"Proposition" wagers in the pool room

[thecardman]

I saw a guy throw a playing card and make it stick in a watermelon from about 25 feet.

The only person I know of that can do that is Ricky Jay, regarded by many as one of the finest Sleight of Hand artists in the world today. He is also regarded as the greatest exponent of Card Throwing ever, holding several World Records for distance. He has had 2 off-Broadway shows in recent years - "Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants" and "On The Stem" - and Jay performed his card throwing near the end of "52 Assistants" (which was shown by HBO a number of years ago).

My favorite magician is David Blain. Wished he would show up at some pool halls.

If you think Blaine's good, you ought to see the guys you've never heard of! It's kinda like pool - the guys you hear whispers about (the ones from "the underground") are the ones that you should try to see.

Not really pool related, but thought I'd pass that info on.

 

[freddy the beard]

The Great Dog Hustle

This is an excerpt from my upcoming book, The GosPool According to the Beard:
The Greatest pool dog - literally. Jerry the Greek's wonder dog, King. King could spot Rin-Tin-Tin the six and nine when it came to smarts. King could have been a dog pimp and gotten Lassie to work in his stable. Jerry would put King up onto a pool table with a full set of racked balls. You could call out any number ball and King could pick it out and retrieve it and drop it into the pocket, honest. Jerry won some big bets with that hustle. King would "stall" on the first small bet, scattering the balls wildly and acting crazy. At this point everyone would usually be laughing at Jerry and deriding the dog. Jerry would pull out a hip-flask, take a snort, and blame King's performance on the noise and distractions of the sweators. Faking embarrassment and anger, Jerry would challenge the marks to a very large bet, with a proviso that they would have to keep quiet during the demo. With the big money up, Jerry would give King "the office" that it was time to come off the stall and take the money down. King would now be on the table sitting alert, with his ears sticking straight up in the air. "Get me the four ball, King." Jerry would say and King would stroll over to the rack, open the balls up with his paw and put the four ball in his mouth, bring it to the pocket and drop it in. King would then sit back on his hindquarters and await the next command.
(The only known photo of King can be found on page 247 of Eddie Robin's Winning One Pocket. King has a Tam on his head and is posing next to Ronnie Allen.)
the Beard

 

[tom haney]

I saw a guy stand on his head and chug TWO bottles
of beer. Offered to chug a third but I was buying
so I told him I believed him.

 

[Rude Dog]

I was in a pool room in New Orleans back in 1990 and there were 2 guys doing that 3-card Monty(sp?) game and even though I haven't seen this a bunch of times, it would be tough to say that there is somene better than these 2. They had at least 20 people standing around this pool table betting from $5 to maybe a $100 or more. This is going on while Jose Parica, who I was there with, is playing for a couple thousand a set about 4 tables over. Anyway, I never did make a bet on this, although I wanted to and would have lost every single time, but at the end, when he had everyone's attention, and money, he finished off with this. He bent the corner of the card that you're supposed to pick, on accident of course, lol. So, while he's going through his routine of flipping those cards around, which is amazing itself how they do that, there was such a silence when everyone noticed the corner of that card bent. The looks on everyone's face was the same, "Ha, we've got him this time and he doesn't even know it." So, as he finishes his card flipping routine, everyone throws their big bets out there, but not one of them said anything until they were sure the bet was indeed for real, because they KNEW which card it was and they wanted to make sure he didn't start over if he saw the "Bent" corner. So, all bets are in, one guy points at the card with the bent corner and everyone agrees with his pick. OMG, it was a Kodak moment when that card was flipped over and everyone realized they had just gone bust. Somehow, he had switched cards during all the banter that goes along with this hustle, but he couldn't have done it until the very end because he shows the card to pick about 20 times during the flipping routine. It was awesome, to say the least, and I think I was the only one smiling when it was over, except for the 2 guys that made all the money, of course. Maybe this is something that has been seen by many on here but I am still amazed by it. Peace, John. BTW, I made my money on Jose, we walked out about $3,000 winner.

 

[Hal]

While having the palm of your hand on the playing surfice and your fingers on top of the cue ball (in the headstring) bet that they can't hit the end rail.

I just did it.

 

[lunchmoney]

The only person I know of that can do that is Ricky Jay, regarded by many as one of the finest Sleight of Hand artists in the world today. He is also regarded as the greatest exponent of Card Throwing ever, holding several World Records for distance. He has had 2 off-Broadway shows in recent years - "Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants" and "On The Stem" - and Jay performed his card throwing near the end of "52 Assistants" (which was shown by HBO a number of years ago).


Ricky Jay has been at it for a long time. I bought his book, "Cards as Weapons" back in the '70s. Very entertaining, I still have it. He teaches you how to throw cards. I was able to get some distance using his technique but nothing like he can do.

Lunchmoney

 

[hemicudas]

The only person I know of that can do that is Ricky Jay, regarded by many as one of the finest Sleight of Hand artists in the world today. He is also regarded as the greatest exponent of Card Throwing ever, holding several World Records for distance. He has had 2 off-Broadway shows in recent years - "Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants" and "On The Stem" - and Jay performed his card throwing near the end of "52 Assistants" (which was shown by HBO a number of years ago).


Ricky Jay has been at it for a long time. I bought his book, "Cards as Weapons" back in the '70s. Very entertaining, I still have it. He teaches you how to throw cards. I was able to get some distance using his technique but nothing like he can do.

Lunchmoney

Robert "Cotton" LeBlanc, was a master at the art of card throwing, Lunch. Didn't play pool too shabby either.

 

[lunchmoney]

Robert "Cotton" LeBlanc, was a master at the art of card throwing, Lunch. Didn't play pool too shabby either.

Never got to see that while I was in BR. There was a lot of propositions at the Greenway while I was there. Going to try and remember some of them. One does come to mind though. There was a heater about 8 feet in the air between the snooker table and the snack bar. There was a fellow named Big Robert who hung out there. Weighed in at around 350 lbs. He would stand under the heater and, after making his bets, would stand flat footed and jump up and touch the heater with his foot.


Lunchmoney

 

[hemicudas]

Speaking of feet

Never got to see that while I was in BR. There was a lot of propositions at the Greenway while I was there. Going to try and remember some of them. One does come to mind though. There was a heater about 8 feet in the air between the snooker table and the snack bar. There was a fellow named Big Robert who hung out there. Weighed in at around 350 lbs. He would stand under the heater and, after making his bets, would stand flat footed and jump up and touch the heater with his foot.


Lunchmoney

Speaking of foot. There was more foot races in the parking lot of the Greenway than any room I have ever been to. Billy Weir out ran Louie Roberts, spotting Louie the break. Both were on the 2nd or 3rd day. I had heard Louie was a good athlete in school and jumped on the wrong side. That was the most amazing place in the country in the 70s, other than Detroit.

 

[Mike Templeton]

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.

Best I have ever seen was in Greenville, SC around 1990. There was a pool room called the "Lucky Break" owned by Jerry Banks, and money flowed pretty regularly in the room about that time. If you didn't bet at least $1000, it was considered "minimal" action, and all bets were usually covered. In fact, there was a Federal drug sting not long after that called "Operation Cue Ball" that busted over 40 players, stakehorses, and others. $100,0000 changing hands in a day was not uncommon, and it didn't take the word long to get out to all the road players and street hustlers from all parts.

I was at the pool room one day when a gentleman came in. After hanging around for a while, and talking of other proposition bets, this guy claimed that he would bet that he could throw his key into the door lock of his car from 8-10 feet away. Of course he said that he needed many tries since this was such a difficult achievement . After taking many jellybeans this way, he said that he would give everyone a chance to get their money back by trying to throw a key into the lock of the front door of the pool room, but that he had never tried it before.

The guy was as good a hustler as he was a key thrower. He would lose just enough to get the bet up, then win with minimal throws left. Needless to say he walked out with all pockets full of Lucky Break cash. When it got right down to it, the guy could hit the lock and make the key stick about 1 in 3 tries.

The story was that the guy had just served an 8-10 year prison term, and had stood in his cell for 10-12 hours per day for 8 years throwing his key at the lock in his cell door. I know that a couple of guys lost over $10,000 and one guy lost over $20,000. All of us lost some jellybeans that day.

Mike

 

[sizl]

The only person I know of that can do that is Ricky Jay, regarded by many as one of the finest Sleight of Hand artists in the world today. He is also regarded as the greatest exponent of Card Throwing ever, holding several World Records for distance. He has had 2 off-Broadway shows in recent years - "Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants" and "On The Stem" - and Jay performed his card throwing near the end of "52 Assistants" (which was shown by HBO a number of years ago).


Ricky Jay has been at it for a long time. I bought his book, "Cards as Weapons" back in the '70s. Very entertaining, I still have it. He teaches you how to throw cards. I was able to get some distance using his technique but nothing like he can do.

Lunchmoney

I saw that special on HBO about 8 years ago, it was awesome. Ricky Jay can do some amazing "tricks"with the cards. All of them will get you the money, but some of them will get you HURT.

Chris "Jesus" Ferguson can also throw a playing card and make it stick in a watermelon.