Hi Bossman,
I have read a few headlines that kind of support what you wrote. I am not sure about the poker game, but I am sure that both Balentine and Hood played some high stakes poker games. I was with Joe Wright (I was probably 6) one day when he took me to a place where the guys would sit around and gamble. The place was kind of a shack, and Joe went in with a wad of 100 dollar bills. Joe spent time with both James Balentine and Johnny Hood. I will keep digging through the archives to find the info that you are looking for. I have read that a witness told the police that they saw 2 men leave Balentine's bar during the early morning hours (shortly after his death). Hell, it wouldn't take much for Hood to hire a hit on Balentine if he wanted to keep from loosing his bar over a card game. There were some pretty shady characters that hung around both Balentine's and Hood's place back then.
Check out the front page and page 7 for a little bit of info.
http://news.google.com/newspap...lentine+murder&hl=en