Mark Wilson - Part 3 (Road Trips, Mentors & the Making of a Champion)

Well, you know, you talk about some of the accomplishments back then, and you can kind of put them into some context in terms of timeframes.
But five-time Wisconsin state champion, three Illinois state championships you won, you won Wisconsin nine-ball titles 12 plus times.
During this time, and you'll again help us with the timeframes, at some point you left Madison, you found yourself in other places around the country. Why don't you kind of take us through the sequence of some of those moves?
Well, Jeff and I had gone on the road a lot, Jeff Carter, and it was amazing. We traveled a lot, and he never lost, but I would occasionally lose. But normally, I was playing too much pool for most people that work.
And so I was getting better, getting some seasoning, and we would make money. And this is the oddest thing ever. But at the end of a road trip, maybe we're gone two weeks.
If we have traveled 2,000 miles at the end of it all, after expenses, we'd have 2,000 in profit by a dollar a mile. And then we just travel.
But I was doing it not for the money, the experience, the seasoning, and the fact that if we did get money, I could play longer without having to take another job. And so that existed. And then Jeff is a guy that is very polarizing.
And so we go places and they go, man, that asshole you're with. And I have to agree with them, you know. And they go, man, if he acts like that, somebody will hit him.
Oh, no, I saw him get hit a lot of times. And he would smash his cue. And he was kind of a rogue kind of a guy.
And he was never happy. So like if he came and he beat some guy out of his money, it was always like, we won 300. Yeah, but he should have lost 600, you know what I mean?
It was never ever good, you know, like that.
Except for one time, the only time Jeff was ever satisfied with his performance was, and his basic gambling thing was, he would come there and he'd say, geez, I don't know who told you, you could play good.
I mean, it wouldn't even be hard for me to beat you. I would just take all your money. I mean, it would be easy, you know, I shouldn't even play it really.
And then he would belittle you to be able to humiliate you. And then he would, in fact, he's that great of a player. He would take all their money.
But we were up in Minneapolis and he was never satisfied with just doing those two things. But this one time we played Gene Lowe and Gene was Gene the Machine, best player in Minneapolis. So, eh, tough game.
Jeff, oh, he bad mouthed him, he busts him. And then he leaves with the guy's girlfriend.
And so, yeah, totally. Yeah, the trifecta.
So the next day when we're leaving town, that was the only time Jeff was really satisfied with his overall performance there. He finally broke through.
That's funny. Yeah, I know.
He's a character. And I owe him. He's moody and temperamental.
And sometimes he gets, you know, he'll cop an attitude, but I love him like a brother. I could never repay him. And sometimes he feels like maybe I don't, I don't look down as favorably as I should, but he's mistaken.
I love him. You know, I couldn't even, I could never repay him. And he used to, he started off staying in my apartment.
I'll never forget this, because he needed someplace. And I was that guy that was just beginning, that was enamored with how good he was.
And he always kind of appeared, he's a Italian guy with kind of dark under his eyes, but he had long flowing black hair down to his shoulder.
And he could play, oh, he's like a gun fighter, like Johnny Ringo, he'd come to town and just beat players, gambling. And I was just enamored, like I couldn't even imagine. And he's so brash and confident and cocky.
And he was everything that I could dream of being, you know, his skill. And so he'd stay at my apartment. Well, then I got this girlfriend and he'd want to stay.
So I'd let him, and because he might utter a phrase, I might learn something from her. You know, he'd play me and he'd make me gamble and he'd take my money and he'd give me a small spot, but it wouldn't be enough. But it was just tuition.
And so he'd stay at our apartment, but he was kind of a disrespectful guy. He'd like just take a shower and throw his towel in the corner of the bathroom. And well, then my girlfriend get all pissed off, like she's the maid or something.
And so then he'd get kicked out. And then he'd be kicked out for two weeks. And I have to beg her, he'll be okay.
He's okay. And all this happened, he was kicked out more than two or three times for sure along the way. But I didn't really care.
Before her, I really didn't care. It was just me and him, whatever. I know he's a little bit abrasive, but you always have to look at other people's where they came from.
And so I'm not real judgmental that way. And I was so enamored with Pool, I just want to learn Pool. So there's some people that maybe wouldn't love him like I do, and wouldn't understand him like I do, but he truly is all that.
He's the greatest player that ever came out of Wisconsin, and all around. Now there's guys in the world that can play a lot of different games.
This guy, he will beat you at straight pool, nine ball, 10 ball, one pocket banks, billiards, snooker, and whatever else, anything else. He'll just be good at it.
He's one of these guys, super hyper driven, chronic overachiever, couldn't credit him enough for my learning. And then he's got what I lacked. He has that aggression.
And so, oh yeah, he would get right in there. And there was a lot of times we were on the road. I was thinking, he shouldn't even play this guy.
We're going to lose all, oh, he beat him. It was unbelievable. A lot of times I didn't like the game very good, but he came through.
You mentioned this as you said, Ali, sort of this killer instinct.
It'll be interesting as we progress through these interviews and talk to some of the greats of the game to see if we find some commonality of personality in terms of what their competitive fire was like.
I know on the golf side, it's very clear when you look at the major champions or the Hall of Famers, they're a different cat. A lot of them would just as soon step on your throat as look at you. I mean, it's nothing personal.
They love you. They'll be friendly to you. But if they've got you down in a match, their only thought is stepping on your throat and finishing the deal.
It's a little extra gear, isn't it?
You know, quietly, Allie has that characteristic right here.
Pure killer.
No, pure killer.
She doesn't miss.
And she looks so innocent too. You'd never expect that.
It looks deceiving. That's what they say, right?
She's competitive. It has nothing to do with being mean.
I am competitive. I am just a competitive person.
And that was from a very young age, I'm sure.
Definitely. Absolutely. Even playing, what do you call it?
Tetherball. We call it swing ball in England. Playing that, I used to get red in the face and hitting that ball round and around and around.
I remember it.
You had to win at everything, right?
Yeah, I tried.
Yeah. Yeah. So Mark, we mentioned Sailor before and sort of, he came into your life at some point.
Why don't you mention the progression of when he sort of came in and tell our listeners a little bit about this character known as Sailor?
No one would know his real name, but it's Frank Stellman and the Sailor. So they say, oh, Mark, yeah, advanced stuff, Sailor. And I wasn't ready for it, but I wanted it so bad and couldn't wait.
And so Racine, Wisconsin. Well, the first couple of times they told me about him, I was somewhat dismissive because I couldn't envision anyone being more knowledgeable about Pool than Jerry.
And so I kind of blew it off and it's a long trip and I don't have much money and I can't really risk it on a wild goose chase. But finally, I'd heard it enough times I had to give in and he doesn't have a phone.
So you drive the Racine and hope he was at his pool room. And some days he was and some days he wasn't. But if he was, you know, when the first time I met him, I was nervous and hopeful.
And he says, I'll never forget this. He goes, I don't work with anyone that can't run 50 balls. Can you run 50 balls?
And my high run was at 22 that I told you about earlier. And so I didn't, I'm not really a liar, but I wanted to learn the advanced stuff so bad that I did say, yeah, yeah, I can run 50.
And what I really believed and sincerely, I thought because I respect this man so much based on what they've told me, and if I really concentrate and God helps me one iota, I think I can run 50.
And so he says, okay, let me see you get through a couple of racks. Okay. So I said, okay.
And I'm nervous this could be and I'm not very skilled. And so after 10 racks, my high run is seven. And I was naive.
I thought maybe I could pull this off. I was dumb. Okay.
And so I did it. Well, he was not impressed. And now let's just suppose after 10 racks, I did run 29 or 32.
He'd say, maybe the guy can get it. He probably, maybe can. But if you can't get through one rack after 10 tries, zero chance you're getting 50.
So he pointed the table way in the back corner and I had to go back there and practice by myself. And I was still hopeful and he wasn't mean at all. Wasn't like that.
But it was abundantly clear that we both now know I can't run 50. And so I went back there and I played six, eight hours like that. And paid him for the table time and went back to Madison and got zero attention.
And so then the following month, I tried it again. I go down there and I practiced really hard, hopeful. I could do better.
And when I got there, he just pointed at that back table. I went back there and practice six, eight hours, no attention. Went back to Madison.
Third time, same thing. And so disappointing, but I had let him down pretty severely. And I really don't blame him as it turns out, but I was naive enough to believe that maybe I could, but I found out I couldn't.
And so maybe the fourth time, I'll never forget this. He was back in his lathe. He built cues in his pool room and I was up to back in my, I had to be on the back corner table by myself.
But there was a bunch of top players there. George Brant, Jimmy Mattia was there, Kowalski was there, maybe even Dallas. And they were conversing about Pool.
And I'd never heard Pool described like this. And I have absolutely nothing to add to the conversation, but was intrigued to listen like this. It was very inspiring.
And then they all referred to Sailor. If there was ever a question, he was the final arbiter. And they all agreed with whatever his verdict was because he'd been a disciple of Moscone's.
And so anyway, they all agreed and they're fabulous players. And he looked up one time, he saw me, he goes, Marco, go get his six cups of coffee. I'm like, oh yeah, I didn't even think of that.
Just don't kick me out. Just I want to hear every word, you know? And I would do that.
And so now he kind of maybe slightly lightened up, not a lot. And the next time I come down there, he had a big, you know, 12, 11 table pool room, wooden floor. He said, get that broom and sweep out the pool room, take all the trash out.
I'd do it. I'd do it. Just don't kick me out.
And I'd do it all. Not complain, never. And then I'd go back and practice on that lonely table by myself.
And then he started to let me play in some guys that were 100 ball runners that were older now and couldn't run 100. And then I'd play them all afternoon. Then I'd go back to Madison.
And then about the next time I came, I just got the broom out as soon as I walked in. Cleaned the whole pool room, did everything. And that's when I kind of started.
He started to lighten up like I'm not a quitter. I'm still coming. And then that's, but I'm one of the only guys that ever got back into Sailor's Good Graces after falling off.
And even though he was never mean, he didn't say, you're in my bad graces. It's just, he will give you the attention. He's a driven artist guy that goes on feeling.
So if you said, hey, I want you to make me a fancy cue here. And you state that you want it heavy with a stainless steel joint, real fancy, cause you play on a bar table. As bad as he needs your 500 bucks, he cannot make that cue.
You've killed it. Everything you said is anti-Sailor.
And truly, I never give a lesson that he's not referenced because he deserves it, because he's that great of a guy that deserves to be in the Bayard's Hall of Fame and actually played better than half the people in the Hall of Fame.
But no one will ever know, except for me and the couple of guys that are still living. And so it's a shame because he did so much for the sport that he still inspires me.
And so he's never really dead because I'll never let him die because his memory will exist with every one of my students. And he's in my book as well, just because he earned it. I didn't give it to him.
He totally earned it. So that was and at that point, then him and I, he'd start playing me late at night. And, oh, my goodness, he'd come out and he'd be working all day and he'd be ratty.
He'd run five balls and I'd get up and miss my first shot. And then he'd run seven and then I'd make a ball and scratch. And then all of a sudden he'd start running 33 and then his next turn 46 and then he's 79.
And then 103, 121, 140. Because before that, I heard of a hundred ball runs and apparently they must happen, but I never witnessed one. I would love to see one.
I'm sure it must happen, but I've been around quite a bit of it and I haven't seen one yet. And that was always his benchmark. He didn't want to say, well, I beat so-and-so.
He didn't know how many innings and what you're running, you know. That was that. And it was always about a hundred ball runs.
And even when I finally did win the state championship there, there was one guy before me, Jim Talsman, who ran a hundred balls at the sports show. And I ran a hundred balls from the break playing a guy that's my arch-rival, Ron Dobuzinski.
And I got past him. I won the lag and gave him the break and he left just one little ball hanging out. I made it and ran out of a hundred balls.
So that was really an epic thing. And then I was so worried that if I lose the finals, that mitigates winning making the perfect game the time before.
So all night I was sweating, you know, like I got to cash this in or it'll just invalidate my my thing that I really wanted to do.
And so I did end up winning even though I was nervous about a letdown and but sailor forever would never ever say Marco won the pro division, he would not say that he would. But he did have that score sheet posted on his wall of the 100 and out.
That's all he would ever say is because maybe the final game was a 48 in game. We don't know if that was good or bad. We don't know.
Well, this that totally measured up to what he wanted. And he was a very motivating guy. Oh, my goodness.
He would be like a Yoda kind of a guy. Just fascinating. Everything he thought about, how he got better, how he began.
It was just, well, it's an entire show.
Was he the guy that kept a table reserved for only the top players?
He had three tables in the back. One table was the hundred ball runners club. And the other tables was the 50 ball runners club, the 25 ball runners club.
I wasn't qualified to play on any of these. So I had to play on the ready tables for dates and the kids and stuff like that. And they had lesser cloth.
These last three had Simonas, and there was a big plaque on the wall. And they have the hundred ball runners club and they had a brass nameplate. If your name's not on there, don't even think about setting your hand on that table.
Ever, ever. And it'll be immaculate. And then the 50 ball and then the 25 ball, like that.
And even on Friday night, when he was busy, all his tables were going, if your name, he'll just go with eight tables. He will not rent those three tables at all. You cannot do it.
And I love the principle. I love the principle and I love the inspiration. I so bad wanted to get on the 25, at least be there.
And I finally made that. And then the 50 and then, you know, much later on the 100. And so, but it was, it kept aspirational content for people that weren't just there to fool around.
It really was serious.
Yeah, I think it's a great idea.
Yeah, it was.
What happened to that plaque?
You know, it's right here on my wall. I just got this. Bonnie Arnold had it.
Bonnie was a girl up in Racine Kenosha and last summer, I assumed that this plaque is completely gone. It had been years and it was in his pool room. And so April Larson came here and we were going to train for a day.
And she goes, Bonnie sent you a present. I go, oh, that's weird. I don't want to.
I mean, I didn't ask. And it was somehow she had saved that 100 Ball Runners Club plaque. And so it's not a fancy thing.
It's not great value, but I wouldn't take any price for it. You know, I have it and that's just part of my life that I would treasure forever.
So it's fantastic.
Yeah.
No, Sailor's alive.
You know, it's great memories.
Yeah.
So what's what's the next phase? You move on from sailor and do you relocate from Wisconsin at some point then as you move around?
Yeah, it was. We had a real bad winter. Let's say this is probably about like 1979.
I went to Madison and there's a foot of snow and bitter cold. And I'm thinking, you're a pool player. What are you doing?
You know, I mean, you could go south and be, you know, and just come back here in the spring. So I thought, yeah, that's what I'll do.
So I went to go south and I got as far as my hometown and got snowed in there for a couple of days, but made a good score. I won a couple of thousand bucks.
That's not very far, by the way, to make it back to Moline.
It's going to say.
Well, I got to stop there, you know, just see my family. On my way to Houston, going to Houston. So then I struggled out of there after a couple of days.
I made a good score at this place. It was just a special, you know, turn of events. It wasn't good players.
It was just bad players that gambled. Somehow I got lucky and landed with them. Then I went to Houston and oh my goodness, the action was so good.
And now I'm starting to play pretty good too by this time of my career. And so, boy, I could just see this is fertile grounds. And so I ended up moving there for two years.
It was so good. And all the older pool players that were there say, yeah, you missed it. It's not good now.
It used to be good. This is right on the tail end of the oil boom. And I'm like, well, this is incredible.
You know what I mean? I can't believe it could be better, but whatever, you know, I'm good with it. And there was a lot of players there at that point.
Buddy Hall was residing there. And there was a guy named James Christopher, good player, Jersey Red. I don't remember Jeremy Jones, but Earl Strickland, he was really coming up.
He was living there. And then, oh, there was a bunch of other ones too. It's, I can't even remember.
But it was very compelling. And it was just because there was so much commerce and action and you could play big stakes and small stakes and you get pumped back up if you're lost.
And there was tons of pool rooms and it was, oh, I ended up living there two years.
Yeah, yeah. And then from there, where'd you go?
It was kind of funny. They had the RIDs tournament and I'll never forget it. I'm starting to come on a little bit, play pretty good, Mizerak my idol.
He won four straight US opens, played perfect. A big Calcutta at RIDs, so I'm gonna play at RIDs. So I go there, all the pros are there, and they had a Calcutta.
And most of the good players are going for 7, 800 like that, maybe a little bit more. Seagull, Rampy, Buddy Hall, and Mizerak bought me, and for 200 bucks, no, good deal. And he knows that there's a real chance I could cash.
And so, oh, I was so honored. It just felt like, oh my God, Babe Ruth bought me. I mean, you got to be kidding me, you know?
And so, I bought half and ended up, I went through a litany of good players, played good, and it got down to me and him for the winner of the winners bracket. And I was like, okay, I'm breaking through. I'm winning this tournament.
Not cocky, but just because everything had just, I'm playing good and things are going right. And I'm winning my matches over good players. And so, boy, just like I thought, we play off in the finals of the winners bracket.
And I win the lag and I break and run the first rack, going to 11. And it's 1-0. And I'm like, oh yeah, this is it, momentum.
And I almost never shot again. I mean, it was the most like, at the end, I was just clapping too. I mean, my God, this guy played, it was just incredible.
And he's one of the only elite pros I'd never beat. He smoked me a few times. And then there's other times where we battled.
But one of the big breakthroughs there was that, you know, it is a little tough to get past this. Okay, here's Steve Mizerak and he's won four straight US. Open, set the all-time ball printing record.
And then he's got this and then he won this. And then now he's sponsored by Miller Lite. And then here's Mark Wilson.
Well, he won a little tournament there at the pool room there once. And it's like, right away, you feel like you shrink a little bit. But I was playing pretty good.
And so we ended up splitting 2000 in Calcutta and things were good. I ended up at third. Stevie Dombrowski from New Jersey beat me after men's, but he also played super good.
So it wasn't really my lack of performance. It was probably a little better than I was supposed to do. But nevertheless, now I'm starting to roll a little bit and feel like I can play with anybody.
And back then, when you traveled on the road, you could make enough money, not fabulous money, not like that, but you could get action. And so any top player I ever ran into on the road to include Mike Siegel and Buddy Hall, I gambled with.
Not because I thought I was going to win, but because I wanted to play him and put my whole heart into it and just see, what do they do? How do they do this?
And because I can still win that, now I couldn't lose lavish, but I would play everybody $200 worth. And if I lost it, that's okay. I'm going to win it back over the next three days anyway.
And I'm not doing this for money to begin with, but I'm not going to back down and not play people. So, and that was, that was really the thing. That was the norm back then.
It wasn't like an aberration. And truly the tournaments at those times was more around the gambling games that took place afterwards.
Even in the first US Open that I participated in, this is very early on, it'd be all the feature players, 32 players only. And I'd be there to spectate, because I wasn't 32.
And, hey, Buddy Hollins playing Mike Siegel tonight, $2,000 set when this is over. That was more important than the tournament, for sure. Because that's where they were all weaned that way.
They were all groomed that way. They came from Johnson City that way. That's just what it was.
And then the tournament was good if you want to, but that was kind of lucky. It was just one race to 11. Normally these batches would be like a 10 ahead.
There was something like that where you really find out who won, who the best player was. And so that was more of the thing. It wasn't the ego thing.
It was just the measuring stick. And you had all these great players. And you just did it.
That's just what you did. It was actually better. It was much more like the Philippines is today, I would say.
So from Houston, you went where?
Nashville.
Oh yeah, that tournament. Yeah, that I finished up my story. So I got third down there.
And then this guy that I had this chain of pool rooms up in Nashville called me. And I was going on the road from Houston and doing good. I was making good income and had a little girlfriend.
I'm going to, this is how at the end of the oil boom, they had overbuilt brand new apartments so bad that if you would sign a six month lease in an apartment no one's ever lived in with a swimming pool and everything nice, you got the first month
free. And I'm like, how can you beat this? Oh yeah. So I stayed there a couple of years like that.
Because it was, you know, maybe it was, it was cheap, you know, wasn't expensive, but it was nice. And so I stayed there. Well, anyway, this guy calls me up from Nashville, Bobby Lawson.
I want you to come up here and be my house pro. I want you to come up here and talk to me about it. And I'll pay you a salary.
I'm like, I don't know if I really want to do that. I'm doing pretty good here and I kind of got my little route down. I got all these little tournaments I go to and I got tons of gambling.
So I went there to talk to him about it and he was pretty much a go-getter and he had poker machines so he had revenue. Unbelievable.
He said, I'll pay you $350 a week and I'll back you against anybody and we'll run some big tournaments and you'll be my house bro.
Your job is to bring people into the pool room with tournaments nightly, five days a week, not Friday and Saturday, you're off.
I don't want you working then, but I want the other dates and then have these tournaments and then the poker machines with money will take care of itself. It's kind of cool and it's a unique opportunity and so I'll try it.
I can just go back to Houston if it doesn't work out but the one stipulation was I could not gamble with his customers and so I thought, okay, that's fair enough.
I'm making a nice salary, I can pay for a nice apartment, take my girlfriend with me and live there and just check out Nashville.
Wasn't too enamored with the country music scene and then now when I look back, it was kind of stupid because I was right in the mix where my apartment that sometimes I have the tour buses in my parking lot.
I'm a rock and roll guy so I just didn't do it. But anyway, I lived there and that worked out good for a couple of years.
Then it was kind of a funny conclusion, but there was some traveling games that came through there, but it was all eight-foot tables.
Other than my day off, I could go to those one pool room that had nine-footers, and it didn't have the hardcore pool scene with serious players. I was kind of the best there and it's kind of a small pond, but this one guy was managing.
Bobby had bought this Brunswick dealership, and the guy, he was a good table mechanic, and so he'd stolen $30,000 from Bobby, and through selling tables and stuff.
And I don't think it was necessarily he was corrupt so much, but there was lack of supervision, and then sometimes money got fudged around. I don't think he's really a mean guy, and he was a good table mechanic.
Just a thief.
Well, you know how sometimes things happen, and I'm not rationalizing because it was wrong for sure, but lack of supervision and sometimes you do too much, and you don't feel like you get paid enough, so you rationalize something of this nature.
I don't think he really set out to be a thief, but anyway, it ended up. Well, when Bobby saw that his lack of oversight had allowed him to get $30,000, he was blind angry. It wasn't that he couldn't afford the loss, he definitely could.
He was making $70,000, $80,000 a week off these poker machines because he had seven or eight stores. And so, I would go to five of them per week. And he goes, listen, this is your chance.
If you want to, I'll just get me my 30 grand back. You can have the whole Brunswick dealership for Nashville.
I'm like, huh, hey, maybe then I could be on my own and making better than $350 a week, which was, you know, that wasn't money, wasn't my goal, but my pool career would be really well funded.
If I had the Brunswick dealership, now I can play on Pro Tour. If I don't cash a couple of times, it's sort of okay. And so, maybe I shouldn't give this, this might be my opportunity.
So, I tried it, but Bobby was so pissed. One, you guys don't know this. I have absolutely zero mechanical aptitude.
And capable of maybe stripping the joint in my cue when I put it together, you know, like this. Like, no, I have a shoestring on my pool room door here. You know what I mean?
And now it's lasted almost 10 years and I did that myself. So, if you need a home repairs, folks, I might be your man. But anyway, so I take over the Brunswick dealership, but Bobby says, I need my 30 grand back.
You own the Brunswick dealership. I'm out of it. I just pay me for the inventory, give me my 30 grand back, it's all yours.
So, now he hires this guy to teach me how to do pool tables, set them up and recover them. Well, that's like the last two or three days and I'm inept. Okay.
That's not enough for me to be able to set up a brand new Brunswick in a nice home. And so, but anyway, I guess I got it. Yeah, I mean, now he won't even give me a pickup truck to do any of this work and no help.
He won't put his secretary there or anything. So I'm now, I have to try to run the store, sell the tables, install the tables, close the store. And oh, I slaved so many hours trying to make this work.
And at the end of like six, seven months, I had made zero progress on the $30,000 debt. And I'll never forget it. I was getting so discouraged.
And like, if I ever needed to deliver a table, I'd have to borrow a pickup truck from somebody. You know, it was that hard. And so it's just me.
And I'll never forget this. I got frustrated about my pool game. And I'm not really a spontaneous guy, but I've been thinking about it.
I should go out of this and get back to playing like what I belong, because I'm not being able to keep up good with my playing because I'm putting in 80 hours a week doing this. And I put a sign on the door and it was like, gone to play pool.
And I locked the door and I turned in the keys to the girl that ran the pool room that he owned. And I left Nashville. And Bobby always loved that.
Gone fishing. It was just like I was broken hearted. I was going the wrong direction for what I wanted to do for my pool career.
I don't want to be a businessman. That's secondary. If that doesn't work pretty easily, then it's not like I'm a quitter, but that's not where my heart is.
And I just knew I wouldn't be untrue to myself. I didn't sacrifice all this to do that. But Bobby always loved it, because everybody always applied to him, because he'd pay him so good.
And you could just see that money wasn't marked. He never did this for money. But he was a super pleasant guy.
He's passed away now. And he made Bragg's The Riches out of starting off with a broken pool room and then got poker machines in there illegally that prospered like you could not imagine.
It was unbelievable and just a fun guy, just a character of a high order. So he helped me along the way. That would be one good step.
And then from there, then I, how did I go? So I got disillusioned there. So then I went on the road for a while.
So how old are you at this point?
Closing on 30.
Okay.
We'll see.
And then, yeah. Then I moved back to Moline. What possessed me to do that?
I don't recall exactly. Oh, I left Nashville and I was on the road for a while. I just wanted to have a home base.
And then, oh yeah. I made a bunch of money on the road and I wanted to buy this five by 10 pool table. Oh, I was shopping all over.
So I found one in St. Petersburg, Florida that was just a treasure. It was a Brunswick anniversary and I really wanted it, but the guy wouldn't sell it.
But I had the money, whatever the price was. If I could talk him down a little bit, I could buy it. Then I found one in Beaumont, Texas.
Then I found a five by 10 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. But the other two weren't as good as the one in St. Petersburg.
So some time went by and I was getting impulsive, that I just wanted this table. I thought, I'm going to call the guy one more time in St. Petersburg.
His marriage had broken up and he had to take the table out. But the table had been used by all the pros, Mizerak and them, for big one pocket games. He said, man, the way you love this table, of all people, I had to take it down.
I'm living in it's space now, by back of my pool room and I'll let you buy it. Then that would be about like in 1981 or 82, and so then I've owned it ever since. I wouldn't part with it.
The reason I have a five by 10, a lot of people say, why do you have a five by 10? Well, because they don't make a five and a half by 11, is why. I mean, you really want to know.
But the reality is that up until the late 1950s, everything was five by 10. That was the standard size. All the competent, Moscone and Paris and Lassiter all grew up on five by 10s.
That's amazing.
I should have that.
It's a beautiful table.
And to be quite honest, Mark, I didn't find it quite that difficult. No, you tore it up.
Come back, it will extract the toll on you. It's a great table.
Yeah, I do like the pockets though, because they're probably a little bit more generous than the Diamond Pockets.
Well, they're four and a half inches, Artemis rubber, but the cloth was brand new. So it's not hanging up. We get a little humid day here and the cloth gets a little wear on there.
Oh, he'll get you, Mike.
I know he will.
He'll invite you back on that humid day.
I'll tell you who did.
Efren Reyes was here and we were playing one day and we were having a good time. He was running out like you've always seen him run out. Because see, really, when you stay in line on a 5x10, it doesn't show you the difficulty of this thing.
But you get a hit on a line, it is way tougher, probably 35 percent tougher than a nine-footer. So Efren is just running out on me and I'm not thinking about it. Everything in the half hour and he's won every rack.
I'm racking them and he looks down and he goes, table to be. Oh, he said, oh, no, it's five by 10. He's just let me know.
Don't think you're pulling one over on me. I know this is a bigger table.
It's funny.
Yeah.
That's great.
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