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I see them entering the casino around the corner but they

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I see them entering the casino around the corner, but they don't hear my shout I know the guy on the door, but he won't let me in He knows John and The Cap, too "Sure, they've been in for three or four nights. They're good spenders."Back through the empty corridors of the Cardiff International Arena and into the sanitised, makeshift pool hall, the dull crack of rack balls being broken can still be heard. There is just one game left - the second final of the day - and the UAE's Hanni Howri is playing London's Anthony Ginn It is now midnight. Only an Egyptian reporter, Sayed Osman, looks at all excited. The other onlookers huddle against the brightness of the room and speak in low tones at the end of each rack. Everybody looks wrecked - eyes sore from concentrating, hands stained with too much talc and chalk.Ginn wins, his place in the championships is secured and his hotel-room bill will be paid - at least for as long as he can survive in amongst the big boys. The most successful of last year's qualifiers was Nickoy Lining, who went out 11-10 at the last 16 stage, beaten by his fellow countryman Francisco Bustamante.

Lining took home $4,000 (£2,600) for his efforts.Howri has won five times that day but still has to be back under the lifeless neon the next morning He has a 10:45am start, a late one, but he looks weary. "The next game will not be easy," he admits.Later in the week, I find out that Howri did win and qualify, becoming the first Arabic player to ever take part in the World Championship. "There will be an enormous function when we return," the UAE team leader Abdullah Salman tells me. Howri will play later this year in the Fujeirah classic in the UAE. Last year's winner received a gold bar.Later that night, I continue my search for John and The Cap, determined to get the tip for the championship that they had mentioned earlier. I try two of the hotels that the players are staying in, but my quarry are not to be found in either of the bars. I head back to the casino and eventually catch up with them at 1:30am.

Over Jack Daniels and Cokes, they disclose the tip."He started at 50-1 and that is a steal. Nobody knows him, nobody has heard of him, but he is real good," John says, handing me a slip of paper.They had put their money down, played their hustle in Cardiff. No fuss, no big bets to alarm the bookies, just a few quid here and there on an obscure American to win the world title.I ask them about The Hustler Their eyes light up."I love that damn movie," says John "Fast Eddie Felson Man, that was great The first meeting with Minnesota Fats... Man, what did it last? Like 36 hours or something crazy?"That was pool, they agree.

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