Poker, Ethics, and Paying Your Debts

Neal "Carney" Taylor was a Texas road gambler that I knew in the late 1950s and early 1960s. All the discussion of loans, stakes, swaps, and ethics got me to thinking about Neal and character. Neal was a really good Texas Hold 'em player, especially good at heads up, which we often called single handed. At that time, players would challenge each other to play heads up and entire bankrolls went on the line. Everyone knew that Neal really gave the money some air, treating it like water. Neal also booked sports, but he was often broke from playing poker drunk. He had a terrible alcohol weakness and everyone knew it.

Loaning and staking were common. There were guys around the games like Sharptop that were always looking for a stake. Everyone knew he would not pay back the backer their half of the losses. However, you might loan or stake some one just to keep the game going, especially if you were stuck. Sharp Top was testifying in a murder trial once for a good man that killed a hijacker. When they asked him what he did for a living, he said, "I borrow all the money I can and play poker." So true.

When I first met Neal, he was drunk and I loaned him $350, a half a yard at a time and he blew it in the poker game. After the game broke up, he pulled out a booking sheet and asked me to bet it on a football game. I really didn't think he'd pay up, and I'd heard how absolutely tough he was, so I bet it on a game which I won. I didn't see Neal again for a couple of months. I ran into him at a car lot and he immediately paid me off.

Neal Taylor had been a barker with the carnival, hence the road name. He was a good looking guy and well built. It was pretty obvious he had no real education, but he used big words that seemed out of place. He'd study a dictionary and have a new word ready for the poker game. Neal would win sober, start drinking, and lose. Back then, guys would get staked, run up a score, and cut out their half of the winnings to go for themselves. Neal would do that over and over.

One night at Morgan's whore house, Neal was drunk and watching the game. I had wired Kings, Morgan had a King-Three and we both flopped full houses. I broke him. Morgan was drunk. He stood up and started yelling for his wife to get the lead pipe. He said I had cold-decked him. In the middle of this, Neal asked me if he could borrow forty dollars. I handed him two twenties. He said, "You better sit down Slim Jim." to Morgan, who weighed a good 350 pounds. I was scared. Morgan sat down, the game went on. A few hands later I left, knowing Neal made my exit possible.

We played poker at Bill Smith's house one time that I remember so clearly. Bill make three main event final tables and won one in 1985. James "Tennessee Longoodie" Roy and Pat Renfro were in the game, a very tough game. They sat an unopened bottle of whiskey on the table as an obvious move to tempt Carney Neal. I felt that was really cold, since these were his close friends. After a couple of hours, those pasteboards showed Neal a white black-bird. Neal reached for the bottle.

Neal often complained of stomach pain and would rub his stomach. The Doctor told him it was cancer and said he didn't have long to live. At this time, Neal owed lots of poker players. He didn't tell anyone about the death sentence he was playing under. Neal started playing sober and in the largest games around Texas. I was very surprised to hear he was 600 miles away in Beeville, Texas playing the biggest games with Johnny Moss and crew. Neal Taylor's most important mission in life was to re-pay every single gambler that he owed as much as a plug quarter. The respect of his fellow gamblers was very important to Neal. You judge a man by his character, not his bankroll. When Neal got everyone paid off, and the pain got very severe, he shot himself.

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