Where is keith mccready

When you'd show up at a pool tournament, there would be fliers for tournaments that were upcoming, and you always sort of wanted to go to the ones that paid the most money. But there were other ones that you knew there was going to be good action, big calcuttas, and those were my favorites where I could maybe get in action.

Actually, I had two tournaments that I really liked that I won. The first one was the B. Open in Binghamton, New York, in There wasn't a tournament that paid that much ever since the tournament in Reno, which Richie Florence put on, and that one paid 35 large. Back then when I was traveling, I never got tickets in advance on the airplanes, and I would be broke one day and have money the next. It was just the way it worked back then. So when I heard about the B.

Open, I mentioned it to my friend Jay Helfert, and Jay was nice enough to give me a shot at it, which Jay had staked me in the past, so I figured I'd ask him if he wanted to take a shot at it.

And he did. Lo and behold, I won it. The other tournament I was quite fond of was when I won the bar table tournament in Lexington, Kentucky, when I met Morro Paez in the finals.

He had me 13 to 7, going to 15, and he didn't shoot another shot. The second Calcutta was worth more than the tournament paid, and then the third Calcutta was up there too. I ended up playing Tony Ellin a big set, race to I think we bet about 7 or 8, in the middle and 13, on the side, and we got the money. I was stuck in that set 17 to 13, and I won that set 21 to For some reason, it seemed like whenever I'd get behind in a set, I would catch my gear, I would put it in overdrive, and my opponents could not stay with me!!!

Earl won in , and then I believe I came back in And I beat him 11 to He won the first one 11 to 10, and then I came back to defeat Earl 11 to Both were real exciting matches. Big crowds again, screaming and yelling after each game or after each good shot. It was very exciting. I really loved playing pool more than anything back in those days.

KM : I had a good hunch I was going to get the part. I was going to play one of three characters in the movie. I actually was kind of hoping to get Forest Whitaker's role of Amos or John Tuturro's role of Julian, but I got chose for Grady Seasons instead, which worked out good for me. They had made up their mind that they were going to use me. The U. Open in Norfolk used to be held at Barry Behrman's pool room.

The first night of the tournament, they hadn't made the draw yet. Everybody was making games, cutting up. Efren Reyes beat me a week before I got there, and I wanted revenge.

He beat me out of a lot of money too. As soon as I saw him, I started barking at him. I knew the movie people were there, so I wanted to put on a show anyway, and it worked out. Efren was giving me 9 to 7.

I beat Efren seven in a row, chirping like a bird the whole time. Gretchen Rennell called me off to the side and told me they were really interested in me, and that after I got done playing, if I could meet with them. And I did. I stayed in the office with them for almost 3 hours reading over lines.

When everybody else came in, all they got was their phone number and a picture. I guess you could say they liked me. The movie didn't really change my life that much. It made me more recognizable when I would go to places I had never been. That sort of hurt, as it did knock my game in certain situations that I had never been in, or somebody would recognize me out of the sky blue and then knock me to whatever I was trying to play, when they never even had a dime invested, trying to act like they were smart guys.

I hate knockers, bad for the game. Everywhere I go today, any cameo appearance I made, they always ask me to say my line, "It's like a nightmare, isn't it? It just keeps getting worse and worse. They can't take that away from me. All the naysayers on the Internet today, they can try to pick a hole somewhere about the movie, but they can't take it away from me.

That's one thing I love today. GC : On a lighter side, do you wake up every day hoping that a sequel has just been announced with an older and wiser Mr.

McCready in the starring role! That would be a perfect character for me, and I would be more than happy to roll with that. Somebody needs to start writing from there, and maybe we'd have a shot. GC : Do you have any funny anecdotes to tell us that may have happened during the filming of the movie? KM : Believe it or not, it was a lot of work.

You would have had to have been there to see Tom Cruise struggling with the takes, because from the start, Tom Cruise was not a pool player. Paul, on the other hand, had played pool, and he could hold his own. He had a lot more knowledge towards the game than Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise was a banger compared to Paul Newman.

Paul had a nice little strike. Me and Mike Sigel had to work with Tom Cruise to make him look like a pool player, but I give most of the credit to Mike for making him look the way he did. What a lot of people didn't know were these actors would usually get it done in one, two, or three takes, well, we were taking 30 and 40 takes, astronomical numbers to get it done. But we did it. Martin Scorsese was really good about that. He wanted the actors in the spotlight, and all the actors wanted to do it themselves, no doubles, come right from the hip.

That's what I liked about that set. GC : How did you come to get your unusual maybe not to you arm action and when did you decide to stick with what has become your signature stroke? KM : Well, I was small in height, and I stood on a box when I hit my first ball, but playing caroms, I was always a side-winder.

So I guess that's where it started. But for me, it was easier for me to get down on the ball with that side-armed stroke. GC : What year did you retire from the sport, and what prompted you to come up with that decision and was it an easy decision or did it take a while to make?

KM : With the way my lifestyle is right now, in order to get to these pool tournaments, the logistics just don't work out anymore. My other half has a career, which she put on hold to follow the pool tournament trail. That didn't work out too well for her. Plus, I have a dog, and we couldn't take him with us. Leaving him at home by himself, just can't do it. Action is not like it used to be, even when I show up at the tournaments. I can make action happen. I never have a problem with that, but the entry fees and expenses, if you don't make any money gambling, you're looking at a few thousand dollars that you're stuck before you even hit the first ball.

And that's not even gambling with anybody. That's counting your food, your motel bill, the entry fee, etcetera. The way it is now, I wouldn't be relying on the pool tournaments. I'd have to rely on gambling, which my other half has a rough time with all that, knowing that that's the way it's going to be if we go to a tournament.

Shame on her, but that's the way it is. To be honest with you, I haven't really retired - yet. I keep up with the pool. Every once in a while, I go down in the basement and knock some balls around. Needless to say, I bet more on sports and more on poker online. I don't really feel that I have to go out there and bust my butt in the pool world anymore, especially when every Tom, Dick, and Harry don't miss a ball.

As far as I'm concerned, if I don't feel that I can compete in a manner to where I can win, I don't want to go there, just to show face. I've never been that way. I want to go there to where I think I have a good chance to win.

I have had a few offers recently to make a cameo appearance at a few upcoming events, and I'm still weighing all my options. No matter what anybody thinks, I still have a little lightning in the jug.

I am going to give it another shot - not a big shot, but a little shot, and it will be when I'm ready. GC : On retirement how did you satisfy your competitive drive,which I am sure was the main motivation behind your many career successes! KM : I still play poker. It's a little bit lonely, though, because I lost a couple of my dearest friends that I used to play with online all at the same time.

We would stay up all night long playing poker, taking turns. Either he would play or I would play. So, how much is Keith McCready worth at the age of 64 years old? He is from United States.

We have estimated Keith McCready's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets. The first set was completely one-sided with Hewitt cruising to a win over McCready. The second set was a complete turnaround for McCready as he took an early lead and help off a late charge from Hewitt to win the match MCready resides on the East Coast and continues to compete professionally as well as putting on exhibitions for charity events.

Keith steals the show and the audience approval. Keith won about a half-dozen pro events, mostly in the s. However, it was his high-stakes gambling that earned him the lion's share of his reputation as one of the most feared nine-ball players. McCready was engaged in a stakes game with Filipino pool champion Efren Reyes and was selected to be in the movie because of his entertaining style of play. McCready had an established reputation in pool circles as one of the most feared money players in the nation.

McCready scored his first professional win, in October , undefeated at the then-annual B. The venue featured capacity audiences each day. On St. Louis Louie Roberts, and Terry Bell. Handing Earl "The Pearl" an to-2 thrashing earlier in the double-elimination pool tournament, McCready faced him in the finals.

Strickland had been a dominating force on the American pool tournament trail, and racing to 11 games for the win, the score became tied, McCready triumphed, running out the next two games to claim the victory. Pool players go through definite streaks, according to Bruce Venzke of The National Billiard News, the oldest existing pool, billiard, and snooker publication in America: "Who can forget the one for Keith McCready.

Cool, the Ultimate Nine-ball Player. At one time considered among the top players in America, McCready has been a traveling tournament competitor and notorious hustler since the s. From to , McCready was a contributing writer to InsidePOOL Magazine and remains a pro competition contender, known for comedically interacting with the audience.

He also had a supporting role as the boorish hustler Grady Seasons in the film The Color of Money. In an era in American pool when gambling was a norm, "hustling Sometimes the tournament venues would be a gathering place for pool hustlers, and the main action would take place outside of the tournament.