Ross Keith Thompson
Verified Member
Some one mentioned Marino wasn't a Lemon player, if you were a hustler back in the day, you really needed to learn the Lemon or you weren't gonna make a living, lol.
Every foreign pool room or nightclub I played I never brought my A game forward, only when I had to!
I played a club in Atlanta Georgia called the Chicken Haven, won between 680 and 730 on a bar table.
It was 1969 and I was a devastating predator of shortstops in bars and pool rooms.
This story is in my book if I decide to publish it one day and is also in Alfie Taylors book, (THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD), GOOD BOOK.
I was 17 yrs. old and a road warrior, I had challenged the bar table, which had about 5 or 6 quarters in front of me and most all the players were playing 5 dollar 9 ball.
When my time came up, I kept the table the rest of the night and absolutely nobody quit!
Never did I pump the bet, they did and we played ten a game for the rest of the night.
The whole evening of pool, nobody ran a rack of nine ball on that bar table including me, even though most of the guys that were playing were capable, they just couldn't seem to do it.
If they weren't gonna do it, neither was I, LOL.
I made sure every one of my opponents had a decent shot early in the game and I would wait for my chance later and it worked every time.
One of my easiest scores back then.
But myself, my life long friend Bobby Taylor and Alfie had a bad night when we left.
Couple of creeps decided to rob us and wound up cutting Bobby's face open in the parking lot.
We rushed Bobby to the hospital and the DOC there did a wonderful job on Bobby's face and in a short time his face was perfect!
Scared all of us, that is the life of a hustler, it's not always fun!
Even when I hustled major pool rooms I only brought my game up to the competition and when someone brought a solid nine ball game to the table I was in hog heaven.
Not that I was the top niner back in the day but I loved playing nine ball and wanted to be the king at it! I would have been if it wasn't for about a dozen or so of Incardona's and Tall Jeff's, lol.
Most hustlers never get to show off there top end nine ball game unless you were matching up with the big guns at a major action pool room in Frisco, L.A., back East or Houston/Dallas.
The top ten or twenty niners back in the day, you couldn't put daylight between their games. The player with the most consistent break would eventually win!
After my 18th birthday my nine ball break was starting to come around pretty salty and that made me pretty salty, hahaha.
After Johnston city in 1970, Buddy Hall slipped out to Pasadena with Eddie Burton and tried to trap my brother Tommy (played pretty good nine ball) and myself.
Buddy was beating on my brother pretty hard for ten a game when I walked in.
I shut the game off pretty quick and offered to play Buddy with the 8, didn't get it.
Offered Eddie some even 9 ball, didn't get.
Broke down and played Buddy even 9 ball, had to test him, I was The Mighty Squirrel, LOL.
Lassiter once said to someone if a player missed more than 1 ball per hour he knew he could beat him.
Lassiter wouldn't have wanted to be in this match.
I missed 1 ball in four hours of play, Buddy missed 2 and we broke even.
I ran 6 straight racks on Buddy after he missed the nine the first game!
At 8 games down he ran 6 straight racks on me, at that point in the match I wasn't gonna let him beat me, he was just too good to keep playing.
I quit when he got even, believe me I didn't let him get even, he earned it!
I had no fear back in the day but I did have reason and Buddy, Tall Jeff, Incardona just had too much dam mustard, so be it!
Just like Doc Holiday in the movie Toombstone "I HATE EM". LOL.
Every foreign pool room or nightclub I played I never brought my A game forward, only when I had to!
I played a club in Atlanta Georgia called the Chicken Haven, won between 680 and 730 on a bar table.
It was 1969 and I was a devastating predator of shortstops in bars and pool rooms.
This story is in my book if I decide to publish it one day and is also in Alfie Taylors book, (THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD), GOOD BOOK.
I was 17 yrs. old and a road warrior, I had challenged the bar table, which had about 5 or 6 quarters in front of me and most all the players were playing 5 dollar 9 ball.
When my time came up, I kept the table the rest of the night and absolutely nobody quit!
Never did I pump the bet, they did and we played ten a game for the rest of the night.
The whole evening of pool, nobody ran a rack of nine ball on that bar table including me, even though most of the guys that were playing were capable, they just couldn't seem to do it.
If they weren't gonna do it, neither was I, LOL.
I made sure every one of my opponents had a decent shot early in the game and I would wait for my chance later and it worked every time.
One of my easiest scores back then.
But myself, my life long friend Bobby Taylor and Alfie had a bad night when we left.
Couple of creeps decided to rob us and wound up cutting Bobby's face open in the parking lot.
We rushed Bobby to the hospital and the DOC there did a wonderful job on Bobby's face and in a short time his face was perfect!
Scared all of us, that is the life of a hustler, it's not always fun!
Even when I hustled major pool rooms I only brought my game up to the competition and when someone brought a solid nine ball game to the table I was in hog heaven.
Not that I was the top niner back in the day but I loved playing nine ball and wanted to be the king at it! I would have been if it wasn't for about a dozen or so of Incardona's and Tall Jeff's, lol.
Most hustlers never get to show off there top end nine ball game unless you were matching up with the big guns at a major action pool room in Frisco, L.A., back East or Houston/Dallas.
The top ten or twenty niners back in the day, you couldn't put daylight between their games. The player with the most consistent break would eventually win!
After my 18th birthday my nine ball break was starting to come around pretty salty and that made me pretty salty, hahaha.
After Johnston city in 1970, Buddy Hall slipped out to Pasadena with Eddie Burton and tried to trap my brother Tommy (played pretty good nine ball) and myself.
Buddy was beating on my brother pretty hard for ten a game when I walked in.
I shut the game off pretty quick and offered to play Buddy with the 8, didn't get it.
Offered Eddie some even 9 ball, didn't get.
Broke down and played Buddy even 9 ball, had to test him, I was The Mighty Squirrel, LOL.
Lassiter once said to someone if a player missed more than 1 ball per hour he knew he could beat him.
Lassiter wouldn't have wanted to be in this match.
I missed 1 ball in four hours of play, Buddy missed 2 and we broke even.
I ran 6 straight racks on Buddy after he missed the nine the first game!
At 8 games down he ran 6 straight racks on me, at that point in the match I wasn't gonna let him beat me, he was just too good to keep playing.
I quit when he got even, believe me I didn't let him get even, he earned it!
I had no fear back in the day but I did have reason and Buddy, Tall Jeff, Incardona just had too much dam mustard, so be it!
Just like Doc Holiday in the movie Toombstone "I HATE EM". LOL.
