Another story about Pool

[Jimbo]

Towards the end of my pool career I laid off for several months and began playing gin and dominoes (preparing for my old age lol). One afternoon a road player named, I better use initials C.J. (and not C.J. Wiley) began a concerted effort to part me with my bankroll. It took him two days but finally I acquiesd to his generous offer. I was getting 5 to 11 in one pocket. Briefly it means I had to pocket 5 balls in my pocket before he made 11 in his. This might have been a good game for him against an amateur or against one of the many "speciality" players on tour today, but not so good vs someone who plays ALL games well.

We agreed to $500 per game freezeout and posted $1000 each. Since it is my story it is hardly necessary to say I won. The first two games go quickly and by a wide margin while I must listen to his whining about how I hustled him. Odd reasoning since I told him I had no interest at least a dozen times before we agreed to play. At any rate we "adjusted" to 10 to 5 for another $500/game $1000 freezeout and then a third set at 9 to 5. He either was busted, gave up or his stakehorse grew weary of peeling off Benjamins so we were through.

Just another busy day at the office and much more than I could have expected playing ten cent gin. On a side note I was playing craps in a casino several years later and he comes up to me and asks to borrow $50, I hand him $20 and say no loan just walking money. Later my friend with me at the casino told me CJ had hit him up for a loan as well. Turns out PC had given him the $50 and I laughed telling him how I had just saved $30. /forums/images/icons/smile.gif


Jimbo

[Phat Mack]

If you can play Joyner 11-5, you're a player.

[Jimbo]

You are correct Phat Mack. Do you know him? He is a very nice guy unlike many of the road players but still has his ups and downs. When we played that short session I probably could have won at 9 to 7 but would have been a difficult grind. Instead as it was it became a cakewalk. These days there are 15 year olds that string 5 racks together, making it difficult to scuffle around the USA for a living.

Jimbo

[Phat Mack]

I like Cliff a lot. To me, a modern-day road player is a guy who will put $5 of his own money on the line only if he has a complete lock. Cliff isn't like that at all. He reminds me of the old Ronnie Allen; when he walks in a room, the juices start flowing.

The last time I saw Cliff he was giving some very good short-stops 11-5 and they didn't have any outs. This was two years ago, and Cliff was playing onehole as well as I've seen anyone play it. I sweated him for two weeks and didn't see him miss a bank shot. He was consistantly sending whitey 18' and kissing behind balls in his opponent's pockets. He was playing beyond what I considered the tollerances of the tables.

[Jimbo]

I have a pretty cool Ronnie Allen story as well. Let me know if you are interested in hearing it. I do not need too much cajoling to weave a yarn to begin with! /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

Good to hear Cliff is still playing well (I would expect no less). His only shortcoming was having too much gamble. Sometimes you must follow Nancy Reagan's advice and "Just Say No".

When you mentioned Cliffs' skill at banking it made me think just how different it is to bank a few balls in one pocket vs playing a rack of bank pool. One of my best hustles has always been to play bank pool with one pocket players. Even today there probably aren't more than 5 people in the world who can give me any weight at bank pool and have any outs. Those same 8 and out one pocket players and run 10 racks 9 ball shooters get out of line when it comes to bank pool.

Jimbo

Ronnie Allen story? Go for it! When I tell Ronnie Allen stories, nobody believes me.