Pool Hall Shorts-"You Never Knew What You Were In For"

You never knew what you were in for when you walked into McGirrs. One night this kid comes in with his pool cue in hand,nothing fancy-just a sneaky Pete which looked like an ordinary house cue. He was a tall lanky built kid of about twenty years old with thick black rimmed glasses. He looked like some preppy nerdy college kid. The regulars swarmed around him like bees on honey. The strange thing about this kid was that under his other arm he was carrying what appeared to be his school books. He sat down in a corner and laid out his books on the table and began to take notes.

One of the regulars finally approached the curious looking young man and asked him “You wanna shoot some after you’re done with your homework sonny?” There was a sudden burst of laughter around the room. The kid looked up at the seasoned player and while adjusting his glasses with one hand continued to write in his notebook without skipping a beat. “Oh this isn’t my homework sir, this is just an experiment I’m working on. Hey, you might even be able to help me with it.”  He then went on to explain that he was a Psychology student working on human behavioral science. He then challenged the older man to a game of 9-ball for five dollars a rack. The older gentleman looked around and happily accepted the young man’s challenge. After about an hour the young man was down by about seventy bucks but he wasn’t too upset about it. Every time he lost a game he wandered back to his table and began to write in his notebook.

The older man, even though he was winning, began to get a bit frustrated. “Hey kid, tear yourself away from that book for a minute and focus on the game-you might just win one!” he snapped. Finally the young man placed his pen in the pocket of his book binder and said,"You wanna shoot a race to seven for two hundred?” The older gentleman just looked at him and was a bit confused.  “I’ve been kicking your tail all night. Why in the world would you raise the bet?” “It’s a theory I am working on. Serious money means serious nerves and I don’t think you have the nerves."

The old man let out a laugh and pulled out a wad of cash the size of a brick. The kid continued to explain his theory by saying that when an older person plays for money his nerves would get the best of him causing him to miss more shots- where a young man had more steady nerves and could win more games even though he was the lesser skilled player. “This is a game of nerves not skills,” he would say.

The old man jumped at the chance to prove the young upstart wrong. Two hundred dollars was nothing to him. “How about we round it off to five hundred then we’ll see who loses their nerves,” the old man said. The kid looked around the crowd with a dumbfounded look on his face. But on the inside this is what he was waiting for all along. “Sure thing pops,” he answered.  The kid approached the table and played magnificent. He managed to play safe on the old man to the point of frustration. When he was well enough in the lead the young man broke out his ‘A’ game and ran the final two tables on the older player. The young man had hustled the hustler. The nerdy kid grabbed his winnings, cue and books and left the pool room leaving the old man broke and confused.

Nope, you never knew what you were in for when you walked into McGirrs.