Originally Posted by AxelWolf View Post
Originally Posted by tableplay View Post
Originally Posted by regnis View Post

My father was a pro pool player so I grew up in pool halls playing pinball and pool. When the pin ball machines started to age, my father bought them for next to nothing. So we had a basement full of pin ball machines (and of course a pool table).

Made a lot of $$$ all through college hustling both. Got 10-1 one time that I could beat a guy with me flipping with my feet. I won.
IIRC the one I was trying to play was Space Lab from Williams. The guy yelled at me from across the room to stop playing and when I wouldn't, he started to jog towards me and that's when I took off running. He chased me for a block or so and then gave up. I heard there were massive prop bets by poker players on The Addam's Family (Bally 1991) for like $10000 a game at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles - if you were a good player you could make more money on pinball than poker I guess. I sure hope the physics on the new skill-based virtual pinballs that are starting to hit the casino floors are the same as real pinball . . .
I never thought about trying to hustle pinball for money. I guess I have never really been around pinball where people had any money or were betting on it. I haven't played a significant amount of pinball, but I have played my fair share as a kid. I figure I'm better than the average person.
I think my favorite is Elvira.

When Ahigh had his pinball debut @ G2E, I played about 2 games when I offered to play him for money($50 a game IIRC). We played a few games and I beat him easily. He seemed really pissed off. I offered him or anyone on his team 2 to 1, they all declined. It's too bad he didn't find any success with that game.
Axel, here is the link to the sequel pinball to Elvira and the Party Monsters which is called Scared Stiff ( ). Since you beat the Texas Tea's first two levels both times you tried it, I would assume the physics on this is good (and for Cleopatra as well since they would use the same physics engine) since you were able to take advantage of your real-world pinball skills in the virtual game. I don't know if Sammy, the Thai sushi chef who worked at Main Street Station still works there (inside the brewery), but he told me they used to wager a lot of money at pinball at Bangkok bars over there. You would probably need some muscle if you wagered there though since it might be gang members who are participating in the prop bets.
Also if you are good at Space Invaders, you can try those skill based games. I think if you pay $20 you can go right to the bonus round and skip the slot part. It doesn't have a joy stick and I am not good with the touch pad, so I don't really play it.
I hope that Larry goes to the Santa Cruz boardwalk (assuming he hasn't yet) because they have at least 20 pinball machines there.