Billy touched a lot of people. You can see that here. He made friends everywhere he went, even with guys he beat, like me.
Part two of my story goes like this. A few months after I first met Billy it was time for the Stardust tourney (the last one). I left my wife to run the poolroom and I headed over to Vegas. All the boys were there and it was a pool free for all, with tournament matches all day and action all night in the back room. Bernie Schwartz, Billy Cardone, Ronnie, Richie, Cornbread and Jersey Red, everyone was making games.
So who do I see there but my new buddy Billy Johnson. By now I know a little more about him. That he is a top road player and has played and beat a lot of good players. This is the first tournament I've seen him in. I missed the last couple at Johnston City and he had showed up there earlier.
Billy and I chat a little and he tells me that he wants to do good in this tournament because he is saving up to open a poolroom back home. And sure enough he starts out winning all his matches in all three divisions. After a few days we meet up again in the practice room and he hustles me to hit them around a little. Naturally I tell him that no way will we be playing any more 9-Ball, but a Bank Pool game is a possibility. Little did I know that he banked just as good as he played 9-Ball.
We agree to play some $30 Short Rack Banks. To make a long story (not too long :frown
short, Billy beats me out of $90, he wins three games and I quit him again. He walks out of the practice room with his little bankroll and wanders down to the casino where he encounters Cornbread. They decide to each put in $100 and take a $200 shot at the crap table. A couple hours later, someone runs up to the practice room (I'm still there side betting a match), and yells that Billy and Cornbread are killing the crap table and winning thousands.
I head on down there and sure enough they have rows and rows of hundred dollar chips along the rail. And Red has hundreds more out on the table. Every time a number hits, Red yells out some profanity that makes all the women blanche. One of the pit bosses says something to the crap dealer about this, but the dealer just tells him that's CORNBREAD RED! The pit boss shrugs and moves away. You see Vegas (especially the Stardust) was totally mob run back then, but all the mobsters knew who Cornbread was, the best pool hustler in the country.
They gave him some respect for that, and he was kind of a hero in their eyes. I would see mob guys in the crowd when Red played and they liked talking to him after his matches. He was just as bad as they were in his own way. And that got him respect!
After a while I head back upstairs because there isn't even room for me around the table. Billy looked at me once or twice and just gave me that little wink of his, like something good is going on. I left him alone and headed upstairs. I figured I would get the word later how they came out. That is always the bottom line with pool players, "How big was the score?"
Red and Billy must have played for several hours, as word would come upstairs from time to time how they were doing. The numbers kept climbing too. They were ahead ten thousand....now they're ahead twenty thousand.....fifty thousand!!!! Huge money back then! I could hardly believe my ears when I heard that last number. Finally someone said that Red and Billy had a dispute about when to quit and Billy pulled down his share and headed for the cage to cash in. He cashed in over fifty thousand his end! Red quit soon afterwards and also cashed fifty grand. They had beat the Stardust crap table for over 100 grand, a monstrous score in 1972.
I went to bed, fully expecting to see a jubilant Billy at the tournament the next day. He was undefeated in all three divisions, with 2-0 records I believe. At that time, if you won everything you might make a ten or eleven thousand dollar score. But when Billy's next match was called he was nowhere to be found. How could he forfeit when he was undefeated? I couldn't figure it out. Then someone told me Billy went to his room, packed his bags and headed for the airport, where he took the first flight he could back East.
He went home and realized his dream, opening a pool room. The next time I ran into Billy in Dayton a couple of years later, I asked him about this. He looks at me with his most serious face and tells me in that slow drawl of his, "Jay, I didn't want to hang around for the bite. I knew every pool player there was going to hit me up for something. So I beat the bite!" And he smiled at me for being so astute. Of course he was right. Billy was one smart cookie. I'll catch up with him one day and we can continue that Bank game. I'm gonna make him switch hands this time. :smile:
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... You will be sorely missed by everybody. Now you can start a nice ring game with all the other legends we have lost......mike