BILL CADY Word Count: 149,227 - At My Friend's Place

Bill Cady, The Early Years … by Bill Cady 347
When you make the rack tight, it allows the balls to carry the energy of the cue
ball and send it out to the other balls. When they‟re loose, the shooter doing the break
loses a great deal of power.
He wasn‟t bad. He made a ball on the break, then got two more before I saw him
miss on purpose. I made a couple and it went on like that until only the eight ball was
left. Of course, as I suspected, he sank it and scratched on that shot. He did it on
purpose, again, but I doubted anyone not working the tables would‟ve caught it. As I
said, he wasn‟t bad.
Since I‟d only seen what he wanted me to see, I didn‟t know how good he was,
but I was reasonably comfortable I could beat him. I caught it when he waited for me to
suggest playing for money, but I said nothing. In a moment he suggested we play again,
and I made sure it was also for free before I agreed to play him. The game was a
reenactment of the first one, but I beat him with him still having one ball on the table
because I purposely shot good enough to have it come out that way.
It‟s hard to hustle a guy who honestly can‟t shoot, unless he‟s drunk, since a guy
who‟s no good doesn‟t get embarrassed when everyone sees it happen. Hell, they already
knew he wasn‟t any good, so there‟s no motivation.
He asked if I wanted to make it interesting by playing for money. I told him no,
that I didn‟t really have twenty bucks to lose. When he asked why I used that amount, I
said I thought that‟s what all games were played for, adding some asshole took me for a
hundred bucks in five lousy games last month in Knoxville.
He understood, and was willing to play for only ten, if I wanted. I let him work
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