Shooting Pool with Mike Smith and "You Call the Shot" at Ringo's

The Cab Driver Turned Pool Hustler

• Having been a cab driver for a long time prior to computing, Mike was a boisterous, hilarious character and a total hoot to work with.
• He claimed that during his cab-driving days, he used to walk into bars and hustle at the pool tables—and he had the serious billiard chops to back it up.
• Mike began showing me advanced shots, angles, and cue positioning. Before long, we realized we were both shooting at a high skill level and within close striking distance of each other.

Inventing "You Call the Shot"

• Standard games of pool eventually became routine, so we spiced things up at Ringo's Bar & Grill in downtown Beaverton (which had exceptionally nice pool tables) by creating our own game: "You Call the Shot".
• While the rules were informal and constantly evolving, the core mechanic was simple:
  • When it was your turn, your opponent called and defined a shot for you that they believed they could make themselves (preventing impossible or absurd trick calls).
  • If you felt the opponent was overreaching, you could challenge them: "Okay, you make it."
  • If the challenger failed to execute the shot they called, they lost the game and had to buy the next round of drinks. If the shooter pulled it off, they earned bragging rights and advanced position.

Dad Schooled Us at Ringo's

• On one memorable occasion, my dad joined us for an evening of billiards at Ringo's.
• My dad was a formidable pool player in his own right, and he ended up schooling both of us on the table—a classic memory that Mike fondly recalled in emails decades later.

Lifelong Trash Talk

• Even after Mike moved across the country—from Southern Oregon to high-desert homesteads in New Mexico and Arizona—every email check-in over the next twenty years inevitably opened with playful trash talk about who was due for a thrashing in the billiard hall.