^^^^^yes!
been wondering what tall jeff has been up to....
(i think the site ebbs and flows. for me, summer is a busy time with work, family, etc. (and live horse racing....lol). seems like social media is evolving and facebook (tried it, too much, not for me) is the preferred place for a lot of pool related stuff currently. i've got three or four 1p dvds i haven't watched yet, maybe can get a couple fresh WWYDs up within the next couple weeks....)
Ok,
Here’s one that nearly killed me...
Oakland, Ca. mid 60’s...
I did some bar hopping back then to make a few dollars, playing 8 ball, 9 ball, darts, shuffleboard, etc etc.... whatever presented itself, I would try...
I came across a guy playing a game called “Boss Dice” which was just a form of poker, only using dice...
It was a relatively common game in most bars in San Francisco during that time period... Mostly it was played by several players sitting at the bar, usually to see who would pay for a round of drinks, worst hand buys...
The game consisted of a medium size leather cup and 5 dice... Each player was passed the cup to shake and roll out the dice... Best possible hand being five 6’s...
Well, the guy who was holding court that night was gambling with several people... They were playing for $5.00 a roll, which isn’t a lot of money, but he was winning an extraordinaryly high percentage of the time...
I watched a few of his rolls and spotted his move... He was holding out...
Ordinarily I would have just let it go, but this guy wasn’t from the area and he was robbing my strawberry patch, which was like stealing from me...
Holding out is when not all of the dice go into the cup, in this particular case only 3 were going into the leather cup while the other two were cupped in his little finger... Naturally, both were set to slide two 6’s into the 3 that were actually inside the cup as he slammed the open side of the cup onto the top of the bar... Having at least two 6’s every time isn’t a cinch, but it’ll kill corn knee high over time, because there’s a 50% chance that one of the other 3 blind rolled dice will come up a 6...
I caught his eye and motioned him over... I told him I knew he was holding out and to quit and leave, or I’d be forced to give him up... He left, and that was it..
I thought everything was cool and I sat down at the bar and was having a drink when just moments later someone tapped me on the shoulder...As I turned to see who, in an instant I knew it was him, but it was to late, for he had already started his forward motion with the Jack handle... I saw it coming, and I heard it hit the bridge of my nose and my left cheekbone, I felt my head snap back and I went to the floor... I was on my back, fully conscious of my surroundings and felt no pain... He took another swing at my head, but this time I saw it coming and was able to move my head enough to avoid another head shot, this one caught my left collar bone and shattered it...
Out of the crowd came an old man I knew, I called him Dutch, it was the only name I had ever heard him called... As the guy was winding up for another swing, old man Dutch jumped on his back wrapped both of his legs around the guys waist and stuck a pistol in his ear.. I heard him say, “You swing, you die”
Next thing I remember is being wheeled down a corridor on a gurney, which just happen to pause at cigarette machine, with pull knobs and a mirror... I didn’t recognize my own reflection, I was a mess...
A little over a month later, and 4 reconstructive surgeries, I was able to go back on active duty... If not for that little old man named Dutch, I’m sure I wouldn’t have made it...
