I was just a punk kid when I regularly went to The Rack late at night to sweat the action. I was fortunate enough to see most of the greats of the era. My favorites were Red of course, Marvin Henderson, Pittsburg John, Boston Shorty, and Jimmy Reid just to name a few. One night I told Gil the owner that I was going to bet on the side on Red and Gil pulled me aside and told me to never bet when there was more bet on the side than there was in the middle. Good advice from a man who saw it all.
"Doc" Watson worked at The Rack both as a counter man and just cleaning up and racking big games I think, but one night he took Rosie off for $350,000 on the bar box. The next day he went out to a local real estate agent and bought a beautiful ranch home in Southfield that he still owns today. Several generations of the Watson family have been raised there and Doc still hangs at both Oak Park Cue and Hall of Fame in the Detroit area although he NEVER plays a lick these days.
I saw Keith come from California and play One Hole for $20,000 a game. I think his opponent was Jew Paul. In any event Keith won $160,000. The cash was in $10,000 bank stacks with the white wrappers, and all held in a blue PanAm carry-on bag. I'll never forget it. It was raining that night and a couple bad looking dudes walked Keith out to the car with the cheese. There were maybe 200 in attendance.
It's all true and more. I feel lucky to have been there many times...Tom