The Beard vs. The Cincinnati Kid

[gulfportdoc]

From Steve's Donnie Anderson interview:

"1P: That sounds like Bensinger’s or maybe Chris’s Billiards.
DA: It might be. That’s when I played Chicago Freddy. I think I played him in the finals and he beat me. But then we were going to play afterwards for a thousand, and I asked that guy that owns the pool table company, I forget his name…

1P: Greg Sullivan?
DA: Yeah, Greg Sullivan. So I asked Greg, ‘You want to take half of this?’ And my daughter was standing there. So my daughter called me over and says, ‘Dad, you promised you weren’t going to nit when you came up here. You’ve got enough money; play him.’ So we played three out of five for a thousand, I think, and I beat him two sets. So I got his prize money and I got my prize money."

Freddie-- any recollections from that tournament and session? Where would you put Anderson in the top 10 bankers of all time?

Doc

[fred bentivegna]

From Steve's Donnie Anderson interview:

"1P: That sounds like Bensinger’s or maybe Chris’s Billiards.
DA: It might be. That’s when I played Chicago Freddy. I think I played him in the finals and he beat me. But then we were going to play afterwards for a thousand, and I asked that guy that owns the pool table company, I forget his name…

1P: Greg Sullivan?
DA: Yeah, Greg Sullivan. So I asked Greg, ‘You want to take half of this?’ And my daughter was standing there. So my daughter called me over and says, ‘Dad, you promised you weren’t going to nit when you came up here. You’ve got enough money; play him.’ So we played three out of five for a thousand, I think, and I beat him two sets. So I got his prize money and I got my prize money."

Freddie-- any recollections from that tournament and session? Where would you put Anderson in the top 10 bankers of all time?

Doc

Donnies memory is getting a little weak. The tournament in question was Chicago Bumps at the Chicago Billiard Cafe. Gary Spaeth beat me 23 to 21 to win it. I beat Donnie in the semi-finals 23 to 4. He had beat me my first match, and I had to battle through the losers side to end up with Gary in the finals. Along the way I dispatched, Truman, Fargo, Piggy, Tough Tony, Romberg and a couple others. Donnie and I did play a set after the tournament, and he did beat me one set, one set, not two. Couple other things. He was wrong about us playing at Chris's, we never played there, and he could have gotten plenty action at the Billiard Cafe, mainly cuz I hung there. We played one other time before that. He came into Bensingers in the early 70s and we played $50 a game even. I won 8 games and $400. He stayed in Chicago for a week, didnt play anybody else, practiced on the table every day, and then asked me to play again. I lost about half of the money back ($200) and quit, sending him back to Cinncinnati.
He was probably not in the top five, but certainly belonged in the top ten all-time bankers. He is also more than deserving to be in the Bank Pool Hall of Fame this year.

the Beard