Chicago bugs rucker bank game

dinoboy1

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Nov 6, 2005
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From
Chicago, Il
http://www.onepocket.org/forum/showthread.php?t=8971
;)



your dad and billy commentated it. pic of them in the booth somewhere in that thread.....



PIB - used to be available on accustats. the beard and billy thought that cook played nearly perfect one pocket. if i remember correctly, grady was in the booth for a while as well. its a keeper....

:)

Somewhere between 90' and 92", right? I think i do remember that, and have the match where he played Bugs. Thanx
 

dinoboy1

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Nov 6, 2005
Messages
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From
Chicago, Il
Hey Dino, thanks for the post and welcome to the site, I have not see you post before so it's nice to meet you. Although I never met your dad personally, I know that almost everyone (if not everyone) on this site was a big fan of Freddy and misses him a lot.

Hope you hang out some more and maybe we get to meet at one of our pool events - Chicago about 85 days away! :)

PS - I was talking about Gary playing 3 cushion...i don't know if Bugs did or not.
It's nice to meet you too.
 

dinoboy1

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Nov 6, 2005
Messages
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From
Chicago, Il
dino
is that you in the avatar??
your dad and i got to know each other alittle via this site
and i got to meet him in person at the first tourney at tunica
i miss him
nice of you to be posting over here
larry landsman
Nice to meet you too. Also, yes, that is me in the avatar. Thanks for the warm welcome Larry!
 

cuesmith

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May 24, 2004
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138
a beast indeed....any time I hear that name it also reminds me of Gary. They played on several occasions and to be honest I am not sure who won the majority of the time (maybe someone else can chime in on that).

Well Chris, as you know, Gary was my best friend and road partner for many years. I staked Gary, with the exception of a couple of years when I was busy opening Beechmont Billiards. Over the years I staked him to play Bugs 5 times. The first time, in Chicago, Gary knocked off a Bank Tournament there beating Freddy in the finals and just as the tournament ended Bugs showed up. They played 2 sets. Gary won the first set easily and Bugs won the second, just barely (went down to the last ball of the set). We had doubled the bet on the second set so, in money we lost a grand there! Over the next 5 or 6 years Bugs came to Cincinnati to play Gary 4 times. First of those visits they played even full rack banks, Gary won. next time they played a few games of even banks again and Bugs' stakehorse pulled him up & told him to make a one-pocket game. Bugs gave Gary 9-7 and continued to lose. Next 2 times they came to town they played 8-7 one pocket, Gary won.

Don't get the idea that I'm disrespecting Bugs! We loved the guy! He was always a gentleman! Never had any kind of even a minor beef with him over the games. It was just a matter of who was "in their prime" at the time! When ever Gary was asked who the best bank pool players were he placed Eddie Taylor as the greatest and Bugs only second to him!

Now that I've mentioned four top bank pool players that are no longer with us, do you think they have a little partner bank game going in heaven?

Sherm
 

gulfportdoc

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Jun 25, 2004
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Gulfport, Mississippi
Enjoyed your recap, Sherm. So as far as games, Gary and Bugs broke even in Chicago, whereas Gary won in each of Bugs' 4 visits to Cincinnati. I wish I'd met Spaeth when I lived in Cincinnati in the mid '60s, although I do remember Donnie Anderson tending bar in the lounge off Mergard's poolroom. I didn't know who the top players were, even though I played occasionally at Mergard's, and also in that joint upstairs off the bowling alley west of Peebles Corner.

If the best bankers of the day were: Taylor, Spaeth, and Bugs; who were #4 and #5? Were Donnie Anderson and Freddy in that mix?

~Doc
 

cincy_kid

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Cincinnati, OH
a beast indeed....any time I hear that name it also reminds me of Gary. They played on several occasions and to be honest I am not sure who won the majority of the time (maybe someone else can chime in on that).

Well Chris, as you know, Gary was my best friend and road partner for many years. I staked Gary, with the exception of a couple of years when I was busy opening Beechmont Billiards. Over the years I staked him to play Bugs 5 times. The first time, in Chicago, Gary knocked off a Bank Tournament there beating Freddy in the finals and just as the tournament ended Bugs showed up. They played 2 sets. Gary won the first set easily and Bugs won the second, just barely (went down to the last ball of the set). We had doubled the bet on the second set so, in money we lost a grand there! Over the next 5 or 6 years Bugs came to Cincinnati to play Gary 4 times. First of those visits they played even full rack banks, Gary won. next time they played a few games of even banks again and Bugs' stakehorse pulled him up & told him to make a one-pocket game. Bugs gave Gary 9-7 and continued to lose. Next 2 times they came to town they played 8-7 one pocket, Gary won.

Don't get the idea that I'm disrespecting Bugs! We loved the guy! He was always a gentleman! Never had any kind of even a minor beef with him over the games. It was just a matter of who was "in their prime" at the time! When ever Gary was asked who the best bank pool players were he placed Eddie Taylor as the greatest and Bugs only second to him!

Now that I've mentioned four top bank pool players that are no longer with us, do you think they have a little partner bank game going in heaven?

Sherm

Nice recap buddy and yea of course I knew how close you were with Gary and you were his main stakehorse :)

I did not know how he and Bugs came out in their battles though, that's quite interesting! I know Gary was a much better bank pool player than he was at one hole but still...he had such great CB control, I cant imagine someone giving him 9/7...geez...

PS - let's get together again someday soon so we can have a little one pocket rematch! :)
 

cincy_kid

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Enjoyed your recap, Sherm. So as far as games, Gary and Bugs broke even in Chicago, whereas Gary won in each of Bugs' 4 visits to Cincinnati. I wish I'd met Spaeth when I lived in Cincinnati in the mid '60s, although I do remember Donnie Anderson tending bar in the lounge off Mergard's poolroom. I didn't know who the top players were, even though I played occasionally at Mergard's, and also in that joint upstairs off the bowling alley west of Peebles Corner.

If the best bankers of the day were: Taylor, Spaeth, and Bugs; who were #4 and #5? Were Donnie Anderson and Freddy in that mix?

~Doc

He was a neat guy Doc... very laid back, easy going and played so damn jam up (seemed to me he was far above the rest in all games but for sure in bank)..I am sure you would have really liked him had you met.

I think it would be hard to say who the best bankers were in the day..the answer probably changes on who you ask and what time period you are speaking about. I remember watching Gary and JB play some at Beechmont Billiards..was a great match to sweat (although I don't know how they played or who won, sorry!) I know Gary's dad, Joey Spaeth was a great one hole player. I am told he was better than Gary but I wasn't around back then to meet him or see him play.

Sherm? or anyone who knows...was Joey a better one pocket player than Gary and did Gary play better banks that his father?
 

cuesmith

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He was a neat guy Doc... very laid back, easy going and played so damn jam up (seemed to me he was far above the rest in all games but for sure in bank)..I am sure you would have really liked him had you met.

I think it would be hard to say who the best bankers were in the day..the answer probably changes on who you ask and what time period you are speaking about. I remember watching Gary and JB play some at Beechmont Billiards..was a great match to sweat (although I don't know how they played or who won, sorry!) I know Gary's dad, Joey Spaeth was a great one hole player. I am told he was better than Gary but I wasn't around back then to meet him or see him play.

Sherm? or anyone who knows...was Joey a better one pocket player than Gary and did Gary play better banks that his father?

I gotta admit that I didn't know them when Joey was in his prime (50's through 70's) but as I understand from knowing them and other old timers of that era, Joey was one of the best movers, ever but didn't quite have the firepower that Gary had with his superior banking skills. I've been told that when you played Joey a session, you left feeling like you'd been doing hard labor the whole time. But in Cincinnati back then you also had Donnie Anderson who played Bugs even and it was a toss up. Donnie seldom played one pocket and wasn't a big threat at that. We also had Clem Metz who never played in tournaments but often showed up at them trying to shame the winner to play him. Clem was a real character, who admittedly had used a pistol to get the money a couple of times when he felt he should have been the victor if not for bizarre luck! Clem would give Joey 8-7 playing one hole and had a little the best of it, I've heard. I was out of the loop in Cincinnati from when I went into the Navy in '68 and lived in Miami for 9 years when I got out before returning to Cincy in '81, So I missed a lot of the best action years. I do have the dubious honor of having been a pall bearer at both Joey and Gary's funerals and miss them both like they were close family.

Sherm
 

cuesmith

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I knew VERY well for 50 years, I NEVER saw him even attempt to play one 3 cushion shot! He and I used to run into each other all over the country. He was in DC when I played, 'George the Greek' for BIG money in 3C. Bugs knew He could always get a 'Gapper' when I played! And I always tried to sneak a bet in on Him, without knocking His action!

I'm confused Billy, were you referring to Gary or Bugs who you'd never seen playing 3C? Gary actually played pretty good 3C for a pool player but he knew his limitations. He played a lot at my poolroom and loved the game. Had he had the opportunity to play with you on a regular basis I think he could have real threat, because he picked it up pretty well when he did play play with people who knew the game.

Sherm
 

cincy_kid

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I gotta admit that I didn't know them when Joey was in his prime (50's through 70's) but as I understand from knowing them and other old timers of that era, Joey was one of the best movers, ever but didn't quite have the firepower that Gary had with his superior banking skills. I've been told that when you played Joey a session, you left feeling like you'd been doing hard labor the whole time. But in Cincinnati back then you also had Donnie Anderson who played Bugs even and it was a toss up. Donnie seldom played one pocket and wasn't a big threat at that. We also had Clem Metz who never played in tournaments but often showed up at them trying to shame the winner to play him. Clem was a real character, who admittedly had used a pistol to get the money a couple of times when he felt he should have been the victor if not for bizarre luck! Clem would give Joey 8-7 playing one hole and had a little the best of it, I've heard. I was out of the loop in Cincinnati from when I went into the Navy in '68 and lived in Miami for 9 years when I got out before returning to Cincy in '81, So I missed a lot of the best action years. I do have the dubious honor of having been a pall bearer at both Joey and Gary's funerals and miss them both like they were close family.

Sherm

Oh yea, I had forgotten about Clem..he was the man back then.. (before my time but I had heard).

That was a nice honor indeed and although I wasn't nearly as close as you were to Gary, I miss him too buddy...
 

cincy_kid

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I'm confused Billy, were you referring to Gary or Bugs who you'd never seen playing 3C? Gary actually played pretty good 3C for a pool player but he knew his limitations. He played a lot at my poolroom and loved the game. Had he had the opportunity to play with you on a regular basis I think he could have real threat, because he picked it up pretty well when he did play play with people who knew the game.

Sherm

I concur! I remember going into Beechmont Billiards every Saturday for the 9 ball tourney which if Gary showed up he was always the favorite and won most he played in I think. But before the tourney would start or even in between his matches, he would sometimes be at the 3 cushion table with a crowd standing around watching some of his shots practicing ... he may not have been a top 3c player but he certainly had talent in all pool games.

I think the only game I did not see him play was anything on the snooker table :)
 
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