Tell us your first big win??

Mkbtank

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Or your biggest win??

When you were up and coming and this was either your strongest opponent or the most cash you had played for. The one where you walked outside afterwards in jubilation like Fast Eddie in the Color of Money.

For me, it was a local player, who only plays for 2-300 a game. The whale lol. I had never stepped up to that level before, but finally decided to take a swing. I had only been playing 1p for about 2 years and he knew that, and agreed to give me 9-7 for 250 a game, and I ended up winning 750 before he quit and said that he would only play me even in the future. I realize this is likely very small potatoes to many of you guys, but for me the big deal was playing for that much per game, with lots of sweaters, and holding up. It was a big confidence boost and my biggest score by far at the time.

P.S. It is 5 years later, and I beat the same guy playing even yesterday 😉.

Now.... Please share yours!!!! 😁.

First big win and/or biggest Win????
 
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Mkbtank

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Tell us your first big win??

Way to take it off, Mitch! Anyone who says playing for 300 a game is "small potatoes" is just a braggard.


No. Make no mistake.. It was and is huge to me.... But I know the guys here play for thousands.

So since you replied..... Come on Dan. Tell your best win story. The money doesn't mean anything. Tell when you earned that "Feeling".
 
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straightback

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No. Make no mistake.. It was and is huge to me.... But I know the guys here play for thousands.

So since you replied..... Come on Dan. Tell your best win story. The money doesn't mean anything. Tell when you earned that "Feeling".

It is hard for me to say because I constantly play over my head - there is a nice group of great players here in my town, some of which play near-pro level, and most games go off for reasonable amounts.
 

GoldCrown

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It was a big confidence boost and my biggest score by far at the time.

No big or any wins right now... could change someday.
Anyway great score. Nice playing. Having the skill and believing in yourself is everything. I admire your confidence.
 

Mkbtank

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Tell us your first big win??

Thanks Frank. Now on to other people! Let's hear it. Rod?? Hacker?? Jeff :).
 

wgcp

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big win? confidence...

big win? confidence...

I kind of liked running 8 and out twice in a row against the Ghost at derby... a definite boost in confidence for me... just saying... lol

B:sorry
 

crabbcatjohn

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My biggest was the week before i left Colorado Springs to move to Ky 17rs ago.
There was a old snooker table we used to all play golf on. I think that games been going on for 40yrs.... Anyway, the week before i moved i beat a guy who owned the strip club next door playing golf out of 3000.00 and won again a few days later for another two after i told him i was moving and he tried to get even. After that i also hit every football parlay and games bet on including Monday night. >For another 4500. So i doubled my bankroll for the move....lol I'm not a big gambler and have never even lost over a few hundred before or since so it was a huge score for me.
 

jrhendy

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Score

Score

Not my biggest and not playing one pocket, but a good one with a lesson to be learned somewhere.

It was the sixties and a guy named Jerry Henry would take me around sometimes to the bars. Jerry's brother was Dick Henry, a very good pool player who had gone to Colorado by this time. Jerry could not play but loved to gamble. Those that remember Dick also remember he was a little strange and his brother was too. I grew up almost across the street from them and my brother went to school with Jerry.

Anyway, Jerry picks me up and we go to a bar he knew where there was a ditch digging service next door and half a dozen of the equipment operators hung out there and played pool. We get there and Jerry starts barking about gambling with the foreman of the crew and while they are going back and forth a ball game is about to start on tv. It is the Dodgers agains the Giants and Marichal is pitching for the Giants. Jerry wants the Dodgers and they are arguing what to bet. Jerry calls the waitress over and tell her to grab a handful of $$ out of his pocket and that will be the bet. The other guy agrees and she pulls out almost $300 which is most of the bankroll. The Giants score 8 or 9 runs in the first inning and we are out of there without me hitting a ball.

Next Friday I go back after work with a twenty dollar bill in my pocket. The ditch diggers are playing eight ball for $5 a game. I challenge the table and four or five want to side bet. I tell them no, I dog it for more $$ and $5 was fine. Pretty soon I have a little bankroll and start taking the side bets and raising the bet. After a while we are playing for $50 and there are still side bets. They finally figure out I can play and make a call. They keep playing to keep me there. A stranger comes in and asks to play for $100 a game. I agree with a couple more bets on the side. I put a three pack on him and he is busted without hitting a ball and so are all the operators.

I go home and have won over 2k starting with a twenty dollar bill. I go back the next Friday and am barred from playing pool after busting all the equipment operators. As I am talking to the owner, a bus stops out front and San Francisco Phil, who had just beat me a couple weeks earlier playing nine ball and one pocket, steps down from the bus wearing a grey work outfit and carrying a lunch pail. I saw Phil later in Denver and that place supported him for weeks.
 

bstroud

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The value of money in the US seems to be a relative thing.

When I was playing at the Cotton Palace in Dallas in 1960 it seemed like I was playing 9 ball for $1000.00 to $1500.00 per game once or twice a week.

Wins and loses of 10K were pretty much routine.

A new Corvette cost 5K.

When I see players today playing for 20K I just have to laugh. It's not real money. You can't even buy 25% of a good car.

Bill S.
 

WillieNilly

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Considering you did have the best of it IMHO going in, and that he will play for $500 or more a game if he likes you and the game......maybe you missed out on the "bigger " payday of 2k or more.
Now the games changed.....wont get any easier from here.
Tho i Still think you should win even.

BTW, i didnt get my "cut" for the houseman.:rolleyes:


My biggest "score" was playing a guy straight pool that started out at 20 a game and doubled up 5 times. $320 smakeroos :eek: Tho i have won more playing in tournaments.
 

LSJohn

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First big win and/or biggest Win????

Not a win, a 4-day odyssey.

In the Spring of 1964 I was dead broke. No, not low on cash, dead broke.

I “borrowed” 50 cents from my girlfriend and future wife for a pack of cigarettes -- they were 32 cents/ pack at the time. I headed for the pool hall even though the cigarette machine there was a rip-off -- 35 cents.

Three of my buddies who also couldn’t play a lick were playin’ a 25 cent 9-ball ring game. I couldn’t resist, so I bummed a smoke, jumped in, and by the time the game broke up about two hours later I had around $3… AND a pack of cigarettes.

I jumped into a 10 cent/point heart game and ran that up to five or six dollars.

Some of the guys started talking about playing some cheap poker, and we were soon headed toward my $40/mo apartment. On the way I stopped to buy soft drinks, chips, bread and bologna.

I set up a folding card table next to my kitchen table and covered both with a blanket, sold “chips” -- cards from two decks unlike the one we were going to play with -- and off we went with me not playing but raking the pots. Within an hour or so I had enough rake to join the game, and when it broke up about daylight I had around $30. One of the guys hadn’t had enough and wanted to play some gin. As I recall, I won 10 or 15 bucks.

Back to the pool hall.

While eating breakfast a friend joined me and we agreed to play some dollar 9-ball.

I got off several games ahead and we doubled the bet. After a dozen more games my buddy had a ring in his nose and we pumped it to $5 -- the most I’d ever played for. (With cigarettes at .32/pack and gasoline at 21.9/gal, $5 seemed like a lot.) By the time he ran out of money I had him stuck $75. After granting him a few air barrels he owed me $20 or so more and it was music to my ears when he said he had to go to work.

The deuce-to-7 lowball game had already started in the back room and I couldn’t wait. It was a game I played pretty well, but only once previously for these stakes: $100 sit in, dollar ante, no limit. By the time the smoke cleared around noon on the third day I had nearly $350.

I was dead tired so I headed home to get some sleep, but stopped on the way at another pool hall trying to catch a guy I owed a small amount of money -- I think it was $10. No luck, but when I got back to my car I was too tired to drive so I went to sleep in the back seat.

I woke up 2-3 hours later and went back inside for coffee, which I followed with a cocktail and started feeling pretty good. There was a dollar bourre (boo-ray) game going and a seat opened that I couldn’t resist taking. I made a good score but don’t remember the amount.

A friend who had been watching the game for a while asked if I wanted to go with him to a quarter-ante, $50 sit-in pot limit 7 stud game we had both played in previously. I told him I was too tired but maybe I’d come over later.

Back to my car's back seat.

When I awoke I headed toward home, but soon made a U-turn toward the stud game. No seat open so I went to sleep on a couch. Some time later I was shaken awake and stumbled to the open chair. The next dozen hours are a daze, but when I got to my car to count my money at mid-morning the fourth day I had $2600.

I bought a car, became a “professional gambler” :eek: and was broke again within 6 months. :frus

I joined the Marine Corps and protected YOUR freedom from a typewriter at Camp Lejeune. :rolleyes:
 

Mkbtank

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Tell us your first big win??

Thanks for the stories guys!! Keep em coming.


Considering you did have the best of it IMHO going in, and that he will play for $500 or more a game if he likes you and the game......maybe you missed out on the "bigger " payday of 2k or more.

Now the games changed.....wont get any easier from here.

Tho i Still think you should win even.



BTW, i didnt get my "cut" for the houseman.:rolleyes:





My biggest "score" was playing a guy straight pool that started out at 20 a game and doubled up 5 times. $320 smakeroos :eek: Tho i have won more playing in tournaments.


See Dan - Small Potatoes.

Ron: respectfully, you're mistaken on all fronts.

1. last time we played even, he won 2 games in the end. It's easy to say now that I should have bet more, but for yesterday, I bet the right amount for the situation and bankroll. When you gamble, you bet what you want, and I'll do the same :). If money were no object I'd bet a million, but it is.

2. Why are you assuming the game is changing after one win? That's ridiculous and we've already discussed that the game stays the same.

3. I did tip the house woman. I always do if I book a winner. I didn't see you when I left so I threw Alex some jelly. I will hook you up also though buddy for passing him my number. I truly do appreciate that!!
 

androd

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New Braunfels tx.
I stopped in Montgomery ala. one evening about the middle 60's.
I/we had $68.00, I walked back to the counter at the rear of the room and 3 or 4 guys are talking about leaving for Johnson City.

I asked "anyone play some 5 or 10 dollar one pocket"
A guy name Buster said $20 is a bet. OK.

We start playing, I have no chance the first two games. The 3rd game he runs 5balls and as he makes the 6th the CB comes 2rails and rubs a ball in the middle and scratches in the side.

I said "I need a short break I'm so hungry I'm sick"
I ate a cinnamon roll. drank a beer and took my last desoxyn (pancake)

I won about $ 800 from there.

Got caught in a speed trap in Demopolis alabama after we left town.
Beer Iced down in the rear floorboard of new Buick Riviera.
12:30 am. The JP was about 80 years, in the back of a cleaners substation,
"He asked how do you plead "
I said what ever the officer said I'm sure is right.
He said $19 dollars and court costs (another $15 dollars)

I/we were overjoyed, we went on to Narlins and won 3500 from Danny Wong.

I stood next to him in the Sports Palace, he nodded and I said play some one pocket he said 9ball.
I got another drink and kept next to him. He finally said "How much ya lookin ta play fer" I was expecting Flied Lice, but he sounded just like all the locals there.:)
Rod.
 
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WillieNilly

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N.E Pennsylvania
Thanks for the stories guys!! Keep em coming.





See Dan - Small Potatoes.

Ron: respectfully, you're mistaken on all fronts.

1. last time we played even, he won 2 games in the end. It's easy to say now that I should have bet more, but for yesterday, I bet the right amount for the situation and ba nkroll. When you gamlble, you bet what you want, and I'll do the same :). If money were no object I'd bet a million, but it is.

2. Why are you assuming the game is changing after one win? That's ridiculous and we've already discussed that the game stays the same.

3. I did tip the house woman. I always do if I book a winner. I didn't see you when I left so I threw Alex some jelly. I will hook you up also though buddy for passing him my number. I truly do appreciate that!!


Mitch, i (captain hindsight) was just sayin MAYBE (i did say maybe right)you missed the golden oopportunity to get deep in mr.c.
From getting. 9/7 to him sayin to you its an even game (from your first post) next time i know aint changing the game until it happens. But sounds like it will be.
Also im not trying to say you did any wrong and yes, kudos for stepping up outside your comfort zone, main thing is you won.......who knows ....pretty soon you wont be able to get it up for less then 100 a game, luke the guy your gunning for.
And if you know me...which you do...many years now.... ....you know i like to razz and bust balls so the "tip" remark is just me being me.
Remember im also the guy who watches these guys play and match up everyday. I knew you were planning to test youself against him and noone knew that you two were going to play. Except you me and him.
If they did know there wouldve been a handfull of guys tryin to get a side on you which may have made him a little leary of the game he agreed to . Even if hes not playing to get your money.....he wants to just beat you ....the money is just a formality, abd he will use it to his advantage by taking you out of your comfort zone if he knows that its an factor.
He knows he is a big target and hes not stupid so the opportunities to "sneak up" on him do not come often. Again.....i know its not what you were trying to do but like i said. I m h o , your playin preety sound onepocket right now, i like(d) your end of it at 9/7.
Does that clear up any misunderstandings , its just an observation and regurgitated philosophy that we both heard before.

Oh. If you havent heard btw.....darren and corey are going to play tomorrow night (so far). So stop up if you can .

Do you still love me?..........:sorry

Lol....
 

Mkbtank

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Tell us your first big win??

Mitch, i (captain hindsight) was just sayin MAYBE (i did say maybe right)you missed the golden oopportunity to get deep in mr.c.

From getting. 9/7 to him sayin to you its an even game (from your first post) next time i know aint changing the game until it happens. But sounds like it will be.

Also im not trying to say you did any wrong and yes, kudos for stepping up outside your comfort zone, main thing is you won.......who knows ....pretty soon you wont be able to get it up for less then 100 a game, luke the guy your gunning for.

And if you know me...which you do...many years now.... ....you know i like to razz and bust balls so the "tip" remark is just me being me.

Remember im also the guy who watches these guys play and match up everyday. I knew you were planning to test youself against him and noone knew that you two were going to play. Except you me and him.

If they did know there wouldve been a handfull of guys tryin to get a side on you which may have made him a little leary of the game he agreed to . Even if hes not playing to get your money.....he wants to just beat you ....the money is just a formality, abd he will use it to his advantage by taking you out of your comfort zone if he knows that its an factor.

He knows he is a big target and hes not stupid so the opportunities to "sneak up" on him do not come often. Again.....i know its not what you were trying to do but like i said. I m h o , your playin preety sound onepocket right now, i like(d) your end of it at 9/7.

Does that clear up any misunderstandings , its just an observation and regurgitated philosophy that we both heard before.



Oh. If you havent heard btw.....darren and corey are going to play tomorrow night (so far). So stop up if you can .



Do you still love me?..........:sorry



Lol....


Thanks for clarifying, Ron. You know you're my buddy. That 9-7 Game was a few years ago. We've played 3 or 4 times since always even. Twice broke even, once he won, and once I won. Although I think (thanks to this site in large part) I am playing smarter than I used to (which is good since my eyes are getting worse lol) do I of course think I should get the cheddar. We'll see. He texted me again this am and can't wait to play again. To me, He is a gentleman who I enjoy playing any way it goes. Of course I'll enjoy winning more :). Should be fun!!

Let's stop commenting. Now back to our regularly scheduled stories!!!

John that was awesome! And thanks Rod. I can't believe the memories on you guys.
 
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mr3cushion

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Not my biggest, just one of a thousand such encounters!

Quick story, I ran around with Charlie Basset in Detroit for 4 or 5 months, during Golf season up there when pool was a little slow. Charlie knew the 'Financial Manager' for the sons of the King of Saudi Arabia! His sons were going to U of M in Ann Arbor, once a week the would go to Dearborn to party all night. They gave out $100 bills for drinks and smokes like they were singles! This guy was padding the bill every week for about 20K!

Anyway, We're going to trap this manager, Tony Kishahn on the Golf course. We catch him at Dun Rovin, I beat him for a few K playing Golf. We then proceed to his home to play some 'Tonk,' $500/$1,000. Long story short, he kept going in his bedroom getting 5K worth of Travellers Checks, 60K later we left! Those were the kind of people we had access to EVERYDAY!
 

aliasalias

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bellingham washington
In the early 80's I was looking for any work around Austin Tx. and driving around in the Hill Country I saw a bar Little Bit of Texas near Marble Falls. I had a friend with me (he played no pool),the van was almost out of gas and I had around five bucks but we went inside.
One table was playing for a dollar a game and I jumped on it and promptly lost the few dollars I had BUT one guy who had watched me play said he had to go to work in an hour but wanted me for a partner, he'd stake me. I had to take that offer and by the time he left I could move over to the 5 dollar table where I made enough to go to the table that bet whatever the traffic would bear and (after drinking a lot of beer) I wake up in the morning with $150.00 in my pocket,..it felt like a million.
Then I remembered being asked to come back the next day so I decided to take a shot at it and when I walked in there was a guy playing pac man (even with a pac man T shirt) and even though he wasn't anyone from the night before he immediately got up and asked me if I was ready to play.
This guy was not someone from the night before so that told me he was summoned and I was described to him so we played for $20.00 a game (I figured if he was a ringer I would quit and hang on to at least $40.00.
Then he beats me four straight games, is crowing to his admirers(not bettors) and I'm thinking about just calling it quits to save as much money as possible...until I caught him looking over at me after he made any particularly hard shot. Then whenever that happened I'd make sure I was studying my tip or something as if I missed the grand show and look at him like I was asking if anything happened that I should know about. That seemed to bother him and for whatever reason I felt that told me I could beat him, just stay in the game and give him no feedback.
I got my initial losses to him back and $150.00 of his money and to me at that time it felt like thousands of dollars, especially when at that time selling plasma got you $12.00 but it was something.
I guess a biggest score should not be judged by the amount but by the circumstance. I've won $5.00 at times that meant more to me due to my situation than the price because that was a lot at that moment, so people can talk about big scores but tell me about the ones you just absolutely could not lose...regardless of the price. Imho that is pressure.
 
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