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Downloaded from
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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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Dusty highways and neon signs

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00:01:54,723 --> 00:01:56,725
Broken dreams, livin'
by the lines

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00:01:57,508 --> 00:01:59,597
Cruisin' down from
town to town

6
00:02:00,337 --> 00:02:03,210
Strangers' glances never
get us down

7
00:02:03,297 --> 00:02:05,255
Backroom deals and secret bets

8
00:02:06,038 --> 00:02:08,084
Sweat drips down,
it's a rush we get

9
00:02:08,737 --> 00:02:10,826
We're livin' life like
a roll of dice

10
00:02:11,783 --> 00:02:13,655
Every strike, pays the
gambler's price

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00:02:23,055 --> 00:02:25,188
Hittin' pool halls on a
midnight quest

12
00:02:25,928 --> 00:02:27,930
Cash in pocket, don't
need no rest

13
00:02:28,757 --> 00:02:30,715
We take our shots with a
hustler's flair

14
00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:33,718
Livin' off the edge,
we don't ever care

15
00:02:34,545 --> 00:02:36,634
Rollin' on, we're
playin' for the win

16
00:02:37,374 --> 00:02:39,550
Pool hustlers on the road,
we're all in

17
00:02:40,072 --> 00:02:42,162
Cash is flowin',
the game's begun

18
00:02:42,858 --> 00:02:44,860
On the road, we're number one

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00:02:45,817 --> 00:02:48,733
Doin' tricks with
a cue in hand

20
00:02:48,820 --> 00:02:50,692
Betting big, can't
lose this stand

21
00:02:51,649 --> 00:02:53,782
In smoky bars,
under dimlit lights

22
00:02:54,478 --> 00:02:56,393
Our lives are gambled
in these endless nights

23
00:02:57,264 --> 00:02:59,483
Every shot, a ticket
to the ride

24
00:02:59,962 --> 00:03:02,182
Rollin' on, we're
playin' for the win

25
00:03:02,921 --> 00:03:05,054
Pool hustlers on the road,
we're all in

26
00:03:05,881 --> 00:03:07,752
Cash is flowin',
the game's begun

27
00:03:08,797 --> 00:03:10,842
On the road, always
looking for some

28
00:03:14,933 --> 00:03:20,765
Welcome everybody out to the
50th annual Texas Open 9-ball
Championships.

29
00:03:26,902 --> 00:03:29,165
City lights fade in the
rearview mirror

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00:03:29,861 --> 00:03:32,864
We chase the thrill, never
face the fear

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00:03:32,951 --> 00:03:34,866
Livin' life tryin'
to catch a dime

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00:03:35,824 --> 00:03:37,652
Rack up, tell the
mouth we'll rise

33
00:03:38,392 --> 00:03:40,568
Neon glows and whiskey stains

34
00:03:41,264 --> 00:03:43,310
Laughin' loud through
losses and gains

35
00:03:44,006 --> 00:03:46,051
Egos rise, then
meet their fall

36
00:03:46,835 --> 00:03:48,967
In the game of fate,
we risk it all

37
00:03:49,881 --> 00:03:51,840
Rollin' on, we're
playin' for the win

38
00:03:52,667 --> 00:03:54,799
Pool hustlers on the road,
we're all in

39
00:03:55,539 --> 00:03:57,585
Cash is flowin',
the game's begun

40
00:03:58,325 --> 00:04:00,457
On the road, always
looking for some

41
00:04:12,469 --> 00:04:14,863
We'll take the bets,
break all the rules

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00:04:15,559 --> 00:04:17,474
On this endless road,
we're nobody's fools

43
00:04:18,170 --> 00:04:20,260
With every town,
a new story starts

44
00:04:21,043 --> 00:04:23,393
We're pool hustlers,
dealing wild cards

45
00:04:24,046 --> 00:04:25,961
Rollin' on, we're
playing for the win

46
00:04:26,918 --> 00:04:29,007
Pool hustlers on the road,
we're all in

47
00:04:29,791 --> 00:04:32,620
Cash is flowin',
the game's begun

48
00:04:32,707 --> 00:04:34,665
On the road, always losing sun

49
00:05:12,529 --> 00:05:14,705
The engine roars
and the miles fly by

50
00:05:15,097 --> 00:05:17,360
With every victory,
we touch the sky

51
00:05:18,100 --> 00:05:20,363
Strumming strings and
pounding hearts

52
00:05:21,103 --> 00:05:23,148
The road's a stage where
our journey starts

53
00:05:23,671 --> 00:05:26,021
Guitars wail, and
the shadows flee

54
00:05:26,108 --> 00:05:28,980
On this endless path,
we roam wild and free

55
00:05:29,067 --> 00:05:32,070
With a deep voice,
we sing our song

56
00:05:32,288 --> 00:05:35,073
We're pool hustlers,
and we can't go wrong

57
00:05:35,335 --> 00:05:39,469
Rolling on through the night.
We're chasing dreams and neon
lights.

58
00:05:45,519 --> 00:05:47,085
She told me she was a
professional too.

59
00:05:47,172 --> 00:05:48,826
She is. She is.
Yep.

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00:05:49,174 --> 00:05:50,175
And you're the coach.

61
00:05:51,307 --> 00:05:52,917
I do a little bit of
coaching, yeah.

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00:05:53,135 --> 00:05:55,093
When I saw that blank
spot. I was like,

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00:05:55,703 --> 00:05:57,835
it'd be really sweet if I could
fill that spot.

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00:05:58,140 --> 00:05:59,489
To be the Texas Open, it-

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00:06:00,185 --> 00:06:02,100
and the 50th annual, it's pretty
cool.

66
00:06:02,187 --> 00:06:04,233
'Cause I think everybody's going
to look and

67
00:06:04,320 --> 00:06:08,193
you know, who won the 25th one,
who won the 50th, who won the
75th, right? So,

68
00:06:09,194 --> 00:06:10,935
I don't know, the, the coin just

69
00:06:11,022 --> 00:06:12,720
fell on my side this time.
It's pretty cool.

70
00:06:12,937 --> 00:06:16,724
When you're here, you can feel
the passion and, the love for
pool here.

71
00:06:16,811 --> 00:06:18,116
The Texas Open, we used to

72
00:06:18,203 --> 00:06:20,205
always get real fired up for it

73
00:06:20,858 --> 00:06:23,208
'cause everybody wanted to win
Texas, you know,

74
00:06:24,079 --> 00:06:28,126
'cause Texas had more pride in
their pool than anybody else.

75
00:06:28,562 --> 00:06:31,913
What I do say about it is I've
come in every place, but first.

76
00:06:33,567 --> 00:06:34,829
I've been two and out.

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00:06:35,786 --> 00:06:38,702
I've won two. Lost one. I've
come in second, twice.

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00:06:38,789 --> 00:06:41,270
I've come in 3rd three times.
I've come in fourth.

79
00:06:42,271 --> 00:06:45,840
Come in 5th/6th. I've come in
7th/8th and I've come in 9th
through 12th.

80
00:06:46,275 --> 00:06:48,582
It seems like I've come in every
place but first.

81
00:06:49,452 --> 00:06:52,237
But, that's it. I've never won
it. I've come very close.

82
00:06:53,238 --> 00:06:54,283
couple times.

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00:06:54,892 --> 00:06:56,154
You know, it is what it is.

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00:06:56,677 --> 00:06:58,635
The Texas Open, I think
it was, the

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00:06:59,549 --> 00:07:04,467
Some of the, certainly the most
premier tournament in, in the
Southwest.

86
00:07:04,728 --> 00:07:06,295
Seemed to be always full.

87
00:07:06,730 --> 00:07:08,297
Uh, it was certainly the biggest

88
00:07:08,384 --> 00:07:10,778
and it was, it attracted the
best players.

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00:07:11,387 --> 00:07:15,217
And it might not have been that
many players, the first one,
maybe

90
00:07:15,652 --> 00:07:17,045
30 or 40? Who knows.

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00:07:17,219 --> 00:07:17,959
I remember

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00:07:18,307 --> 00:07:20,309
when it had 60 people, maybe.

93
00:07:20,614 --> 00:07:22,790
Showboat Joe running the
tournament.

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00:07:23,051 --> 00:07:24,356
I mean, I remember that.

95
00:07:24,661 --> 00:07:26,054
I'd play in all of them.

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00:07:26,315 --> 00:07:28,056
I'd go one, two and out, and

97
00:07:28,143 --> 00:07:30,928
and sit around and watch every
great player play.

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00:07:31,146 --> 00:07:34,192
So, I think that might have
been part of the name, Showboat
Joe...

99
00:07:34,802 --> 00:07:38,545
Open, Texas Open or something,
but, that was the first one.

100
00:07:38,806 --> 00:07:41,722
And it-it wasn't called
anything. It was just the once
in the summer,

101
00:07:41,809 --> 00:07:45,421
It was just a $25 tournament,
$25 entry fee.

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00:07:45,856 --> 00:07:49,425
But, I remember it was Danny
Jones and UJ Puckett and

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00:07:49,686 --> 00:07:54,038
Bastrop. Sammy Jon- you know
the local players from the area.

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00:07:54,648 --> 00:07:56,867
It's, basically the tournament
ran itself.

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00:07:57,302 --> 00:07:59,348
Uh, what was it, '75 or '74?

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00:07:59,740 --> 00:08:04,658
Uhh, Danny Jones and Joe
Cromleigh started the state
open.

107
00:08:04,745 --> 00:08:06,486
The Texas Open had them all.

108
00:08:06,573 --> 00:08:09,184
Calvin would be there, Louie
would be there,

109
00:08:09,837 --> 00:08:12,970
and we'd all go there to mix it
up. It wasn't about the
tournament,

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00:08:13,231 --> 00:08:14,798
it was about the entertainment.

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00:08:15,059 --> 00:08:17,018
We all just wanted to all get
together

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00:08:17,801 --> 00:08:21,239
and showcase, you know, our, our
best game.

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00:08:21,631 --> 00:08:23,328
I played in the very first one,

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00:08:23,807 --> 00:08:26,375
but, you know Buddy Hall and
everybody played in all those
tournaments

115
00:08:27,332 --> 00:08:29,465
and, uh, tournaments were
different back then.

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00:08:29,857 --> 00:08:31,946
They didn't have big
tournaments, often.

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00:08:32,947 --> 00:08:34,644
So, whenever they had a big
tournament,

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00:08:35,340 --> 00:08:38,866
all the hustlers and all the
good players would come
to those things

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00:08:39,388 --> 00:08:40,998
to gamble, you know, and make
money.

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00:08:41,477 --> 00:08:44,567
You know, so, those tournaments
were really for action, and
there was action.

121
00:08:45,002 --> 00:08:46,526
There were very few tournaments,

122
00:08:46,656 --> 00:08:48,005
uh, in fact, tournaments weren't

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00:08:48,092 --> 00:08:49,529
a thing then, except for the

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00:08:49,616 --> 00:08:51,226
T-Texas State Open.

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00:08:51,443 --> 00:08:54,229
And, Bob Vanover would come down
from Dallas and win it every
year.

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00:08:54,316 --> 00:08:56,448
I think he won it six or seven
years in a row.

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00:08:56,536 --> 00:08:59,669
The first one, uh, was held in
seventy

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00:08:59,930 --> 00:09:02,498
four, I believe. Sammy Jones,

129
00:09:02,977 --> 00:09:06,328
he may have won, right there,
the first one, back in '74.

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00:09:06,502 --> 00:09:09,549
It started off at, uh, Moyer's.

131
00:09:10,201 --> 00:09:13,378
And then that, Moyer's actually
became Austin Cue Club.

132
00:09:13,988 --> 00:09:17,382
Well, Moyer's had every kind of
game imaginable.

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00:09:17,992 --> 00:09:19,384
Good, bad, ugly.

134
00:09:21,517 --> 00:09:24,476
Anything you wanted you could
find at Moyer's Cue Club.

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00:09:24,912 --> 00:09:27,610
I remember when my dad and I
used to go to Moyer's

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00:09:27,697 --> 00:09:33,616
that it was called Moyers. M-O-Y
- E-R-S, and apparently the

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00:09:34,617 --> 00:09:38,621
family that owned the building
was a Moyer-that was their last
name.

138
00:09:39,056 --> 00:09:45,672
So when the gentleman, Richard
Hooper, opened up that place,
he kept the name, Moyer's.

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00:09:45,889 --> 00:09:48,631
As times changed, they wanted to
sell beer, I think,

140
00:09:49,632 --> 00:09:54,028
And, uh, the family, Moyer
family, wouldn't have
anything to do with it.

141
00:09:54,637 --> 00:09:57,553
So they changed it to More
Yours.

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00:09:58,119 --> 00:09:59,555
Kind of, sounded the same.

143
00:10:00,251 --> 00:10:04,516
But, it was called More Yours
after Moyer's.

144
00:10:04,908 --> 00:10:06,910
Then it was called Austin Cue
Club.

145
00:10:07,345 --> 00:10:10,131
I think he was in partners with
the guy that owned it.

146
00:10:10,218 --> 00:10:12,568
He bought the other guy out or
something.

147
00:10:13,003 --> 00:10:16,180
It was some, some technicality
where he had to change the name.

148
00:10:16,703 --> 00:10:18,313
And then it became the Austin
Cue Club.

149
00:10:19,227 --> 00:10:20,968
But we always referred to it as
Moyer's.

150
00:10:21,055 --> 00:10:23,448
I mean, th-the people that were
there at the start.

151
00:10:23,666 --> 00:10:25,668
Cue Club was a 24-hour pool
room.

152
00:10:25,886 --> 00:10:29,019
They had great greasy food.
Terrible tables.

153
00:10:29,367 --> 00:10:33,241
You had all kinds in there,
wheeling and dealing, and, gambling.

154
00:10:33,502 --> 00:10:34,895
There were some big games in
there.

155
00:10:35,199 --> 00:10:37,201
I think it went to Stroker's for
two years, didn't it?

156
00:10:37,811 --> 00:10:40,204
I believe, and then Eric's took
it, I think.

157
00:10:40,727 --> 00:10:43,120
I don't really know all about
that because then I-I

158
00:10:43,207 --> 00:10:46,776
I got married and started having
kids and, uh, and my pool was

159
00:10:46,863 --> 00:10:49,736
kind of, uh, secondary there for
a little while.

160
00:10:50,650 --> 00:10:53,653
My name is James Ray Davis, Jr.

161
00:10:54,305 --> 00:10:56,438
I am from Bastrop, Texas.

162
00:10:57,308 --> 00:10:59,528
The majority of people know me
by "Junior"

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00:10:59,702 --> 00:11:03,010
because I got the same name as
my father, James Davis, Sr. and

164
00:11:03,793 --> 00:11:07,579
both, uh, been around pool for
so long that, that moniker
stuck.

165
00:11:07,797 --> 00:11:10,582
Who gave that to me was Gilbert
Martinez,

166
00:11:11,235 --> 00:11:13,455
three-time Texas State 9-ball
champion.

167
00:11:13,847 --> 00:11:18,808
He was known as Junior because
his father was Gilbert Martinez,
Sr.

168
00:11:19,504 --> 00:11:23,595
Then after his father passed
away, he started calling me
Junior.

169
00:11:23,683 --> 00:11:25,423
That's how I got the name
Junior.

170
00:11:25,859 --> 00:11:29,645
Even though it's part of my
name, no one ever called me that
until Gilbert Martinez.

171
00:11:29,950 --> 00:11:34,694
We lived right behind a bar in
Bastrop that my, uh,
grandparents, um, opened.

172
00:11:34,781 --> 00:11:36,304
It was Ray's Place and they had

173
00:11:36,391 --> 00:11:40,700
a restaurant. They sold bait,
like minnows,

174
00:11:40,787 --> 00:11:43,746
and it was a bar as well too,
and it had three bar tables in
there.

175
00:11:44,007 --> 00:11:48,229
During this time, my father was
working six days a week on the
oil rig.

176
00:11:48,316 --> 00:11:53,451
After school, I would duck my
head inside to see if there was
a ball or two on the table

177
00:11:53,538 --> 00:11:55,802
because I didn't have quarter to
put in the- it was a quarter a
game.

178
00:11:55,889 --> 00:11:59,719
I didn't have quarter to put in
to be able to-to, uh, keep
playing,

179
00:11:59,936 --> 00:12:01,155
so, I'd shoot the ball in,

180
00:12:02,025 --> 00:12:04,898
if there was a ball on the
table, and I'd run around to the
other side

181
00:12:05,376 --> 00:12:07,901
and I'd stick my hand and catch
it on the track...

182
00:12:08,858 --> 00:12:12,732
and then throw it up and throw
it back on the table and then I-
then I'd shoot again.

183
00:12:13,167 --> 00:12:16,387
That's where I learned how to
play pool was in that, in that
bar.

184
00:12:16,474 --> 00:12:20,827
It was actually the same tables
that my dad learned how to play
on, the exact same tables.

185
00:12:20,914 --> 00:12:25,875
They said I would, whenever, um,
I was too short to see over that
I would pull a chair

186
00:12:26,920 --> 00:12:31,489
or like a milk crate and stand
on top of it to, to shoot on
the, uh, table.

187
00:12:31,968 --> 00:12:33,753
So, I've been playing pool my
whole life.

188
00:12:34,797 --> 00:12:37,495
'Machine Gun' Lou Butera, had a

189
00:12:37,800 --> 00:12:42,587
video game. Little bitty floppy
disk, that I would put
in my computer.

190
00:12:43,023 --> 00:12:45,373
And, it was playing pool.
You had to play like, um,

191
00:12:45,460 --> 00:12:49,072
'Dead Eye' Dan and all these
other characters. There was like
a

192
00:12:49,290 --> 00:12:53,642
clip of him showing how to run a
rack of straight pool in under a
minute.

193
00:12:54,686 --> 00:12:56,558
So, he would get up there

194
00:12:56,645 --> 00:12:58,821
ping, ping, ping, ping,
ping, ping, ping, ping.
And shoot them all in.

195
00:12:58,995 --> 00:13:02,216
That might be one reason why at
the time I would try to shoot
fast

196
00:13:02,303 --> 00:13:05,088
was trying to do like I saw it
on the video game, you know.

197
00:13:05,610 --> 00:13:07,917
But, like at that time I knew
who Lou Butera was,

198
00:13:08,004 --> 00:13:09,963
but, I didn't know who Jeremy
Jones was, or

199
00:13:10,964 --> 00:13:13,009
Buddy Hall, Bob Vanover,

200
00:13:14,010 --> 00:13:15,882
I didn't know none of those
people, at that time.

201
00:13:15,969 --> 00:13:18,928
Rafael Martinez, or CJ Wiley, or

202
00:13:19,102 --> 00:13:21,844
any, any of the players from
back then, I didn't

203
00:13:21,931 --> 00:13:24,238
at that time I didn't know, but
I knew who Lou Butera was.

204
00:13:25,500 --> 00:13:27,458
'Machine Gun' Lou. Pew. Pew.
Pew.

205
00:13:28,982 --> 00:13:30,984
What do I love about the Texas
Open?

206
00:13:31,375 --> 00:13:32,681
The consistency of it.

207
00:13:33,029 --> 00:13:35,815
That's been going on for 50
years.

208
00:13:36,076 --> 00:13:38,600
It's like the longest running
tournament in the country.

209
00:13:39,079 --> 00:13:42,996
I always loved the, uh, the
tournament and, uh, because of
the action.

210
00:13:44,084 --> 00:13:48,305
'Cause people would come and
gamble and, the action of it.

211
00:13:48,479 --> 00:13:50,046
Well, I've finished fourth one
time.

212
00:13:51,047 --> 00:13:53,093
but, other than that,

213
00:13:53,484 --> 00:13:56,270
never could, I've always
struggled to get inside the top
16.

214
00:13:56,357 --> 00:13:59,273
I guess it was like '87.

215
00:13:59,751 --> 00:14:02,102
They had it at Strokers for a
couple of years.

216
00:14:02,754 --> 00:14:05,670
I think Country Calvin and Jerry
Prado won those two.

217
00:14:06,062 --> 00:14:08,804
Strokers was a short-lived deal.
That was, uh,

218
00:14:10,153 --> 00:14:13,722
Joe Abraham and a guy named Coy
opened that, and, Bo-, uh,

219
00:14:13,896 --> 00:14:17,204
a guy named Bob Wincher was the,
was the manager for them.

220
00:14:17,857 --> 00:14:19,467
Strokers was killer, man. Um,

221
00:14:20,207 --> 00:14:22,862
They had two nine footers as you
walked in the door

222
00:14:23,732 --> 00:14:27,910
and then a load of four by
eights. Couple of bar tables.

223
00:14:28,737 --> 00:14:34,699
But again, 24/7. A little nicer
than, uh, Austin Cue Club.

224
00:14:35,962 --> 00:14:37,398
It was, uh, my home away from
home.

225
00:14:38,007 --> 00:14:41,924
And then Eric's became the hot
spot and everything moved there.

226
00:14:42,185 --> 00:14:44,144
That's when the Texas Open

227
00:14:44,796 --> 00:14:46,146
went to 9-foot tables.

228
00:14:47,147 --> 00:14:49,192
All the previous ones were 8-
footers.

229
00:14:49,714 --> 00:14:52,152
Well, it kind of dwindled down
at Eric's.

230
00:14:52,761 --> 00:14:56,243
I don't know what all the
reasoning was, but I know the
numbers were dropping

231
00:14:56,765 --> 00:14:59,159
and it got pretty bad and then
they decided

232
00:14:59,768 --> 00:15:02,597
they, didn't even, wasn't
gonna have it anymore.

233
00:15:03,380 --> 00:15:05,905
And that's when you guys picked
it up at G Cue.

234
00:15:06,818 --> 00:15:09,996
It flourished. It flourished at
G Cue.

235
00:15:10,605 --> 00:15:14,304
And became, even, bigger than it
was at

236
00:15:14,870 --> 00:15:20,006
and became, to this day at
Skinny Bob's, which is formerly
G Cue

237
00:15:21,094 --> 00:15:22,617
It's as big as it's ever been.

238
00:15:23,705 --> 00:15:25,098
Bigger than it's ever been.

239
00:15:25,707 --> 00:15:29,058
In the old days it was more of a
regional gig, I guess.

240
00:15:29,319 --> 00:15:33,541
you know, Oklahoma, West Texas.
They brought all their little
clans together.

241
00:15:33,628 --> 00:15:37,110
Now it's more, I think it's
turning into more a pro
tournament,

242
00:15:37,632 --> 00:15:40,504
you know, I mean, if you're a
shortstop and you get in,

243
00:15:40,591 --> 00:15:43,986
you're just probably hoping to
cash, that'll be successful.

244
00:15:44,073 --> 00:15:48,251
'Cause you know you're not gonna
beat Dennis Orcollo, Shane Van
Boening.

245
00:15:48,338 --> 00:15:51,211
All that, go through all of
them. You might get
lucky and knock one off.

246
00:15:51,298 --> 00:15:53,474
You know, back in the old Texas
Opens

247
00:15:53,735 --> 00:15:56,520
every year you would get a
couple of those marquee players

248
00:15:56,694 --> 00:15:59,349
from Mexico or one from back
East, and

249
00:15:59,959 --> 00:16:02,135
they would always be up there in
the final four,

250
00:16:02,222 --> 00:16:05,312
and it was cool to get to see
'em 'cause you've never seen
them play before.

251
00:16:05,921 --> 00:16:08,141
Now you got, 40 of those.

252
00:16:08,576 --> 00:16:12,145
I went to California and I won
California three times.

253
00:16:13,189 --> 00:16:14,321
Californians are arrogant.

254
00:16:16,062 --> 00:16:18,020
So I went over there and pounded
on 'em,

255
00:16:18,455 --> 00:16:20,240
but I could never win Texas.

256
00:16:21,284 --> 00:16:22,633
I came in second twice,

257
00:16:23,069 --> 00:16:25,332
third twice, 5th twice,

258
00:16:25,419 --> 00:16:28,378
probably 4th once, I don't know,
but I could never win it.

259
00:16:28,552 --> 00:16:31,381
I try to come every year. I
really enjoy the event and

260
00:16:32,382 --> 00:16:34,558
it's, uh, It's nice down here,
so

261
00:16:35,429 --> 00:16:38,780
you know, I like to support the
events that I actually I enjoy.

262
00:16:39,433 --> 00:16:43,045
and, uh, this is definitely one
of them, so I try to come
every year.

263
00:16:43,306 --> 00:16:47,223
It's now the, you know, longest
continuous tournament in the
country.

264
00:16:48,877 --> 00:16:51,401
And that's, uh, you know, we're
proud of that here in Texas.

265
00:16:52,272 --> 00:16:54,274
You can see at the list of
winners,

266
00:16:55,144 --> 00:16:59,105
are-are a great list of winners.
Probably the biggest pool state
there is.

267
00:17:00,193 --> 00:17:03,413
And you know, just kind of, the
US Open's my favorite event, um

268
00:17:04,153 --> 00:17:05,981
you know, the Texas Open, being
a Texan's

269
00:17:06,155 --> 00:17:08,244
right there with it, you know
what I mean? So,

270
00:17:08,636 --> 00:17:10,203
It's just kind of like in my
blood.

271
00:17:10,551 --> 00:17:11,552
Oh,

272
00:17:12,466 --> 00:17:14,033
What is a Mexican boxer?

273
00:17:14,642 --> 00:17:16,818
You know what I mean? It's,
it's everything, it's

274
00:17:19,255 --> 00:17:21,040
Pride. Pride.

275
00:17:21,475 --> 00:17:24,478
If, uh, if I can sum up, being a
Texan in one word,

276
00:17:24,695 --> 00:17:26,523
Pride. Absolutely.

277
00:17:27,394 --> 00:17:30,962
Great, great Grandpa got a land
grant from the Republic of
Texas, so

278
00:17:31,180 --> 00:17:33,139
our family's been here for a
long time.

279
00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:34,792
We're proud of our heritage.

280
00:17:35,489 --> 00:17:36,751
We like to have fun.

281
00:17:37,491 --> 00:17:39,536
Willie Nelson. Cold beer.

282
00:17:39,797 --> 00:17:42,191
Uh, We love pool. We love our
playing.

283
00:17:42,278 --> 00:17:44,019
You know, all the different
forms of pool.

284
00:17:44,846 --> 00:17:47,066
Uh. Cold beer. You know,

285
00:17:47,501 --> 00:17:50,025
gotta have some cold beer,
especially when you're younger
and

286
00:17:50,286 --> 00:17:51,853
doing all the things young
people do.

287
00:17:53,376 --> 00:17:56,901
Wonderful place. Best place on
Earth for a pool player.

288
00:17:57,554 --> 00:18:00,905
In the United States, I've been
to, probably, like,

289
00:18:01,384 --> 00:18:02,559
eighty percent of 'em.

290
00:18:03,560 --> 00:18:04,692
I like Texas the most.

291
00:18:06,433 --> 00:18:09,000
That could be because I was
raised here, but

292
00:18:09,610 --> 00:18:10,959
I love, I love Texas.

293
00:18:11,568 --> 00:18:14,005
We're a proud group, I feel
like. Um,

294
00:18:15,442 --> 00:18:17,618
There's... a...

295
00:18:17,879 --> 00:18:20,534
sense of, like, politeness
within the community, I feel
like.

296
00:18:20,621 --> 00:18:23,537
you know, being a Texan, but
then, also being tough as well.

297
00:18:23,754 --> 00:18:27,497
I've never really been that
homer, like, when it comes to
sports or otherwise, but like,

298
00:18:27,584 --> 00:18:29,673
I'm, I'm proud to say I'm from
Texas. For sure.

299
00:18:30,587 --> 00:18:32,154
I'm very proud to be a Texan.

300
00:18:32,502 --> 00:18:35,462
We recently hired a new
advertising agency for
Garrison Brothers

301
00:18:35,549 --> 00:18:36,854
When they asked us

302
00:18:36,941 --> 00:18:39,161
what the brand identity needs to
be,

303
00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:40,989
I said, "Swagger".

304
00:18:42,425 --> 00:18:44,688
'Cause we're Texans, and we've
got Swagger.

305
00:18:45,298 --> 00:18:49,650
I think it's fair to say Texas
is the biggest pool state, I
would think. Um,

306
00:18:50,694 --> 00:18:55,090
with tournaments, leagues, uh,
pool halls in general, maybe.

307
00:18:55,308 --> 00:18:57,092
There's something about the, the
state.

308
00:18:57,745 --> 00:19:00,313
Kind of an independence.
I don't know.

309
00:19:01,749 --> 00:19:04,055
They're, they're proud to be
Texan.

310
00:19:04,578 --> 00:19:07,363
You know, just to be a part of
the bragging rights. You know,
we're the biggest.

311
00:19:07,450 --> 00:19:10,410
We-we're the best this, we're
the best that, you know.

312
00:19:10,671 --> 00:19:12,542
My wife's a native Austinite.

313
00:19:12,629 --> 00:19:15,458
My kids are all born here, so I
guess I'm a Texan.

314
00:19:18,069 --> 00:19:20,985
You know, every- everywhere I
go, when they ask where you're
from,

315
00:19:22,291 --> 00:19:24,293
You know, and sometimes I'm with
someone else.

316
00:19:24,380 --> 00:19:27,644
Well, when I say Texas, well,
you know, the other person
might say Missouri

317
00:19:27,731 --> 00:19:29,907
You know, whatever, and
I say Texas and,

318
00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:32,649
you know, it might be in Spain.
Ohh, Texas,

319
00:19:32,736 --> 00:19:34,564
you know, like, you know, it's
just known.

320
00:19:34,738 --> 00:19:37,306
Pool generally is thought to
have perhaps be invented by the

321
00:19:37,393 --> 00:19:39,308
French. 15th century.

322
00:19:40,266 --> 00:19:42,224
Somewhere around there. It was
played by nobility.

323
00:19:42,659 --> 00:19:44,357
Came about sort of
simultaneously with sort of the

324
00:19:44,444 --> 00:19:46,663
great power conflicts of that
era, right.

325
00:19:46,750 --> 00:19:48,752
The French and the Spaniards and
the English.

326
00:19:49,100 --> 00:19:52,756
When the Colonialists came over
to the United States, they
brought pool with them.

327
00:19:53,453 --> 00:19:56,456
George Washington was said to
have won a pool match.

328
00:19:57,108 --> 00:19:59,676
There was a pool table
in the White House.

329
00:19:59,763 --> 00:20:01,939
Thomas Jefferson had a pool
table in Monticello.

330
00:20:02,375 --> 00:20:05,682
During the very founding of our
country in the 1700s, pool
existed.

331
00:20:05,943 --> 00:20:10,383
There's a thought that the
Spaniards brought pool over to
the new World in Florida. But,

332
00:20:10,470 --> 00:20:14,822
we do know, for a fact, for an
absolute fact, that pool
was being played in Mexico.

333
00:20:14,909 --> 00:20:19,000
Mexico, of course, was a Spanish
territory, uh, before it gained
its independence.

334
00:20:19,479 --> 00:20:22,873
Texas gained its independence
from Mexico in-in 1836

335
00:20:23,831 --> 00:20:30,011
It became a state in 1845, in
December.

336
00:20:30,794 --> 00:20:38,193
There is a reference to pool in
the journalistic record in
Texas, five months after
Texas became a state.

337
00:20:38,454 --> 00:20:43,285
So, we do know that, from the
very founding of Texas, pool was
here.

338
00:20:43,938 --> 00:20:48,769
Emperor Maximilian, of Mexico,
when he came to his palace in
Mexico City,

339
00:20:48,856 --> 00:20:50,988
apparently the palace wasn't
quite prepared yet,

340
00:20:51,075 --> 00:20:54,818
had to sleep on the pool table.
So, we know for a fact

341
00:20:55,166 --> 00:20:59,736
pool was also part of our
Southern tradition South of the
border, just as it came

342
00:21:00,346 --> 00:21:03,218
uh, from, you know, the Northern
powers.

343
00:21:03,784 --> 00:21:05,873
A lot of the first pool tables
in the United States

344
00:21:06,917 --> 00:21:10,878
were, uh, created by English,
uh, and Dutch

345
00:21:11,052 --> 00:21:13,881
cabinet makers, and they were
really fantastic pool tables.

346
00:21:13,968 --> 00:21:16,971
But, we also know that pool was
coming up from the South.
We do know that.

347
00:21:17,276 --> 00:21:20,453
If you drive out West. If you go
out to Langtree. Texas,

348
00:21:20,540 --> 00:21:24,848
which is, um, where Judge Roy
Bean held his famous court.

349
00:21:25,719 --> 00:21:27,329
Uh, you can go out to Langtree,
Texas

350
00:21:27,416 --> 00:21:30,071
and see the pool table, at least
the remains of the pool table,

351
00:21:30,332 --> 00:21:31,986
that Judge Roy Bean used to play
pool on.

352
00:21:32,595 --> 00:21:35,990
It's been part of Texas culture
since as long as we've had a
state,

353
00:21:36,425 --> 00:21:38,819
it's been part of Texas culture
before, um,

354
00:21:38,949 --> 00:21:41,648
you know, when we were part of
Mexico, certainly,

355
00:21:42,213 --> 00:21:45,478
and, um, It's been here for a
very long time. So,

356
00:21:46,696 --> 00:21:48,568
Yeah, it's a part of, part of
who we are, I think.

357
00:21:48,916 --> 00:21:51,005
In pure delight

358
00:21:51,092 --> 00:21:56,010
Vamos a bailar en el cielo,
tan claro

359
00:21:57,316 --> 00:22:02,016
Alegría y amor en este rincón
tejano

360
00:22:04,671 --> 00:22:09,545
We gather 'round with friends,
laughter in the air. Strumming

361
00:22:09,632 --> 00:22:11,199
Lot of respect for Bob Vanover.

362
00:22:11,852 --> 00:22:13,723
Probably the best Texas player
of all time.

363
00:22:14,420 --> 00:22:17,118
The way he carried himself, was
like a true gentleman.

364
00:22:17,684 --> 00:22:20,208
The way he dressed, the way he
walked, the way he talked.

365
00:22:20,513 --> 00:22:22,515
Well, I met him the
first time

366
00:22:22,602 --> 00:22:26,519
there was a world straight pool
tournament that Irving Crane won
in Toledo, Ohio.

367
00:22:26,606 --> 00:22:30,174
I drew him like his first match,
and I beat him, and I thought,
this is

368
00:22:31,001 --> 00:22:34,178
just some rich businessman,
'cause he didn't play very good,
and

369
00:22:34,831 --> 00:22:36,877
and he was real nervous, and,
uh,

370
00:22:37,138 --> 00:22:41,403
I noticed a rack or two later,
he ran like 100 or something on
somebody. I said,

371
00:22:41,621 --> 00:22:43,187
"Who is this guy?"

372
00:22:43,274 --> 00:22:45,407
And turned out, he was the real
McCoy.

373
00:22:45,581 --> 00:22:49,933
We were probably all lucky that
he only played once in a while.
He didn't play full-time.

374
00:22:50,107 --> 00:22:54,721
I remember one guy thought he
was like a rich sucker, but he
evidently didn't pay
attention,

375
00:22:55,112 --> 00:22:57,463
'cause he followed him all the
way to Texas to his

376
00:22:58,115 --> 00:23:01,292
detriment. He-he ended up, uh,

377
00:23:02,119 --> 00:23:05,166
on the short end of the stick,
so to speak, and

378
00:23:05,340 --> 00:23:07,908
First of all, the best pool
player is Bob Vanover.

379
00:23:08,125 --> 00:23:11,172
Any game straight pool, 9-ball,
um,

380
00:23:11,651 --> 00:23:15,219
Not only was Bob Vanover a great
player, he was a great guy,

381
00:23:15,481 --> 00:23:19,093
a-and that, that helped pool in
Texas.

382
00:23:19,310 --> 00:23:22,444
Um, you just never seen him get
out of line.

383
00:23:22,705 --> 00:23:24,185
Bob was, um,

384
00:23:25,186 --> 00:23:28,711
not only a great player, but
also such a great person.

385
00:23:29,190 --> 00:23:34,804
He, um, he was so humble. He was
so, uh, kind to everyone.

386
00:23:35,414 --> 00:23:43,160
And even sometimes when he beat
someone by badly, he was
treating him so kind, that, uh,

387
00:23:43,247 --> 00:23:47,121
you really feel very comfortable
losing to Bob.

388
00:23:47,208 --> 00:23:48,862
He was pretty much kept to
himself,

389
00:23:49,471 --> 00:23:54,084
but, as a player, he was a real
nice guy, too. He was real,
real sedate,

390
00:23:54,215 --> 00:23:57,479
but, man, on that pool table, he
was a freaking demon.

391
00:23:58,175 --> 00:24:01,352
If he had his choice, you
wouldn't get to play at all.

392
00:24:01,831 --> 00:24:05,139
He and I were good friends. We
lived seven or eight miles from
each other.

393
00:24:05,226 --> 00:24:08,098
I remember playing at his house.
He and I were playing straight
pool.

394
00:24:08,577 --> 00:24:10,623
It must have been the holidays.

395
00:24:10,927 --> 00:24:13,190
Five-year-olds and eight-year
olds and they're running all
around the table,

396
00:24:13,277 --> 00:24:16,063
and they're running in and out
of the tables, and Bob ran 100.

397
00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:18,413
Kids running through his legs
and running underneath the
table.

398
00:24:18,500 --> 00:24:21,677
It didn't matter. He had, you
know, a level of concentration,
I guess.

399
00:24:22,112 --> 00:24:23,940
Beyond, most of us.

400
00:24:24,332 --> 00:24:27,596
He was very disciplined in
practice.

401
00:24:27,683 --> 00:24:30,338
Every night Bob would come home
from work.

402
00:24:30,469 --> 00:24:33,907
Before long he was in there
setting up a break shot and
hitting balls,

403
00:24:33,994 --> 00:24:37,171
and his goal was to try to run
100 balls every night.

404
00:24:37,258 --> 00:24:38,955
He just showed up to play.

405
00:24:39,042 --> 00:24:41,349
You know, you just never seen
the guy really like

406
00:24:41,654 --> 00:24:44,265
go over there and slump in his
chair and feel sorry for-

407
00:24:44,352 --> 00:24:48,399
he got ready to try to get up
and run the next rack.

408
00:24:48,704 --> 00:24:51,620
Had them glasses on and he'd go
like that and you knew you was
in trouble.

409
00:24:53,361 --> 00:24:55,406
Well, you gotta go through Bob
Vanover.

410
00:24:55,581 --> 00:24:59,410
You really have to play good and
not make any mistakes or

411
00:24:59,541 --> 00:25:01,412
you just wasn't going to beat
Bob Vanover.

412
00:25:01,674 --> 00:25:06,156
For a guy that worked full-time
and stuff, it's unbelievable how
good he played.

413
00:25:06,243 --> 00:25:08,245
I always loved Bob a lot. Uh,

414
00:25:08,637 --> 00:25:11,814
Another one that just turned it
on and became a real big
competitor

415
00:25:12,380 --> 00:25:13,990
'Cause he, you know, he worked
full-time.

416
00:25:14,338 --> 00:25:16,036
You know, family man.

417
00:25:16,689 --> 00:25:20,388
Of course probably had outside
interest other than pool, I
would guess, just knowing Bob.

418
00:25:21,171 --> 00:25:24,044
I liked the way Bob
Vanover played. Me and him

419
00:25:24,131 --> 00:25:25,828
got along just fine. I mean,

420
00:25:26,481 --> 00:25:28,439
Uh, you know, he was a

421
00:25:29,049 --> 00:25:33,140
corporate guy, you know, and
most corporate guys, I don't
even talk to, but

422
00:25:33,575 --> 00:25:35,359
him, he was a little different.

423
00:25:35,446 --> 00:25:38,101
He was in charge, at the time,
they had five, uh,

424
00:25:38,449 --> 00:25:41,452
Haverty furniture stores in
Dallas and, uh,

425
00:25:42,236 --> 00:25:44,368
and, he was one of the main
buyers for those.

426
00:25:44,455 --> 00:25:46,370
Vanover had an advantage over
us.

427
00:25:46,457 --> 00:25:51,245
He broke the balls better than
anybody else because he really
understood pool

428
00:25:51,506 --> 00:25:56,598
in the aspect that he realized
that the break was the, the
major shot of the game.

429
00:25:57,381 --> 00:25:59,688
And, he was a big guy and he
could really,

430
00:25:59,775 --> 00:26:02,952
he really practiced the break,
and he knew how to break.

431
00:26:03,387 --> 00:26:07,522
He probably practiced breaking
balls over and over and over
again.

432
00:26:07,609 --> 00:26:09,611
Bob played good. He was a good
player.

433
00:26:09,829 --> 00:26:11,744
He was about as good a player as
there was in Dallas.

434
00:26:13,006 --> 00:26:14,007
Around Dallas.

435
00:26:14,921 --> 00:26:17,619
We played a lot of the
tournaments there at the Texas
Open.

436
00:26:17,706 --> 00:26:20,927
The way he played the game and,
he was so smart.

437
00:26:21,405 --> 00:26:25,540
You know, which made it easier
for him to compete without
having to play all the time, but

438
00:26:25,975 --> 00:26:29,762
Uh, to have the results and, you
know, I kind of felt it was kind
of special to

439
00:26:30,023 --> 00:26:34,767
in my- in '94 I beat him in the
final there. Hahaha. So I was
pretty happy for that, you know.

440
00:26:35,245 --> 00:26:40,599
I guess the only player that
ever run out the whole, ra-uh,
session in the finals.

441
00:26:41,077 --> 00:26:45,821
I think he ran nine and out or
something, uh, the guy, uh,
never got to shoot.

442
00:26:45,908 --> 00:26:50,870
Uh, he, he ran nine and out.
That's a record. I'm sure it
still holds.

443
00:26:51,044 --> 00:26:53,524
They had about, four or five of
us

444
00:26:53,742 --> 00:26:57,485
volunteer to rack the balls for
the players, as opposed to, uh,

445
00:26:57,572 --> 00:27:00,314
having the players rack their
own balls, back then.

446
00:27:00,401 --> 00:27:04,057
I had the pleasure of racking
the balls for Bob when he ran

447
00:27:04,231 --> 00:27:06,407
nine consecutive racks.

448
00:27:06,581 --> 00:27:07,843
He was playing Steve Smith

449
00:27:08,583 --> 00:27:10,977
and Steve broke and didn't make
anything, and that was it.

450
00:27:11,586 --> 00:27:13,196
Bob ran nine racks and out.

451
00:27:13,501 --> 00:27:16,069
Alright, we're at
Moyers, and I looked at him and
I said,

452
00:27:16,330 --> 00:27:20,856
"Bob you and I neither one of us
played very good that set. Let's
show them we can really play."

453
00:27:22,075 --> 00:27:24,033
"Up your game, you know? Let's
come with it."

454
00:27:25,339 --> 00:27:27,384
And, uh, he came with it.

455
00:27:27,646 --> 00:27:31,867
So when he would break, it
sounded like a shotgun going
off, with the corner

456
00:27:31,954 --> 00:27:34,174
the, the wing ball going
straight in.

457
00:27:35,131 --> 00:27:39,440
But I couldn't stop it and I
couldn't do anything about it,
so I just took it like a man.

458
00:27:39,788 --> 00:27:42,530
Didn't care a lot for it, but
that's the way it is.

459
00:27:42,791 --> 00:27:45,707
Bob Vanover was a great
tournament player. He really
was.

460
00:27:46,055 --> 00:27:47,970
He understood how to win in
tournaments.

461
00:27:48,231 --> 00:27:50,973
He made no mistakes and he broke
real good.

462
00:27:51,757 --> 00:27:55,630
And I'm not knocking Bob Vanover
at all. He knew what he was
doing.

463
00:27:55,717 --> 00:27:58,677
OK, so he did it, y-you know.

464
00:28:00,940 --> 00:28:02,898
And, like I say,

465
00:28:04,595 --> 00:28:07,120
I think it was, I,

466
00:28:07,816 --> 00:28:10,210
It's ok. It didn't really
bother me.

467
00:28:10,689 --> 00:28:11,733
Really.

468
00:28:12,429 --> 00:28:15,171
Everybody else put more
precedence on it than I did.

469
00:28:16,259 --> 00:28:17,739
You know, nine and out, that's

470
00:28:18,914 --> 00:28:22,831
That's about, boy, that's
perfect, you know, and that
doesn't happen very often.

471
00:28:23,702 --> 00:28:28,576
He beat me one time. I won the
winners bracket. I think this
was in '95.

472
00:28:29,185 --> 00:28:32,928
They were playing the Scotch
doubles tournament too, and it
was dragging on a little bit

473
00:28:33,015 --> 00:28:35,017
and they wanted to play and I
say, "hey,

474
00:28:35,801 --> 00:28:38,020
"whenever y'all want to do the
match, it's fine with me."

475
00:28:38,455 --> 00:28:41,850
So they agreed to finish the
Scotch Doubles and I was like,
all right.

476
00:28:42,198 --> 00:28:46,812
This guy's 70 or pretty up there
in age. He's going to be tired
by the time we play.

477
00:28:47,769 --> 00:28:50,554
Well, he double dipped me 9-2,
9-1.

478
00:28:51,773 --> 00:28:53,296
So much for that theory.

479
00:28:54,602 --> 00:28:57,431
Back then, they played the
ladies and the men's final at
the same time at Eric's,

480
00:28:57,736 --> 00:29:00,651
and so, Vivian and Belinda, of
course, are playing in the
Ladies final,

481
00:29:00,739 --> 00:29:02,349
just like it seemed like every
year.

482
00:29:02,784 --> 00:29:05,961
And Bob, come over to me and,
you know, he wished me good
luck, and,

483
00:29:07,223 --> 00:29:09,835
You know, I knew him, but I
didn't know him real well. And,
uh,

484
00:29:10,009 --> 00:29:11,967
I knew him much more the next
few years, but

485
00:29:12,620 --> 00:29:14,404
He said, "Yeah, Jeremy",

486
00:29:15,275 --> 00:29:18,800
"I just seem to play real well
and seem to get all the rolls in
these finals. I don't know what
it is.'

487
00:29:18,887 --> 00:29:20,889
This before we started, right?
So,

488
00:29:21,324 --> 00:29:23,065
You know, I took that. I was
like, OK,

489
00:29:23,849 --> 00:29:25,154
I didn't let it really, I was
pretty

490
00:29:25,589 --> 00:29:28,549
uh, you couldn't bother
me too much back then anyways,
but uh,

491
00:29:29,289 --> 00:29:33,772
So, I can't, I think it was
Belinda heard, you know, what he
said

492
00:29:34,642 --> 00:29:36,818
and she came over and in so many
words said.

493
00:29:36,905 --> 00:29:41,214
"Don't fall for that Jeremy."

494
00:29:41,431 --> 00:29:44,173
"He's trying to mess with your
head."

495
00:29:44,260 --> 00:29:46,697
"You just play your game and
you'll be just fine."

496
00:29:46,915 --> 00:29:49,962
"Hey, go out there and
shoot him full of holes," you
know. So, haha, eh

497
00:29:50,353 --> 00:29:53,530
It was a good deal. And I, I
did. I played real well and, and
uh,

498
00:29:53,922 --> 00:29:56,577
Bob didn't really make a
mistake, he just didn't have
much, much of a chance.

499
00:29:56,925 --> 00:29:59,841
If there's an open table he was
usually over there running
balls.

500
00:29:59,928 --> 00:30:02,061
You know, I seen him at
G Cue

501
00:30:02,148 --> 00:30:06,630
one time, and he practices just
like he plays in the tournament, man.

502
00:30:06,717 --> 00:30:11,070
He's bearing down over there.
He's not over there, just
hitting balls around.

503
00:30:11,505 --> 00:30:15,770
Fierce competitor, man. I mean,
guy's just pure talent, ran out
from

504
00:30:16,205 --> 00:30:19,774
everywhere and he was hardcore.
He didn't feel sorry for nobody.

505
00:30:20,557 --> 00:30:25,127
If some, some old lady was in
the tournament. I guarantee he
was trying to put a nine on her.

506
00:30:25,388 --> 00:30:29,958
You know, he, uh, he,
he was just a fierce
competitor.

507
00:30:30,176 --> 00:30:33,788
For years, there was no trophy
at the Texas Open.

508
00:30:33,962 --> 00:30:35,921
but when it made the move over
to G Cues,

509
00:30:36,008 --> 00:30:39,750
the owners there decided to
introduce a championship trophy

510
00:30:39,838 --> 00:30:42,971
and they named it,
unsurprisingly, after Bob
Vanover.

511
00:30:43,058 --> 00:30:48,194
The Vanover Cup was first
introduced to the Texas Open in
2001, and,

512
00:30:48,281 --> 00:30:52,415
to choose Bob Vanover as the
namesake was such an easy choice

513
00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:55,941
because of the greatness of Bob
at this tournament, but also

514
00:30:56,028 --> 00:30:58,769
for what he's meant to Texas
pool, Texas billiards.

515
00:30:59,031 --> 00:31:02,295
I think that is so special and,
um,

516
00:31:03,513 --> 00:31:05,385
that was a great way to honor

517
00:31:07,039 --> 00:31:09,606
his incredible run in that
tournament.

518
00:31:10,216 --> 00:31:12,696
Sorry, I feel, a little teary-
eyed here.

519
00:31:13,088 --> 00:31:17,266
Yeah, I think having that trophy
named after him was just a great

520
00:31:17,484 --> 00:31:20,530
way to honor all of his
accomplishments as a Texas pool
player.

521
00:31:21,096 --> 00:31:25,274
When the Vanover Cup came about,
that tournament had moved I
believe up to Round Rock.

522
00:31:26,058 --> 00:31:30,627
And, I think if there was
anything disappointing from

523
00:31:31,019 --> 00:31:34,109
the years of, of following Bob
playing pool was that

524
00:31:34,457 --> 00:31:40,159
when his game diminished and he
couldn't win, he just didn't
want to be around pool.

525
00:31:40,246 --> 00:31:43,075
The very end of
his career, I noticed

526
00:31:43,162 --> 00:31:49,168
the, the recognition he got from
all the other players. Then I
found out also that he

527
00:31:49,951 --> 00:31:54,434
used to play also privately some
of the best players at that
time,

528
00:31:54,782 --> 00:31:56,523
and he was beating them badly.

529
00:31:57,089 --> 00:32:00,179
You see his name all over the
place here in Texas, and you
just hear about him, and

530
00:32:00,353 --> 00:32:02,181
he's kind of like a ghost in a
lot of aspects.

531
00:32:02,398 --> 00:32:05,184
It's hard to find history. You
know, we don't have

532
00:32:05,706 --> 00:32:11,233
um, proper avenues to be able
to find things like you would
Cooperstown in baseball and
things like that. So,

533
00:32:11,886 --> 00:32:17,457
Um, there's a void there and you
lose great guys within the sport
like a Bob.

534
00:32:17,718 --> 00:32:20,199
Should Bob Vanover be in the
Hall of Fame?

535
00:32:20,547 --> 00:32:22,941
Yes. If- he should be.

536
00:32:23,158 --> 00:32:28,816
If you go back in any
publication from, say 1975 'til
Bob passed away.

537
00:32:29,469 --> 00:32:33,386
Every tournament Bob either won,
or took second.

538
00:32:34,735 --> 00:32:40,262
Um, even with the Steve Mizarak
senior tour Bob won it five out
of six years.

539
00:32:40,567 --> 00:32:45,093
Yes, he should be in a Hall of
Fame. I don't think anybody's
ever nominated him.

540
00:32:50,229 --> 00:32:51,143
Who we got with us?

541
00:32:51,708 --> 00:32:53,667
Just me and you, man.
I've actually

542
00:32:53,754 --> 00:32:57,149
started the ball rolling a
little bit on forming the

543
00:32:57,279 --> 00:32:59,194
Billiards Hall of Fame for
Texas.

544
00:33:00,195 --> 00:33:04,112
I-I put a lot of notes
down after you and I talked
about, uh,

545
00:33:04,199 --> 00:33:06,201
what I would like to see started
here

546
00:33:06,288 --> 00:33:07,942
and how it should
operate.

547
00:33:08,769 --> 00:33:10,901
What were your ...what
are your thoughts?

548
00:33:11,293 --> 00:33:13,861
There's all kinds of different
stuff that we could do

549
00:33:14,731 --> 00:33:20,215
with the Hall of Fame and use it
to grow the sport within the the
borders of the state.

550
00:33:20,302 --> 00:33:22,217
Let's talk about secretary.

551
00:33:22,435 --> 00:33:24,219
I've got two people in
mind,

552
00:33:24,306 --> 00:33:26,874
that are both executive
type women.

553
00:33:27,396 --> 00:33:30,225
I work with one woman and I
worked with the other one for
years

554
00:33:30,834 --> 00:33:32,793
and they kept everything
straight.

555
00:33:33,272 --> 00:33:35,796
Well, that's the important part
of being a secretary.

556
00:33:36,057 --> 00:33:38,538
Well, we talked about
like 10 subjects and, and

557
00:33:39,060 --> 00:33:42,194
I forgot sometimes what you said
or I said.
Yeah.

558
00:33:42,281 --> 00:33:44,283
So, who did you have in
mind?

559
00:33:44,370 --> 00:33:48,939
Yeah, I don't know about
secretary, but for sure, like,
treasurer,

560
00:33:49,331 --> 00:33:52,943
Yeah?
The first person I
thought of was Paul Guernsey.

561
00:33:53,422 --> 00:33:57,513
Wow. What a great
choice. As honest as the day is
long, and,

562
00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:02,257
corporate-wise knows, I
mean, God, he built a hundred
restaurants.

563
00:34:02,344 --> 00:34:07,349
You get a hold of Guernsey,
present it to him, and I'll get
a hold of Stacy and

564
00:34:07,610 --> 00:34:10,352
I'll present it to
them. Nice job, Kevin.

565
00:34:11,092 --> 00:34:12,963
I like this. We'll get
going.

566
00:34:13,442 --> 00:34:17,403
You know, once we get
three people, we don't sound
like me and you being idiots.

567
00:34:17,490 --> 00:34:19,666
Haha. Ok, buddy,
appreciate it.

568
00:34:26,499 --> 00:34:29,371
The first time we met, I was
playing in a tournament

569
00:34:29,980 --> 00:34:34,550
at Slick Willies, and we were
introduced,

570
00:34:35,508 --> 00:34:39,947
but, I'd already noticed her,
'cause, I mean, she was, you
know, beautiful and stunning.

571
00:34:40,469 --> 00:34:42,645
We met, and I was busy with the
tournament.

572
00:34:43,516 --> 00:34:46,475
and so I stayed focused on that.
Our first talk was very short.

573
00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:52,220
The next time we've seen each
other, we started, uh, hitting
it off a lot more

574
00:34:52,525 --> 00:34:56,355
and hitting each other up, uh,
you know, we passed phone
numbers and

575
00:34:56,833 --> 00:35:01,534
became friends on Facebook, and
then started, um, going places
together.

576
00:35:01,795 --> 00:35:03,318
How did I know she was
the one?

577
00:35:03,492 --> 00:35:05,538
He was in love with
her. He was head over heals.

578
00:35:05,799 --> 00:35:07,757
Yes, definitely.
He was hopeless.

579
00:35:08,802 --> 00:35:09,803
She had him.

580
00:35:10,064 --> 00:35:11,935
Yeah, she definitely
had me.

581
00:35:12,153 --> 00:35:16,288
Hahaha. She had him. I
mean, he, I mean, uh, he was a,
he was a goner.

582
00:35:16,549 --> 00:35:18,594
That's for
sure.
So.

583
00:35:19,378 --> 00:35:22,294
That, that is for sure, but, um

584
00:35:23,556 --> 00:35:26,515
You know, I didn't even have to

585
00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:29,344
to ask her, to marry me.

586
00:35:31,433 --> 00:35:34,393
Whenever... we first met

587
00:35:35,611 --> 00:35:37,657
when she went home, she was, at

588
00:35:37,874 --> 00:35:40,790
first, when we first met she was
living with her mother for a
short period of time.

589
00:35:41,574 --> 00:35:43,228
She went home and she told her
mom,

590
00:35:44,490 --> 00:35:46,448
"I met the man that I'm gonna
marry today."

591
00:35:48,581 --> 00:35:51,671
She told her mother that the
first day that she met me.

592
00:35:53,586 --> 00:35:54,717
That's a true story.

593
00:35:54,978 --> 00:35:56,937
We were going there
for the, um,

594
00:35:57,633 --> 00:36:01,724
National, uh, North
American 8-Ball Championships
for BCA.

595
00:36:02,551 --> 00:36:04,771
BCA Nationals.
BCA Nationals.

596
00:36:04,858 --> 00:36:07,600
Well, I mean, I think it's also
North American 8-Ball
championship.

597
00:36:08,470 --> 00:36:09,950
Anyway, um.

598
00:36:10,037 --> 00:36:11,169
Maybe now.

599
00:36:14,868 --> 00:36:16,304
Well, ok.

600
00:36:16,913 --> 00:36:19,699
I ain't got a first
place, like you. I got, I got a
third place.

601
00:36:20,352 --> 00:36:22,876
Third place master-
men's masters, out there.

602
00:36:23,659 --> 00:36:24,704
But, um,

603
00:36:25,400 --> 00:36:28,142
we knew we were going out there
in the time frame

604
00:36:29,665 --> 00:36:35,367
and, uh, we knew all of our
friends in pool, who support us,

605
00:36:36,411 --> 00:36:40,285
uh, would be there, so, we
figured, you know, it'd be a
good

606
00:36:40,676 --> 00:36:43,853
time to have a wedding and, we
could have a, um,

607
00:36:44,506 --> 00:36:46,813
like a pool-themed wedding, all
of our pool friends there.

608
00:36:46,900 --> 00:36:49,685
It was probably one
of my best days, you know,

609
00:36:51,121 --> 00:36:53,341
to do that. 'Cause it was
awesome, the wedding,

610
00:36:53,733 --> 00:36:57,302
You know, I'm playing in the
master's division and, uh,

611
00:36:57,780 --> 00:37:02,350
I go out there. It was
awesome. They had all the-uh,
ton of the pool world was
there

612
00:37:03,046 --> 00:37:08,138
and they all put their sticks
together and crossed their
sticks. You know, one on each
side and

613
00:37:08,226 --> 00:37:12,708
formed a tunnel. And so they go
up to the tunnel and then the
wedding was there.

614
00:37:13,492 --> 00:37:17,670
I mean, it was. It was really
very cool. You know, all his
friends there

615
00:37:17,757 --> 00:37:21,761
then they, you know, had the
wedding and then they go back
through the tunnel of sticks,
and uh,

616
00:37:22,196 --> 00:37:24,894
And then, I had to go back in,

617
00:37:25,765 --> 00:37:28,594
and play the finals in the
Masters, and I won that.

618
00:37:28,811 --> 00:37:33,163
I, and I won the masters
division, right after the
wedding, right?

619
00:37:34,208 --> 00:37:37,864
And then I took them out to eat.
He doesn't even remember that.

620
00:37:38,081 --> 00:37:40,780
I took him to eat,
but, uh, you know,

621
00:37:40,867 --> 00:37:45,175
a bunch of us went to eat and I
took, well I took him and you
know, him and Emma and we ate

622
00:37:45,828 --> 00:37:47,874
Went to the Veni-Venitcian.

623
00:37:48,353 --> 00:37:52,531
And I entered a two hund- their
weekly $200 poker tournament,
and I won that.

624
00:37:52,835 --> 00:37:54,881
So, all-in-all, that
day

625
00:37:55,360 --> 00:37:57,927
you know, my son got married. I
mean, it was amazing.

626
00:37:58,406 --> 00:38:03,150
You know, and then I win the
masters division and then I win
a poker tournament and uh

627
00:38:03,846 --> 00:38:06,109
It, it was really one of the,
you know,

628
00:38:07,546 --> 00:38:12,768
It was... a day that, you know,
I think about when I think
about, you know, my good days,
you know.

629
00:38:13,900 --> 00:38:20,428
She was due on 11/11,
but, they induced her two weeks
early.

630
00:38:21,124 --> 00:38:27,870
I remember, saying right when,
he was being born quoting the
guy from UFC.

631
00:38:28,218 --> 00:38:29,959
"It's TIME!"

632
00:38:30,395 --> 00:38:33,615
Or one of those, but I like, I
like, you know, yelled It out
loud, you know, like

633
00:38:33,702 --> 00:38:37,184
chanted it out, you know, just
like the announcer, 'cause, you
know,

634
00:38:37,924 --> 00:38:38,925
My child was coming.

635
00:38:41,406 --> 00:38:45,148
That was... October 28, 2014.

636
00:38:46,889 --> 00:38:48,630
Very exciting day. Yep.

637
00:38:50,545 --> 00:38:51,938
Becoming a father.

638
00:38:56,551 --> 00:38:58,597
Gambling definitely has a place
in pool.

639
00:38:59,249 --> 00:39:04,124
You look at the history of the
sport. It's gone hand-in-hand
with Calcutta's

640
00:39:04,820 --> 00:39:08,171
and side-games and side-
hustles, and all that.

641
00:39:08,868 --> 00:39:12,045
You know, that adds the
character to billiards.

642
00:39:12,132 --> 00:39:16,484
But to, forget about the roots
it has with gambling

643
00:39:17,093 --> 00:39:20,923
it, it just adds an element that
you don't find in other sports.

644
00:39:21,010 --> 00:39:24,971
The part that I really can't
stand is when people are arguing
over,

645
00:39:25,058 --> 00:39:28,931
you know, a handicap or trying
to figure out which game they're
going to play,

646
00:39:29,018 --> 00:39:30,803
and it ends up being like this
big scene,

647
00:39:31,020 --> 00:39:33,588
I would say I'm more of the
tournament player, but

648
00:39:33,675 --> 00:39:37,244
I mean, I like the gambling side
of it too. It's you know, it's a
lot of fun and it's

649
00:39:37,679 --> 00:39:40,073
you only got to play one match
to try to make some money, but,

650
00:39:40,552 --> 00:39:42,902
I enjoy the tournaments. It's a
lot harder to win

651
00:39:43,032 --> 00:39:46,993
eight matches to win the, win
the money than to win one, so

652
00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:49,082
The competition in pool is
really what

653
00:39:49,996 --> 00:39:53,695
keeps me going. I like it. It's
always different. There's never
anything the same.

654
00:39:54,043 --> 00:39:56,045
I've had a lot of gambling
stories. I've always

655
00:39:56,132 --> 00:39:59,005
loved to gamble, you know. I
like the competitiveness and

656
00:39:59,092 --> 00:40:01,050
chasing, you know, the big
dollars.

657
00:40:01,137 --> 00:40:06,969
The first time I actually played
for money in Austin, was at
Webb's.

658
00:40:07,100 --> 00:40:10,669
Arkansas was playing Texas in
the Cotton Bowl.

659
00:40:11,670 --> 00:40:14,760
And a gentleman came in and
wanted to play 6-ball.

660
00:40:15,978 --> 00:40:22,115
So, all the locals, the regulars
were watching the game, and
nobody wanted to play this guy.

661
00:40:22,594 --> 00:40:26,032
So I begged my dad for $2.00.
He wouldn't give it to me.

662
00:40:26,380 --> 00:40:29,514
Begged him again for $2.00.
He would not give it to me.

663
00:40:30,123 --> 00:40:32,212
On the third beg he gave it to
me.

664
00:40:33,082 --> 00:40:38,044
So, I played the guy for fifty
cents a game and beat him out of
seventy-five dollars.

665
00:40:38,523 --> 00:40:43,615
I was 150 games ahead... at
fifty cents a game.

666
00:40:43,702 --> 00:40:45,704
We had a guy come over every
Sunday.

667
00:40:46,356 --> 00:40:49,490
We'd kick it off for 5, 10 or
20,000.

668
00:40:49,838 --> 00:40:51,361
We'd just kick it off at that.

669
00:40:52,188 --> 00:40:53,973
I had a backer that was,

670
00:40:54,800 --> 00:40:58,238
He'd put a bet under their ass.
I'll tell you.

671
00:40:58,804 --> 00:41:03,461
A lot of guys liked to come to
my place and play because they
liked the table that I had
there.

672
00:41:04,026 --> 00:41:05,201
A good table.

673
00:41:06,420 --> 00:41:08,422
They'd compliment me on it, too.

674
00:41:09,249 --> 00:41:13,079
None of them ever won, but
they'd compliment me on how good
the table was.

675
00:41:13,993 --> 00:41:16,169
And of course, there were the
guys that would say,

676
00:41:16,256 --> 00:41:19,564
"well, we're gambling here" and
I said, "what, my money's not
green?"

677
00:41:19,738 --> 00:41:22,610
I'd go in the bars and I was
playing pool, uh,

678
00:41:23,045 --> 00:41:25,961
and Bill Clinton and Roger
Clinton were sitting there
watching me play.

679
00:41:26,222 --> 00:41:29,312
I look over and I see these two
Secret Service guys sitting
there.

680
00:41:29,661 --> 00:41:32,272
I said, "what are you guys
doing, just sitting around?"

681
00:41:33,273 --> 00:41:34,622
But I knew who they were, right?

682
00:41:35,275 --> 00:41:37,190
And they said, "what do
you do?"

683
00:41:37,843 --> 00:41:40,236
I said, "well, I'm a pool
hustler."

684
00:41:40,454 --> 00:41:45,111
I said, "you see that guy over
there? That's Cal Partee. He's
the leading horse trainer
in Arkansas."

685
00:41:45,328 --> 00:41:49,158
"You see that guy? That's his
sucker, right? They play for a
hundred a game."

686
00:41:49,419 --> 00:41:53,598
"Well, I beat Cal out out of
100, but he beats him out of
100."

687
00:41:54,250 --> 00:41:58,907
"So I win $1000 to pay my rent
so I can live on the lake over
there on Lake Hamilton "

688
00:41:59,125 --> 00:42:02,302
"and hang around Arkansas, enjoy
your beautiful state for a
month."

689
00:42:02,824 --> 00:42:04,347
And he goes, "you do what?"

690
00:42:04,609 --> 00:42:07,786
I said, "I'm a pool hustler."
And he says,

691
00:42:08,047 --> 00:42:10,440
"well, you ought to
take on a new profession."

692
00:42:11,137 --> 00:42:15,881
And I said, "like what, sitting
around watching other people
live their lives?"

693
00:42:16,359 --> 00:42:19,624
And one of them jumps out of his
chair. The other guy goes,

694
00:42:20,973 --> 00:42:25,717
He told him to sit down. He
goes, "he's just -ing with
us. None of this is true."

695
00:42:26,282 --> 00:42:29,938
And it was absolutely the truth.
100 percent.

696
00:42:30,591 --> 00:42:33,812
A guy set up a game with me and
Fats

697
00:42:34,639 --> 00:42:38,817
when I was real young, and, and
anyway, we went over there and,
anyway,

698
00:42:38,904 --> 00:42:42,298
Fats, he was showing us his
scrapbook with all the movie
stars,

699
00:42:42,385 --> 00:42:44,474
pictures with the movie stars
and stuff and

700
00:42:45,301 --> 00:42:48,827
the guy I was with had been
gambling with him for many, many
years,

701
00:42:48,914 --> 00:42:52,221
he said, uh, "Fats, we didn't
come over here to look at your
scrapbook."

702
00:42:52,308 --> 00:42:56,312
"We came over here to bust you."

703
00:42:56,399 --> 00:42:59,533
Well, to tell you the truth, I
got staked by the cook there

704
00:43:01,622 --> 00:43:03,624
Ted. He was a character in
himself.

705
00:43:04,582 --> 00:43:08,498
He said, "come on, play that
ring game, man" It was for $20
a man, like six-handed.

706
00:43:09,325 --> 00:43:11,632
I win the first four games in a
row, right?

707
00:43:12,415 --> 00:43:15,549
I lose one. I win another game.

708
00:43:16,681 --> 00:43:20,685
I lose the next one and, and Ted
quits. He pulls me up.

709
00:43:21,424 --> 00:43:22,991
He had enough money to pay his
rent.

710
00:43:23,426 --> 00:43:25,559
So he, so he,

711
00:43:25,646 --> 00:43:29,650
I, I win, uh, what? Four out of,
five out of six games and he
pulls me up.

712
00:43:30,433 --> 00:43:31,870
And they wouldn't let me play
the next day.

713
00:43:33,523 --> 00:43:37,397
They, they said I
should have kept on playing with
my part of the money.

714
00:43:38,006 --> 00:43:41,531
I was playing pool with a guy
named Mike.

715
00:43:41,749 --> 00:43:45,187
We're playing 9-ball and 6-ball
for $50 a game.

716
00:43:46,188 --> 00:43:49,757
And I'd been playing him daily,
or weekly for months.

717
00:43:50,192 --> 00:43:53,718
There was a, a bouncer there
watching. There were eight or
ten people watching.

718
00:43:54,762 --> 00:43:58,592
And, I missed the ball on
purpose and broke the bar stick.

719
00:43:59,462 --> 00:44:03,597
and the, uh, bouncer came over
and he said, "that's $10.00 for
a br-broken cue."

720
00:44:04,032 --> 00:44:08,341
We were playing with $50.00
bills. I said, "well, pshhh,
give me $50 worth."

721
00:44:09,516 --> 00:44:13,999
And, he, he took the 50. I went
over to the rack and broke four
more cues.

722
00:44:14,652 --> 00:44:16,305
And he goes. "That's enough!"

723
00:44:17,959 --> 00:44:20,005
We ended up playing, you know,
four or five more times.

724
00:44:20,092 --> 00:44:23,965
I ended up, I won $6,000 and a
Toyota Celica.

725
00:44:24,618 --> 00:44:29,144
In, in Europe it's a little bit
more like, you want to show how
good you are.

726
00:44:29,579 --> 00:44:33,540
In America, you try to hide your
real speed a little

727
00:44:33,627 --> 00:44:36,064
bit, to get more games.

728
00:44:36,325 --> 00:44:39,807
One time we're on the road,
we're going to, uh, driving to
Las Vegas.

729
00:44:39,894 --> 00:44:42,462
I was still living in Kentucky,
so it was a long drive.

730
00:44:43,071 --> 00:44:44,638
But I went with a couple of
buddies, and

731
00:44:45,334 --> 00:44:48,511
My buddy was a good pool player,
but he, um,

732
00:44:49,817 --> 00:44:52,124
He didn't know how to stall.

733
00:44:52,211 --> 00:44:53,734
He couldn't, he couldn't hold
back.

734
00:44:54,430 --> 00:44:57,346
And the guys we were playing
couldn't play. I mean, they
just couldn't play.

735
00:44:58,434 --> 00:45:01,394
So I'm going, I'm like, OK, man,
don't worry about it. I got it.

736
00:45:01,699 --> 00:45:03,439
I'm over there. I'm having to
act like,

737
00:45:04,092 --> 00:45:07,574
Can't make a good bridge. I'm
having to miss balls and all
this,

738
00:45:07,661 --> 00:45:09,663
and he's over here making the
balls. I'm like,

739
00:45:10,664 --> 00:45:13,319
man, uh, this is probably
backwards.

740
00:45:13,667 --> 00:45:15,190
They're going to know me before
you anyway,

741
00:45:15,277 --> 00:45:17,889
so I, I'm probably the one that
should be making more balls,

742
00:45:17,976 --> 00:45:20,239
but it's OK. He just couldn't do
it.

743
00:45:20,718 --> 00:45:25,635
I played, uh, this guy in, in
Tennessee. We started out for a
thousand a set.

744
00:45:25,723 --> 00:45:29,030
We had escalated and I was big
winner and I'm betting on the
side, and

745
00:45:30,075 --> 00:45:33,513
and I'm giving this guy the
call-8 now. Real good player.
His name is Mark Owens.

746
00:45:33,731 --> 00:45:37,473
So we're racing to 15 and it's
9-8 me and I missed the eight
and I hang it

747
00:45:37,647 --> 00:45:39,649
and he makes it and he breaks
and runs five racks.

748
00:45:40,346 --> 00:45:41,739
So he's up 14-9.

749
00:45:42,740 --> 00:45:44,785
So, we only started out playing
for a thousand a set.

750
00:45:44,916 --> 00:45:49,572
He breaks the balls and he makes
a ball, and he's got the 4-9
wired over the spot.

751
00:45:57,102 --> 00:45:59,495
And the guy that's staking him
is sitting in a chair,

752
00:45:59,757 --> 00:46:02,977
right where the nine's wired,
right in that, behind that
corner pocket.

753
00:46:03,238 --> 00:46:04,979
No one else is sitting near the
table.

754
00:46:05,850 --> 00:46:10,245
So me and my buddy see that the
nine's wired, and we only got
about eight thousand left.

755
00:46:10,942 --> 00:46:14,815
You know, in our pocket, but we
brought like 15, 20 thousand.
It just so happened it's

756
00:46:14,902 --> 00:46:16,425
a lot of it's in play, you know.

757
00:46:16,817 --> 00:46:19,559
You can't really lower the bet,
especially being on the road.

758
00:46:20,038 --> 00:46:21,866
They're going to know that
you're short on money, you know.

759
00:46:22,431 --> 00:46:26,740
Anyways, he knocked a tough one
ball in and a tough three ball.
He made the two on the break.

760
00:46:27,436 --> 00:46:31,614
And, he could have just tapped
the four-nine. I mean just
tapped it and it would've rolled
in.

761
00:46:32,485 --> 00:46:35,140
And, he was just the type of guy
liked to fire it in on you, you
know?

762
00:46:35,227 --> 00:46:36,750
And he warped it in there and

763
00:46:37,142 --> 00:46:41,799
it swirled around a fake drop
pocket and it flew back out on
the table.

764
00:46:41,886 --> 00:46:45,803
It went down in the pocket flew
back out almost to the spot.

765
00:46:45,890 --> 00:46:49,328
So, the guy that's staking him
gets up off the chair to get the
money

766
00:46:49,415 --> 00:46:52,026
'cause he can see the
balls dead, you know what I
mean? He ain't no dummy.

767
00:46:52,200 --> 00:46:56,988
And, uh, as soon as that ball
goes down, he just gets up to
get that money and it flies back
out on the table.

768
00:46:57,684 --> 00:46:58,903
And I said, "Man, Frank."

769
00:46:59,599 --> 00:47:03,211
I said, "Frank, the 9's on the
table." He says, "Woah, I'm
sorry."

770
00:47:03,298 --> 00:47:06,911
Like, like, he's about 70 years
old. Wore big old thick glasses.

771
00:47:06,998 --> 00:47:11,654
So, long story short, I play
safe on the four and he
never pockets another ball the
whole set.

772
00:47:11,741 --> 00:47:13,091
and I beat him 15 to 14.

773
00:47:13,178 --> 00:47:15,920
So, now he's pretty upset, the
player is, you know.

774
00:47:16,529 --> 00:47:18,139
So, he wants to quit for the
night.

775
00:47:18,270 --> 00:47:21,186
Frank says, "Come back the next
day. We'll play you some more."

776
00:47:22,013 --> 00:47:26,887
So we go back the next day and I
beat him two or three sets for
like 3500 a set. We start out.

777
00:47:26,974 --> 00:47:30,369
So he wants to practice a little
bit. So, Frank's sitting in
that chair.

778
00:47:31,239 --> 00:47:34,895
And so we take a break and he's
hitting balls and he rifles the
ball in that corner pocket.

779
00:47:34,982 --> 00:47:38,856
Hits Frank. Comes off the table.
In that same pocket. Hits Frank
dead in the eye.

780
00:47:39,291 --> 00:47:41,423
Glasses break. Blood goes
everywhere.

781
00:47:41,510 --> 00:47:45,079
We never played again. He went
straight to the hospital. Game
was done.

782
00:47:45,340 --> 00:47:47,865
Still to this day, people walk
up to me

783
00:47:47,952 --> 00:47:51,520
and they'll say "I was at Hawks
Billiards when that nine ball
flew out of the hole."

784
00:47:51,607 --> 00:47:55,394
For like 20,000 it went down in
the pocket, swirled around and
come back out.

785
00:47:56,134 --> 00:47:57,352
Never seen anything like it.

786
00:47:58,005 --> 00:48:02,053
Well, I, I liked playing Wade
Crane 'cause he was always

787
00:48:02,488 --> 00:48:05,099
one of those guys that thought
he was the best player and
everything.

788
00:48:05,186 --> 00:48:06,622
He never beat me in his life.

789
00:48:09,712 --> 00:48:11,889
He's a good guy, though. A
decent guy.

790
00:48:12,019 --> 00:48:14,892
The longer we played, the better
I'd play and the worse he'd
play.

791
00:48:17,024 --> 00:48:20,027
And it got to where it wasn't
much fun for him.

792
00:48:22,029 --> 00:48:23,639
But it was a lot of fun for me.

793
00:48:26,207 --> 00:48:30,385
And he makes statements like,
"well, I love that. I love
this."

794
00:48:31,256 --> 00:48:34,868
He didn't love it too much. He
got his ass dusted.

795
00:48:34,955 --> 00:48:36,174
In, I believe it was

796
00:48:36,261 --> 00:48:37,740
'90 they were going to have the,
uh,

797
00:48:37,827 --> 00:48:40,918
BCA National Championships in
Louisville, Kentucky.

798
00:48:42,136 --> 00:48:48,055
Our sponsor, at the time,
'Gentleman' Mike Jackson, had a
team put together, Jackson's All
Stars.

799
00:48:48,142 --> 00:48:52,712
So he suggested to David and I
that we leave maybe a couple of
weeks early

800
00:48:53,365 --> 00:48:55,454
'cause there was a tournament in
Lexington.

801
00:48:55,541 --> 00:48:58,761
So we thought, well, Lexington.
Louisville. That's not too far.

802
00:48:59,110 --> 00:49:02,635
So we went up there and, uh, we
get to the town,

803
00:49:03,157 --> 00:49:08,336
look in the phone book, tear
that yellow page out of the
phone book and didn't see this
place.

804
00:49:08,728 --> 00:49:12,950
So now we locate a pool room,
Steepleton Billiards,

805
00:49:13,167 --> 00:49:17,519
and go in there and ask about
this tournament they're having
in this city over the weekend.

806
00:49:18,172 --> 00:49:21,915
And they gave us these strange
looks and said, "man, I believe
y'all are lost."

807
00:49:23,177 --> 00:49:26,137
"Well, this is Lexington." He
says. "yeah, but there's not a
place called that."

808
00:49:26,224 --> 00:49:28,574
So I called, went and got some
quarters.

809
00:49:29,227 --> 00:49:31,794
Went to the pay phone and called
Mike Jackson.

810
00:49:32,186 --> 00:49:34,449
I said, "Mike, nobody's ever
heard of this place."

811
00:49:35,189 --> 00:49:38,410
He said, "I've got the flyer out
in the car." He said, "let me go
get it."

812
00:49:38,497 --> 00:49:40,934
He comes back on the phone and
he says, uh,

813
00:49:41,239 --> 00:49:43,589
"Oh," He's laughing. He says,
"oh, I'm sorry."

814
00:49:43,937 --> 00:49:47,419
"The tournament's in Lexington,
Nebraska, not Lexington,
Kentuky."

815
00:49:48,724 --> 00:49:51,423
So David and I went on a road
trip and went to the wrong
state.

816
00:49:52,815 --> 00:49:56,254
You had to perform or, or, not
eat.

817
00:49:56,689 --> 00:50:00,649
Right? So, and we were able to
cover our nut, and

818
00:50:01,259 --> 00:50:04,392
go where we wanted to, eat what
we wanted to, drink what we
wanted to

819
00:50:04,479 --> 00:50:07,743
play where we wanted to, for a
couple of years. It was a lot
of fun.

820
00:50:09,832 --> 00:50:12,879
Do you feel the rush [you feel
the rush] when I'm with you

821
00:50:13,358 --> 00:50:17,362
Do you feel the heat [you feel
the heat] when we're breaking
through?

822
00:50:17,710 --> 00:50:21,148
Do you feel alive in every
single breath?

823
00:50:21,931 --> 00:50:26,762
Do you feel the love, living
life with no regrets?

824
00:50:28,242 --> 00:50:30,027
Buddy Hall. Cecil Hall.

825
00:50:30,766 --> 00:50:31,811
I was Buddy.

826
00:50:33,030 --> 00:50:34,379
Everybody knew me as Buddy.

827
00:50:35,249 --> 00:50:37,034
That's the name my dad gave me.

828
00:50:37,817 --> 00:50:39,297
I was his little buddy.

829
00:50:40,385 --> 00:50:42,865
You know, I was born right on a
riverboat.

830
00:50:44,345 --> 00:50:48,088
Lived on the river. Every day I
wake up, I had a new yard.

831
00:50:49,524 --> 00:50:51,309
Different yard, every time.

832
00:50:52,571 --> 00:50:56,749
I didn't like that. My dad done
that, his whole life.

833
00:50:58,403 --> 00:50:59,360
It killed him.

834
00:51:05,279 --> 00:51:06,498
Wasn't, wasn't much

835
00:51:08,021 --> 00:51:09,196
to the river life.

836
00:51:10,067 --> 00:51:11,677
But, I was raised on the river.

837
00:51:12,504 --> 00:51:17,639
I was twelve years old. I went
to a place, uh, a guy across the
street at a malt shop.

838
00:51:18,336 --> 00:51:19,685
His name was Eddie Taylor.

839
00:51:20,512 --> 00:51:23,341
He owned the malt shop. I was
twelve years old.

840
00:51:24,037 --> 00:51:26,909
He had a little pool table back
in the back. A bumper table.

841
00:51:27,388 --> 00:51:31,218
And I go back there and play
with him. It cost us a dime to
play.

842
00:51:32,828 --> 00:51:36,441
And that's where I started
playing pool, on a bumper table.

843
00:51:37,311 --> 00:51:43,143
He owned the joint and I I'd
visit with him and we'd go back
and play pool and

844
00:51:43,752 --> 00:51:45,406
he liked playing pool with me.

845
00:51:46,625 --> 00:51:49,106
I'd, I'd contest him.

846
00:51:49,410 --> 00:51:53,327
I was twelve years old. I'd test
his ass.

847
00:51:53,632 --> 00:51:58,419
Had to be 16 at that time to go
to a pool room in Metropolis.
It ain't that way now.

848
00:51:59,594 --> 00:52:01,466
I lied about my age.

849
00:52:01,553 --> 00:52:05,557
When I was 15 I went and got me
a phony birth certificate said I
was 16,

850
00:52:08,299 --> 00:52:10,431
and played pool, in the pool
room.

851
00:52:10,953 --> 00:52:14,261
Yeah, funny guy. Great
attitude. Except when you're
playing him.

852
00:52:15,480 --> 00:52:17,395
He wasn't so nice when you were
playing him,

853
00:52:20,006 --> 00:52:22,139
but, off the table, they don't
come any better.

854
00:52:23,357 --> 00:52:24,445
Buddy Hall was my idol.

855
00:52:26,273 --> 00:52:33,585
I saw buddy Hall play pool in
Houston in 1978, at a place
called Grand Central Station.

856
00:52:34,586 --> 00:52:39,025
And there was a gentleman
playing on the back table, a
real tall guy playing a real
short guy.

857
00:52:39,982 --> 00:52:42,202
And the guy I was with he says,

858
00:52:42,724 --> 00:52:46,250
"grab you something to drink and
sit over and watch that
gentleman play pool."

859
00:52:46,337 --> 00:52:47,555
"That's Buddy Hall."

860
00:52:47,990 --> 00:52:50,950
And the gentleman he was playing
was getting a handicap.

861
00:52:52,212 --> 00:52:53,779
He was getting the seven.

862
00:52:54,475 --> 00:52:58,610
Buddy Hall, won the last game
that I saw played.

863
00:52:59,480 --> 00:53:06,052
And the gentleman quit and he
says, "Buddy, This seven ball is
not enough... I quit."

864
00:53:06,618 --> 00:53:08,620
Buddy looked at him and says,
"well, I'll tell you what,"

865
00:53:09,882 --> 00:53:14,539
"I'll play you right-handed and
spot you more. I'll give you the
six ball."

866
00:53:15,975 --> 00:53:18,673
I'm sitting there thinking to
myself, well this guy just
played flawless

867
00:53:18,760 --> 00:53:21,372
pool left-handed and he's not
even left-handed.

868
00:53:21,981 --> 00:53:24,288
From that point forward, he
became my idol.

869
00:53:25,158 --> 00:53:26,768
Everybody got a nickname.

870
00:53:27,595 --> 00:53:29,728
If you ain't got a nickname, you
ain't got no name.

871
00:53:30,555 --> 00:53:36,300
Back in the 70s, when I met
Buddy, he was wearing actually
cowboy boots, you know.

872
00:53:36,387 --> 00:53:40,608
He was like The Rifleman. They
gave him that nickname, I
guess, and

873
00:53:40,695 --> 00:53:44,395
He could really play pool. He
was very serious about his
game.

874
00:53:44,786 --> 00:53:48,268
I think they called him The
Rifleman for good, good reason,
man. He was an eagle eye.

875
00:53:48,486 --> 00:53:51,358
When he was shooting pool, he
was a really, really fantastic
player.

876
00:53:51,663 --> 00:53:54,405
I had The Rifleman was a
nickname of mine.

877
00:53:55,014 --> 00:53:56,537
I shot straight man.

878
00:53:57,669 --> 00:53:58,974
I was a straight shooter.

879
00:54:02,369 --> 00:54:06,286
I went to the tournaments and
they'd say he shot straight like
The Rifleman.

880
00:54:07,331 --> 00:54:09,681
And the, and the name stuck.

881
00:54:09,985 --> 00:54:12,988
I always took a liking to Buddy
Hall. He moved to Houston.

882
00:54:13,075 --> 00:54:16,253
Lost a few dollars playing him
some cheap pool every time I
could.

883
00:54:16,731 --> 00:54:19,821
You know, just the way he would
turn it on when he was in a
match.

884
00:54:20,126 --> 00:54:22,694
You know, Buddy'd be over there,
you know, laughing and giggling
and

885
00:54:23,695 --> 00:54:26,132
you know, eating a chicken fried
steak or whatever else,

886
00:54:26,219 --> 00:54:28,656
you know, and having a good
time. And then when they called
his match,

887
00:54:28,743 --> 00:54:30,919
it was like, man, that's a
totally different guy.

888
00:54:31,137 --> 00:54:34,706
Kind of hard to say anybody can
play better than Buddy Hall, in
his prime.

889
00:54:34,793 --> 00:54:39,276
Amazing player. He's like one of
the great-greatest American
players of all-time.

890
00:54:39,754 --> 00:54:42,540
I really enjoyed watching him
play when he came and he won it.

891
00:54:42,627 --> 00:54:45,630
I think he won it in like, '98
or something.

892
00:54:45,760 --> 00:54:48,415
His delivery is deliberate,
and smooth.

893
00:54:48,763 --> 00:54:50,156
Like, it never looked like

894
00:54:50,635 --> 00:54:53,812
he tried to force it. You
know, like he smoothed it
around.

895
00:54:54,247 --> 00:54:57,816
Well, phuuu, Buddy. Oh my
gosh. His stroke is just

896
00:54:59,426 --> 00:55:02,603
and it's like, he shoots the
same speed all the time.

897
00:55:02,777 --> 00:55:05,389
He never has to shoot like too
hard or too soft.

898
00:55:05,737 --> 00:55:08,870
His acceleration was so, pure

899
00:55:09,131 --> 00:55:14,354
that his tip would stay on the
ball, on the cue ball a lot
longer than most players.

900
00:55:14,963 --> 00:55:20,447
It was, he, it was. He was
beautiful to watch. Oh, I loved
Buddy's game.

901
00:55:21,405 --> 00:55:25,147
One of the greatest, ever, um,
9-ball players, and

902
00:55:26,671 --> 00:55:29,891
and I got to grow up, same area.
10-minutes from him, really.

903
00:55:29,978 --> 00:55:31,893
He was an all-around player.
He,

904
00:55:31,980 --> 00:55:34,896
shot-making phenomenal.
Banking, phenomenal.

905
00:55:35,288 --> 00:55:38,247
Safety play, real good.
Kicking game good.

906
00:55:39,292 --> 00:55:42,774
He was, um, he was something
else.

907
00:55:43,557 --> 00:55:49,781
Yeah, I loved his game. I loved
his, uh, precise position.
Everything, was like this.

908
00:55:49,868 --> 00:55:53,567
Buddy Hall. It was like getting
run over by a freight train.

909
00:55:53,915 --> 00:55:57,049
It was like, you were the loc,
he was like a locomotive.

910
00:55:57,484 --> 00:56:02,184
and the locomotive is doing like
2-miles an hour, and it's going
Chong. Chong, Ch...

911
00:56:02,271 --> 00:56:05,057
And he steadily makes them balls
and they go, pop

912
00:56:05,971 --> 00:56:09,583
Perfect angle. Pop. Perfect
angle. It was like, Chshhhh.

913
00:56:09,801 --> 00:56:13,718
And it would just never change.
It was like being hit by a
train.

914
00:56:13,892 --> 00:56:15,154
It was BRUTAL!

915
00:56:15,372 --> 00:56:17,199
Buddy Hall, great player.

916
00:56:17,548 --> 00:56:19,985
Playing him in tournaments, or
for cash,

917
00:56:20,333 --> 00:56:22,074
now that's like a nightmare,
isn't it?

918
00:56:24,032 --> 00:56:27,253
I'd done all of it pretty good,
but I hit the pocket really
good.

919
00:56:28,341 --> 00:56:29,734
I hit the pocket good.

920
00:56:30,996 --> 00:56:33,477
But I played, I played the game
good.

921
00:56:34,260 --> 00:56:39,570
I knew how to play safe and
stuff like that, early. I
learned how to play it early.

922
00:56:40,222 --> 00:56:42,921
He told me one time he
won eight tournaments.

923
00:56:43,487 --> 00:56:45,314
He said he won all eight
tournaments

924
00:56:45,402 --> 00:56:47,099
and he used a different cue
every week.

925
00:56:48,013 --> 00:56:50,407
That's pretty strong.

926
00:56:50,494 --> 00:56:53,584
Well, I was a gambling sum'bitch
and I could play tournaments.

927
00:56:54,454 --> 00:57:00,895
I was a tournament player and I
gambled heads-up with about
anybody wanted to play.

928
00:57:02,462 --> 00:57:04,812
I had both of those in my
repertoire.

929
00:57:05,683 --> 00:57:07,032
I played good pool.

930
00:57:08,033 --> 00:57:10,731
I played tournaments, and I
gambled.

931
00:57:11,123 --> 00:57:13,299
He had a standing deal where he
played,

932
00:57:13,952 --> 00:57:17,172
Uh, he would play anybod-
anybody can come in there and
play him $1000 set.

933
00:57:18,522 --> 00:57:21,133
Which was a lot of money back
then, you know, a thous-

934
00:57:21,220 --> 00:57:25,180
I mean, it didn't matter it who
it was. They automatically could
play him a $1000 set.

935
00:57:26,399 --> 00:57:31,056
I never really got to see him
match up. I mean, I mean, it was
very hard for him to get a game.

936
00:57:31,273 --> 00:57:34,581
He offered the world the seven
ball back then at one point and

937
00:57:35,843 --> 00:57:38,150
Um, not very many people came
and tried it.

938
00:57:38,324 --> 00:57:41,849
But, um, yeah, he was just an
amazing player.

939
00:57:41,936 --> 00:57:46,724
It was cool to get to grow up in
the the same area as him and get
to see him practice.

940
00:57:46,811 --> 00:57:50,031
And, actually I've gotten to
share the table with him.

941
00:57:50,118 --> 00:57:53,818
It's definitely cool being from
around the same area as a
legend,

942
00:57:54,253 --> 00:57:59,171
and, hopefully, you know, I can
be a legend too out of the same
area. That'd be cool.

943
00:58:00,128 --> 00:58:02,827
I'm getting old. Hell, I'm 78
years old.

944
00:58:04,437 --> 00:58:06,178
Cute, but 78.

945
00:58:06,439 --> 00:58:09,137
It is what it is, brother. It
is what it is.

946
00:58:10,182 --> 00:58:14,491
He's one of the greatest
that ever lived, uh, I don't
think, uh,

947
00:58:16,014 --> 00:58:19,191
I don't think anybody played
much better 9-ball than he did.

948
00:58:19,452 --> 00:58:21,367
I had an interesting life.

949
00:58:24,631 --> 00:58:27,373
Some things were good, and some
things, wasn't so good.

950
00:58:29,462 --> 00:58:32,552
But, all-in-all, I'd say I had a
pretty good life.

951
00:58:34,902 --> 00:58:38,210
Well, I won, I-I became the best
player in the world.

952
00:58:40,038 --> 00:58:41,082
By myself.

953
00:58:43,650 --> 00:58:46,218
It was good times and bad times.

954
00:58:47,959 --> 00:58:49,874
More good times than bad times.

955
00:58:51,702 --> 00:58:53,225
I won more than I lost.

956
00:58:55,227 --> 00:58:56,881
She went shopping for groceries.

957
00:58:57,359 --> 00:59:00,188
I stayed at home and watched
James. He was only 10 months
old.

958
00:59:00,275 --> 00:59:04,671
We laid on the couch and watched
Dumb and Dumber 2, and, went to
bed.

959
00:59:06,673 --> 00:59:07,718
Then I woke up.

960
00:59:09,241 --> 00:59:11,243
It was probably 4 AM.

961
00:59:12,287 --> 00:59:15,290
She was making a noise, but
wasn't there.

962
00:59:16,117 --> 00:59:18,076
I called 911 and

963
00:59:20,208 --> 00:59:22,515
I tried to give her mouth to
mouth, but, they told me not to
do that,

964
00:59:22,602 --> 00:59:25,213
that I needed to give her chest
compressions.

965
00:59:26,040 --> 00:59:29,304
I did that until the ambulance
just showed up.

966
00:59:32,003 --> 00:59:35,310
And, they, they couldn't, they
couldn't help her.

967
00:59:43,580 --> 00:59:44,668
Very, very

968
00:59:47,584 --> 00:59:51,239
very hard to even remember. You
know, to think about it.

969
00:59:57,681 --> 01:00:03,556
Somewhere at the end of
September or October, I guess
two years and four or
five months ago,

970
01:00:03,861 --> 01:00:08,430
I had a seizure that put me in a
coma from, uh, the fall.

971
01:00:08,605 --> 01:00:12,652
Five years ago is when it
started, but, we didn't find out
what it was

972
01:00:14,393 --> 01:00:16,700
for the first, like, year or
two.

973
01:00:17,396 --> 01:00:18,919
Like I thought I was just
passing out.

974
01:00:19,180 --> 01:00:21,661
Like I'd wake up on the ground
and I thought I had just

975
01:00:22,401 --> 01:00:25,404
passed out so I wouldn't tell
nobody, 'cause it happened in
the morning.

976
01:00:26,013 --> 01:00:31,366
They said that, I came down and
then apparently I had a
seizure somewhere down here.

977
01:00:31,497 --> 01:00:35,893
They don't really even know
where, or what I even hit my
head against.

978
01:00:36,458 --> 01:00:37,895
'Cause it had to have been
something hard.

979
01:00:38,373 --> 01:00:41,812
I started bleeding and I went
back up to my room.

980
01:00:42,464 --> 01:00:46,294
And there's handprints on the
handrail going up the stairs.

981
01:00:46,991 --> 01:00:48,557
And me into my bed.

982
01:00:48,906 --> 01:00:52,474
To be honest, I'm not really
sure how it unfolded, you know,
but they

983
01:00:52,561 --> 01:00:58,176
called an ambulance, and took me
to the, Saint David's, basically
to the operation room.

984
01:00:59,133 --> 01:01:04,443
They had to, operate. Take off
part of my skull to release the
pressure.

985
01:01:04,878 --> 01:01:09,143
And, they didn't know if I was
going to have full mental
capacity, or

986
01:01:09,448 --> 01:01:16,281
if I lose control of, uh, half
my body or, they didn't know
'cause it was, it had to do
with the brain.

987
01:01:16,542 --> 01:01:19,327
Like if I was ever going to up
up the stairs,

988
01:01:19,414 --> 01:01:23,897
I had to put on a, uh, a belt
and have someone help carry me
up the stairs.

989
01:01:24,550 --> 01:01:29,468
So, I, uh, basically stayed
right here next to my pool table
for four months,

990
01:01:30,295 --> 01:01:33,907
going very, very seldom up the
stairs, and I didn't hit a pool
ball

991
01:01:34,212 --> 01:01:37,519
because I was so scared, like,
half my skull was missing.

992
01:01:37,911 --> 01:01:41,349
Like, I had to wear a helmet
just in case I fell, for like,

993
01:01:41,567 --> 01:01:44,091
I forgot how long I had to wear
the helmet for. Every day.

994
01:01:45,092 --> 01:01:48,530
I'm blessed to have all my
faculties.

995
01:01:52,970 --> 01:01:54,711
It's threw some curve balls at
me.

996
01:01:56,277 --> 01:01:57,409
Phew.

997
01:01:58,149 --> 01:02:01,892
Losing, losing my wife, that
was, that was, that was harder
than

998
01:02:02,544 --> 01:02:08,028
going through the the seizures
and the coma and not being able
to drive, or go play pool or
anything.

999
01:02:08,768 --> 01:02:11,728
Losing my wife was harder, much
harder than that.

1000
01:02:14,339 --> 01:02:16,689
Raising my son, without her.

1001
01:02:18,169 --> 01:02:20,432
So, that makes it hard.

1002
01:02:30,007 --> 01:02:32,270
Prop bet would be a proposition
shot.

1003
01:02:32,357 --> 01:02:34,272
Generally, they say if you're
going to shoot

1004
01:02:34,663 --> 01:02:37,318
if you're going to bet on
somebody's proposition, you're
in a bad bet.

1005
01:02:37,710 --> 01:02:42,149
So, a proposition shot, for
instance, would be freezing the
ball down on the bottom rail,

1006
01:02:42,410 --> 01:02:45,631
putting the cue ball on the
other bottom rail, on top of it.

1007
01:02:45,762 --> 01:02:48,329
and I can shoot it one-handed
and spin it in the corner.

1008
01:02:48,939 --> 01:02:51,724
Throwing a playing card over a
building. Uh.

1009
01:02:53,639 --> 01:02:58,426
You know, throwing a golf ball
further than a baseball... Uh.

1010
01:03:00,124 --> 01:03:05,042
You know, all kinds on the pool
table. I mean, I know quite a
few myself that I could show you
and you'd be like BET.

1011
01:03:05,129 --> 01:03:09,002
You know, haha, you know, 'cause
you're gonna, just doesn't
look possible. You know so,

1012
01:03:09,394 --> 01:03:12,658
it's not really the tricky ones
where you lick the finger and
put it on the ball,

1013
01:03:12,745 --> 01:03:15,095
or anything like- you
actually have to execute
something, but

1014
01:03:15,748 --> 01:03:18,185
Yeah, you know. Gaff bet. Prop
bet. Just

1015
01:03:18,969 --> 01:03:22,146
better off staying away from
those, haha, for the most part.

1016
01:03:22,842 --> 01:03:25,018
Just play some 9-ball or one
pocket, you'll be alright.

1017
01:03:25,671 --> 01:03:29,370
I've seen them from across the
room, from 30-feet away,

1018
01:03:29,893 --> 01:03:35,289
betting they could throw a
quarter in a tip jar, and, on
the bar, and stuff, and

1019
01:03:35,594 --> 01:03:38,902
Seen them try to throw a
quarter in, uh, the change
machine.

1020
01:03:39,772 --> 01:03:41,905
and, and stuff, and I've seen
them, I've seen them done.

1021
01:03:41,992 --> 01:03:45,691
It's, it's, but it's, um, I've
seen a bunch of crazy
stuff, it's...

1022
01:03:45,996 --> 01:03:48,912
Rolling, rolling the pool ball
to the wall and

1023
01:03:49,564 --> 01:03:51,871
closest to the wall wins, but
you can't touch the wall,

1024
01:03:52,524 --> 01:03:56,745
and all that, and so I've seen
them, seen a bunch of stuff like
it's crazy.

1025
01:03:56,833 --> 01:03:58,878
Be at the pool tournament,
you're all inside and

1026
01:03:59,879 --> 01:04:03,840
"Hey, I'll foot race you outside
for two or three hundred," and

1027
01:04:03,927 --> 01:04:07,713
they end up going outside and
foot racing. Just a bunch of
crazy stuff. Yeah, it's, uh,

1028
01:04:08,845 --> 01:04:12,500
Yeah, pool players they'll
definitely gamble on just about
anything.

1029
01:04:12,805 --> 01:04:16,678
We were all in New Orleans and I
bet 2500 I could throw it from

1030
01:04:16,765 --> 01:04:22,336
the front door of Buffaloes,
over a, 70-foot train,

1031
01:04:22,423 --> 01:04:24,991
past a 70-yard gap, onto a 5-
story building.

1032
01:04:25,209 --> 01:04:27,820
But yeah, it was a
golf ball and they throw it over
a, uh,

1033
01:04:27,907 --> 01:04:31,345
was it a building or was it a,
uh, was it the train track?

1034
01:04:31,563 --> 01:04:34,653
or something. Right, and the
train track is above everything, right?

1035
01:04:35,915 --> 01:04:38,962
Yeah, I, I, I remember that, but
I don't,

1036
01:04:39,440 --> 01:04:42,879
It was a while back. I've had,
I've had brain brain surgery
since then.

1037
01:04:42,966 --> 01:04:46,099
Ha. My memory's not as good.
Haha. I use that a lot.

1038
01:04:46,926 --> 01:04:51,888
So I threw it like over, it was
around 130, 140-yard throw, and
I, and I won.

1039
01:05:03,943 --> 01:05:06,946
Every time I go to Buffaloes, I
pay for my trip throwing that
golf ball,

1040
01:05:07,599 --> 01:05:09,993
but it hurts my arm a little
now. I'm an old man. You know
what I mean?

1041
01:05:10,123 --> 01:05:13,039
Fat Randy one time asked me to
play some pool.

1042
01:05:13,561 --> 01:05:17,000
I said "No, Randy.." He said,
"what if I play on roller
skates?"

1043
01:05:18,001 --> 01:05:21,221
He went out to his car. I say,
"I'll play you $1000 dollar
set, if you,"

1044
01:05:21,613 --> 01:05:25,530
"and I'll play on roller
skates." So he goes out to his
car and gets some roller skates,

1045
01:05:25,617 --> 01:05:29,055
comes rolling in. I said, "you
got me." I said, "I can't take
it."

1046
01:05:29,142 --> 01:05:31,928
I beat him, but I mean, the
roller skates were this high.

1047
01:05:32,015 --> 01:05:36,367
I mean for Christ's sake, he was
like, you know, he's like 7-foot
tall.

1048
01:05:36,454 --> 01:05:38,456
Me and Tony Watson, even when he
was a kid.

1049
01:05:39,239 --> 01:05:41,111
We flipped a coin for 5,000.

1050
01:05:41,415 --> 01:05:44,462
We had won-beat this guy for a
pretty good amount of money, you
know, playing pool.

1051
01:05:45,332 --> 01:05:47,030
and we were kids, and, um,

1052
01:05:48,118 --> 01:05:51,034
and so this guy sho, said, "Show
me some real gamble." You know.

1053
01:05:52,035 --> 01:05:53,732
"Flip me a coin for 5,000."

1054
01:05:53,819 --> 01:05:55,734
Tony said, "You got it." I
said, "NOOO!"

1055
01:05:55,821 --> 01:05:58,650
You know. like, I was like, "No
way." 'Cause we're playing
pool.

1056
01:06:00,521 --> 01:06:03,829
And, Butch put us to it. "Oh,
you got to do it. You ain't
getting no more action."

1057
01:06:03,916 --> 01:06:06,353
'Cause Tony had said yes, of
course. So, I said, "Ok."

1058
01:06:06,963 --> 01:06:08,747
And he flipped it across that
first table.

1059
01:06:08,834 --> 01:06:11,532
It was on the ground. I yelled
"Heads," and I didn't get near
it,

1060
01:06:11,619 --> 01:06:14,666
'cause he wasn't moving towards
it. I didn't want him to think
anything. So,

1061
01:06:15,275 --> 01:06:18,887
I could see it was heads. I
said, "it's heads Butch."
He said, "Ok."

1062
01:06:19,105 --> 01:06:22,021
and, he paid the money and no
one ever went near the coin

1063
01:06:22,108 --> 01:06:24,241
'cause they noticed he never
went and looked at it.

1064
01:06:24,328 --> 01:06:27,809
So we go dead-busted and there's
this guy named John Hager, Jr.

1065
01:06:27,896 --> 01:06:30,029
He's like a, a champion hustler.

1066
01:06:30,116 --> 01:06:32,423
He, he's made millions of
dollars playing pool.

1067
01:06:32,858 --> 01:06:34,468
Well, he shoots 3-pointers, right.

1068
01:06:34,947 --> 01:06:37,906
And one day he asked me to shoot
3-pointers for 5,000, right.

1069
01:06:38,168 --> 01:06:43,216
So, we go shoot 3-pointers, and
the guy has a, an old ball. It's
like a sheep skin.

1070
01:06:43,434 --> 01:06:46,306
And, he's putting water on it,
and I can't understand why he's
putting water on it,

1071
01:06:46,393 --> 01:06:51,094
but, he shot first, so when he
shoots his ball, has, uh, a lot
of friction.

1072
01:06:51,181 --> 01:06:55,620
So when it hits the rim, it
puts the water on the rim and
it's, he has it deflated.

1073
01:06:56,055 --> 01:06:58,101
So, when it hits, it hits the
rim and goes in, right.

1074
01:06:58,188 --> 01:07:00,277
And I'm playing with a gym ball
with a sheen on it.

1075
01:07:00,755 --> 01:07:03,106
And I've been playing basketball
my whole life. You know what I
mean?

1076
01:07:03,280 --> 01:07:07,719
And so, I get to shooting and
the balls zipping out of the
rim. And I'm like, what's going
on?

1077
01:07:07,806 --> 01:07:09,503
I've never seen that ever, right?

1078
01:07:09,982 --> 01:07:12,419
And before you know it, Justin
Hall's up on the rim.

1079
01:07:12,506 --> 01:07:14,726
He's on my shoulders, cleaning
the rim off.

1080
01:07:14,943 --> 01:07:17,729
And, I need two out of three to
beat this guy, on credit.

1081
01:07:17,990 --> 01:07:20,601
Right. I show him my bank
account. He's like, "you got,
you got it."

1082
01:07:20,862 --> 01:07:25,041
And he thought he was stealing.
And I hit 2 out of 3 at the very
end to beat him.

1083
01:07:25,432 --> 01:07:27,304
Probably the greatest moment of
my career. You know what I mean?

1084
01:07:27,652 --> 01:07:30,133
'Buddy Boy' used to shoot the
cue ball out of his mouth.

1085
01:07:32,135 --> 01:07:35,964
A-and play. So, I, I don't
know. He had a prop for that.

1086
01:07:36,530 --> 01:07:39,272
Yeah, he'd put the cue ball in
his mouth and, and, and shoot.

1087
01:07:39,794 --> 01:07:42,928
I went on the road with Calvin
Carner and Gary Bright.

1088
01:07:43,233 --> 01:07:46,279
Gary was a coin tossing son of a
bitch, boy.

1089
01:07:46,932 --> 01:07:49,021
He could pitch, to the line.

1090
01:07:49,456 --> 01:07:51,415
Like those lines right there.

1091
01:07:53,243 --> 01:07:55,723
He could pitch. He could pitch
to 'em. He could...

1092
01:07:55,810 --> 01:07:58,248
That, that coin would hit, it'd
go dit, dit, dit.

1093
01:07:59,379 --> 01:08:00,337
Just like that.

1094
01:08:01,468 --> 01:08:05,298
Dit, dit, dit. Stop. Right on
the 'ing line.

1095
01:08:05,994 --> 01:08:08,475
I mean, eh, pardon my, right
on the line.

1096
01:08:08,997 --> 01:08:13,915
We'd pitch to the dirt. Pitch to
the wall. Pitch to the line.

1097
01:08:15,308 --> 01:08:17,354
Pitch to the spot on the pool
table.

1098
01:08:18,833 --> 01:08:23,316
I got to where I can do that
halfway decent, but not never
nothing like Gary.

1099
01:08:23,882 --> 01:08:27,277
God, he was a joke. I mean, he'd
pitch it out there, it

1100
01:08:27,929 --> 01:08:30,454
most the time part of it'd be
laying on the spot.

1101
01:08:32,064 --> 01:08:33,370
He just could pitch.

1102
01:08:34,110 --> 01:08:36,068
So yeah, I was in the banks,
and, uh

1103
01:08:36,764 --> 01:08:42,161
I looked on the, uh, schedule
and I'm playing Efren Reyes at
9:00 the next morning.

1104
01:08:42,248 --> 01:08:44,381
and I was all fired up. I was
like, yeah.

1105
01:08:45,338 --> 01:08:48,167
Uh, I was telling Billy and Sky,
they were like,

1106
01:08:48,254 --> 01:08:51,953
"man, we love to play Efron just
to play him too. You're lucky,"
or whatever

1107
01:08:52,693 --> 01:08:55,261
Then me and my wife went to
casino.

1108
01:08:55,348 --> 01:08:58,569
Tony Chohan was over there.
Johnny Rocket, all of us.

1109
01:08:58,656 --> 01:09:03,530
Next thing you know, we're
drinking, gambling, hit a few
jackpots playing blackjack, and

1110
01:09:04,096 --> 01:09:08,361
I look up and it's 3:00 in the
morning, so I went to bed.
I wake up,

1111
01:09:08,927 --> 01:09:13,061
and it's 9:00 exactly.
There's no way I could get

1112
01:09:13,149 --> 01:09:15,673
to the match on time, all
the way down the halls and

1113
01:09:15,760 --> 01:09:18,632
all that, but yeah, somebody
showed up and played for me.

1114
01:09:18,719 --> 01:09:20,373
There's a video of it, but it
ain't me.

1115
01:09:21,113 --> 01:09:24,464
I think, I think it was Billy's
stakehorse, if I remember right.

1116
01:09:26,379 --> 01:09:27,685
That's pool for you though.

1117
01:09:34,082 --> 01:09:36,520
Since I got hurt, my game has
improved.

1118
01:09:36,737 --> 01:09:41,394
It's gotten better, but my focus
to me, is probably the weakest
part.

1119
01:09:41,481 --> 01:09:44,441
I've gotten older, to my mid-40s
now,

1120
01:09:44,789 --> 01:09:48,184
and the medication I take from
the seizures

1121
01:09:49,010 --> 01:09:53,624
makes you a little more
lethargic, like a little more
less than

1122
01:09:54,712 --> 01:09:57,193
wanting to put forth the effort,
or, you know

1123
01:09:57,454 --> 01:09:59,499
to focus, or at least it feels
that way.

1124
01:10:06,289 --> 01:10:07,725
I scratch every time.

1125
01:10:08,204 --> 01:10:11,424
When it's imperative, to run
out, to be on the right side of
the ball.

1126
01:10:11,511 --> 01:10:12,860
I feel a little lost sometimes.

1127
01:10:17,778 --> 01:10:18,779
Trying to figure out

1128
01:10:19,650 --> 01:10:22,522
what's best for my game. Trying
to get ready for the,

1129
01:10:23,523 --> 01:10:25,482
tour stop at Skinny's

1130
01:10:25,873 --> 01:10:27,440
My name is

1131
01:10:27,527 --> 01:10:30,095
Carmel Luttrell and I am the
tournament director.

1132
01:10:30,182 --> 01:10:34,055
Cen-Tex tour is a regional tour
that's in Central Texas.

1133
01:10:34,142 --> 01:10:35,622
It's straight races, no
handicap.

1134
01:10:35,709 --> 01:10:38,277
There's no eligibility
requirements to be able to play.

1135
01:10:38,364 --> 01:10:40,279
Pros can play.
Like anybody can play.

1136
01:10:40,366 --> 01:10:43,500
So, I have players
from all skill levels
attending these events.

1137
01:10:43,587 --> 01:10:46,503
And, it's a great
opportunity to just battle

1138
01:10:46,590 --> 01:10:48,766
it out. No handicap, straight
races.

1139
01:10:48,853 --> 01:10:51,290
James Davis, Jr. wasn't able to
play today.

1140
01:10:51,638 --> 01:10:55,947
Apparently, he practiced too
hard for this event and got a
little too sick

1141
01:10:56,034 --> 01:10:57,992
My dad called me
the next morning.

1142
01:10:58,645 --> 01:11:01,387
He was like, you know,
"You want me to pick you
up and bring you," you know,

1143
01:11:01,648 --> 01:11:03,824
"Ride to the tournament", and I
was like, "man, I can't do it."

1144
01:11:04,085 --> 01:11:05,739
"I got sick last night and, uh,"

1145
01:11:06,087 --> 01:11:10,222
So I had to, cancel the
tournament, even though I really
wanted to play.

1146
01:11:10,396 --> 01:11:12,877
I was practicing, before the
tournament.

1147
01:11:13,965 --> 01:11:16,054
Played the, the weekly
tournament.

1148
01:11:17,403 --> 01:11:21,277
But... It's the way it goes
sometimes.

1149
01:11:21,364 --> 01:11:24,323
in a heavy load

1150
01:11:24,410 --> 01:11:27,892
Hittin' cue balls in a smokey
room

1151
01:11:28,675 --> 01:11:32,244
Deck of cards, tales of gloom

1152
01:11:32,679 --> 01:11:36,379
On the road, chasing bucks and
fame

1153
01:11:36,857 --> 01:11:40,165
Gambling lives in a high-
stakes game

1154
01:11:40,687 --> 01:11:44,735
So rack 'em up, let the
hustlers play

1155
01:11:45,126 --> 01:11:47,259
Jeremy Jones from Baytown,
Texas.

1156
01:11:47,346 --> 01:11:50,349
Started pool, uh, at 17 years
old.

1157
01:11:51,219 --> 01:11:55,789
I worked, uh, two jobs in high
school. One of them at
the pizza restaurant.

1158
01:11:56,790 --> 01:12:00,185
And on the weekends, we used to,
you know, drink a few beers,
play,

1159
01:12:00,272 --> 01:12:03,275
play poker with our tip money,
or whatever you had planned, and

1160
01:12:03,797 --> 01:12:07,148
One of the guys would always go
to the game room, played pool.
Had his own cue.

1161
01:12:07,497 --> 01:12:09,586
And, uh, I had no clue about
pool.

1162
01:12:10,326 --> 01:12:13,241
So, I followed him up there one
day and he hustled me. Uh,

1163
01:12:14,242 --> 01:12:19,639
And then I kind of got a big
itch to try and be able to beat
him. So,

1164
01:12:19,813 --> 01:12:22,381
that's what got me interested in
pool in there, you know, kind of
went from there.

1165
01:12:22,729 --> 01:12:24,775
Well, he is a, uh, dear friend.

1166
01:12:25,297 --> 01:12:27,560
Uh, one of my mentors.

1167
01:12:27,647 --> 01:12:30,433
I was his roommate in Vegas.

1168
01:12:30,694 --> 01:12:32,913
His roommate in, uh, Houston.

1169
01:12:33,131 --> 01:12:36,700
Uh, he would, put me in events,
or go in, go in with me.

1170
01:12:36,787 --> 01:12:39,572
You know, and help me, uh, get
action.

1171
01:12:39,877 --> 01:12:41,922
Learned a lot from Jeremy Jones.

1172
01:12:42,227 --> 01:12:44,316
Oh, for sure he's the best
player from Texas.

1173
01:12:44,403 --> 01:12:47,145
I mean, Jeremy, he's a, he's a,
he's a legend. He's

1174
01:12:47,624 --> 01:12:49,452
an all-timer, probably already.

1175
01:12:49,887 --> 01:12:52,019
Oh, he was the best player
around, to my opinion.

1176
01:12:52,324 --> 01:12:54,674
He was the best gambler, best
player.

1177
01:12:55,675 --> 01:12:58,330
Amazing. He used to come to
Moyers, the Austin Cue Club.

1178
01:12:58,852 --> 01:13:00,071
The players would give him
weight

1179
01:13:00,898 --> 01:13:03,814
and then, all of a sudden, he
just, boom, became the best.

1180
01:13:03,901 --> 01:13:06,120
I mean, you know, real, real,
real tough player.

1181
01:13:06,599 --> 01:13:10,734
I don't think I ever saw him
lose playing one pocket, so, and
he played everybody.

1182
01:13:11,299 --> 01:13:15,347
I mean he, within a two-year
span that kid, went from

1183
01:13:16,392 --> 01:13:19,351
Ok player to world-beater.
Yeah.

1184
01:13:20,352 --> 01:13:22,136
Jeremy was special.

1185
01:13:22,398 --> 01:13:25,618
Amazing player. I think he might
have won the Texas State 9-Ball
championship

1186
01:13:25,705 --> 01:13:29,492
the first year I got to go watch
it, in like, 1994.

1187
01:13:29,709 --> 01:13:34,105
I won the Texas Open in 1994 and
then, uh, '01 and '03.

1188
01:13:34,584 --> 01:13:39,110
You know, he wasn't afraid to
gamble. He wasn't looking to
steal. He, he gambled.

1189
01:13:39,371 --> 01:13:43,854
I was in San Antonio when I was
living there. We were at Galaxy
Billiards, and

1190
01:13:44,158 --> 01:13:46,552
and, uh, there was a guy in
there from Canada,

1191
01:13:47,248 --> 01:13:50,382
supposedly a really good player
playing on the 9-footer.

1192
01:13:51,035 --> 01:13:54,995
And we were over there playing
our little weekly tournament,
and Jeremy walks in, and

1193
01:13:55,692 --> 01:14:00,653
walks up to the guy and next
thing you know, they're playing.
I don't know the details of it.

1194
01:14:01,001 --> 01:14:06,485
I mean, he literally beats the
guy. I think 11, 13 games within
30, 45 minutes.

1195
01:14:07,312 --> 01:14:12,883
And I walked over there and I
said, "Jeremy, why didn't, why
didn't you play it a little
slower?" And, he said,

1196
01:14:13,013 --> 01:14:15,407
"sometimes they love it when you
pound on them."

1197
01:14:17,888 --> 01:14:20,020
That's what he told me.

1198
01:14:20,194 --> 01:14:24,721
You could always count 100
percent. When I was captain of
the Mosconi Cup a few years, and

1199
01:14:25,069 --> 01:14:29,769
while nobody can be guaranteed
to win a match, you're playing a
race to five to begin with, but,
uh

1200
01:14:30,074 --> 01:14:34,426
One thing some people have
trouble playing their game in
the Mosconi Cup.

1201
01:14:34,513 --> 01:14:38,082
Uh, they can't, the pressure
seems to be too intense for 'em

1202
01:14:38,865 --> 01:14:42,608
but, uh, it wasn't too intense
for Jeremy. Jeremy, he could

1203
01:14:43,783 --> 01:14:47,613
he, I could always count on
getting 100 percent from him
and,

1204
01:14:48,048 --> 01:14:51,269
if he got the opportunity to
win, he was going to win.

1205
01:14:52,052 --> 01:14:55,708
I think of a break and I just
think of a very offensive
player.

1206
01:14:56,100 --> 01:15:02,149
and, uh, just somebody that came
with a lot of energy, and
there's somebody with a drive to
win.

1207
01:15:02,498 --> 01:15:04,674
Jeremy Jones is he's a legend,
you know.

1208
01:15:04,891 --> 01:15:07,720
I played Jeremy maybe, like six
times in my career.

1209
01:15:07,981 --> 01:15:11,594
He's beaten me every time and I
think it's 'cause I respect him
so much, it's like,

1210
01:15:12,290 --> 01:15:16,729
it's kind of like playing your
old man, you know, he's a little
intimidating. He like, really
lets go of the cue.

1211
01:15:16,816 --> 01:15:21,168
He has that little style where
the cue leaves his hand for a
brief moment,

1212
01:15:21,386 --> 01:15:23,997
which I think which makes him
so, so talented.

1213
01:15:24,128 --> 01:15:26,173
Even when your dogging it, if
you throw your cue,

1214
01:15:26,478 --> 01:15:29,133
you're probably going to hit
your spot on the ball, you know
what I mean? So,

1215
01:15:29,481 --> 01:15:30,830
Yeah, Jeremy's my guy.

1216
01:15:31,352 --> 01:15:36,096
Jeremy has one of the biggest,
smoothest strokes you can have
in pool.

1217
01:15:36,183 --> 01:15:39,709
And he's got the most solid
bridge you've ever seen. He's
got these big hands.

1218
01:15:40,100 --> 01:15:42,059
The way he holds the cue is a
little bit different than
everybody else.

1219
01:15:42,146 --> 01:15:44,235
His thumb is actually off the
cue when he plays

1220
01:15:44,322 --> 01:15:49,196
and he just cradles the cue. Has
this super solid bridge and just
swings the cue. It

1221
01:15:49,632 --> 01:15:52,722
It's pretty crazy, actually.
He's got a very, very unique
stroke, for sure.

1222
01:15:53,244 --> 01:15:59,032
Oh, he's just got a ton of
knowledge, you know, I mean, his
knowledge is big. I mean, he's

1223
01:15:59,990 --> 01:16:02,601
You know, he was a champion pool
player before. He's still

1224
01:16:02,688 --> 01:16:05,561
a great player now, you know, he
just doesn't play as much, and

1225
01:16:06,257 --> 01:16:10,391
but as we all know, he's a
commentator now and he breaks it
down, and

1226
01:16:10,957 --> 01:16:13,133
people get a really good
explanation from him, you know

1227
01:16:13,220 --> 01:16:15,266
and he knows how to come across
and make it to where

1228
01:16:15,353 --> 01:16:17,877
everybody understands you know,
what he's saying.

1229
01:16:18,225 --> 01:16:20,227
One of the top commentators in
pool.

1230
01:16:20,619 --> 01:16:25,102
We wanted people to be able to
watch the show and be able to
learn something about the game.

1231
01:16:25,189 --> 01:16:28,714
Learn some moves or, you know,
learn how to play. Jeremy Jones

1232
01:16:28,801 --> 01:16:32,239
is a great one pocket player, so
I contacted Jeremy to see,

1233
01:16:32,326 --> 01:16:35,155
I, I made him a deal. I said,
"look."

1234
01:16:36,156 --> 01:16:39,551
"I got this tournament coming
up. The $1000 entry"

1235
01:16:39,856 --> 01:16:42,336
"one pocket tournament, 16-
players limit."

1236
01:16:42,554 --> 01:16:46,819
I asked Jeremy, I said, "Look,
if you'll go, out to the
tournament,"

1237
01:16:46,906 --> 01:16:49,953
"if you'll just commentate a
match when you're not in a match
or playing"

1238
01:16:50,127 --> 01:16:52,825
"I'll pay for the travel, the
hotel, the meals, everything."

1239
01:16:53,609 --> 01:16:58,831
"No problem, Ray." As luck would
have it, Jeremy lost his very
first match.

1240
01:16:59,440 --> 01:17:04,576
So when you lose your first
match in that format, you play
every round.

1241
01:17:05,533 --> 01:17:09,973
And he won the tournament, and
he never got to commentate a
single match.

1242
01:17:10,321 --> 01:17:14,325
But, anyway, we laughed about
it still, but, uh,

1243
01:17:14,804 --> 01:17:16,632
So, he still owes me one.

1244
01:17:17,284 --> 01:17:21,332
Yeah, you can learn a lot off
of, off of him commentating.
He's, um,

1245
01:17:21,680 --> 01:17:26,293
Explains everything well for all
level of players, you know
what I mean, and he

1246
01:17:26,380 --> 01:17:29,470
says everything the right
way. So everybody understands,
and

1247
01:17:30,297 --> 01:17:34,345
um, if you want to learn, watch
a match that he commentates

1248
01:17:34,650 --> 01:17:39,219
'cause you'll see the shot and
you'll hear about the shot and
how it was done, really, so.

1249
01:17:39,785 --> 01:17:42,483
Yeah, I think he's greatest
commentator also.

1250
01:17:42,658 --> 01:17:46,749
Has a lot of knowledge. You
listen to him commentating you
can always learn a lot.

1251
01:17:47,401 --> 01:17:49,360
I think he's the best
commentator when it comes to

1252
01:17:49,447 --> 01:17:53,016
especially one pocket and those
games, when it's technical
battles.

1253
01:17:53,103 --> 01:17:58,021
He knows all the shots. So, uh,
yeah, you can always learn.
I did myself.

1254
01:17:58,108 --> 01:18:02,242
You know, listen, just listening
to his streams and him
commentating. Uh

1255
01:18:03,679 --> 01:18:06,812
I think, I think, uh, he was
really good for the game and
still is.

1256
01:18:07,204 --> 01:18:11,599
He just explains things so
gracefully. He's, uh, he's a
rare breed, you know, he's,

1257
01:18:12,035 --> 01:18:16,735
it's like, he's he would be a
great salesman because he makes
everything sound so good, you
know.

1258
01:18:17,214 --> 01:18:19,042
it's like he has no chinks in
his armor.

1259
01:18:19,216 --> 01:18:22,436
His knowledge is unmatched.
He's like an encyclopedia for
pool.

1260
01:18:22,654 --> 01:18:25,483
He, he really is. So, there's
not a shot he hasn't seen.

1261
01:18:25,657 --> 01:18:27,354
He does so much time in the
commentary booth.

1262
01:18:27,441 --> 01:18:30,531
He played for so long at the
highest level possible.

1263
01:18:30,923 --> 01:18:35,536
There's a handful of guys that
you can put Jeremy in a
conversation with, that, um,

1264
01:18:35,623 --> 01:18:39,889
are probably at the pinnacle of
knowledge and, uh, execution
with, with pool.

1265
01:18:40,498 --> 01:18:42,674
Who do I hate playing? I hate
playing Jeremy Jones.

1266
01:18:42,761 --> 01:18:44,720
The guy beats me every single
time.

1267
01:18:44,807 --> 01:18:48,419
Funny, ironically, Mike beat me
the first time we ever played.

1268
01:18:48,506 --> 01:18:50,682
The Great Southern Classic. It
was kind of like the

1269
01:18:51,204 --> 01:18:54,947
it, it was the same people that
ran the Derby, but they were
trying to do it in the
summer, in the South.

1270
01:18:55,687 --> 01:18:59,473
and, uh, first match. I don't
know if it was a hill-hill or
11-9.

1271
01:19:00,083 --> 01:19:03,695
Um, but, he played real well. It
was back in the corner last
match of the night.

1272
01:19:03,782 --> 01:19:06,829
And, and he beat me, and uh, I
don't know if he's beat me
since, though.

1273
01:19:06,916 --> 01:19:08,961
Knock on woods.
Yeah.

1274
01:19:09,440 --> 01:19:13,096
I'd like to just beat him one
time at anything, just to see
what his loser face looks like.

1275
01:19:13,183 --> 01:19:16,186
You know what I'm
saying? The guy just been.

1276
01:19:16,447 --> 01:19:18,188
You know what I mean.
I'm waiting for these guys to
get old

1277
01:19:18,275 --> 01:19:20,581
and maybe they'll let me win
one. I'm not sure. You know what
I mean?

1278
01:19:21,582 --> 01:19:27,284
BigTyme Classic was coming a few
months from where I was at, and
a friend

1279
01:19:27,632 --> 01:19:29,460
said he wanted to take me to
the tournament,

1280
01:19:29,765 --> 01:19:34,682
so I was excited to be back in
the grease, back in action, go
back and play again.

1281
01:19:34,770 --> 01:19:38,599
The, the first time in that
building that I had success,

1282
01:19:38,686 --> 01:19:42,516
I don't think it was called the
BigTyme Classic. I think it was
like, Buddy Hall Classic.

1283
01:19:42,603 --> 01:19:46,390
I lost to Sky Woodward for the
winner's bracket and ended up
taking third.

1284
01:19:46,651 --> 01:19:50,916
Later on I won Space City
Open down the street from there
at Bogies,

1285
01:19:51,264 --> 01:19:53,745
but, at that building, BigTymes,
where they held the BigTyme
Classic

1286
01:19:53,832 --> 01:19:56,704
I think I won the Space City
Open there as well.

1287
01:19:56,792 --> 01:20:02,406
I'm the only person to win it,
to have won it multiple times
and it be at two different
places.

1288
01:20:02,754 --> 01:20:06,932
My game has been improving. I
don't feel like I'm playing like
I used to, but,

1289
01:20:07,019 --> 01:20:09,848
I did have success at that
tournament, BigTyme Classic.

1290
01:20:10,718 --> 01:20:14,592
110 players, or something like
that. I got somewhere around 8th
place.

1291
01:20:15,158 --> 01:20:20,641
Beat a lot of familiar faces
that were very strong players
that wins tournaments.

1292
01:20:20,903 --> 01:20:23,775
Lost to Sky Woodward. He won the
tournament.

1293
01:20:24,732 --> 01:20:28,040
And I lost to the guy who got
4th place, Jeff. Felt

1294
01:20:28,388 --> 01:20:31,739
very successful because of,
being like I said, being

1295
01:20:32,479 --> 01:20:34,351
having the opportunity
to be back in the grease.

1296
01:20:34,786 --> 01:20:39,660
I'm, I'm getting closer. Right
now it's hard because I don't
have nobody to play against.

1297
01:20:39,747 --> 01:20:42,968
And I've never been a good
practice by myself person.

1298
01:20:43,447 --> 01:20:47,843
Well, my father is. My father,
he is extremely good at
practicing by himself.

1299
01:20:48,191 --> 01:20:54,675
He used to be able to practice
4-hours straight by himself,
tossing nine balls out on the
table. Running them out.

1300
01:20:54,762 --> 01:20:59,028
Never rushing one single shot
for four hours straight by
himself.

1301
01:20:59,463 --> 01:21:01,769
I can't do that. I've got to be
gambling.

1302
01:21:03,075 --> 01:21:05,773
I got to, you know, have
something at stake.

1303
01:21:05,991 --> 01:21:11,431
I mean, I know how to win. I've
won against good players before.
Won some tournaments before.

1304
01:21:11,779 --> 01:21:18,699
I think I need to try to get in,
um, tough situations where
pressure is there

1305
01:21:18,786 --> 01:21:20,397
before the tournament gets here,

1306
01:21:21,267 --> 01:21:24,749
because sometimes it's like
being tossed into the deep end
of a swimming pool.

1307
01:21:24,836 --> 01:21:28,013
Even though you know how to
swim, if you haven't been there
in a while,

1308
01:21:28,840 --> 01:21:31,364
it feels a little daunting and
the same thing in pool.

1309
01:21:31,843 --> 01:21:35,978
Get putting on the stream table
and you have to play Alex
Pagulayan

1310
01:21:36,804 --> 01:21:39,851
and all you got to do is just
run these four balls that
you've been doing forever,

1311
01:21:39,938 --> 01:21:41,853
but you can't, because of
pressure.

1312
01:21:42,767 --> 01:21:44,116
July, August, September.

1313
01:21:45,988 --> 01:21:51,080
90 days. The Texas Open. The
best in the world are coming.
They come every year now.

1314
01:21:51,907 --> 01:21:55,084
But they have to put their,
their shoes on like we do, one,
one at a time.

1315
01:21:56,041 --> 01:21:58,000
Since she walked out
that door. Yeah,

1316
01:21:58,957 --> 01:22:03,309
I've been feeling empty, yeah,
since she walked out that door.

1317
01:22:04,441 --> 01:22:09,489
ohh-ahh. But she left behind
my pool cue.

1318
01:22:09,576 --> 01:22:11,622
My baby left me lonely

1319
01:22:12,362 --> 01:22:15,931
But I can still play the blues

1320
01:22:20,587 --> 01:22:24,417
I'm Gilbert Martinez, three-time
Texas State 9-ball champion.

1321
01:22:24,678 --> 01:22:27,899
Started playing pool in 3rd
grade.

1322
01:22:28,030 --> 01:22:31,468
As long as I had a B average, on
the weekends, I could play pool.

1323
01:22:31,903 --> 01:22:33,818
By the time I was

1324
01:22:33,905 --> 01:22:38,954
in 6th or 7th grade, my parents
got me a pool table from Sears
and Roebuck,

1325
01:22:39,476 --> 01:22:41,434
and I could play pool every day
at home.

1326
01:22:42,000 --> 01:22:46,048
I started playing pool in terms
of pool halls in San Marcos,
Texas.

1327
01:22:46,222 --> 01:22:50,182
The gentleman was nice enough to
extend my dad free pool time.

1328
01:22:51,270 --> 01:22:55,318
And he extended it to me, and
that helped out a lot and got me
interested.

1329
01:22:55,709 --> 01:23:02,064
From San Marcos, Austin was a
little north and San Antonio was
a little south.

1330
01:23:02,760 --> 01:23:08,766
He would take, uh, one weekend
and go to Austin and one weekend
go to San Antonio.

1331
01:23:08,984 --> 01:23:14,076
So I got the best of both worlds
at a young age and didn't
realize it 'til I got a little
older.

1332
01:23:14,641 --> 01:23:17,949
Yeah, I remember Gilbert back in
the early 70s. He was just a kid
then.

1333
01:23:18,254 --> 01:23:20,952
It was him and David Hensen,
Little David, uh, you know,

1334
01:23:21,039 --> 01:23:24,477
they used to frequently come
into the pool hall, right there,
on a daily basis.

1335
01:23:24,564 --> 01:23:28,090
You know, they probably quit
school, you know, just to hang
around the pool room.

1336
01:23:28,699 --> 01:23:31,876
You know, they were practicing
every day, every day.

1337
01:23:31,963 --> 01:23:38,709
And, even back then they showed
potentials, right there, of
becoming a great pool player.

1338
01:23:39,057 --> 01:23:40,493
Gilbert Martinez, Jr.

1339
01:23:40,972 --> 01:23:45,585
He is another one that I've got
a lot of admiration for. He is
awesome.

1340
01:23:45,846 --> 01:23:49,633
I was lucky enough to be able to
play pool with Gilbert a bunch

1341
01:23:49,850 --> 01:23:54,029
because my father would come up
there and play at the same place
as him.

1342
01:23:54,116 --> 01:23:57,641
So I feel like I got to learn a
lot from Gilbert.

1343
01:23:58,076 --> 01:24:00,383
He's one of the most talented
pool players I've ever seen.

1344
01:24:02,472 --> 01:24:07,651
You know, he was in Austin and
we were, you know, rivals there
for a while, but uh,

1345
01:24:08,478 --> 01:24:12,699
Yeah, he could play with
anybody. He could beat anybody
at any given time.

1346
01:24:13,091 --> 01:24:18,053
I love Gilbert, but I gotta say
it, one of the biggest wasted
talents ever. I just thought he
was

1347
01:24:18,140 --> 01:24:21,839
as a pure, pure pool player.
Pure stroke.

1348
01:24:21,926 --> 01:24:26,322
You know, I don't feel like he
had to work on it near as hard
as most people.

1349
01:24:26,713 --> 01:24:29,194
He was just naturally that
talented.

1350
01:24:29,281 --> 01:24:33,068
I would put him up there even
with some of these young guys
today that are phenomenal.

1351
01:24:33,155 --> 01:24:35,026
He had that kind of talent.

1352
01:24:35,592 --> 01:24:40,597
Gilbert Martinez. The years of
therapy that-that it took for me
to even be able to say his name.

1353
01:24:41,163 --> 01:24:46,516
He owned Austin. He owned it in
the late '80s, most of the
'90s.

1354
01:24:46,603 --> 01:24:51,086
He just was the best player in
Austin. Hands down.

1355
01:24:51,216 --> 01:24:56,395
Gilbert is, uh, such a talent.
He's a really good shot maker
too, you know.

1356
01:24:56,830 --> 01:25:00,225
And I always tell him, I said,
"Gilbert, you have to make good
shots 'cause you get in trouble
with your shape."

1357
01:25:03,228 --> 01:25:05,317
But, he's, he's very
knowledgeable.

1358
01:25:05,926 --> 01:25:08,929
His, uh, his, his dad, you know,
taught him so much.

1359
01:25:09,016 --> 01:25:11,280
He became a great player.

1360
01:25:12,019 --> 01:25:13,717
A great player. I-you know, I
wish he,

1361
01:25:14,239 --> 01:25:15,980
the situation would have been
where,

1362
01:25:17,242 --> 01:25:20,245
Um, greater heights would have
been available to him, you know.

1363
01:25:20,593 --> 01:25:27,470
Gilbert Martinez, Sr. was an
every day face at Moyer's.

1364
01:25:27,557 --> 01:25:31,778
He wore, uh, you know, the
bowling-type, bowling shirt,
cut off square on the bottom.

1365
01:25:32,301 --> 01:25:37,610
And he'd stand flat-footed. He
was a good player. He'd steer
Gilbert around.

1366
01:25:37,697 --> 01:25:42,354
This little kid comes up says,
"hey buddy, you want to play
some?" That was Gilbert.

1367
01:25:42,963 --> 01:25:45,357
He was probably 10 or 11 years
old.

1368
01:25:46,228 --> 01:25:50,362
His dad was about 15-feet away,
telling him where to go.

1369
01:25:50,797 --> 01:25:53,278
I know that Gilbert faced Bob
many times,

1370
01:25:53,365 --> 01:25:56,368
and as Gilbert reminded me, he
only beat him once in the
finals.

1371
01:25:56,760 --> 01:25:59,241
um, had beaten him other times,
maybe earlier in the event,

1372
01:25:59,328 --> 01:26:03,332
but, Gilbert, by far one of the
greatest players in Texas,
beyond a doubt.

1373
01:26:03,767 --> 01:26:09,338
Him and, him and Vanover. Those
were some of the better matchups
I used to see back in the old
days.

1374
01:26:10,469 --> 01:26:14,125
Those two guys, when they got
after it, it was a good match
most of the time.

1375
01:26:14,343 --> 01:26:16,388
I played a lot of pool with Bob.

1376
01:26:17,084 --> 01:26:20,436
Him and Dick Lane used to come
rob us at those tournaments at
Eric's.

1377
01:26:21,088 --> 01:26:27,617
What I remember the most about
Bob was at one point in my life
he offered to give me lessons.

1378
01:26:29,314 --> 01:26:31,534
Excuse me for breaking down.

1379
01:26:32,099 --> 01:26:36,408
But, anyway. Bob Vanover, I
never could beat him,

1380
01:26:37,540 --> 01:26:40,195
in the finals of a tournament, I
would beat him

1381
01:26:41,848 --> 01:26:43,415
here and there in a match,

1382
01:26:44,851 --> 01:26:50,466
but one year, at Kevin's pool
hall, I did beat him. Finally
beat him.

1383
01:26:51,467 --> 01:26:57,429
The only thing I regret is that
my father was not alive to see
it.

1384
01:26:58,430 --> 01:26:59,344
I looked up to him.

1385
01:27:38,514 --> 01:27:39,645
Gilbert!

1386
01:27:45,260 --> 01:27:49,394
I was just glad I beat the man.
Man, it was so long beat-playing
him and not winning.

1387
01:27:49,481 --> 01:27:53,268
I finally beat him to, to win
something. Felt good.

1388
01:28:01,580 --> 01:28:06,629
We've got a great
project that we started working
on since we last talked, so,

1389
01:28:07,630 --> 01:28:13,940
Uh, Randy Goettlicher, Paul
Guernsey, Stacy Linerode and
myself

1390
01:28:15,028 --> 01:28:20,599
went and contacted an attorney
and formed a non-profit

1391
01:28:21,165 --> 01:28:22,427
Ok.

1392
01:28:22,514 --> 01:28:24,211
for the Texas Billiards
Hall of Fame.

1393
01:28:24,603 --> 01:28:25,648
Wow.

1394
01:28:26,779 --> 01:28:31,610
The first person that
got voted into the Texas Hall of
Fame is Bob Vanover.

1395
01:28:33,482 --> 01:28:35,658
I'm- I'm touched.

1396
01:28:36,833 --> 01:28:42,447
I think that's always been the
hardest part of his game. He
contributed so much

1397
01:28:43,013 --> 01:28:47,234
to the game as far as just his
championship-level of play.

1398
01:28:47,757 --> 01:28:51,456
You know, the, the
votes went in and Bob was the
one that

1399
01:28:52,675 --> 01:28:56,200
we determined was the one
that was going to be first
in the Hall of Fame.

1400
01:29:10,606 --> 01:29:13,609
Want to thank everybody for
coming out to the first ever
Hall of Fame.

1401
01:29:13,739 --> 01:29:19,919
How is it that Bob Vanover,
who's won nine Texas Opens and
dominated Texas for so long.

1402
01:29:21,747 --> 01:29:26,056
Legendary 9-and-out in the
finals. How is that guy not in a
Hall of Fame?

1403
01:29:27,492 --> 01:29:31,540
Well, F-that. Let's start a Hall
of Fame and put his ass in
there.

1404
01:29:35,805 --> 01:29:42,115
I would like to introduce to you
2024 Billiard, Texas Billiards
Hall of Fame,

1405
01:29:42,768 --> 01:29:44,117
Mr. Gilbert Martinez.

1406
01:29:44,770 --> 01:29:48,426
I appreciate everybody
remembering me playing pool.

1407
01:29:49,079 --> 01:29:53,605
I was one of the fortunate ones
that's had a front row seat to
this Texas Open.

1408
01:29:54,214 --> 01:29:55,607
Thank you, man.

1409
01:30:03,441 --> 01:30:08,577
The legend of Jeremy's prowess
as a road player and hustler is
widely known.

1410
01:30:09,142 --> 01:30:16,933
Lethal and feared. He took on
all comers, all games on any
equipment, and beat most of
them.

1411
01:30:17,020 --> 01:30:21,677
It's a tremendous honor and
privilege to induct my brother,
Jeremy Jones

1412
01:30:21,894 --> 01:30:25,681
into the Texas Billiards Hall of
Fame. Thank you very much.

1413
01:30:26,029 --> 01:30:28,510
So Jeremy's in Saudi Arabia as
we speak.

1414
01:30:28,727 --> 01:30:30,642
Um, this morning he sent me an
e-mail.

1415
01:30:31,295 --> 01:30:32,514
Five emails.

1416
01:30:33,123 --> 01:30:36,256
with what he wanted to say and
who he wanted to thank.

1417
01:30:36,605 --> 01:30:40,173
To be included in this is a
great honor and truly unreal.

1418
01:30:40,565 --> 01:30:44,395
Congrats to all the other
inductees as well. Very well-
deserving.

1419
01:30:44,656 --> 01:30:51,881
First of all to be mentioned...
in the same sentence with Bob
Vanover. Oh, God.

1420
01:30:52,882 --> 01:30:54,100
Belinda Calhoun.

1421
01:30:55,275 --> 01:30:57,887
Where's Gilbert? Gilbert
Martinez, Jr.

1422
01:30:58,278 --> 01:31:00,280
And, Jeremy Jones.

1423
01:31:00,933 --> 01:31:03,370
It kind of leaves me speechless.

1424
01:31:03,588 --> 01:31:09,420
Thank you for your friendship,
inspiration, support and
encouragement, and God bless
you all. Thank you.

1425
01:31:12,423 --> 01:31:15,948
Just talking about Bob and all
his accomplishments within the
state.

1426
01:31:17,210 --> 01:31:20,997
A pool player in Texas that
didn't know who Bob Vanover was.

1427
01:31:21,998 --> 01:31:27,612
You talk to any pro pool player,
they're glad that Bob Vanover
had a job, and that's a fact.

1428
01:31:28,700 --> 01:31:30,049
My father's had lots of awards.

1429
01:31:30,702 --> 01:31:32,051
Won lots of professional
tournaments.

1430
01:31:34,097 --> 01:31:38,188
Set records, including world
records, and is a Texas legend.

1431
01:31:38,797 --> 01:31:41,974
This would be the
highlight, the absolute pinnacle
for him.

1432
01:31:42,192 --> 01:31:44,760
This lasts forever. The Hall of
Fame lasts forever.

1433
01:31:49,895 --> 01:31:53,029
Thank y'all for coming and
congratulations again to all the
Hall of Fame inductees.

1434
01:31:53,899 --> 01:31:54,944
See y'all next year.

1435
01:32:05,084 --> 01:32:07,347
My health, my health has made it
to where

1436
01:32:08,827 --> 01:32:14,441
I'm able to go play more, but
pool, it gives me inspiration

1437
01:32:15,181 --> 01:32:17,183
to, because I love to play the
game.

1438
01:32:17,444 --> 01:32:19,490
I love this so much because it's

1439
01:32:20,099 --> 01:32:25,844
so challenging, like, mentally.
It's always a puzzle. You always
have to figure it out.

1440
01:32:27,106 --> 01:32:32,111
And then, on top of that, you
get the camaraderie you get
with everybody that's there.

1441
01:32:33,112 --> 01:32:35,288
Pool has definitely helped,
helped me.

1442
01:32:35,767 --> 01:32:37,726
You can't, you can't be, uh,

1443
01:32:39,336 --> 01:32:41,338
like, weak-minded or weak-
hearted.

1444
01:32:42,208 --> 01:32:45,124
You have to have, you know,
tough skin

1445
01:32:46,038 --> 01:32:48,867
playing the game of pool, and,
whenever

1446
01:32:50,129 --> 01:32:56,222
I mean, I guess it's helped me,
with, you know, the tragedies
I've had because I've had to
endure them

1447
01:32:57,267 --> 01:32:58,703
and keep pushing forward.

1448
01:32:59,704 --> 01:33:04,666
And find the, uh, silver lining
in the, you know, in the dark
clouds.

1449
01:33:04,970 --> 01:33:07,103
whenever they're, uh, around me.

1450
01:33:08,365 --> 01:33:12,108
Both my parents were pool
players.

1451
01:33:12,630 --> 01:33:14,414
My dad, he is still a pool
player.

1452
01:33:15,198 --> 01:33:20,072
He played in the very first
Texas State Championship 51
years ago.

1453
01:33:20,551 --> 01:33:23,249
He is playing in this sta-
year's state championship.

1454
01:33:23,510 --> 01:33:25,948
I can't remember anything
without pool.

1455
01:33:26,296 --> 01:33:32,694
I still feel blessed to be able
to go and compete because for a
while I didn't know if I
was gonna be able to.

1456
01:33:34,217 --> 01:33:36,262
But, success at the Texas Open?

1457
01:33:37,916 --> 01:33:38,917
Um,

1458
01:33:40,745 --> 01:33:43,139
in, finding enjoyment.

1459
01:33:44,619 --> 01:33:48,144
and, having fun with the
competition.

1460
01:33:49,449 --> 01:33:54,411
you know, and, uh, being able to
be focused when I need to be
focused

1461
01:33:55,847 --> 01:33:59,764
and accept the cards, the way
they fall,

1462
01:33:59,938 --> 01:34:00,939
I love pool.

1463
01:34:01,548 --> 01:34:04,508
Sometime you hate it, because
you're playing bad.

1464
01:34:04,769 --> 01:34:07,511
You're like, "Oh, I hate this
shit." And, sometime you play so
good, it's like you're

1465
01:34:07,598 --> 01:34:10,949
playing a, a guitar or an
instrument. You know, it's like
music.

1466
01:34:11,036 --> 01:34:15,388
You know. You feel it through
your skin. It's like, "Oh, man,
I love it."

1467
01:34:15,475 --> 01:34:18,087
You know, and then sometimes you
hate it. You know, that's why I
said, you know,

1468
01:34:18,174 --> 01:34:22,657
sometimes I hate to lo- that I
love this game, and sometimes I
love that I hate this game,

1469
01:34:23,353 --> 01:34:27,836
So, it's, but, nothing will ever
change it. I absolutely love
this game.

1470
01:34:28,271 --> 01:34:30,577
It's, it's in my DNA.

1471
01:34:31,753 --> 01:34:35,147
To be a champion, you have to
have the correct mental
disposition. Uh,

1472
01:34:35,931 --> 01:34:38,803
You know, it's really, it's
really easy to get down on
yourself

1473
01:34:38,890 --> 01:34:40,849
when you're watching so many
talented players.

1474
01:34:40,936 --> 01:34:43,373
You got, you know, Gomez and you
have Skyler, and

1475
01:34:43,808 --> 01:34:47,072
all these guys, they're just so
good and they make it look
so easy.

1476
01:34:47,377 --> 01:34:50,380
It can be intimidating, but you
just once again you got to love
yourself.

1477
01:34:50,467 --> 01:34:51,903
You have to stay objective.

1478
01:34:52,251 --> 01:34:55,341
You have to fight through the
negative feelings and you have
to,

1479
01:34:55,428 --> 01:34:59,432
you have to be your best friend
out there because really,
they're out for blood. So,

1480
01:34:59,824 --> 01:35:02,609
It's kind of like a, a brawl
against many men, you know. You
ju-

1481
01:35:03,262 --> 01:35:05,438
You just got to keep your dukes
up and keep fighting. You know
what I mean?

1482
01:35:05,787 --> 01:35:09,921
Every one of them I knew that
was a champion, had heart. Every
one of them.

1483
01:35:10,922 --> 01:35:12,184
It ain't nothing more.

1484
01:35:12,619 --> 01:35:14,404
All that other shit don't mean
nothing.

1485
01:35:14,665 --> 01:35:16,754
Well, persistence for sure.

1486
01:35:17,320 --> 01:35:21,454
And, if you got a little talent
as well, more than I had,

1487
01:35:21,846 --> 01:35:24,936
then you can make it, uh, uh,
really far in this world.

1488
01:35:25,632 --> 01:35:29,462
You have to believe you're the
best guy. The best pool player
in there.

1489
01:35:30,028 --> 01:35:32,291
You have to believe that. And if
you believe that,

1490
01:35:32,378 --> 01:35:34,729
then you have a good chance of,
of following through with it.

1491
01:35:35,512 --> 01:35:38,471
Well, if you're talking about
all-around, I think I'm the
best.

1492
01:35:39,690 --> 01:35:43,738
Yeah. A lot of people may
disagree with that, but if you
take, uh,

1493
01:35:44,477 --> 01:35:47,480
uh, 9-ball, one pocket and
straight pool,

1494
01:35:48,786 --> 01:35:50,440
I think I'm the best.

1495
01:35:51,484 --> 01:35:54,444
The want to. Just want to.

1496
01:35:55,488 --> 01:35:57,447
Want to more than anything else.

1497
01:35:58,187 --> 01:35:59,405
Want to be the best.

1498
01:36:00,015 --> 01:36:02,495
If you want to be the best,
there's a chance you will be.

1499
01:36:03,670 --> 01:36:04,671
If you want it.

1500
01:36:06,848 --> 01:36:10,721
When I was a young man, I wanted
to be the best player on Earth.

1501
01:36:10,808 --> 01:36:13,593
I told my, uh, my wife,

1502
01:36:14,638 --> 01:36:18,033
when I was 18, we got married.

1503
01:36:18,903 --> 01:36:22,864
I told her I was going to be the
best player in the world and,
and she wasn't going to stop me.

1504
01:36:25,127 --> 01:36:26,128
And she didn't.

1505
01:36:29,696 --> 01:36:32,612
That was kind of cruel for me to
say that to her, but,

1506
01:36:32,743 --> 01:36:35,572
I wanted to be the best player
in the world. That's ALL I
wanted.

1507
01:36:37,617 --> 01:36:38,705
Then I read a book.

1508
01:36:39,576 --> 01:36:43,493
In this book, it said if you
live your life and you

1509
01:36:44,146 --> 01:36:48,890
put all your energy into one
thing and you do it over and
over every day.

1510
01:36:49,238 --> 01:36:51,283
You'll eventually go insane.

1511
01:36:51,501 --> 01:36:54,025
I used to run the weekly
tournaments at Skinny Bobs.

1512
01:36:54,721 --> 01:36:58,813
And I get a call from Dennis one
night and he's singing. "Heyyy
Tracyyy."

1513
01:36:58,900 --> 01:37:01,598
Singing the songs to me like he
always does.

1514
01:37:02,468 --> 01:37:05,210
He goes, "Hey, I want to
practice on the TV table."

1515
01:37:05,689 --> 01:37:09,606
'Cause with the Texas Open was
coming up. He said, "can I use
it for two or three hours?"

1516
01:37:09,693 --> 01:37:12,304
And I said "no, Dennis, the
tournament's going on."

1517
01:37:13,044 --> 01:37:17,440
And I thought about and I'm like
this guys right now's probably
the best player in the world.

1518
01:37:17,919 --> 01:37:19,355
I can't tell him no.

1519
01:37:19,964 --> 01:37:23,663
So I call him back. I said "OK,
Dennis, you can have the TV
table."

1520
01:37:24,708 --> 01:37:29,060
And, uh, people started coming,
I guess people texted said,
"hey, Dennis is here."

1521
01:37:29,147 --> 01:37:32,411
and people come in and they're
wanting to just watch him shoot, right?

1522
01:37:32,934 --> 01:37:35,719
It was the most boring shit I've
ever seen in my life.

1523
01:37:36,067 --> 01:37:39,679
This dude for three hours never
pocketed one ball.

1524
01:37:39,984 --> 01:37:41,638
He broke the balls,

1525
01:37:42,117 --> 01:37:46,948
would walk down there, re-rack
them. Break them. He did this
for three hours.

1526
01:37:47,905 --> 01:37:49,864
And I'm sitting there. I wa-I'm
like,

1527
01:37:50,255 --> 01:37:54,303
everybody's standing around what
was waiting to see some miracle.

1528
01:37:54,390 --> 01:37:57,567
Run a five pack or something. He
never even shoots one ball.

1529
01:37:58,350 --> 01:38:01,745
And, he walks over there to me
and I said, "dude, that was some
boring shit."

1530
01:38:02,354 --> 01:38:06,532
He goes, "that's the most
important shot in pool."

1531
01:38:07,403 --> 01:38:11,233
He said, "if you learn that one,
you will win." That's
what he told me.

1532
01:38:11,755 --> 01:38:15,759
He's just practicing
fundamentals, he sit, he sits
over there,

1533
01:38:16,020 --> 01:38:18,327
and he plays hard when he
practices.

1534
01:38:18,414 --> 01:38:21,417
Bob Vanover was another one,
like that.

1535
01:38:22,026 --> 01:38:26,639
So, those guys have that, uh,
mindset and consistency that
they can do that

1536
01:38:26,726 --> 01:38:29,729
and I guess that's what makes
them a lot better than everybody
else.

1537
01:38:29,947 --> 01:38:33,864
Every year it's-the competition
becomes tougher and tougher and
tougher, so

1538
01:38:34,212 --> 01:38:38,825
it definitely takes a lot of
luck to win a big tournament
nowadays.

1539
01:38:39,391 --> 01:38:41,828
In my opinion, there's a lot of
luck involved in pool

1540
01:38:42,829 --> 01:38:47,791
that may not appear as luck, but
there's a lot of luck involved.

1541
01:38:48,792 --> 01:38:49,836
Lot of luck.

1542
01:38:51,055 --> 01:38:54,841
Got to get good rolls, play
good, do good things, good
things happen.

1543
01:38:55,451 --> 01:38:56,452
Slack off,

1544
01:38:57,714 --> 01:38:59,455
the rolls can turn in a
heartbeat.

1545
01:39:00,760 --> 01:39:02,545
I don't know, but if you find
out, will you tell me?

1546
01:39:05,374 --> 01:39:07,376
I thought I was there a couple
times, but

1547
01:39:08,377 --> 01:39:09,944
I don't know what does it take
to-?

1548
01:39:11,032 --> 01:39:16,602
My father told me when I was
young, "some people figure it
out, and some don't."

1549
01:39:19,866 --> 01:39:21,520
But, um,

1550
01:39:23,522 --> 01:39:24,915
obviously, dedication.

1551
01:39:26,003 --> 01:39:30,094
Y-your will to play against the
better players.

1552
01:39:30,529 --> 01:39:35,534
Not just the better players, you
have to want to play the best
players every chance you get.

1553
01:39:36,274 --> 01:39:40,931
And not want a handicap from
them and not want, you know, you
have to get in there.

1554
01:39:41,888 --> 01:39:44,891
And, try. Fail.

1555
01:39:46,284 --> 01:39:48,417
and then figure out how to get
better

1556
01:39:48,939 --> 01:39:51,550
then, like, rin-rinse, wash
and repeat.

1557
01:39:52,464 --> 01:39:57,992
And constantly be looking for
the bet-better players and your
chance to play against them.

1558
01:39:58,514 --> 01:40:02,474
You seek it. You know you don't,
it-it ain't gonna fall in your
lap.

1559
01:40:03,345 --> 01:40:06,435
You know, you can't be, you
know, be afraid to fall down.

1560
01:40:06,870 --> 01:40:09,873
To fail.
Get back up.
Try again.

1561
01:40:11,005 --> 01:40:12,484
What does it take to be a
champion?

1562
01:40:13,485 --> 01:40:15,139
You play every champion you can
play.

1563
01:40:16,488 --> 01:40:21,841
Under a sky so wide
where dreams begin to fade

1564
01:40:21,928 --> 01:40:26,933
I saw the light a burning
wreck, my soul about to break

1565
01:40:27,934 --> 01:40:31,938
You pulled me through [Pulled
me through] like a miracle

1566
01:40:32,722 --> 01:40:37,944
We are
broadcasting live from the 51st
Texas Open 9-ball championships.

1567
01:40:38,249 --> 01:40:41,948
Once again, the greatest pool
players in the world have
descended upon Texas,

1568
01:40:42,166 --> 01:40:45,039
for the longest running 9-ball
tournament in the world.

1569
01:40:45,561 --> 01:40:47,345
That guides me to the
dawn

1570
01:40:47,432 --> 01:40:54,048
Hold on my son
Hold on my son

1571
01:40:55,571 --> 01:40:58,008
Hold on myyyy son.

1572
01:40:58,269 --> 01:41:02,230
Junior takes his first
match handily in this double-
elimination event.

1573
01:41:03,492 --> 01:41:08,932
You were my guide
taught me strength, to rise when
I would fall

1574
01:41:09,628 --> 01:41:13,937
To carry on [Carry on] with
the love you've shown

1575
01:41:14,024 --> 01:41:17,506
In your embrace, I find my
home,

1576
01:41:17,593 --> 01:41:22,728
JUNIOR WITH A MASSIVE
COMEBACK! Down five to two, he
roars back to win it nine to
five.

1577
01:41:25,992 --> 01:41:29,518
Chohan with a convincing
nine to one win over James
Davis, Jr.

1578
01:41:30,345 --> 01:41:33,652
and with this shot,
Henneessee will advance.

1579
01:41:34,175 --> 01:41:36,133
and Junior's tournament comes to
an end.

1580
01:41:39,354 --> 01:41:42,966
I think it does help
him out a lot to see me fall
down

1581
01:41:43,184 --> 01:41:47,840
and then climbing my way back up
and being able to continue on
with life.

1582
01:41:48,189 --> 01:41:53,455
Him seeing resilience and my
willingness not to give up that,
that should help him in life.

1583
01:41:54,369 --> 01:41:58,503
With every step I
take, I'm grateful for your
light

1584
01:41:59,678 --> 01:42:02,377
Through darkest times, you
were my guide

1585
01:42:04,770 --> 01:42:09,688
No more shadows, together
we'll stride

1586
01:42:09,775 --> 01:42:12,778
Your love's redemption in my
life

1587
01:42:14,084 --> 01:42:18,741
Your love saved me from the
dark so why don't you just hold
on

1588
01:42:19,220 --> 01:42:24,007
In your eyes, I see the spark
that guides me to the dawn

1589
01:42:24,094 --> 01:42:30,231
Hold on my son
Hold on my son

1590
01:42:31,928 --> 01:42:34,757
Hold on myyyy son.

1591
01:42:39,979 --> 01:42:40,980
What do you want?

1592
01:42:45,202 --> 01:42:46,986
Steak? Oh, man, that'd be great.

1593
01:42:48,466 --> 01:42:51,252
Yeah, that'd be great. Go get
some rolls and steak.

1594
01:42:58,694 --> 01:42:59,869
Good shootin', son.

1595
01:43:10,358 --> 01:43:13,143
You're asking me something
that's 50 years ago, so.

1596
01:43:13,361 --> 01:43:17,365
Haha. Good luck
with getting, get-get,
getting the right
recollection.

1597
01:43:21,673 --> 01:43:23,371
Getting tired of
me bragging?

1598
01:43:23,458 --> 01:43:26,069
Hell, no. We
haven't even gotten to
the good shit yet.

1599
01:43:26,330 --> 01:43:28,593
Huh?

1600
01:43:28,680 --> 01:43:30,116
I said, I think
you're holding back.

1601
01:43:30,378 --> 01:43:32,467
I ain't holding
back. My back's holding
back.

1602
01:43:37,385 --> 01:43:38,951
I had a friend of mine
from California come visit.

1603
01:43:39,343 --> 01:43:40,388
and we were shooting pool.

1604
01:43:40,997 --> 01:43:43,304
and Willie Nelson came on
came on on the jukebox

1605
01:43:44,740 --> 01:43:47,917
and she started talking,
talking trash about
Willie Nelson

1606
01:43:48,004 --> 01:43:51,007
and I became the biggest
redneck so quickly.

1607
01:43:51,355 --> 01:43:54,271
Don't be talking shit
about Willie Nelson.

1608
01:43:56,447 --> 01:43:59,711
That's when I realized
I was a true Texan, man.

1609
01:43:59,798 --> 01:44:03,367
Can't come from California
and talk shit about Willie
Nelson.

1610
01:44:07,241 --> 01:44:11,201
No matter where I'm at
pool's huge, but when I
get back to Texas,

1611
01:44:12,420 --> 01:44:14,596
It's the best. If I had to

1612
01:44:14,683 --> 01:44:18,426
do it all over again, I'd
move to Texas earlier.
That's for sure.

1613
01:44:22,430 --> 01:44:24,258
So, that's going to be
a good payday for

1614
01:44:25,346 --> 01:44:28,000
one pool player at least,
a couple of them.

1615
01:44:28,914 --> 01:44:31,003
Yeah, hopefully
you, right?
Hopefully me, yeah.

1616
01:44:31,090 --> 01:44:34,137
I didn't want to say that,
but, hopefully it's me.

1617
01:44:38,359 --> 01:44:39,664
I walked up to him and
I said,

1618
01:44:40,491 --> 01:44:42,406
"I understand you're
Bob Vanover, and,"

1619
01:44:42,493 --> 01:44:44,626
"I'm Cathy Petrowski,
and um,"

1620
01:44:44,713 --> 01:44:48,891
"I understand you're a
pretty good player and
that you could give me
some lessons."

1621
01:44:49,413 --> 01:44:51,633
And I don't know by then
how many titles he had,

1622
01:44:52,068 --> 01:44:54,592
All I know is I felt
like crawling under a
pool table.

1623
01:44:54,723 --> 01:44:57,943
It was the equivalent of
walking up to Martina
Navritalova

1624
01:44:58,161 --> 01:44:59,554
not knowing who she was

1625
01:44:59,902 --> 01:45:02,078
and saying, "Hey, I hear
you're a pretty good
tennis player."

1626
01:45:02,339 --> 01:45:03,688
"Can you give me some
lessons?"

1627
01:45:07,562 --> 01:45:09,912
I think every good bar
should have a pool table
in it.

1628
01:45:11,000 --> 01:45:14,133
Because pool brings
people together and
makes people competitive

1629
01:45:14,656 --> 01:45:18,573
and um, whenever I go
out, I'm looking for a
bar that has a pool table.

1630
01:45:23,273 --> 01:45:25,884
Pool is not so popular
in Georgia.

1631
01:45:25,971 --> 01:45:29,714
I think it was illegal
to play pool on Sunday.
All pool rooms had to close.

1632
01:45:30,062 --> 01:45:32,587
Texas is a little more
wide open, and uh,

1633
01:45:33,588 --> 01:45:35,590
Lots more players.
Better players.

1634
01:45:40,029 --> 01:45:44,033
I play whoever the same.
I don't, uh, I just get
up there and play.

1635
01:45:44,120 --> 01:45:46,601
Nobody's really got
my number, I wouldn't
think, I mean.

1636
01:45:47,602 --> 01:45:49,734
I mean, I've lost to
probably all of 'em

1637
01:45:50,300 --> 01:45:52,520
Once, or twice, at
least, you know.

1638
01:45:56,350 --> 01:45:59,396
One of the best compliments
I ever got paid was by Bob
though

1639
01:45:59,614 --> 01:46:01,267
when they presented him
that cup.

1640
01:46:02,573 --> 01:46:06,621
His name's on there nine
times, and he said, "well,
if that Gilbert Martinez"

1641
01:46:06,708 --> 01:46:08,710
"doesn't stop playing
he might have a chance."

1642
01:46:09,493 --> 01:46:13,323
My name's on there a few
times. I had a chance to
be on there a few more
and I dogged it.

1643
01:46:14,237 --> 01:46:16,805
But, it is what it is.
Yep.

1644
01:46:27,119 --> 01:46:29,426
I was telling my son,
I said, "Oh, by the way."

1645
01:46:29,687 --> 01:46:31,863
And then I added, "the
inaugural class."

1646
01:46:31,950 --> 01:46:34,605
He says, "oh, I was just
about to say, you mean
there's a Texas Billiard
Hall of Fame"

1647
01:46:34,692 --> 01:46:37,521
and you're not
already In it?"

1648
01:46:41,743 --> 01:46:44,659
I'll never forget him
talking, Rafael Martinez
talking

1649
01:46:45,094 --> 01:46:48,140
about pool. Because it
was the first time we got
to be that close to him

1650
01:46:48,227 --> 01:46:50,229
and it wasn't at the pool
table watching him play.

1651
01:46:50,752 --> 01:46:54,451
And he, he said stuff
like, "My right arm,
it's a mother ###."

1652
01:46:55,974 --> 01:46:58,890
That's what he told us.
I was about 18,
19 years old and

1653
01:46:58,977 --> 01:47:01,415
We're sitting there
listening, you know,
to the Gospel, you know.

1654
01:47:02,590 --> 01:47:04,809
He definitely believed
it and so did we.

1655
01:47:05,201 --> 01:47:09,379
He was a playing,
playing mother ####.
I'll tell you that.

1656
01:47:13,775 --> 01:47:17,866
I loved the game. And
Louie Roberts and Buddy
Hall

1657
01:47:18,301 --> 01:47:22,479
and all the people I
played. Why did we play it?
It wasn't for the money.

1658
01:47:23,132 --> 01:47:26,265
Money? What if I wanted
money I'd go get a job.

1659
01:47:30,269 --> 01:47:32,794
Hahaha. It's me again.

1660
01:47:37,799 --> 01:47:40,976
Pool can just consume
you and bury you, and

1661
01:47:41,890 --> 01:47:44,501
frustrate you, but then
it can also be
therapeutic, and

1662
01:47:44,588 --> 01:47:47,461
it can be beautiful and
when it's done well you
can really just

1663
01:47:48,287 --> 01:47:49,463
fall in love all over
again.

1664
01:47:53,771 --> 01:47:56,513
For one, anytime that
anyone wants to be you
a prop bet

1665
01:47:56,905 --> 01:47:58,907
You know.
Don't do it.

1666
01:47:59,560 --> 01:48:02,127
'Cause they, they know
what they're doing.
They can do it.

1667
01:48:02,214 --> 01:48:04,869
That's why they're betting
it. You know, they're
trying to pick up some
extra cash.

1668
01:48:09,395 --> 01:48:13,878
We understand that pool
has a stigma to the
normal crowd, but

1669
01:48:14,444 --> 01:48:16,968
It's, it's changed it's
ways, uh, som- mostly.

1670
01:48:17,055 --> 01:48:19,144
You know, I mean, we're,
we got big events

1671
01:48:19,231 --> 01:48:22,931
I mean it's getting out
on the streaming side
from a lot of different
areas, and

1672
01:48:23,061 --> 01:48:25,411
It could get more
mainstream soon.

1673
01:48:25,499 --> 01:48:27,849
Take a little bit of
an investment from who
knows who.

1674
01:48:27,936 --> 01:48:30,112
You know, and it, it
can turn around.

1675
01:48:34,159 --> 01:48:36,335
And every beer joint
had a pool table, it's
like

1676
01:48:36,901 --> 01:48:38,990
they'd put a pool table
in before they'd put a
bar.

1677
01:48:39,425 --> 01:48:40,992
and they had to have
the pool table

1678
01:48:41,384 --> 01:48:44,648
and there might be a
foosball or a pinball
machine around, but

1679
01:48:44,953 --> 01:48:47,956
the pool table is
where all the activity, happened.

1680
01:48:52,047 --> 01:48:54,963
I wasn't looking for
no friends, I was
looking to

1681
01:48:56,094 --> 01:48:57,661
put you in the loser's
bracket.

1682
01:49:01,535 --> 01:49:03,928
It's an opportunity to
play the, the best
players.

1683
01:49:04,015 --> 01:49:07,758
I mean, you might
play Vanover. Gilbert.
You'd play Jeremy.

1684
01:49:08,193 --> 01:49:10,892
I-it could be Buddy
Hall. It could be
Tommy Kennedy.

1685
01:49:10,979 --> 01:49:14,025
It could be, any
number of people.

1686
01:49:18,029 --> 01:49:20,075
Played really solid,
played my best game in
the last

1687
01:49:20,336 --> 01:49:23,034
two or three matches
and, uh, took it home.

1688
01:49:27,125 --> 01:49:29,780
There's a reason
people flock to
barbecue joints

1689
01:49:30,041 --> 01:49:32,304
across the state and
wait hours in line.

1690
01:49:32,391 --> 01:49:35,177
And there's a reason
why people spend days

1691
01:49:35,394 --> 01:49:37,788
watching the Texas Open.
Playing in the Texas
Open.

1692
01:49:38,354 --> 01:49:41,009
It's because it's
different down here.
People care.

1693
01:49:41,662 --> 01:49:44,229
People want it to
matter, and they make
it matter.

1694
01:49:44,839 --> 01:49:48,016
And that's special,
and it's what makes
Texas special,

1695
01:49:48,407 --> 01:49:50,235
and what make the
Texas Open special.

1696
01:49:54,109 --> 01:49:57,112
Ray Hansen was going to
have me on the live
stream one time and he
goes,

1697
01:49:58,983 --> 01:50:01,246
"Well, I don't know.
You cuss a lot."

1698
01:50:04,598 --> 01:50:07,992
I said, "yeah, I, uh,
that's the way I talk."

1699
01:50:08,602 --> 01:50:11,605
He said, "you did just
walk up to me and say
what do you want mother-"

1700
01:50:15,130 --> 01:50:17,567
I said, "well, I didn't
mean it like that, I
meant what's up, dude."

1701
01:50:23,094 --> 01:50:25,140
It's getting to where
there's not as much
gambling.

1702
01:50:26,097 --> 01:50:29,013
So, some people don't
mind the gambling, some
people do.

1703
01:50:29,753 --> 01:50:32,364
but, we don't want to
shut off doors to
anyone, you know.

1704
01:50:32,538 --> 01:50:35,280
So, I mean it's still,
and it's improving on
being a great living.

1705
01:50:35,977 --> 01:50:38,457
I mean, everyone says
it's not a good living,

1706
01:50:38,719 --> 01:50:42,461
but, I mean, you know,
top guy made about
500,000 last year
to play pool

1707
01:50:43,898 --> 01:50:46,074
You know, it's not like
golf where they're making
20 million.

1708
01:50:46,857 --> 01:50:50,208
but it's still better
than a, a lot of jobs
I know of.

1709
01:50:50,513 --> 01:50:52,210
Espcially getting to
do something you love.

1710
01:50:55,953 --> 01:50:59,043
It was like a promise
pool gave to the world.

1711
01:50:59,348 --> 01:51:01,742
and I still believe
that, pool,

1712
01:51:02,177 --> 01:51:04,353
not only a game,
or a sport,

1713
01:51:05,223 --> 01:51:07,182
I think it's an art
and probably the

1714
01:51:07,269 --> 01:51:10,794
final freedom which is
still existing in this
world.

1715
01:51:15,407 --> 01:51:16,670
Oh, here's a good one.

1716
01:51:17,714 --> 01:51:20,238
This guy's 70 and,
he's, uh,

1717
01:51:20,935 --> 01:51:24,242
he's doing about 80
and the state cop
pulls him over.

1718
01:51:25,504 --> 01:51:27,768
He said, "you know I'm
going to be off in
30 minutes."

1719
01:51:27,855 --> 01:51:29,552
He sees the guy's
pretty old. He said,
uh,

1720
01:51:30,292 --> 01:51:32,294
"If you can make me
smile or laugh,"

1721
01:51:32,381 --> 01:51:34,688
He said, um, "I-I'll
let you go."

1722
01:51:35,776 --> 01:51:37,691
And he said, "well,
you know,"

1723
01:51:38,256 --> 01:51:42,217
"About 20 years ago my
wife ran away with a
state trooper,

1724
01:51:42,304 --> 01:51:45,176
and he says, "I was
scared to death you
was bringing her back."

1725
01:51:53,315 --> 01:51:55,709
Billy said he wants to
play 200-a-rail on his
home table.

1726
01:51:55,970 --> 01:51:58,363
So, if anybody wants to
stake me I'm available,
you know what I mean.

1727
01:51:58,537 --> 01:52:00,757
I play-I played him a
hundred-a-rail on
my own money, it's just

1728
01:52:01,366 --> 01:52:03,499
with four kids it's getting a
little stressful, you know what
I mean.

1729
01:52:08,243 --> 01:52:11,725
I wish I could have told you
more about th, uh, Texas Open,
but

1730
01:52:12,247 --> 01:52:16,468
M-m-me and Bob Vanover
understood each other quite
well, it was, uh,

1731
01:52:16,904 --> 01:52:20,385
Yeah, Bo-bo-Bob was, uh, was
cool. Yeah.

1732
01:52:21,125 --> 01:52:22,387
Thank you.

1733
01:52:23,911 --> 01:52:25,086
Well, that was awesome.

1734
01:52:25,260 --> 01:52:27,392
Well, thank you. I'm, I talk
too much, but,

1735
01:52:27,741 --> 01:52:29,525
No, you talk just the
right amount.