Your biggest gambling score, pool or otherwise.

Taxi said:
In 1968, at a short lived room at 14th & H in Washington, I once beat a complete stranger out of a hundred bucks, but he was playing on ass and promised he'd be back the next night with the money. I had little choice but to believe him, and miracle of miracles, he actually kept his word.

Only instead of the $100, he paid off with a bag of 70 silver dollars. None of them were rare, but still, when I took them to a coin dealer, he gave me about $130. Not as good as a Tad cue, which I got a few years later to pay off a $50 debt, but still better than nothing.
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Not the most I ever won, but I beat the owner of a Gulfport, MS poolroom out of all his and his buddies’ money in his brother’s bar in Biloxi one night.

He went in the room behind the bar and came back with a small brown paper bag full of jewelry and tried to get me to buy some or play for some of it.

I told him I was no jeweler and I only played for cash.

He somehow borrowed some more money from somebody and I beat him out of that, too.
 
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johnhendy said:
I have gambled at pool for almost 70 years. Like most of us, booked winners and losers. I was still betting pretty high in my 70’s. 3 & 5k sets at the Derby, and traveled a bit to play 3/4K sets. I always was an action guy, and just loved to play too much to be a nut hunter.

My biggest score was a little under 10k on Bertha, the 6 x 12 at Hard Times, Bellflower in the early 90’s. We played three long sessions in five days.

I used to hang around the Golden Cue, outside of LA in the 70’s/80’s, when Archie The Greek came in a lot. I beat him for a few K a couple times. Back in Archie’s early action days, you could take a cheap shot at him, and if you got him stuck, he would not quit til he was empty. This was before he won millio
My playing days are pretty much over after back surgery this year, but I treasure the memories and the action.
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Archie Karas? The gambler who ran up a modest bankroll to $50 million playing craps, then lost it all back? And, later got barred from a lot of casinos for cheating at poker?
 
Is a raffle "gambling"? If that's the case I have won maybe $2,000 worth of items for maybe $100 in raffle tickets. Lomax cue worth about $1,500 for $20, a set of Aramith Pro Cup balls for $20, set of Cyclops balls for $20, several break/jump cues.

If a calcutta is "gambling" which it is LOL, I got maybe $1,000 for about $60 worth of calcuttas I bought myself and/or my son with which is a pretty good return.
 
I hit a Survivor pool 2 years ago for $6,650. Other than that, a few Craps hits in the $3k range. Hit the Belmont Stakes for $3,250. Just those small wins. No big hits, and no big wins or losses on pool.
 
Won $17000 on chumba online casino. Then gave it all back! Pool roughly $5-600. I usually only play $20-$50 sets though. Might have won a few tournaments above that number. I can’t remember.
 
The true answer for me is I've never had a gambling score because I'm a huge nit. I don't gamble. I take candy from babies with a pool cue.
 
JAM said:
My biggest score as a stakehorse was at the Super Billiards Expo when it was in Valley Forge. They had the action table going full blast with a waiting list, to boot. It took longer to get the bets down before each game than it did for the game itself to take place, usually a break-and-run.

It's a little hard to see the action table in this photo, but it was standing room only with about 2- to 300 people watching each game. Keith McCready held the table for a long period of time, and we came home with close to 20 large. It was beautiful and the biggest score I was involved in as far as action.

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Another photo of the action table at Super Billiards Expo when it was in Valley Forge. This trip, Keith pocketed close to 15 large on the action table.

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Liljon getting the bets down while Keith waits. There were numerous chants of "I got $20 on the breaker," "I'll take 50 on the racker," et cetera. It was kind of comical to watch.

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Just like the Philippines, This is why pocket billiards in the United States is the way it may always be... There should be a gate and seating, This type ( hype ) is more for chicken or knife fishing hype.
 
Win some/Lose some:
Pool: Odessa TX in the late sixties, won $400 in a 6-ball ring game w/ 4 fellas that spoke fluent Spanish, but short on English. Spent the nite in the hospital over that when they wanted it back PLUS some of my skin. Didn't get to keep it very long but that's the biggest pool WIN for me. Did I really just say WIN??. Biggest one time lost was $1900 shootin 9 ball w/ a little fat guy that had two 6'5 bodyguards at each door of the pool area in a bowling alley in downtown Dallas, late sixties. Hadda get mom to wire money to buy gas.

Stocks: 1999-2001 Day traded my 401K/IRA $$ I accumulated from 18 yrs. in oilfields (Hell, I could barely figure out how to SPELL Day Trading. let alone doin it. I had no business doing that, but,....stupid is as stupid does.
Heard about Paul Allen buying a 10% stake in a small Washington state utility. Bought 1000 shares at $3/per just at the close. Went duck hunting next morning. Checked on it that afternoon....BAM! $15/ per.....SELL!
Driving to a real estate showing & listening to the radio, some guru says, shipping company, Dry Ships looks promising. I buy 1000 at $15/per when I get home that pm. 18 months later it's at $151/per! Leaving for a 10 day elk hunt in CO and somewhere before Reno w/ crappy cell service call wifey and tell her how to put in a stop/loss order for $130. Just had a bad gut feeling, ya know? Next day at opening bell, it fell THRU the stop to $120/per. God protects idiots, right?

Real Estate: Bought a condo out of foreclosure, $69K in 1985. Sold it in 2004 for $236K & 1031'd into 11 units in Napa CA and turned that over in 2019 to a $2.6M office park in Walnut Creek.
Got a duplex in Sac, Ca for $180 in 2003, sold it 2005 for $460K & moved that gain to 44 units in Vacaville. CA. Have no idea what that's worth at present.

Finally:
I've been REALLY luck in my life.....dad died when I was 14, went to work in TX oilfields at 15. Didn't graduate any college. Made a couple of bucks along the way but the BEST SCORE of my life was April 30, 1977! All it cost me was $2900 that I got for selling a 1973 Harley Superglide to my brother so I could buy a set of wedding rings. To quote a country song..."and she said YES!"
44 years later I'm still not in jail, dead, or broke and as happy and thankful as anyone on earth has a right to be.

Somewhat sorry for the long post, but hell's bells, fellas, I'm from TX, whaddya expect!
 
My biggest pool table win was about $160 million. No joke. I was about 18 or 19 playing a good buddy. We were both just bangers, although him a bit more than me. We played for $5. I won. Double or nothing. I won again. And again. And again....26 wins in a row. I kept doing it because I figured he'd win eventually--I knew the guy couldn't afford much. But he never managed to win.

After it was getting late and the bill was getting way too high I told him as long as he covered the table time we were square. It was nearly $40, which for a couple minimum-wage teenage schlubs in the mid-90s was quite a bit. So all in all, I was ok with the outcome.

The biggest gambling score I ever fully collected on was between $12-13k. Poker game.
 
Not my biggest scores, but interesting ones.

Giving a decent player 9-7 for $100. WON. He said, play one for $300. I won again. He said, play for $500. I won again - up $900.

He said play for $1000. Won again - up $1900. He quit, just could not believe that I could give him 9-7. Knowledge is power in 1-pkt.

Playing a real good player on his favorite 9-ftr in his pool room. Race to 9 for $500. WON 5 races in a row. He couldn't stand it and left

to get more money. Came back, said play for $800. Well, beat him 3 in a row - 8 straight races to 9. $4900 profit.

Made some larger scores, only one in 5 figures. I am sort of a nit, but know when I should win. ;) 👍
 
I don't gamble much but back in the early 90's I was playing (and winning frequently) a little 8 ball tournament at a local bar - but after the tourney's me and a group of guys would go play short rack banks on a bar box for a couple of hours. I seriously don't remember walking out of there with less than $50 each night, that went on for months before they gave up. (In my early 20's with 2 kids at home it was big money :)).

I've done well with both house I have owned.

I've done well in the few stocks I've purchased, a few 100% ROI's and two with well over 300% ROI's, and I never owned the stocks more than 2 months.
 
g0ds gReeN said:
$500 on a $10 scratch off bingo ticket at a rest stop while roadtripping with family as a kid, 3 out of 5 on a megamillions or powerball for $300 10ish years ago which I bought some good liquor with (George T Stagg and a single malt scotch.) Other than that, some fortunate raffle draws.
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LOL, that reminds of working at a gas station and one of my co-workers was addicted to pull tabs. He'd get off 10PM and I worked until midnight. He would dump 20, 40, 100 (all kinds of money), into the pull tab machine and not win crap. 2 times in a row I asked if he was done and he said yes, I put $1 in the machine and hit $250 both times (The old American flag looking pull tabs from the early/mid 90's).

He never let me do that again and he never hit the $250 after I asked :)

High dollar stuff I stay away from but high return stuff I'll have a little fun with.
 
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