"St. Louie Louie" Roberts Book

Tooler

AhSheetMaDruars
Silver Member
If your're an Amazon Prime member, they were offering a 2 or 3 month promo for Kindle Unlimited, for free.

Sign up for that, and the book is free. After you read it, just cancel your Kindle Promo before the time limit, or pay 6.99 a month.:cool:

The book itself is a quick read. Lot's of cool stories.
 

lfigueroa

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I ran into Big Jake today at the pool room.

BJ is a character mentioned in this book and at one time, late 90’s early 2000s, was a “big” deal on the STL pool scene. He was a stockbroker and lived very large, always with the prettiest strippers on his arm and ready to bet the moon.

As mentioned in the book, he was also a master at sharking. For awhile he had a rat terrier he’d bring to the pool room and I swear that BJ would give the dog “the office” and the dog would bark or wander between your feet just as you were pulling the trigger. I was never sure which was more distracting: the dog or the stripper wearing a low-cut blouse leaning over in your line of sight.

When I saw him today BJ confessed to some medical woes and said he could no longer play pool.

Lou Figueroa
gather ye rosebuds...
 

ChrisinNC

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Jay, just curious, if you read the book, if it touches on the end of Louie’s life? I’ve heard there are a lot of questions / rumors surrounding his death and figured you would know better than anyone here what the most likely truth is?

Jay, to add to this post, I just did a forum search and found an old Louie Roberts thread from April 2018 which delved in to some of the opinions surrounding his death, including yours, so there is no need to rehash here – Thanks
 
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decent dennis

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Jay, just curious, if you read the book, if it touches on the end of Louie’s life? I’ve heard there are a lot of questions / rumors surrounding his death and figured you would know better than anyone here what the most likely truth is?

Jay, to add to this post, I just did a forum search and found an old Louie Roberts thread from April 2018 which delved in to some of the opinions surrounding his death, including yours, so there is no need to rehash here – Thanks

This is covered in the book to more extent.
 

Kickin' Chicken

Kick Shot Aficionado
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Silver Member
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Dead Money

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The short version. I sent Louie airfare and we met up in Austin for the tournament, sharing a room at Sid Mann's hotel the Villa Capri, also the location of the tournament. Sid was guaranteeing 30,000 and all the top players were there. Things were going smoothly and Louie won his first two matches easily. He won't be playing until the next afternoon so we decide to take our rental car out to Moyer's where all the action is.

I just wanted to visit the place and see what was going on, but Louie being Louie he wanted to play someone, anyone! Right away after we get there guys start coming up to Louie, all of them asking for spots. I don't know any of these guys and I'm reluctant for Louie to start right out giving up the seven and eight to unknown players. Not Louie though. He is very accommodating and quickly gets into a game, giving up the seven and eight. He buries the first guy with a barrage of run outs and we win a few hundred. Good enough for me but Louie is just beginning. Over the course of the next four or five hours Louie plows through a few more wannabee hustlers, giving up increasingly large spots. By 1 AM we've won a few thou and I convince Louie it's time to get some rest.

Louie has run out of opponents and he agrees to leave with me. As we are pulling out of the parking lot here comes a big caddy and hanging out the window is Jimmy King. He's flashing a huge wad in his hands and yelling for Louie to stop. Louie starts salivating. He wants all that money. I try to convince him that we need to go back to our room now since he has some important matches later today. Louie demands that I stop and let him out. He tells me he will only play for an hour or two and get a ride back after that. I give him half the money and leave.

Naturally Louie is a no show that night. I wake up at 8 AM and still no Louie. By 10 AM I'm getting worried. Finally at about Noon a completely frazzled looking Louie drags himself inside. He has lost all the money plus whatever he could borrow there. He tells me he gave Jimmy the eight and the break - TOO MUCH to give a good player, and Louie was already tired from playing so long.

Meanwhile he has a match to play in one hour. He lays down for 30 minutes or so and I have to drag him to the bathroom to get ready to play. I walk Louie to the tournament room and he begins the match without hitting a ball. He manages to go two and out that day. We get back zero from the tournament. My share of the winnings at Moyer's is enough to pay all our expenses, but after I give Louie 200 to fly home on, I end up about even for the trip. Another lost weekend with my sweet and sour friend Louie.

I could never give up on Louie. He was so charismatic, more so than anybody ever in the entire pool world. But it was very frustrating to deal with all his eccentricities and addictions. He (and Holly) actually lived with me and my young daughter in Venice, CA for a couple of months some time after this trip to Austin. He may have played pool once or twice in all that time, as he was fighting to overcome his alcohol dependency. I would not let him leave the house without me since there was a liquor store a block down the street. He used to wait until we were all asleep and sneak out the bedroom window and go there to buy some beer. I could never win the battle to reform him in any way.


What a story!! Thank you for sharing this one again!

That Louie,,what a character!:grin:
 

CESSNA10

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
“Have Pool Cue Will Travel” by Mark O’Brien

This book is the closest you will ever get to being on the road with one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the history of pool. The stories will take you to that old-time pool room, the diner at 4 AM, and the hours in the car with players with stories to tell.

And they’re pretty good stories.

We always punctuative things with “lol.” But I, no kidding, did laugh out loud chapter after chapter reading about the book’s characters and their adventures hustling, matching up, entering tournaments, traveling, and just hanging out.

If you consider yourself anything of a pool player or rail bird, you’re going to love this book, written with a great deal of detail, affection, and from an insider’s perspective that you will rarely find in pool lit
Do yourself a favor and get it.

Lou Figueroa

Just finished it, fantastic book. Well written, could not put it down
 

Saturated Fats

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Thumbs Down!

I guess it's not for everybody. I just bought the kindle version and gave up on it after 12 chapters.

Rather than any kind of ongoing story, it seems like every "chapter" more or less stands alone as a quickly related incident told without the color and polish of a good writer. There's next to nothing that ties the "chapters" together.

I've read Jerry Forsyth's "You Bet Your Life" about Danny Diliberto at least 4 or 5 times over the years and always enjoyed it. It and "Playing Off the Rail: A Pool Hustler's Journey" by David McCumber are my two favorites.

"Running the Table: The Legend of Kid Delicious, the Last Great American Pool Hustler" by L. Jon Wertheim gets honorable mention.
 

PoolBum

Ace in the side.
Silver Member
I guess it's not for everybody. I just bought the kindle version and gave up on it after 12 chapters.

Rather than any kind of ongoing story, it seems like every "chapter" more or less stands alone as a quickly related incident told without the color and polish of a good writer. There's next to nothing that ties the "chapters" together.

I've read Jerry Forsyth's "You Bet Your Life" about Danny Diliberto at least 4 or 5 times over the years and always enjoyed it. It and "Playing Off the Rail: A Pool Hustler's Journey" by David McCumber are my two favorites.

"Running the Table: The Legend of Kid Delicious, the Last Great American Pool Hustler" by L. Jon Wertheim gets honorable mention.

I just finished the book. You are right, it's certainly not written like an ongoing narrative, but rather like a collection of individual, very short (on average it looks like the chapters are about a page and a half long) anecdotes.

I found it entertaining and easily digestible. One thing I like about it is that it doesn't exaggerate Louie's success on the pool table. He was obviously a great player, and by all accounts incredibly charismatic, but he wasn't the best player in the world, and he had his share of losses.

About his death I will just say that, after reading the facts presented in the book, it seems to me very probable that he did take his own life.
 

Pushout

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I guess it's not for everybody. I just bought the kindle version and gave up on it after 12 chapters.

Rather than any kind of ongoing story, it seems like every "chapter" more or less stands alone as a quickly related incident told without the color and polish of a good writer. There's next to nothing that ties the "chapters" together.

I read the whole thing but it seemed that every other chapter was about the author, not about Louie Roberts. Also, the lamination on the cover was already peeling when I receive the book. Not really worth the money, in my opinion.
Cornbread Red by Bob Henning was good.
 

7stud

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I guess it's not for everybody. I just bought the kindle version and gave up on it after 12 chapters.

Rather than any kind of ongoing story, it seems like every "chapter" more or less stands alone as a quickly related incident told without the color and polish of a good writer. There's next to nothing that ties the "chapters" together.

I've read Jerry Forsyth's "You Bet Your Life" about Danny Diliberto at least 4 or 5 times over the years and always enjoyed it. It and "Playing Off the Rail: A Pool Hustler's Journey" by David McCumber are my two favorites.

"Running the Table: The Legend of Kid Delicious, the Last Great American Pool Hustler" by L. Jon Wertheim gets honorable mention.
I also found the St. Louie book to be lacking. I thought the story that Jay Helfert posted in this thread was better than any of the stories at the beginning of the St. Louie book. Not only was I able to put the St. Louie book down, I don't intend to pick it up again. :(

I too recommend "Playing off the Rail".
 
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Scratch85

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
I too recommend "Playing off the Rail".


I thought “Have Pool Cue Will Travel” was an OK collection of pool stories. I didn’t think it was a well written book with a defined storyline, but still an interesting read.

I too recommend “Playing Off the Rail” along with “Pool Wars”. Both should be read, one after the other. They share the California pool scene and several pool players. I, very much, enjoyed both of these books.




Sent from my iPhone using AzBilliards Forums
 

bmsclayton

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
the book

Mark O'Brien is a regular at my shop. He teaches one pocket and shots every night. Recently began hitting balls and won a little challenge. He then won and looked at Bergman and said he had action. They have played 3 times in about a week.

The book is outstanding. I sell it from my shop signed by Mark and Justin shipped to you for $29

fyi Robb Saez vs Danny Harriman Full Rack Banks Monday night.
 
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watchez

What time is it?
Silver Member
Mark O'Brien - the author - has been a close friend of mine for almost 30 years. I was honored to be in his wedding a few years back.

Originally I was to edit this book and do some assisting with the writing as well. It was a much bigger project than I anticipated. Along with that, I came to the conclusion that there only needs to be one chief when writing a book is involved. I bowed out after editing and giving a little fluff to 5 or so chapters.

This book has been a passion of Mark's for quite some time. I hope that is what you feel when you read it. It isn't meant to be a continuing story or have much continuity from one story to another, beyond the subject matter of pool or pool halls. Not sure where the criticism of that comes from. He is one of the funniest people I know and has an uncanny knack for remembering things and situations. I was there for many of the stories and wouldn't trade that time in my life for anything. That era of pool is dead. Too bad though we didn't have cell phones or the Facebook back then. What we could have shown the world --- and there are many more stories that couldn't even be told. :wink:

I've talked with Mark at length about Louie's death and the new facts that give more cause to it being suicide. But my heart and my mind, I still don't want to believe it. I was the second to the last person to talk to Louie before he died, as he called the pool room that night. He gave no indication to the few people that talked to him that night what was about to transpire in the next few hours. All these years later, I still haven't seen a pool player with more skill than Louie. RIP
 

Dead Money

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Mark O'Brien - the author - has been a close friend of mine for almost 30 years. I was honored to be in his wedding a few years back.

Originally I was to edit this book and do some assisting with the writing as well. It was a much bigger project than I anticipated. Along with that, I came to the conclusion that there only needs to be one chief when writing a book is involved. I bowed out after editing and giving a little fluff to 5 or so chapters.

This book has been a passion of Mark's for quite some time. I hope that is what you feel when you read it. It isn't meant to be a continuing story or have much continuity from one story to another, beyond the subject matter of pool or pool halls. Not sure where the criticism of that comes from. He is one of the funniest people I know and has an uncanny knack for remembering things and situations. I was there for many of the stories and wouldn't trade that time in my life for anything. That era of pool is dead. Too bad though we didn't have cell phones or the Facebook back then. What we could have shown the world --- and there are many more stories that couldn't even be told. :wink:

I've talked with Mark at length about Louie's death and the new facts that give more cause to it being suicide. But my heart and my mind, I still don't want to believe it. I was the second to the last person to talk to Louie before he died, as he called the pool room that night. He gave no indication to the few people that talked to him that night what was about to transpire in the next few hours. All these years later, I still haven't seen a pool player with more skill than Louie. RIP

Thanks for sharing that with us man! A sad ending to a pretty crazy life story:frown:
 
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