YOU TRUST your mother but still cut the cards,” goes the ancient and cynical gambling saw, and that wisdom is as true in pool as anywhere else. Why else would players pore over one another’s racked balls as though searching for incurable disease cures, world peace solutions or the existential abyss? And ever since the 17th century, when the very first billiards authors warned of “sharpsters,” men who enjoyed gambling at the cue games have sought to ensure that the winner would indeed be paid.
