TRU E S TORY
I Never Tried to Hustle
BY: DON “CHEESE” AKERLOW
It was some 40 years ago that I won probably the most from someone playing pool for money From my first days of learning and playing pool in a in Cincinnati” his twin, in the way he dressed, basement pool hall in a small town in Southwestern would have been Herb Tarlic. Now don’t get me Pennsylvania, where I watched some of the best wrong I sort of liked Al because he was a good players I’ve ever seen. I never played to their level, salesman and didn’t like him because ... let’s face it, even at my best and I never tried he was an A-hole to hustle pool more than for a when it came to night out of drinking and playing personality. for a dollar and a shot in some out Al wanted me to of the way bar. I never had any come over to the inspiration to take pool to any office and see the level in my early years. Bison, so I did. Yet back in 1972 in Savannah, He talked me into Georgia, I found myself in a going to work situation that I could win a lot. for him for a two I had been working for almost week trial basis. If 2 years as a salesman. I worked I liked it, I’d quit for the Kirby Vacuum Cleaner Kirby, if not, I’d DON Company and I worked by go back to Kirby. AL knocking doors. I would work mostly in the Every morning for about ten days evenings selling to military personnel (Army) in a I would ride back and forth to Buford and sell. small town called Hinesville at Fort Stewart. My We knocked them dead! Between us we sold 25 second choice was Paris Island selling to Marine units in the first 10 days. I was getting a better Drill Instructors and their wives. Both bases would commission and we were making a lot of money. net me some $200-$300 per week in sales at a time As with most salesmen we needed a break, so for when minimum wage was $1.25 per hour. I was the next couple of days we would travel to Buford working 4-5 hours a day, 2-3 days a week. Needless later and later each morning. We would stop in to say, I had a lot of time on my hands. the diner on the way into town for breakfast. We’d I found myself playing 8 ball in a bar for $2-$3 a have a big ol’ breakfast of eggs, hash browns, bacon game, sometimes $10 or $20, most of the time I and always grits and of course sat for half an hour won, sometimes I lost. Losing was a good thing just drinking coffee. In the back room, by the depending on the crowd and the personality of bathroom, sat a pinball machine. We would always who I was playing. It was more important to play for breakfast. Whoever lost paid and left the have a good time and always leave your opponent tip. I played pinball most everyday as a kid and got wanting for more. Sometimes losing the last 3 or 4 pretty good at it. Al was about 10 or 15 years older games, buying a round of drinks and interesting my than me and just didn’t have the reflexes but mostly opponent into chasing some young skirt. But what couldn’t shake the machine without the “tilt” happened next, I couldn’t have written a script any light coming on. Well, this day things were a little better. different. I think the gambling fever got to both of I was in Buford, South Carolina at a diner when us. We played for breakfast, then a dollar, then $2, Al Curtis walked in. He was the Area Distributor then $5. I never lost! Believe me, it wasn’t that I was working under the same boss I had but he had an that good, it was, he wasn’t. Remember that ego I office and got a better price on the Kirby’s than I mentioned before? did. Al never had any friends, maybe it was because If you have a big ego and you like to gamble you he always considered everybody a “sucker” because take it personally. Well, that day, Al did more than he would always try to get the better of you. Most I had expected. Al was the type that thought he door to door salesmen had to have a similar attitude was ten foot tall and bullet proof. On most mights to survive and an ego to match. You get the door on the way back to Savannah, he would be half slammed in your face a few hundred times and toasted from the Scotch, with a Falstaff beer in one you’ll understand what I mean. hand and cigarette in another, bragging he had one Al told me he had quit Walter at Kirby and started glass eye and couldn’t see out of the other. At first selling Bison’s. Now Al, looked like a used car this made me nervous, being I was his passenger. I salesman, if you could picture that. A massive didn’t drink a lot in those days but maybe I should receding hairline, an eyebrow that curved upwards, have. a glass eye, a white shirt and tie and a red pair of Let me get back to that last day after we left the slacks. If you ever watched the TV show “WKRP diner. As we drove out of the parking lot, Al said,
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“Let’s take the day off, go have a few and play some pool.” I said, “Let’s go!” Most nights before we left Buford and headed back we would stop, have a few and play partners at one of the local bars. Maybe I should back up a couple of days before, when I bought a 4 door ’67 Chevy from Al. He wanted $800 for the car. I gave him $500 and a note for $300 to be paid within a month. Now we got to the bar, ordered a couple beers, got a dollar in quarters and started playing 8 ball on an 8’ table. Starting out as I remember, at $2 a game. After half a dozen or so games Al was down about $20 and we were up to $5 a game. We were still having fun, joking, yelling for more beers and just having a good time. Al wanted to play for $20 a game, so we did. He won two in a row and then said, “Let’s play rotation for $1 a point.” Now I thought to myself, there’s 120 points that are on the balls. If he would break and run, I would owe him $120. But having played rotation when we used to get tired of practicing in the pool hall on 9’ tables, I had learned the game pretty well. Of course, we played slop. I outscored Al to the tune of about $275. I asked him when should we pay up. He looked at me with what I thought was his glass eye and his eyebrow curled upward and said, “You owe me $300 more for the car. If you get to that I’ll sign the title over. But, we have to play for $2 a point.” I thought to myself, “Could he be setting me up? In one game he could take it real close to breaking even.” I told Al I had to hit the head real bad and we’ll talk when I come back. In sales we had learned the Ben Franklin Method, you weigh the positives and negatives. I was shooting good - he wasn’t. On the negative, was he coning me? He had been drinking all this time and I was the one who hadn’t been drinking so much. When I got back to the table Al had ordered a round for both of us and had racked the balls. I decided to see if I could find a “tell” like in poker. Is he bluffing? Is he playing me? I told him I didn’t want to play for $2 a point, I wanted to play for $5 a point! He agreed - game on! For the first couple of games, it wasn’t very much diference in the points 55-65 and so on. Then I nailed a game 90-30, that’s 60 points times $5 a point - that’s $300 right there. Now he owed me $575. He signed the title over to me and gave me three $100 bills. I gave him back a five and two
(Hustle continued on page 31)
August 2011 - The Break 15