The Good Old Days

I remember playing 7 card stud for a living at The Metro in NYC in
the '70s. I was sitting at the bar talking to Four Finger Tony. He was
telling me about a poker scam that was being run down south. It was
kicking up quite a bit of money to The Guys in Jersey, but was falling
apart because China Bob had been busted and it looked like he would be
housed for a long time courtesy the state of Florida, drug possesion
or such. Tony then asked if I would go down and join the team. Well,
if Tony asks, you better have a good reason to decline and I didn't.

That night I was on the train down to Miami and the morning I was met
at the station by Big Lou. He took me to meet the rest of the crew. In
a penthouse suite off of Collins Ave there was the best in East Coast
poker players. Big Lou of course, and then there was Pete Sticky
Fingers Alosi, Hung Hank, Jewy Blatzstein, Billy The Bildoe, Kurt Wise
Face and an up and comer I didn't know Piel The Pollock.

They ran the plan down on me. They set up some high stake poker games
throughout the South. They ran alot of the older scams like The Triple
Nickle, The Backdoor Bandit and The Water Torture. All easily run by a
team, but they had a new twist, they called it The Russ Ruse and boy
were the yokels falling for it.

The Russ Ruse was a variation of Russian Ruse but with more chips.
Jewy showed me the tournament chips for the1978 WSOP. You would have
been impressed too especially when you realize that this was 1973.
Anyway Jewy gave the chips to Pete who then palmed them to Kurt. When
The Wise Face showed them to me they were now WPT chips. This really
blew my mind as no one would even hear of the WPT for a couple of
decades or more. I am not sure how it all worked and there were
details I didn't understand, but I put my trust in them. Billy Bildoe
was a giant guy who put his arm around me and said. " Bea FeFlayvor
(my maiden name) don't worry, we have you covered." And with that we
were off.

We traveled all through out the South. We scammed the biggest money
in the South at the time. There was Frank Foster of Foster Farm fame,
and Frank Purdue (I gave hime that line about it is tough to make a
tender chicken), and we even ran over The Colonel, Harland Sanders
( he could never get enough of that chicken crossing the road joke).
All in all we must have raked in millions, not chicken feed back then.

It all came apart when Hung Hank decided to change his ways and
became a cock teaser at Rooster Rama. We all went our seperate ways.
Four Finger Tony never forgot how I helped him in a jam, and whenever
a team needed a closkey for a scam I was the first he called.

I have been quit for 3 Months, 1 Week, 4 Days, 7 hours, 9 minutes and
15 seconds (102 days). I have saved $348.67 by not smoking 2,045
cigarettes. I have saved 1 Week, 2 hours and 25 minutes of my life. My
Quit Date: 4/11/2008 7:32 AM