What a place, "Big Mamas." Cokes was the owner and it was truly a den of theives. I have one story which I love to tell. Joe Porper who went on to become one of the first pool players to make all sorts of pool playing supplies, cues and cases, put one of the best moves on me one night at Big Mamas. He came in with a basket full of puppies for sale. He claimed they were pure bred German Shepards. He had the papers to prove it. I bought one for $100 as a gift for my parents. As the weeks went along and the puppy grew, he didn't look like a German Shepard. I went back to Joe and complained and he just laughed. What I found out later was that he went to the Dog Pound, got the puppies and copied a certificate of a pure bred German and then sold them off at the pool room. All I coud do was laugh with him. Lastly, Hawaiian Brian and I were heading out of LA for a roady to San Fran. On our way out of town we decided to stop at BIg Mamas. We never made it out of town. We busted the entire pool room over the next two days. I mean busted everybody. It was so bad we got all the singles, quarters, dimes and nickels Cokes had in his safe. We ended up winning about two grand which was huge for 1969. Finally what is really funny was the next time we went in, we got barred from gambling there for a month. I asked Cokes why we were barred and he said his customers (players) accused him of bringing us in to snap them off. He lost the most money but they said he was spreading which by the way he was most capable of doing.
