book is ludicrous. That's not the way I'd describe it. It's available for $20 including shipping from:

http://www.palmermagic.com/titanic_thompson.html

and well worth the price.

Another proposition I heard of -- don't remember where -- was to knock over a bowling pin at the far end of an alley with a deck of cards. You have to throw the cards one at a time.
Click to expand...


as a brickmason I lift thousands of pounds of bricks and block on a daily basis ....so this is ignorant to me as I could carry a brick for days and still lift it to any height that I could reach......so if this what the book mainly consists of then it is probablyy ludicrous as they have previously stated :rolleyes:

I have seen guys that would bet someone that they couldnt tape a dollar bill to their arm and let the dollar burn-up before they removed it.....many a drunk still have scars to prove that ignorance :D
 
This is a proposistion bet, but also a hustle. I've done it a couple times, and I think I came up with it because i've never seen it done before.

Here's the bet:

First, you need to know how to do any 3 rail kick that will cause the cue ball to land on the short rail (from where you break). Then you show someone the kick shot, and ask if they have a $20 or larger bill on them. If they do, ask to borrow it and place it where the cue ball will be after the 3 rail kick.

Now you make the wager, and make sure you say it exactly like I have typed below:

I bet that I could kick 3 rails and come closer to the $20 bill than you. We'll each get one try, and the person who comes closest gets that $20 bill.

If you've been paying attention, you should now realize that you can't lose. Notice the key phrase, "that $20 bill". you're not betting $20 out of your pocket, you're just implying that whoever comes closest, gets the bill that's on the table.



If you wish to try this hustle with a larger amount of money, do so at your own discretion, because people do get pissed if they land on the bill, and only get their money back. But if you have a good attitude and are good with people, you can usually have a good laugh and teach them something new. Also, if you do this hustle and the mark gets really pissed, buy him/her a drink.
 
"My uncle could jump up from a flat-footed standing position and land on his feet on the bar...that's like a 48" vertical jump! He was too old to do it for me, but my aunt said he made a ton of money on it over the years.
"

should i start betting people on this on? :) i can jump onto a 48" platform from flat footed.

with a run-up, i can jump onto a 68 platform. (5'8). i am 6'2.

-EDIT-
both without using my hands to touch anything.
 
telkwa said:
"My uncle could jump up from a flat-footed standing position and land on his feet on the bar...that's like a 48" vertical jump! He was too old to do it for me, but my aunt said he made a ton of money on it over the years.
"

should i start betting people on this on? :) i can jump onto a 48" platform from flat footed.

with a run-up, i can jump onto a 68 platform. (5'8). i am 6'2.

-EDIT-
both without using my hands to touch anything.
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That would be up to you, but if so, I'd let the other guy try it first so he "knows" it's "impossible." My uncle was about 5'8", I'd say. He reminded me of Popeye.

PS I get half. :D Oh, and don't trip on the elbow rail on top of the bar....that would hurt! Oh, make sure the ceiling is low enough, too. ;)

Jeff Livingston
 
Titanic Thompson--surely the king of proposition bets

Bob Jewett said:
There are lots of propositions outlined in the book "The Unsinkable Titanic Thompson". One was when he bet that a strapping farmboy couldn't lift a five-pound brick up onto the bar in a tavern. The trick was that the kid had to carry the brick from several miles away. By the time he got to the tavern, his arms didn't work any more.

Wikipedia claims the book is ludicrous. That's not the way I'd describe it. It's available for $20 including shipping from:

http://www.palmermagic.com/titanic_thompson.html

and well worth the price.

Another proposition I heard of -- don't remember where -- was to knock over a bowling pin at the far end of an alley with a deck of cards. You have to throw the cards one at a time.
Click to expand...

:) Bob, I second your recommendation of the book. I had the dubious pleasure of hanging around with Titanic (Alvin Clarence Thomas) in the early 1960s. He was forever coming up with proposition bets and offering to take either side of the bet. Often, these bets would be probabilistic in nature, such as how many car license plates would end in a certain number out of the next ten cars. My roommate at the time was a math major and we would spend some time figuring out the bet and then go back to Ti and tell him which side of the bet we wanted to take. Of course, he would decline to take the bet at that point and would then offer us another proposition. He finally offerred a bet on a card "game" that I later learned was called the game of 31. He offerred to go first or second drawing cards from 24 cards (the Aces through the sixes in the deck). My roommate and I mapped out ALL possible sequences with Ti starting first and realized that if I could memorize the patterns, we had a lock! The problem was that we had little cash at the time and when we tried to raise some money to bet with (Ti had offerred to bet up to $500), we couldn't raise a dime! Whenever we told potential stakehorses who we were betting with, they would just smile and shake their heads. No one would stake us even though I tried to explain that there was no way we could lose the bet. We finally got $30 together (me, my roommate, and Alfie Taylor putting up $10 apiece) and the bet was on. When we spread the cards on a table to proceed with the bet, I checked to be sure all the cards were there. There were only three aces as Ti had held out an ace giving the first player a lock! Once the ace was returned (Ti said it must have fallen to the floor by accident), Ti drew a card and I, following my memorized patterns, immediately drew a card. After another draw or two, Ti realized that he couldn't win and paid off the bet. He immediately started offering me one proposition after another, but I declined them all. I wanted to be one of the few people on earth who could say they had gotten the best of Titanic Thompson on a proposition bet! BTW, one of the most unbelievable propositions from the hundreds that he had pulled on people was the bet that he could throw a key into a lock from about 20 feet away. We're talking about those old-time ward locks with the big holes. Anyway, from having practiced this for hundreds of hours, he could do it about 50% of the time!
 
Some Great Propositions I've seen and done.........

Ty Thompson bet a fellow that more Fords would pass by (the bar they were sitting in) in the next 1/2 hour to all other makes including Chevy's, Chrysler’s & all others. A big bet back then - $15K
Ty had arranged with the local cab company (that had all 150 Fords) to drive by the bar.
IT WASN'T EVEN CLOSE!

Ty would also bet that he could throw a regular playing card over a 2-story house. I learned how to do it and taught my Son. He has made over $250 in wagers betting he can throw it over The Caddy Shack where he works.

St. Louie, Louie used to bet that he could stand flat-footed next to a Gold Crown and jump onto it - landing on his hands (on top of the rail). He then had to walk on his hands all around the table.
I NEVER SAW HIM LOSE THAT BET! - FYI - This was when we were in our early 20's.

I know a fellow REAL WELL that will put all 16 balls on the wrong side of the plastic tray and then bet he can pick up the entire tray - throw all the balls up in the air and turn over the tray and catch all the balls back into their right slots on the other side of the tray.

WANNA BET? - "I'LL BE AT THE Derby City Classic this January" !

TY & GL
 
Bob Jewett said:
There are lots of propositions outlined in the book "The Unsinkable Titanic Thompson".
Click to expand...



I have the book and it is a great read. Supposedly "Titanic" was the greatest proposition gambler EVER. I like the story at the beginning of the book when he was just a kid and made a bet with a salesman. He bet that his dog could retrieve a rock that the salesman put a mark on and through in a pond. The salesman laughed and took the bet, marked the rock and hurled it into the pond, the dog sprinted toward the pond and disappeared to the bottom of the pond only to appear back to the top with a rock in his mouth. You got it, the rock had the same mark that the salesman put on it. :eek: Very good read!
 
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