It was dark, about 1:00 in the morning. I was strolling in downtown Las Vegas; a place I knew well, it was where my father was born and it was where, on frequent visits to him, that I learned to make a living.

I was running low on cash. Certain "investments" had failed on me and I was receiving big pressure from "the boss." See I was new to the family and I hadn't been pulling my weight in the finance category.

So I was looking for my next big score. I noticed a bar, Tommys Pool Hall, it sounded like a nice place, perfect for my scam.

As I walked in I was greeted by the friendly barkeep, Tommy.

"Hello stranger what can I do you for" he asked me.

"Ill take a scotch, also are there any betting men in here?" I say to him with a knowing look in my eye.

Noticing the look he nodded and pointed to a table on the far side of the room. 4 men, all who looked strong and able to fight, surrounded it but all I noticed was the large sum of money on the corner of the table. As I started to walk over to the table, Tommy tapped me on the shoulder. He pulled me close to him and said,

"I don't want any trouble in my bar, if anything does happen, take it outside"

Taking the warning to heart I stride over to the table. But right before I get to them I go to the table directly to their right. It was empty making it perfect for what I was about to do next.

I racked the balls in entirely the wrong way. The eight ball wasn't in the middle, all the balls where mixed up, and I proceeded to put the rack on the wrong side of the table. I then took the cue ball and set it up on the other side of the balls. Taking my pool stick I aimed to take my shot. I pulled the stick back and jammed it forward totally missing the cue ball entirely and making a loud scratching sound from its contact to the table. One of the men turned at me and started laughing. He said,

"Hey nice shot"

"Yeah there must be something wrong with this stick," I retort as I look at my stick.

Aiming again at the cue ball, I pull back the stick and jam it into the side of the cue ball making the ball go sky rocketing over the side of the table. The man, watching the whole time, laughs again and motions to his buddies to look at me and laugh as well. He then said to me,

"Is this your first time playing big man, or are you just that bad"

"I play all the time, I am just a bit rusty. I could take you on any day" I reply with a sneer.

I could tell I was getting under his skin. I mean how could someone who shoots like me ever beat him. So I stood there and waited for what I knew was coming next. Finally after talking to his friends he turned to me and said,

"Oh yeah, well how about you put your money where your mouth is."

"Oh I idk fellas, my wife wouldn't like me gambling." I reply.

"Awe guys did you hear that, this 'Man' lets his 'Woman' do all this thinking." this, of course gets a big laugh out of the idiots surrounding him.

"Alright you want a bet, you'll get one. How about 5 thousand dollars." I say as I pull the money out of my pocket.

The man looked astonished at all the money that I had on me, if he was a little smarter he might have wondered why I would go anywhere with that much money on me at once. After talking with his buddies, in what I could only describe as a most homosexual huddle, he turned around with a wad of money.

"Alright you got yourself a game" he said with a smile and handed me the chalk.

It was me verse him, in a straight game. Since he saw me try to break on the other table he allowed me to break first in this game as well. As his friends racked up the balls, I positioned the cue ball a little off the center position to give me the ultimate impact on the triangle of balls in front of me. When they finished I lined up my shot and slammed my pool stick into the cue ball making it connect with a loud CRACK against the other balls. The balls went flying all across the pool table and the men watched in awe as the 1, 4, and 7 balls went into their respective holes. I looked up from the table astonished and said,

"Wow that was really neat, is it good for that many balls to go in like that?"

I could tell by the red shade of the man's face that he was angry. I stood on my side of the table waiting for him to talk. A couple minutes went by with nothing said or done, but finally he says,

"Hey man its still your turn"

"Oh really? So if a ball goes in then it's still my turn? Well that's neat." I replied in an innocent, naive way.

Of course I already knew that it was still my turn, but I wanted him to think that I didn't know much about this game.

"You see I usually play this game in England and their rules are way different then American rules." I said, only enforcing my naivety of the game.

I walked around the table looking for my next shot; luckily there was a pretty easy straight shot of the 6 ball in the right corner pocket. So I lined up my shot and executed it perfectly. I then continue to line up shot after shot until all that was left was the 8 ball. I looked up from the table and looked at the man, whose face was a burning red, and I said to him,

"So what do I do now? Do I have to call a pocket?"

"YES! Yes you have to call a pocket for the 8 ball," he says in a rather angry voice.

I could tell that I was really getting under his nerves now. I needed to calm down a bit so he didn't explode in Tommy's nice bar. So I lined up the 8 ball in the middle left pocket, and called it. But I missed the shot only by a little, just so I could get the mans confidence up just a little. He smiled and said to me,

"Looks like your luck has run out buddy boy!"

"Indeed it does look that way, I believe it is your shot now" I replied smiling at him as I did.

He then got right into the zone, circling the table looking for his next good shot. He had a rather easy one of the 11 ball into the left corner pocket, but he decided to go for the 13 ball into the middle right pocket. He lined up his shot, but he hit the cue ball a little too hard and the 13 ball went in and popped back out. When this happened he threw his pool stick across the room screaming,

"No freakin way! THIS IS NOT HAPPENING!"

I decided to hold my tongue and just line up my shot. I called the 8 ball in the left corner pocket, I sinked it, and grabbed the money off the table in one swift motion.

"Tough luck Gentlemen, looks like lady luck was not on your side tonight."

I then moved to walk out of the bar. But as soon as I reached the door the man calls out to me,

"Hey! You hustled me! Get back here you worm!"

I flashed a smile to Tommy and ran out of the bar and down the street. As I was running down the street I turned to see the men gaining on me. "Looks like I'm gonna have to get my hands dirty." I said to myself as the men got closer and closer.

When the men finally reached me the first guy takes no time to start the fight. I quickly ducked under his wide right hook and give him a good punch to the gut and a nice uppercut to his face getting blood on my hand. The man dropped like a ton of bricks. As I dropped into my fighting stance I motioned for the men to bring it on. The next two guys rushed me at once with fists a flying. I deflected the first left hook but the right jab got me square in the nose and I staggered backwards. At this point I am starting to get a little angry. I wiped the blood from my nose and delivered a quick right jab into the face of one of the men. As he staggered backward I deployed a perfectly executed roundhouse kick to his partner dropping him as well. The man I punched is quickly back in the fight along with the man I had hustled. The man I punched tried to do a quick right cross to my face but I grabbed his arm and threw him over my shoulder following through with a good elbow to his face, knocking him out. So finally it was just me and the big man, the one that had lost his 5 g's to me. But as I was standing to fight him I noticed 10 more men come out of an alley and stand behind him.

"Not so tough now are you, hustler boy" he sneered at me.

I had to admit, I was scared. But that's when I remembered a place that they couldn't follow me in, "The Lounge"; my family's new bar. So I looked at him and said,

"Well if you're as fast and easy as your mom, you should be able to catch me" Then I took off in the direction of "The Lounge." I wish I could have seen the look on his face when I gave him that comment but I had to think about running. After about 15 minuets of straight running I finally saw the friendly sign of "The Lounge." When I got to the entrance I turned to the men, gave them a rather none gentlemanly gesture, and walked inside. I could still hear their curses as I walked to the bar and sat down. I sat there awhile thinking to myself,

"Well it may not have been easy, but this money will keep me alive another day." 

 Nice story

Nice story.. very good read..
Looking forward to more..

Excellent story

very nice story.

So out of curiosity, were you playing bar rules, or league rules?

a little bit of both, I didn't have to call my everyshot (even though I could) but I did have to call the 8 ball.

Nice story

Nice story,didn't ask to use my bar,I just might have to shoot you .... Haha,no good story man.Feel free to use my pool hall in any story you like...you can also Use my suit shop ... My old loaning service,and even my underground fight club that was given to me by Darth Vader.

Hey sorry for not asking, just slipped my mind, but thanks for not killing me.

HAHAHAHAHA! No problem man.

very good story maybe you could make a sequel? or the story from the scammed guy

now i,m goin to look if you have more storys because this ones great!

Great Story