John Ling and I stopped in at Beautiful Billiards, Long Beach, ca. '69, 18 yrs old. I was pretty much a newbie, probably under a year under my belt. Ran into Artesia Kenny and he explained One Pocket to me and gave me 8-5. We battled for a while then a partner of his came in, I guess he got a call from Kenny, It was Butch. I later found out he owned the Palace in Bellflower. Butch is the one that gave me my name of "Whitey". Well, after a couple of hours it was a draw. So we put all the money on the next game and played for it all. I got a shot up table and worked in 3 up table shots, and laid on my out ball which was up table with a back cut down the long rail to the hole. He had a ball by his pocket, 1st diamond side rail. So I back cut the ball with reverse so the cue ball would come off the opposite side rail and spin down so he would not have a shot if I missed. The cue ball pushed a little because of that reverse English and I over cut it, and missed. But the cue ball went safe on his ball but he made a good cross corner bank on the ball I missed, made his ball and a ball up table for the cash! Nice out, but what a nightmare!
I learned just pocket the ball when it is out ball. After that when that shot would come up, my side kick John Ling, would say; "the shot" !
My first experience playing 9-ball, never played, had only played 8-ball, was against a guy called Hollywood Joe, he wore huge glasses, tall slender. I was really a newbie, robbed my piggy bank and was going out to make some money. Well, I thought I was watching god himself for I did not know about moving the cue ball all around the table, it was truly amazing watching him pocket long shots and going three rails for position, I had never seen anything like that before, sure different than 8-ball, Wow! I mention this for maybe someone here maybe knew him. He would be about 30 in '69. Whitey