OK, the story, I suppose needs to be finished but with Tenneco, you never know when he's all done.
After a measure with Gambler's Anonymous, who straightened him out for about a year or so, one of his "best friends" who will remain anonymous, set the trap and got him playing again. This was several years ago. Teeny-Bopper as we were apt to call him, continued on with his very self-destructive behavior, booking a winner every now and then.
A couple of years with his new bride (who wasn't a redhead) proved much of the same old thing. Basically, just a whole lot of gambling and not very much winning. He really didn't change one bit. He was back at the casinos and playing pool. I had forgotten about his penchant for gambling at the casinos where he would high-roll every now and then.
I once witnessed him having been in the casino for three days straight. His tale of woe shared all of the details and let me tell you, it wasn't very pretty. On the last day in the casino, he was up close and personal on a crap table with a 3 day beard in the works. His body odor was ripe as it is like to get if you haven't seen a shower in three days. So the odor matched his tale of being in the casino for three days. He told me had been up several thousand dollars but had gone broke at least three or four times during that period. Tenneco was ALWAYS able to pump-up better than anyone I ever knew. I gave him one shot at me but when it took 6 months to get the 60 bucks back, I backed away from being a gambling enabler. He was a sight, clothes dirty, body dirty, scrubby face and lots of BO and broke as a church mouse. He tried to hit me up for a loan but I would not part with the cash cause I knew he was going BAD and it wouldn't have helped. What he was doing that day was he was standing REAL close to a gargantuan WHALE who had tens of thousands of dollars in front of him, flipping hundred dollar black chips to the dealers. When the whale was throwing the dice, Tenneco was exhorting the dice and the whale like he was Father Damien Karras trying to exorcise Beelzebub in The Exorcist. It wasn't a pretty sight but Tenneco knew that a few flings his way and he could be back in the chips betting alongside of the whale and regain his lost money for the three days. Father Karras had a better chance of exorcising the demon than Tenneco had of getting his money back. I left shortly after and the story goes that Tenneco was asked to leave the casino by the managment because of his hanger-on shenanigans. That part I don't know if it is true because I wasn't there.
Time goes on and Tenneco vaccilates back and forth between the casinos and the pool rooms, losing more as each month passes by.
The turning point came on a typical gambling day. It was probably a Saturday if I remember correctly. Tenneco was having a tough time of it. He had matched up tougher than me fighting with Mike Tyson using 10 ounce boxing gloves. He had lost all of his money but as he was known to do, he borrowed from whomever he could put the bite on. He never had a chance with this game but he wanted to keep playing. Every NOW & THEN, Tenneco would come back from the dark side and punish a player. I had seen it before but this would not be one of those times. After no one else would lend him any more money, he turned to his relatively new wife and demanded that she give him the two hundred dollars she had stashed for emergencies. She reluctantly turned the two hundred over to Tenneco and he went through that two hundred like a hot knife through soft butter. His son, now about 18 years of age at the most was there. Yeah, that son. The one who his first wife had left sitting on the table many years ago. Well the wife didn't have any more dough and Tenneco questioned her like a Gestapo Agent but with a little more diplomacy but not much more. The new wife just didn't have any more dough and while she had pleaded with him discreetly to quit this game many hours ago, he would have no part of it. Now, he turns to his son and says, "How much you got?". The kid replies, "All I've got is $64 dollars to my name." His dad demanded him to hand it over so he could continue gambling. The son cried out as only a child in pain can, begging his dad, "Dad, I worked hard for this $64 and its all the money I got in the world". The boy was working at McDonalds part-time or so I was told. Tenneco looked at his son and sternly demanded the boy fork over the whole $64 and the child looking like a rented mule relented and gave Tenneco the last money he had on earth. Tenneco went through that in one game and has never set foot in the pool hall since. (I'm glad he hasn't been back even though I loved his action. I know that as I have gotten older, my heart has softened toward those who cannot help themselves with gambling addictions. That's why I let Roy Da Fish beat me not long ago. :grin
It's been years since he has come to the pool room even to visit and I don't know if anyone has seen him at the casinos. I heard that another person had seen him fishing at one of the many boat docks in the local Louisiana area. I don't keep up with him anymore and I hope he stays away from gambling and keeps his family this time because he's got a good one.
For the record, Tenneco wasn't a bad guy. In most people's book he would be considered a good guy as long as he wasn't gambling.
JoeyA
