I started staking John in 1998. In fact, I think I staked him the 1st time he played Tony 1P. Schmidt vs Chohan for $500 at the Sands (the year John won it if I'm not mistaken). John had been playing everyone 1p for ~2y prior if I recall... He'd played Cliff, Cooney, Moro, mainly all at Hard Times in Bellflower How I miss those days. The days when Hard Times truly was pool's mecca. Reno Open (Sands), Staking John vs Tony (big crowd, late, the night before the tournament started). John needed 1 & had his SET ball gagged. Tony needed 8 I think (playing for $500). Tony tried to fly the ball off the table, but instead, it BOUNCED OFF THE BACK OF THE POCKET, picked up spin, hugged the end rail AND WENT IN TONY'S POCKET!!! It was SICK. I think he ran out too. Snatching victory from the jaws (as they say). I don't think Tony had quite become _a 1p specialist yet,_ but you could already see his genius & talent for the game, as well as his demeanor of course. I knew Tony from playing him in Sac HT a few years earlier. He'd given me the ~7 or something? And played well enough that 1 set was enough. The good ol days. I'm who originally took John to Alabama (where he met his 1st wife). Staking him on a road trip starting in LA ... to LV (first time I saw Alex P practicing banks ... not at the cue club but another spot that I think is gone now). Went to Wendover (with me, John, Nick Spano, Damien Alishon & others) even though I was the weakest player I got ~4th? In an bar box tournament in Wendover winning like $1200 or something? lol. Then we went to Utah (pretty dreary, minimal action). Went through my home town of New Orleans. No action, tried to match up with "Jamie" ? If I recall? And a black dude who John said was too good at banks and 1p, and was dangerous on top of that. I think he owned a pool hall a bit off the areas I knew (near the West Bank). Then we went to Mississippi ... mainly played _Little John_ at ... SNAKES PALACE (that was some FUNNY ass shit). Almost lost my BR, John won it back, before going to Mobile where we did all KINDS of gambling. I hooked up with some chick who freaking DROVE ME BACK TO NEW ORLEANS to catch my flight back to Long Beach. Got home, caught up on work for a few hours (till like 12am) when I realized my money wasn't in my pocket!! I looked around (should've been around $7k) ... walked outside knowing it'd be gone. It'd fallen out my stupid pocket (you know how vertical pockets let your shit fall out when you go from sitting to standing, esp getting out of a car)! Only to find my wallet + cash laying in the MIDDLE OF THE STREET. For ~4 hours. Just waiting for any scumbag to grab it. 11th and Ximeno. Those really were the days. ... there's all kinds of details that "aren't fit for public consumption" ... the good ol' days.

Thx for letting us watch these 2 Premier Players!!!

OMG, I can't believe I missed that comment: 🤣 _"I've always thought that Tony looked like a Genie out of a bottle."_ 🤣 That's the kinda shit John's always said that's just cracked me up to no end. THAT is freaking signature John.

51:38 Great view of Josh's slip stroke

I feel 14.1 continuous helps out with one pocket. You can come up with catoms,combos 2,3 rail banks.

Probably the best game I've seen

For the record, many consider the late great" Bugs Rucker" the best one pocket player of his era, and he was a person of color! Tony reminds me of Bugs because of his size and because of the crispness of his banks!!

Two men of color are playing at the highest level. This is great to see.

Let's go Champ 🏆!

great pool minds and brilliant bankers. but, yeah I agree - go and play rotation for a month and sharpen up your shot making

Why do I think the old man in the red hat is chohans backer and the dude sitting beside him is the understudy

7:31 I would use maximum bottom spin here. Need to make sure this will not happen

52:43 what spin did he use here?

I dropped everything I was doing tonight to watch this video with everyone see you guys in the chat room

Love the production but lets stop trying to talk over each other every second of the entire video. Wow

like # 94

Once again, the worst camera work in media. Changing views during a shot, the most frustrating and ridiculous view there is. Forces viewers to readjust their perspective in an instant and we miss shots or important parts pf a shot.