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Playing pool in Denver

Friday, April 20 at 12:01 AM

This Speakout has not been edited

By David Hakala, Englewood

Given the budget woes of most newspapers these days, I am surprised that the RMN is so careless about how it spends its freelance money.

Dave Flomberg is about as sharp as a cue ball when it comes to pool in general, and Denver’s scene in particular. I have played in every pool room that has ever existed in Denver since I moved here in 1978. Allow me to set Flomberg and the readers he misinformed straight.

The game’s popularity preceded Fast Eddie and Minnesota Fats by a few centuries. “Let us to billiards", said Cleopatra in Shakespeare’s words.

President John Qunicy Adams had a pool table installed in its own building on the White House grounds shortly after his election in 1824. This “moral scandal” was the key to Jackson’s comeback defeat of Adams. Jackson removed the pool table, of course, but Ulysses S. Grant restored it immediately upon his victory over Jackson, to no further public outcry.

Wagering on pool is NOT illegal in Colorado, contrary to Flomberg’s blithe assumption. C. R. S. 18-10-102(a) explicitly exempts from the definition of illegal gambling “bona fide contests of skill, speed, strength, or endurance in which awards are made only to entrants or the owners of entries". It is perfectly legal to bet upon a game of pool in which one participates, or to be the “stake horse” who puts up the money for another player to enter a wager or tournament.

Only a fool or the ignorant, lazy hack who quotes him would claim that Shakespeare’s players are “a notch or two below the best". There’s a big difference between “competition” and “action", or the availability of easy victims with too much money.

(Incidentally, table rates at Shakespeare’s go up only 25 cents an hour at night, and the cost per player declines with three or more players on a table.

I’ve never had to walk more than half a block from a free parking space, which is hardly “at a premium". Flomberg also ignores the fact that “Shake’s", like Tarantula Billiard Café’, offers free wireless Internet access, with which I am sending you this letter.) Flomberg should have spent more time with the lovely and knowledgeable Sammi Diep and not relied upon the clueless “James", who hustles only himself. I know James; if he ever played for $200 he was “firing air barrels", betting money that he didn’t have and praying to win instead of getting his thumbs broken when he couldn’t pay up.

Flomberg’s lame excuse for a blog contains his most ironic comment: “The only thing more pathetic than a no-talent has been is a talented never was...” What a fitting epitaph for this no-talent hack. His “experiment in obscurity aversion” richly deserves to fail.

READER COMMENTS

Finally someone who realizes the truth about Dave Flomberg. More power to you.

Posted by YES!!! on September 7, 2007 03:16 PM

I wonder why Hackala's so bitter. He must be a very lonely man. And very sad. I hope things get better for him. Poor man.

Posted by Mark on May 3, 2007 03:46 PM

I haven't shot pool in a long time.My father started teaching me at age 12 and then he taught me how to play for money.Since I was a girl no one thought I was any good. So I made my living playing pool when I was in my teens.Watching my dad and my uncle hustle people was an art form.Except the time when some guys didn't like that they were losing their shirts and pulled out guns.We left in a hurry.

Posted by on April 25, 2007 07:33 AM