Road Trips Gone Bad!!!

PoolRookie

PoolRookie

Minnesota
Silver Member
I was curious of how many have had road trips that have gone wrong. I know everyone that has made more than five trips have experienced at least one..I will share one that I have experienced..First of all I am not a seasoned road player nor was I ever..I was more of a showboat than a smart road player..

I spent 10 years in the Army and practiced about 30 hours weekly until I got to the point I could beat all the local players anywhere I was stationed..When I finally left the military in 2000 I was really eager to hit the road and thought I would be stealing easy money everywhere I went..

I first started off hitting Nashville, when I ran into Ian Costello. I lost a small amount to him and after talking with him, he was looking for a road partner(big mistake). We hit the road with Dallas Texas being the final goal..Every stop we made he negotiated a game and always came up short by overspotting or playing one-pocket, not his best game. He actually did book a winner playing poker but refused to share this. This started a huge arqument and we parted ways around Austin Texas..

In all fairness he did tell me at the beginning of the trip he was bad luck.. I should of heeded his warning. My windshield was cracked during this trip, my air condition compressor went out in my car, I dumped 90% of my bankroll, and I had to pawn my pool cue..On my way back to Tennessee I made a few stops and pumped myself back up to the amount I had before the trip..

Can't wait to hear some other stories...
 
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Joe Btfsplk

PoolRookie said:
I just was curious of how many have had road trips that have gone wrong. I know everyone that has made more than five trips have experienced at least one..I will share one that I have experienced..First of all I am not a seasoned road player nor was I ever..I was more of a showboat than a smart road player..

I spent 10 years in the Army and practiced about 30 hours weekly until I got to the point I could beat all the local players anywhere I was stationed..When I finally left the military in 2000 I was really eager to hit the road and thought I would be stealing easy money everywhere I went..

I first started off hitting Nashville, when I ran into Ian Costello. I lost a small amount to him and after talking with him, he was looking for a road partner(big mistake). We hit the road with Dallas Texas being the final goal..Every stop we made he negotiated a game and always came up short by overspotting or playing one-pocket, not his best game. He actually did book a winner playing poker but refused to share this. This started a huge arqument and we parted ways around Austin Texas..

In all fairness he did tell me at the beginning of the trip he was bad luck.. I should of heeded his warning. My windshield was cracked during this trip, my air condition compressor went out in my car, I dumped 90% of my bankroll, and I had to pawn my pool cue..On my way back to Tennessee I made a few stops and pumped myself back up to the amount I had before the trip..

Can't wait to hear some other stories...
Click to expand...

DANG! One of the T-Shirt companies should come out with a shirt that says, "Avoid Ian Costello like the plague!" lol Ian sounds like a reincarnate of Joe Btfsplk, the little guy from Lil Abner comics who walked around and everywhere he went a black cloud would follow him. He was the world's worst jinx, even though a likeable guy.

JoeyA
 
The only one I have is not really to do with losing money but while on the Road with Johnny and Earl.
We were in Dallas and had 2 4 hour pool schools that day. So we were a little tired to begin with lets say. we finally left the pool room at around 10pm and since we had another pool school the next morning in Austin we decided to drive to Austin that night as it is only about 2 hours.
we got to the pool room and knew there was a hotel in the same parking lot. To that point that is how we did it no reservations as we never had a problem. So we go in and the gal tells us they are full. No big deal as we can see at least 5 other hotels around the freeway. We stop at each one with the same answer as before 'Sorry we are full". we drove down the road a little way and saw another group of hotels at each we stopped and at each we were given the same "sorry no room tonight" it is now after midnight and Johnny turned to me along with Earl and said "Ok what the hell is going on here? I feel like Mary and joseph right now. We are gonna end up in a manger arn't we?" The last spot we tried there the lady finally told us that Hurricane Ike had send all the evacuation people up to Austin from Houston. She told us "go up the freeway back toward Dallas for about 15 mins there are another set of Hotels". it is now 1.00am so we are all tired and not in happy moods at all in fact very unhappy moods and it would have taken a off word from anyone to get the fight started I am sure. So off we go to the next set, nothing 20 more miles up the road nothing. Weare not far from Dallas (where we just came from) and we were calling the towns hotels that were ahead of us so we didn't waste time stopping.
Finally, I said let me call the pool room and see if there is anything we can do. they said come down here there is a friend of jermey Jones here said he can put you guys up tonight. WHOO HOOO so we head back to the pool room. The time is now just after 3.00am. dead beat, we look like we are hobos, hair everywhere and as ill tempered as you can imagine.
As we walk toward the pool room we see there is a group of players with the cases over their shoulders who are chatting outside, saying goodbye or waiting for a cab.
We go to open the door and it is locked but the lights are still on so I started knocking. One of the pool guys says "Hey there are closed you are too late". I told him "They know we are coming and they will let us in once I get their attention". The same guy says oh you guys must think you are special" (being a bit of a jerk).
Then in a slit secton one of the group of bystanders says "Thats Johnny Archer" his friend says 'And thats Earl Strickland" The guy with the mouth's case fell off his shoulder and hit the ground and he says "Holy F%$k, Please could I have a picture with you gus real quick with my phone cam?'
To the guys credit they did and the guy who was the mouth actually turned out to be a decent guy. I however have never wanted to tell someone to go and $^%*^%#%$ themselves so much.
 
How 'bout not booking a winner the whole trip?

I'm no great shakes as far as road players go but I can usually hold my own when I travel. I spent a good month preparing for a 2 week vacation/road trip by practicing up my 9-ball game. By the time I was ready to go, my game was dialed in real good. Well. as luck would have it, I didn't play a single game of 9-ball the whole time I was gone!!

The folks I ended up playing wanted to play 8-ball, One-Pocket or Banks. Since I like all the games, I wasn't going to turn down these guys. Early on, these fellas would jump out ahead of me, showing me they knew the game strategies pretty well. Still, I figured I had the best of it and asked to up the bet. Darn near everyone declined and then continued to mow me down!!! I couldn't believe it!

All was not lost. I still had a good time and made a lot of new friends. Lesson to be learned - be prepared for anything.
 
I went to a weekend tourney one time about 8 hours from my home which was held in a little bar well known for gambling, we arrived Friday afternoon and found some cheap action and played each other all day long.

In the early evening some non English speaking gentlemen starting drifting in from the local meat packing pack where they worked and started challenging the tables, they apparently had no idea about ball in hand because one of them fouled, I took ball in hand and they had a fit, stupidly I told them we had been playing tournament rules all day long and were not changing it for them.

When I looked up after pocketing a ball one of the gentleman in my eyesight drew his thumb across his throat while glaring at me and when my opponent returned to the table he said 'if you win I'm gonna kick yer ass' so I decided to just dump the game, let them have the table and go play across the room at my buddy's table, so I intentionally miss several times and he is now shooting the eight ball.... and he scratches.

So now I make mistake number two, I pat him on the back and tell him since we had a misunderstanding about the rules he could just have the table, he then reprimanded me for touching him and told me again my doom was imminent, (paraphrasing of course)

So I go tell my buddy what happened and he told me to give him a few minutes and then meet him at the car, so after he left I packed up my equipment and headed out the door with a large group following ready to jump me and there is my buddy standing by the car with a stainless .357 Magnum that would have made dirty harry crap his pants, it was a huge gun with about a eight or ten inch barrel, he didn't aim it at them but he had it sort of draped in front of him where they could all see it.

Everyone one of them stopped dead in their tracks, turned around and walked back in the bar without even saying a word.

I was a little concerned about returning the following two days for the tournament but we didn't see the likes of them again.

It was an adrenaline pumper...

Sometimes it's just better to let people have their way.
 
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wow...that's a good one. I bet you were ready to shit your pants lol. Keep em coming guys...these are priceless stories that you can only hear if you travel.
 
blew a transmission in Corpus Christi Texas

I was on the road and in Corpus Christi Texas, actually a little town between there and Padre Island called Flour Bluff I believe, with a partner when the transmission in my truck went south. Down three days and knocked a major hole in my stake. Being on foot in the middle of nowhere presented several problems. Walking to the closest fast food provided cold fried chicken three meals a day until the truck was fixed but there was another serious issue, we were both partial to a swallow of beer now and then.

The only bar in walking distance was a biker bar. No problem, I am at home in biker bars. However my partner was a little paranoid. Nope, make that very very paranoid! Sat with his back to the wall looking down at his beer the whole time for fear some biker would think he was staring at them or even worse making eyes at one of the ladies. He wouldn't even consider playing pool. He sat for hours without twitching other than minimum arm movement to drink a beer. He wouldn't even go to the bathroom. This didn't help his cause much or mine because the bikers thought he was more than a little strange. Good guy normally but definitely out of his element.

I wasn't bashful. I made a few short term friends, played a little cheap and at least covered the day to day costs, and we finally made it on down the road after paying only three times what the transmission repair would have cost me at home. Welcome to the road!! Oh yeah, the big score that had persuaded me to make a road trip to the bottom of Texas was total BS, more of the tales of it is so wonderful where someone came from. The guy that steered me claimed what he said was bible. That was a long ride from big BR for a dry run.(Baton Rouge, LA)

Hu
 
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