Customer Reviews

Running the Table: The Legend of Kid Delicious, the Last Great American Pool Hustler

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The story of Kid Delicious is great fun and a look into the world of pool, hustling, gambling and life on the road that most of us have no idea even exists. The author brings the cast of characters to life and for someone like me with a 9 to 5 job, wife and kids it was stunning to read how these guys lived on the road for months with only their wits and pool skills to keep them going. I was afraid this book would be another pumped up magazine article, but there was much depth and backstory throughout so I never got that feeling. The book is well researched and the writing is crisp and to the point. I highly recommend this book.

I found Running The Table to be an excellent read. Even if your not a hard gambler or a pool player, you will enjoy this book.
Jon Wertheim's writing is exceptional and the tales of Kid Delicious and his travels are really fun and entertaining.
To read more about Danny Basavich aka Kid Delicious Google: PoolJax

This was a great book. One of those books you don't want to end. Kid Delicious is a person with insecurities, fears, and issues that we can all relate to. I found myself rooting for him on every page. It feels like L. John Wertheim is in the back seat of the car for the entire journey. His ability to paint a picture of the pool sub-culture is second to none. I highly recommend this book to anyone who can relate to an ordinary person doing his best to be extraordinary in his pursuit.

RUNNING the TABLE...Danny Basavich's life story up to now is a great read as I knew it would be. If you enjoy pool, hustling, gambling and con jobs, this is a must read. Although I never got to play Danny, I've met him and watched him play many times. He's a great player and a great guy. John "Johnny T" Terrell

"Jeez, that fat man, look at the way he moves. Like a dancer.
And those fingers, them chubby fingers. That stroke,
It's like he's playing the violin or something."

- Fast Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) marveling at
- Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason) in "The Hustler"
-
The above quote is what begins the PROLOGUE of this gripping true story of Danny "Kid Delicious" Basavich. Danny is a 5 foot 9 nine inch 320 pound, charming, bipolar, depressed, suicidal, crowd-pleasing, warm-smiling, ice-breaking, pool-hustling, professional champion, Jewish mensch, from New Jersey, by way of Brooklyn! Danny as a kid would buy candy and treats in bulk, bring them to school and sell them at outrageous markups between classes. He also ran poker games during study hall and football pools on Fridays. He ingeniously figured out that packs of baseball cards that included valuable bonus cards were slightly thicker than the regular packs. Using a micrometer Danny could figure out which packs had the valuable cards in them without opening the pack and would then buy those packs and resell the bonus cards at a huge markup. In summary, before Danny started playing pool he already had the makings of a classic hustler. Due to his girth Danny was teased and bullied unmercifully in high school and dropped out when he was fifteen. Danny became overridden with depression. He would sleep all day and eat unbelievable amounts of food. Then he discovered pool, which probably saved his life and made this writer's dream of a story reality.

Danny starts practicing pool in every waking minute of his life and his burgeoning talent gives him a reason to live. It gives him a self-worth that he never had before when he looked in the mirror and saw an unattractive overweight man-child going nowhere, as he seriously considered suicide. From the moment he sees the potential in himself, the reader is then taken on a roller coaster ride from one pool hall to another. Some venues are pig sties, and others are glimmering palaces. When Danny wins a big hustle against a "slender, flashy, up-and-coming player called "Kid Vicious" a legend is born. As Danny unscrewed his stick and prepared to leave, a fan whistled and then cracked, "Kid Vicious" just got hustled by "Kid Delicious"! "Kid Delicious" would become Danny's moniker from there on out. Along with fighting his depression "Delicious" had to fight the "catch-22" of not becoming too famous, because no one would play him. A number of times ill-fated professional pool leagues would start with grandiose plans and go bust. There was the quandary that hustling paid more than a professional match, but "Delicious" also wanted the celebrity and acknowledgement of his talent. But if he got the professional victories that would put him on TV and in billiard magazines, then he could no longer enter backwater pool halls in North Dakota, Minnesota, Alabama, and wherever his car would take him, incognito, "under the radar" for a big hustle, and that's where the real money lies!

This book takes you through the back alleys, the cheap hotels, the dives, along with "Delicious's" weight gains and losses, mood swings and rubbing of elbow's with more nefarious character's with more nicknames than the mafia. Some of the "classic" nicknames include: "Scorpion", "Black Widow", "Gunslinger", "Rifleman", "Freezer", "Ice Man", "The Lion", "The Cobra", "Spanish Mike", "Scott The Shot", "Shannon The Cannon", "Earl The Pearl", "Weenie Beanie", "Ginky", "King James", "Portuguese", "Shaggy", "Chewy", "Oil Can Larry", "Larry The Lizard", "The Prince Of Pool", "Puerto Rican Pete", "Gypsy", "Chili", "Fifty", "The Crow", "Cornbread Red", "Bristol Bob", "Snake", "Double J", "The Hurricane", "Harry The Hat", "The Korean Dragon", "Big City Smitty", "The Professor" ... and many, many more! I recommend this book highly! Buy it and get to know the rest of the gang!

This story may be about pool, it may be about hustling, it may be about gambling, it may be about a side of life known to very few. But most of all it is a love story. Love of a game, love of a lifestyle, love of the strange relationships among thieves in the night.

The incongrous story of an insecure, bullied, "last guy you'd pick to be a pool shark" fat kid from New Jersey - that is Running The Table.

This is Rocky Balboa winning the crown. This is David beating Goliath. This is Romeo cast as Kid Delicious and Juliet as the game of pool. A wonderful book indeed.

I may not be a pool enthusiast, but there is much to like in Running the Table: The Legend of Kid Delicious, the Last Great American Pool Hustler by L. Jon Wertheim.

Danny Basavich is the most unlikely of heroes. A native of Manalapan, NJ, Basavich was an over-weight kid who suffered from bipolar disorder. He was repeatedly bullied by other kids, which led to a pattern of switching from school to school. Finally, he dropped out and got his high school diploma through an alternative program before he turned 16. Not having anything to occupy his time, he started hanging out at a local pool hall. The locals liked this amiable kid who had a natural talent for pool. After taking him as far as they were able, they then drove him up to Chicago Billiards in West Haven, CT--considered to be the "finishing school" of pool players. Here, Basavich learned to progress from pool player to a "pool thinker," allowing him to visualize a game of pool like a game of chess and thus, always looking toward future plays.

At Chicago Billiards, Basavich met Bristol Bob Begey. Together, they decided to take to the road and try to make a living hustling pool. Much of this book details their travels together, as well as Basavich's solo road trips. This is a fascinating lifestyle as they traveled all over the country. Sometimes, Basavich would make $5000 on a set of pool, and then make another $10-15,000 on side bets. But pool hustlers also tend to be compulsive gamblers, and they could lose the dough just as fast on cards, casino games, and other bets. Wertheim also talks about what makes a good hustler. Often times, Basavich would intentionally lose a game early to win a big pot later on. Once Basavich became fairly well known as a pool hustler in almost every state, he had little choice but to turn professional. Wertheim gives a short history of professional pool, which can best be described as unorganized, low-paying and dysfunctional. Basavich made much more money on the road than in any professional pool tournament.

L. Jon Wertheim is a writer for Sports Illustrated, and he writes in a style that shows off his love of sports (even though he knew little about pool when he began Running the Table). He describes players who worship at the felt green altar and who have "a mutually held belief in the truth and romance and righteousness and dignity to be found in hitting six-ounce balls across felt-covered slate into a half-dozen unforgiving leather pockets. That and a shared restlessness, a natural tropism for adventure and unpredictability."

Although I'm still not much of a pool fan, I found Running the Table to be totally enjoyable.

As an older pool player who has been away from the game of pool for years except for TV, when I first saw the name, 'Kid Delicious', I immediately grinned and continued right to the order desk. Amazon got this book (and the new Fatty/Mosconi book, 'The Hustler and the Champ', right to me and I didn't stop reading until they were finished. This was the more current,accurate, and lifelike of the two, and I felt like I was one of the sweators at every high dollar match the Kid was in. From the opening to the final page you feel like Danny's friend and apparently that's how he operates in real life too. I've been there, I already bought the 'Kid Delicious' t-shirt, and I CANNOT wait for the movie! Great book ! I hated to see it end. Good luck Danny and I hope to see you in person someday...Tom in Detroit

This is the uplifting "rags to riches" story of the "Minnesota Fats" of our generation. Danny Basavich, aka "Kid Delicious," an overweight slob who, throughout his life was sent in and out of bi-polar depressive tailspins as a result of having been made into a piñata for the bullies in high school. Headed nowhere, and unsure of whom he was, Basavich decided that rather than continuing the daily abuse, to drop out of high school.

With nowhere to go and nothing to do, in order to conquer his depression and remain in denial about his weight, (which had risen to 350 lbs), he began small-scale street hustling that eventually led him to hanging out at the local New Jersey pool halls. There he discovered he had a natural talent for the game of pool. After honing his skills, he teamed up with a young slim good-looking disciplined college dropout and they hit the road together in an effort as much to try to find themselves, as to test their talents, and find their fortune; and if they were lucky, eventually their places in the universe.

The story is about how these two "modern day urban Buccaneers": pals who fed off of each other's strengths and weaknesses, took to the road and tried to corner the under world of amateur U.S. and Canadian pool culture. It is full of colorful events and characters, hustles and scams, hits and misses, ups and downs, trials and tribulations, and many boring nights in a lot of Motel 6s in Minnesota and South Dakota -- all gradually leading up to the dramatic crescendo of the book, climbing the mountain to the top of the pool food chain: the nationally televised professional title held in Miami, Florida.

Although along the way, Danny becomes disciplined -- losing 200 pounds and gaining self-confidence and control over his bi-polar tailspins -- his friend, Bristol, is not so lucky. He falls victim to a drug habit, but against great odds, Basavich continues on, alone, to Miami to win the title of "The World Champion of Professional Pool." He does so in a dazzling display of pool skills and finesse, beating the great Buddy Hall in the Miami finals.

It is an uplifting story, but the book is mostly for insiders, for those who know, or at least can appreciate, the fine points of pool and the art of hustling, otherwise the many events in pool halls across the many hick towns of the mid-West and South can seem quite repetitious and boring, and makes the book appear to be straining for sufficient meat to carry a complete story. For sure, there is a beginning and an end to this story, but even for one familiar with the pool milieu, the middle is often uneventful to the point of seeming to drag. Three stars

Outstanding, well written story of a talented and unique individual with one of the more colorful nicknames in pool history, "Kid Delicious." A really nice guy nerd who became (and is) one of the great money and tournament players of this day and time. I'd love to see Danny Basavich in action.