Best Gambler Of All Time
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*Top Gamblers In The WorldThe HyperTexts
Ronald Dale Harris was a programmer who seeks the hole in the online gambling while working for Nevada State Gambling. He took advantage of his skills and stole thousands of dollars from the Las Vegas casinos through slot machines.
*Anargyros Nicholas Karabourniotis (Greek: Ανάργυρος Καραβουρνιώτης, born November 1, 1950), commonly known as Archie Karas, is a Greek-American gambler, high roller, poker player, and pool shark famous for the largest and longest documented winning streak in casino gambling history, simply known as The Run, when he drove to Las Vegas with $50 in December 1992 and then turned a $10,000 loan.
*Biggest and Most Influential Gamblers Of All Time – Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon makes it in this list because he is the only man that played his way into becoming the leader of the free world. Donald Trump owns the houses, which helped.
*James Butler Hickok, better known as Wild Bill, was something of a hero of the American Old West. He was a lawman, a gunfighter, and a gambler. He is one of a number of famous gamblers from that era, arguably the most famous of all. Poker was his game of choice.
Famous Hustlers, Gamblers and Pool Sharks
Who were the greatest hustlers of all time? Who were the best pool sharks who ever picked up a cue? The two are not necessarily the same: a great hustler like Minnesota Fats may win tons of money but can’t hope to play the best sharks even. Conversely, a pool shark on a roll can’t hustle if he’s making every shot in sight! A short list of the top ten ’pure’ hustlers, con artists and proposition gamblers must include Minnesota Fats, Alvin ’Titanic’ Thompson, and Ronnie ’Fast Eddie’ Allen. But they weren’t the great run-out kings, and couldn’t compete at nine-ball with insane shotmakers like ’Saint Louie’ Louie Roberts, Keith ’Earthquake’ McCready, Efren ’The Magician’ Reyes, Earl ’The Pearl’ Strickland and Buddy ’The Rifleman’ Hall. Furthermore, there are sharks in my top twenty list below that I rank higher than anyone named so far. Ironically the ’worst’ player may be the best all-round pool shark of all time, while the best nine-ball player may have been the ’wimpiest.’
The Top Ten Pool Hustlers of All Time (based not on skill, per se, but on the ability to make games and win money)
#10) Buddy Hall aka the ’Rifleman’ didn’t bother to hustle anyone; in his prime he spotted top pros the seven and still beat them like drums!
#9) Ditto for Earl ’The Pearl’ Strickland, except that it was patently unfair for him to pin up his long, flowing locks with bobby pins―looking like a dork―and then still drill his marks!
#8) Alfred ’Peter Pan’ Frey was the first American pool hustler; his baby-face lured competitors to their respective dooms. Was it fair for him to play ’shape’ before anyone else even knew what it was?
#7) Efren ’The Magician’ Reyes disguised his identity as one of the best pool players on the planet when he first started robbing American pros.
#6) Vernon ’Burnie’ Elliot has been called the best ’undercover’ shark of all time.
#5) Don Willis was another legendary undercover ’monster’ player.
#4) James Evans couldn’t play in pro tournaments during the dark days of segregation, but he would challenge the winners, drill them, and still take the prize money!
#3) Titanic Thompson was a legendary ’proposition gambler’ who claimed to have killed several people who objected to his ’propositions.’ But he said they would have agreed that they deserved what they got!
#2) Ronnie Allen was (at least according to him) the prototype for ’Fast Eddie’ Felson in the movie The Hustler.
#1) Rudolf ’Minnesota Fats’ Wanderone helped generate immense public interest in pool; like Ronnie Allen he claimed to have been the basis for a character in The Hustler, and even stole the name ’Minnesota Fats’ from the fictional character! Was that the greatest hustle of all time? Well, perhaps until Donald Trump hustled his way to the presidency!
Actors who played pool sharks: W. C. Fields made his acting debut in the 1915 silent film Pool Sharks; Paul Newman starred as Fast Eddie Felson in the 1961 movie The Hustler; Jackie Gleason starred as Minnesota Fats inThe Hustler; straight pool legend Willie Mosconi had a cameo in The Hustler; Minnesota Fats played himself in the 1971 movie The Player; James Coburn and Omar Sharif played big-stake pool hustlers in the 1980 movieThe Baltimore Bullet; pros with cameos in The Baltimore Bullet include ’Machine Gun’ Lou Butera, Irving ’The Surgeon’ Crane, Richie Florence, Allen ’Young Hoppe’ Hopkins, Pete Margo, Ray ’Cool Cat’ Martin, Jimmy ’Pretty Boy Floyd’ Mataya, Steve ’The Miz’ Mizerak, Willie ’Mr. Pool’ Mosconi, Jim ’King James’ Rempe and Mike ’Captain Hook’ Sigel; Johnny Cash played a pool shark in the 1984 movie The Baron and the Kid; Paul Newman played an aging Fast Eddie Felson in the 1986 movie The Color of Money; Tom Cruise starred as the young hotshot Vincent Lauria in The Color of Money; Keith McCready (a top pro) played Grady Seasons in The Color of Money; Grady Matthews (another pro) played Dud in The Color of Money; Steve Mizerak (another pro) played Duke in The Color of Money; pros Jim Mataya and Howard Vickery had cameos in The Color of Money; Mike Massey (a legendary trick shot artist) played St. Louie Louie Roberts in the 2002 moviePoolhall Junkies, which featured Rod Steiger (in his last role) and Christopher Walken.
Pool Shark Jargon / Hustler Lexicon
Sneaky Pete: a two-piece or three-piece cue that looks like a house cue when assembled
Road Player: a shark good enough to go on the road and earn a living playing pool for money
Shortstop: a better-than-average player who is not good enough to beat the top pros and road players
Money Man, Banker or Backer: someone who puts up the money in return for a share of the winnings
Easy Mark: someone who is ripe to be taken for a bunch of money
Spot: a concession made by the (presumably) better player to get the (presumably) weaker player to gamble; for instance, spotting the eight ball in a game of nine ball
The Nuts: a spot that makes one player almost certain to win
Famous Hustler Quotes
Identifying the greatest pool hustlers of all time can be tricky, since the better they were at hustling, the less likely we are to know just how good they really were. But sometimes hustlers use reverse psychology, trying to make their marks believe that they overestimate their own abilities. Is this why Minnesota Fats said boastful things like ..
Beat me? King Kong couldn’t beat me! — Rudolf Wanderone, aka Minnesota Fats, playing U. J. Puckett, another notorious hustler
It’s interesting, I think, that two of the best-known hustlers of all time were entirely mythical: Fast Eddie Felson and Minnesota Fats. They were characters in the 1961 movie The Hustler, one of the very best ’dark’ sports flicks. Rudolf Wanderone later claimed to be Minnesota Fats and even changed his name to the unflattering moniker. Ronnie Allen likewise claimed to be Fast Eddie. Were they really the prototypes, or were they doing what they did best―hustling? I suspect the latter, but at this point fiction may have trumped fact. Was Minnesota Fats’ greatest hustle claiming to be Minnesota Fats? If so, it was undoubtedly his most profitable hustle.
Here’s an interesting comment about how the real hustlers end up winning everything that isn’t locked down:
Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. — Abraham Lincoln, a self-described ’billiard addict’ who was murdered by another billiards addict, John Wilkes Booth
Who were the best hustlers?One can never trust anything a real hustler says. But we can hazard educated guesses because the best hustlers win much more than they lose, and sooner or later the word spreads that they’re tough to beat. So here are some plausible guesses ..
I watch a man shoot pool for an hour. If he misses more than one shot, I know I can beat him. — Luther ’Wimpy’ Lassiter, one of the best nine-ball players of all time
If I ever had to have someone else shoot pool for my life, win, lose, live or die, the man I’d want shooting for me is Don Willis. — Luther ’Wimpy’ Lassiter (and yet Willis was trounced by the ’worst’ player, Harold Worst)
My game isn’t a carnival. I am simple and consistent, but dangerous. — Jose ’The Giant Killer’ Parica
And here is a webpage dedicated to a hustler of a different stripe:The Best Donald Trump Jokes. According to TIME magazine, Donald Trump has the confidence man’s ’ability to embed nuggets of truth in a welter of lies.’ The Donald’s father, Frederick ’Fred’ Trump, was also quite a hustler, accused of overbilling the federal government $3.7 million on the Beach Haven apartment complex, a huge windfall in 1950. Woody Guthrie, the famous folk singer, was one of Fred Trump’s tenants, and he wrote bitter songs about his racist landlord, whom he called ’Old Man Trump,’ accusing him of discriminating against black Americans. Fred Trump was arrested at a KKK rally in 1927, and both he and his famous son have been accused of racism, violating the Fair Housing Act, bribing politicians, and using eminent domain to condemn the houses of small property owners. During his run for the presidency, Donald Trump wept ’crocodile tears’ for disabled vets, after having worked very hard to sweep them from the streets around his ritzy Trump Tower for the last twenty years. Trump reminds me of Titanic Thompson, a very dangerous man who would do just about anything to ’win’ and make a dishonest buck.
Other famous hustlers, con men (’confidence men’), bunko men, scammers and proposition gamblers include Frank Abagnale (forger), Sheldon Adelson (casino magnate worth $24 billion), Amarillo Slim (cards), P. T. Barnum (hoaxes), David Blaine (magician), Beau Brummell (gambler, dandy and clotheshorse), Jeanne Carmen (golf trick shot artist), Casanova (faro), Lottie Deno (poker, the inspiration for Miss Kitty of Gunsmoke fame), Wyatt Earp (gambler and gunfighter), James Frey (fraudulent memoirs), Nick the Greek (high roller), Jimmy the Greek (oddsmaker), King Henry VIII (cards and dice, rumored to have gambled away the bells of St. Paul’s Cathedral), Wild Bill Hickok (he died holding aces and eights, the ’dead man’s hand’), Benny Hinn (prophet and faith healer), James Hogue (imposter), Doc Holliday (gambler and gunfighter), Harry Houdini (magician), Calamity Jane (gambler and prostitute), Canada Bill Jones (three-card Monte), Archie Karas (poker), Don King (boxing), Victor Lustig (sold the Eiffel Tower for scrap), Gregor MacGregor (sold a nonexistent island to 250 colonists), Bernard Madoff (pyramid scheme), Richard Marcus (gambler), Bat Masterson (gambler and gunfighter), Vince McMahon (’professional’ wrestling), Chris Moneymaker (card shark with a prophetic name), John Montague the Fourth Earl of Sandwich (he invented the sandwich in order to eat without interrupting his gambling), Natwarlal (sold the Taj Mahal and India’s House of Parliament), Kerry Packer (high roller), George C. Parker (sold the Brooklyn Bridge many times), Charles Ponzi (pyramid scheme), Bobby Riggs (tennis), Arnold Rothstein, Soapy Smith (bunko), Ida Summers (cards), Titanic Thompson (proposition gambler), William Thompson (confidence man), Edward Thorp (blackjack card counting), Donald Trump (presidency and political swampland).
compiledby Michael R. Burch
In my lexicon, a ’hustler’ is someone who wins with his wits and guile, while a ’shark’ is someone who outshoots the opposition. Louie Roberts wouldn’t try to hustle you. He would walk up, say, ’I’m Louie Roberts, the best pool player in the world. I’ll give you the seven ball. Let’s play!’ Then, unless you were able to run seven balls with remarkable consistency, he would drill you and take your money. (And you would probably like him, and brag about getting drilled by such a great player for the rest of your life!) Minnesota Fats probably won more money than Louie Roberts, by outfoxing his opponents. Fats might get you drunk, hook you up with a hooker who sapped all your strength, then keep leaving due to ’important appointments’ whenever you started to get ahead. (That is allegedly how he robbed Richie Florence, when Florence was at the height of his powers). If Fats was betting against you, you had better start asking what he had figured out that you hadn’t. If he couldn’t outshoot you, he would outthink you. Even if he could outshoot you, he would get you to spot him the table. (And you would probably like him and brag for the rest of your life about what a fabulous trickster he was!)
The Top Twenty Pool Sharks (with a few ties)
#20) David Matlock (#1 on a bar table)
Walter Lindrum (Australia’s #1, Lindrum set 57 world records and gave thousands of exhibitions, raising millions for charity)
#19) Rudolf ’Minnesota Fats’ Wanderone (#1 at hustling and showmanship; he helped generate immense public interest in pool)
#18) ’Saint Louie’ Louie Roberts (#1 shotmaker; also a great hustler, showman, instructor and pool ambassador)
Keith ’Earthquake’ McCready (another great shotmaker, run-out artist and personality)
#17) Jose ’The Giant Killer’ Parica (#1 at kicking; great money player; has won more than 100 tournaments around the globe)
#16) Steve ’The Miz’ Mizerak (the affable John Madden of pool; another wonderful ambassador of the game)
Allen ’Young Hoppe’ Hopkins (a great player despite his quirky stroke; also an excellent TV analyst)
#15) Vernon ’Burnie’ Elliot (#1 ’undercover’ shark of all time; he would play anyone for anything, anytime)
Don Willis (another legendary undercover ’monster’ player)
Dick Hunzicker (another legendary undercover player; Willie Mosconi cautioned friends not to tackle him at straight pool)
#14) Leonard ’Bugs’ Rucker (especially strong at bank and one-pocket)
#13) John ’Rags’ Fitzpatrick (#1 at one-pocket, according to legends Eddie Taylor and Bill ’Weenie Beenie’ Staton)
#12) Raymond Ceulemans (#1 at three-cushion billiards in the modern era, with 24 world championships including 11 in a row)
Ronnie ’the Rocket’ O’Sullivan (#1 at snooker; he ran a perfect 147 on 12 different ratified occasions and has 751 century breaks)
#11) Johnny ’The Scorpion’ Archer (#1 for making difficult shots look routine; great form; precision pool personified)
#10) Mike ’Captain Hook’ Sigel (#1 at safeties; seldom missed a makeable shot, even under intense pressure)
#9) Ronnie ’Fast Eddie’ Allen (#1 at power one-pocket, shooting with mop handles and other crazy spots)
#8) Eddie ’The Knoxville Bear’ Taylor (#1 at bank, almost as good at one-pocket)
#7) Earl ’The Pearl’ Strickland (#1 at run-out nine-ball, a McEnroe-like talent albeit with similar temper tantrums)
#6) Efren ’The Magician’ Reyes (#1 at rotation; great kicker; strong at all disciplines including nine-ball, one-pocket, even three-cushion billiards)
#5) Buddy ’The Rifleman’ Hall (#1 for long-term spectacular consistency; rarely misses or gets out of line; more consistent than Reyes)
#4) Alfredo de Oro (held world titles in three-cushion billiards and straight pool simultaneously several times)
#3) Ralph ’The Showman’ Greenleaf (pool’s first charismatic superstar; like Babe Ruth he stirred public interest in his sport with skill and pizzazz)
#2) Luther ’Wimpy’ Lassiter (he dominated the legendaryJohnston City pool hustler tournaments despite being in his fifties)
Willie ’Mr. Pocket Billiards’ Mosconi (the undisputed king of straight pool when straight pool was king, he routinely ran hundreds of balls)
Willie ’The King’ Hoppe (#1 at three-cushion billiards; he won 51 world titles and held the high run for 50 years, set on an unheated table)
James Evans (being black he couldn’t play in pro tournaments during the dark days of segregation, but he would challenge the winners, drill them, and still take the prize money!)
Alfred M. Frey dominated the earliest American pocket billiards pro tournaments: fifteen ball, eight ball, 61-pool and continuous pool (the forerunner of straight pool).
#1) Harold ’the Best’ Worst (Lassiter and Taylor dodged him, other top pros demanded mortal locks but still ’everybody that played Worst shook’)
There are no ’losers’ on the list above, just as there are no losers in Cooperstown or Canton. And good cases can be made for any of theseHigh Honorable Mentions: Joe ’The Butcher’ Balsis, Jean Balukas, Jack ’Jersey Red’ Breit, Melvin ’Strawberry’ Brooks, Billy ’Cornbread Red’ Burge, ’Machine Gun’ Lou Butera, Francisco ’Django’ Bustamante, Jimmy ’Boy Wonder’ Caras, Irving ’The Deacon’ Crane, Arthur ’Babe’ Cranfield, Welker Cochran, Kim Davenport, Steve Davis, Allison ’The Duchess of Doom’ Fisher, Richie Florence, Stephen Hendry, Mika ’The Ice Man’ Immonen, Larry ’Boston Shorty’ Johnson, ’Champagne’ Ed Kelly, Johnny Layton, Sang Chun Lee, Johnny ’Irish’ Lineen, Ray ’Cool Cat’ Martin, Mike ’Tennessee Tarzan’ Massey, ’Cowboy’ Jimmy Moore, James ’Cisero’ Murphy, Alex ’The Lion’ Pagulayan, Jim ’King James’ Rempe, Erwin Rudolph, Jake ’the Prodigy’ Schaefer Jr., Frank ’The Inexorable Snail’ Taberski, Alfie Taylor, Nick ’Kentucky Colonel’ Varner
Ironic trivia question:Was Harold Worst the best pool shark? Some keen observers who saw him play thoughtso, including Ronnie ’Fast Eddie’ Allen, Minnesota Fats, ’Champagne’ Ed Kelly, Jay Helfert, Freddy ’the Beard’ Bentivegna,Bill ’Mr. Three Cushion’ Smith, andArtie Bodendorfer. And one might suggest that other greats, such as Luther Lassiter and Eddie Taylor, endorsed Harold Worst as the best by refusing to play him. Thus, the last player on the alphabetical list is certainly not least.
The best pool nickname of all time? Frank ’The Inexorable Snail’ Taberski gets my vote. He was also called ’The Sloth.’ His hustle was to play so slowly and deliberately that he drove his competitors insane (or at least boiling mad). The first pool tournament shot clock was instituted because of his laggardly antics. He forfeited his world title in 1919 after officials set a one-minute time limit on shots, but he came back to win four more titles in the late 1920s. Despite his slow play (or perhaps because of it), Taberski was ranked number seven in the Billiard Digest list of the fifty greatest players of the century. And if his slow play was a psychological tactic, he might have been the greatest pool hustler of his era, to boot!
Any player on the list above, at his absolute best would be hard for us mortals to beat, so the ’best player’ at any time is the one with the most talent, playing his best game, who has the hottest hand. But the very best players were the ones who played at the highest levels the longest. When Louie Roberts and Keith McCready were ’on’ they could play with anybody, but they didn’t hit their top speed and maintain it as consistently as the higher ranked players. If I had to pick one player to shoot for me with everything on the line, I would pick Buddy Hall for his r
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*Top Gamblers In The WorldThe HyperTexts
Ronald Dale Harris was a programmer who seeks the hole in the online gambling while working for Nevada State Gambling. He took advantage of his skills and stole thousands of dollars from the Las Vegas casinos through slot machines.
*Anargyros Nicholas Karabourniotis (Greek: Ανάργυρος Καραβουρνιώτης, born November 1, 1950), commonly known as Archie Karas, is a Greek-American gambler, high roller, poker player, and pool shark famous for the largest and longest documented winning streak in casino gambling history, simply known as The Run, when he drove to Las Vegas with $50 in December 1992 and then turned a $10,000 loan.
*Biggest and Most Influential Gamblers Of All Time – Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon makes it in this list because he is the only man that played his way into becoming the leader of the free world. Donald Trump owns the houses, which helped.
*James Butler Hickok, better known as Wild Bill, was something of a hero of the American Old West. He was a lawman, a gunfighter, and a gambler. He is one of a number of famous gamblers from that era, arguably the most famous of all. Poker was his game of choice.
Famous Hustlers, Gamblers and Pool Sharks
Who were the greatest hustlers of all time? Who were the best pool sharks who ever picked up a cue? The two are not necessarily the same: a great hustler like Minnesota Fats may win tons of money but can’t hope to play the best sharks even. Conversely, a pool shark on a roll can’t hustle if he’s making every shot in sight! A short list of the top ten ’pure’ hustlers, con artists and proposition gamblers must include Minnesota Fats, Alvin ’Titanic’ Thompson, and Ronnie ’Fast Eddie’ Allen. But they weren’t the great run-out kings, and couldn’t compete at nine-ball with insane shotmakers like ’Saint Louie’ Louie Roberts, Keith ’Earthquake’ McCready, Efren ’The Magician’ Reyes, Earl ’The Pearl’ Strickland and Buddy ’The Rifleman’ Hall. Furthermore, there are sharks in my top twenty list below that I rank higher than anyone named so far. Ironically the ’worst’ player may be the best all-round pool shark of all time, while the best nine-ball player may have been the ’wimpiest.’
The Top Ten Pool Hustlers of All Time (based not on skill, per se, but on the ability to make games and win money)
#10) Buddy Hall aka the ’Rifleman’ didn’t bother to hustle anyone; in his prime he spotted top pros the seven and still beat them like drums!
#9) Ditto for Earl ’The Pearl’ Strickland, except that it was patently unfair for him to pin up his long, flowing locks with bobby pins―looking like a dork―and then still drill his marks!
#8) Alfred ’Peter Pan’ Frey was the first American pool hustler; his baby-face lured competitors to their respective dooms. Was it fair for him to play ’shape’ before anyone else even knew what it was?
#7) Efren ’The Magician’ Reyes disguised his identity as one of the best pool players on the planet when he first started robbing American pros.
#6) Vernon ’Burnie’ Elliot has been called the best ’undercover’ shark of all time.
#5) Don Willis was another legendary undercover ’monster’ player.
#4) James Evans couldn’t play in pro tournaments during the dark days of segregation, but he would challenge the winners, drill them, and still take the prize money!
#3) Titanic Thompson was a legendary ’proposition gambler’ who claimed to have killed several people who objected to his ’propositions.’ But he said they would have agreed that they deserved what they got!
#2) Ronnie Allen was (at least according to him) the prototype for ’Fast Eddie’ Felson in the movie The Hustler.
#1) Rudolf ’Minnesota Fats’ Wanderone helped generate immense public interest in pool; like Ronnie Allen he claimed to have been the basis for a character in The Hustler, and even stole the name ’Minnesota Fats’ from the fictional character! Was that the greatest hustle of all time? Well, perhaps until Donald Trump hustled his way to the presidency!
Actors who played pool sharks: W. C. Fields made his acting debut in the 1915 silent film Pool Sharks; Paul Newman starred as Fast Eddie Felson in the 1961 movie The Hustler; Jackie Gleason starred as Minnesota Fats inThe Hustler; straight pool legend Willie Mosconi had a cameo in The Hustler; Minnesota Fats played himself in the 1971 movie The Player; James Coburn and Omar Sharif played big-stake pool hustlers in the 1980 movieThe Baltimore Bullet; pros with cameos in The Baltimore Bullet include ’Machine Gun’ Lou Butera, Irving ’The Surgeon’ Crane, Richie Florence, Allen ’Young Hoppe’ Hopkins, Pete Margo, Ray ’Cool Cat’ Martin, Jimmy ’Pretty Boy Floyd’ Mataya, Steve ’The Miz’ Mizerak, Willie ’Mr. Pool’ Mosconi, Jim ’King James’ Rempe and Mike ’Captain Hook’ Sigel; Johnny Cash played a pool shark in the 1984 movie The Baron and the Kid; Paul Newman played an aging Fast Eddie Felson in the 1986 movie The Color of Money; Tom Cruise starred as the young hotshot Vincent Lauria in The Color of Money; Keith McCready (a top pro) played Grady Seasons in The Color of Money; Grady Matthews (another pro) played Dud in The Color of Money; Steve Mizerak (another pro) played Duke in The Color of Money; pros Jim Mataya and Howard Vickery had cameos in The Color of Money; Mike Massey (a legendary trick shot artist) played St. Louie Louie Roberts in the 2002 moviePoolhall Junkies, which featured Rod Steiger (in his last role) and Christopher Walken.
Pool Shark Jargon / Hustler Lexicon
Sneaky Pete: a two-piece or three-piece cue that looks like a house cue when assembled
Road Player: a shark good enough to go on the road and earn a living playing pool for money
Shortstop: a better-than-average player who is not good enough to beat the top pros and road players
Money Man, Banker or Backer: someone who puts up the money in return for a share of the winnings
Easy Mark: someone who is ripe to be taken for a bunch of money
Spot: a concession made by the (presumably) better player to get the (presumably) weaker player to gamble; for instance, spotting the eight ball in a game of nine ball
The Nuts: a spot that makes one player almost certain to win
Famous Hustler Quotes
Identifying the greatest pool hustlers of all time can be tricky, since the better they were at hustling, the less likely we are to know just how good they really were. But sometimes hustlers use reverse psychology, trying to make their marks believe that they overestimate their own abilities. Is this why Minnesota Fats said boastful things like ..
Beat me? King Kong couldn’t beat me! — Rudolf Wanderone, aka Minnesota Fats, playing U. J. Puckett, another notorious hustler
It’s interesting, I think, that two of the best-known hustlers of all time were entirely mythical: Fast Eddie Felson and Minnesota Fats. They were characters in the 1961 movie The Hustler, one of the very best ’dark’ sports flicks. Rudolf Wanderone later claimed to be Minnesota Fats and even changed his name to the unflattering moniker. Ronnie Allen likewise claimed to be Fast Eddie. Were they really the prototypes, or were they doing what they did best―hustling? I suspect the latter, but at this point fiction may have trumped fact. Was Minnesota Fats’ greatest hustle claiming to be Minnesota Fats? If so, it was undoubtedly his most profitable hustle.
Here’s an interesting comment about how the real hustlers end up winning everything that isn’t locked down:
Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. — Abraham Lincoln, a self-described ’billiard addict’ who was murdered by another billiards addict, John Wilkes Booth
Who were the best hustlers?One can never trust anything a real hustler says. But we can hazard educated guesses because the best hustlers win much more than they lose, and sooner or later the word spreads that they’re tough to beat. So here are some plausible guesses ..
I watch a man shoot pool for an hour. If he misses more than one shot, I know I can beat him. — Luther ’Wimpy’ Lassiter, one of the best nine-ball players of all time
If I ever had to have someone else shoot pool for my life, win, lose, live or die, the man I’d want shooting for me is Don Willis. — Luther ’Wimpy’ Lassiter (and yet Willis was trounced by the ’worst’ player, Harold Worst)
My game isn’t a carnival. I am simple and consistent, but dangerous. — Jose ’The Giant Killer’ Parica
And here is a webpage dedicated to a hustler of a different stripe:The Best Donald Trump Jokes. According to TIME magazine, Donald Trump has the confidence man’s ’ability to embed nuggets of truth in a welter of lies.’ The Donald’s father, Frederick ’Fred’ Trump, was also quite a hustler, accused of overbilling the federal government $3.7 million on the Beach Haven apartment complex, a huge windfall in 1950. Woody Guthrie, the famous folk singer, was one of Fred Trump’s tenants, and he wrote bitter songs about his racist landlord, whom he called ’Old Man Trump,’ accusing him of discriminating against black Americans. Fred Trump was arrested at a KKK rally in 1927, and both he and his famous son have been accused of racism, violating the Fair Housing Act, bribing politicians, and using eminent domain to condemn the houses of small property owners. During his run for the presidency, Donald Trump wept ’crocodile tears’ for disabled vets, after having worked very hard to sweep them from the streets around his ritzy Trump Tower for the last twenty years. Trump reminds me of Titanic Thompson, a very dangerous man who would do just about anything to ’win’ and make a dishonest buck.
Other famous hustlers, con men (’confidence men’), bunko men, scammers and proposition gamblers include Frank Abagnale (forger), Sheldon Adelson (casino magnate worth $24 billion), Amarillo Slim (cards), P. T. Barnum (hoaxes), David Blaine (magician), Beau Brummell (gambler, dandy and clotheshorse), Jeanne Carmen (golf trick shot artist), Casanova (faro), Lottie Deno (poker, the inspiration for Miss Kitty of Gunsmoke fame), Wyatt Earp (gambler and gunfighter), James Frey (fraudulent memoirs), Nick the Greek (high roller), Jimmy the Greek (oddsmaker), King Henry VIII (cards and dice, rumored to have gambled away the bells of St. Paul’s Cathedral), Wild Bill Hickok (he died holding aces and eights, the ’dead man’s hand’), Benny Hinn (prophet and faith healer), James Hogue (imposter), Doc Holliday (gambler and gunfighter), Harry Houdini (magician), Calamity Jane (gambler and prostitute), Canada Bill Jones (three-card Monte), Archie Karas (poker), Don King (boxing), Victor Lustig (sold the Eiffel Tower for scrap), Gregor MacGregor (sold a nonexistent island to 250 colonists), Bernard Madoff (pyramid scheme), Richard Marcus (gambler), Bat Masterson (gambler and gunfighter), Vince McMahon (’professional’ wrestling), Chris Moneymaker (card shark with a prophetic name), John Montague the Fourth Earl of Sandwich (he invented the sandwich in order to eat without interrupting his gambling), Natwarlal (sold the Taj Mahal and India’s House of Parliament), Kerry Packer (high roller), George C. Parker (sold the Brooklyn Bridge many times), Charles Ponzi (pyramid scheme), Bobby Riggs (tennis), Arnold Rothstein, Soapy Smith (bunko), Ida Summers (cards), Titanic Thompson (proposition gambler), William Thompson (confidence man), Edward Thorp (blackjack card counting), Donald Trump (presidency and political swampland).
compiledby Michael R. Burch
In my lexicon, a ’hustler’ is someone who wins with his wits and guile, while a ’shark’ is someone who outshoots the opposition. Louie Roberts wouldn’t try to hustle you. He would walk up, say, ’I’m Louie Roberts, the best pool player in the world. I’ll give you the seven ball. Let’s play!’ Then, unless you were able to run seven balls with remarkable consistency, he would drill you and take your money. (And you would probably like him, and brag about getting drilled by such a great player for the rest of your life!) Minnesota Fats probably won more money than Louie Roberts, by outfoxing his opponents. Fats might get you drunk, hook you up with a hooker who sapped all your strength, then keep leaving due to ’important appointments’ whenever you started to get ahead. (That is allegedly how he robbed Richie Florence, when Florence was at the height of his powers). If Fats was betting against you, you had better start asking what he had figured out that you hadn’t. If he couldn’t outshoot you, he would outthink you. Even if he could outshoot you, he would get you to spot him the table. (And you would probably like him and brag for the rest of your life about what a fabulous trickster he was!)
The Top Twenty Pool Sharks (with a few ties)
#20) David Matlock (#1 on a bar table)
Walter Lindrum (Australia’s #1, Lindrum set 57 world records and gave thousands of exhibitions, raising millions for charity)
#19) Rudolf ’Minnesota Fats’ Wanderone (#1 at hustling and showmanship; he helped generate immense public interest in pool)
#18) ’Saint Louie’ Louie Roberts (#1 shotmaker; also a great hustler, showman, instructor and pool ambassador)
Keith ’Earthquake’ McCready (another great shotmaker, run-out artist and personality)
#17) Jose ’The Giant Killer’ Parica (#1 at kicking; great money player; has won more than 100 tournaments around the globe)
#16) Steve ’The Miz’ Mizerak (the affable John Madden of pool; another wonderful ambassador of the game)
Allen ’Young Hoppe’ Hopkins (a great player despite his quirky stroke; also an excellent TV analyst)
#15) Vernon ’Burnie’ Elliot (#1 ’undercover’ shark of all time; he would play anyone for anything, anytime)
Don Willis (another legendary undercover ’monster’ player)
Dick Hunzicker (another legendary undercover player; Willie Mosconi cautioned friends not to tackle him at straight pool)
#14) Leonard ’Bugs’ Rucker (especially strong at bank and one-pocket)
#13) John ’Rags’ Fitzpatrick (#1 at one-pocket, according to legends Eddie Taylor and Bill ’Weenie Beenie’ Staton)
#12) Raymond Ceulemans (#1 at three-cushion billiards in the modern era, with 24 world championships including 11 in a row)
Ronnie ’the Rocket’ O’Sullivan (#1 at snooker; he ran a perfect 147 on 12 different ratified occasions and has 751 century breaks)
#11) Johnny ’The Scorpion’ Archer (#1 for making difficult shots look routine; great form; precision pool personified)
#10) Mike ’Captain Hook’ Sigel (#1 at safeties; seldom missed a makeable shot, even under intense pressure)
#9) Ronnie ’Fast Eddie’ Allen (#1 at power one-pocket, shooting with mop handles and other crazy spots)
#8) Eddie ’The Knoxville Bear’ Taylor (#1 at bank, almost as good at one-pocket)
#7) Earl ’The Pearl’ Strickland (#1 at run-out nine-ball, a McEnroe-like talent albeit with similar temper tantrums)
#6) Efren ’The Magician’ Reyes (#1 at rotation; great kicker; strong at all disciplines including nine-ball, one-pocket, even three-cushion billiards)
#5) Buddy ’The Rifleman’ Hall (#1 for long-term spectacular consistency; rarely misses or gets out of line; more consistent than Reyes)
#4) Alfredo de Oro (held world titles in three-cushion billiards and straight pool simultaneously several times)
#3) Ralph ’The Showman’ Greenleaf (pool’s first charismatic superstar; like Babe Ruth he stirred public interest in his sport with skill and pizzazz)
#2) Luther ’Wimpy’ Lassiter (he dominated the legendaryJohnston City pool hustler tournaments despite being in his fifties)
Willie ’Mr. Pocket Billiards’ Mosconi (the undisputed king of straight pool when straight pool was king, he routinely ran hundreds of balls)
Willie ’The King’ Hoppe (#1 at three-cushion billiards; he won 51 world titles and held the high run for 50 years, set on an unheated table)
James Evans (being black he couldn’t play in pro tournaments during the dark days of segregation, but he would challenge the winners, drill them, and still take the prize money!)
Alfred M. Frey dominated the earliest American pocket billiards pro tournaments: fifteen ball, eight ball, 61-pool and continuous pool (the forerunner of straight pool).
#1) Harold ’the Best’ Worst (Lassiter and Taylor dodged him, other top pros demanded mortal locks but still ’everybody that played Worst shook’)
There are no ’losers’ on the list above, just as there are no losers in Cooperstown or Canton. And good cases can be made for any of theseHigh Honorable Mentions: Joe ’The Butcher’ Balsis, Jean Balukas, Jack ’Jersey Red’ Breit, Melvin ’Strawberry’ Brooks, Billy ’Cornbread Red’ Burge, ’Machine Gun’ Lou Butera, Francisco ’Django’ Bustamante, Jimmy ’Boy Wonder’ Caras, Irving ’The Deacon’ Crane, Arthur ’Babe’ Cranfield, Welker Cochran, Kim Davenport, Steve Davis, Allison ’The Duchess of Doom’ Fisher, Richie Florence, Stephen Hendry, Mika ’The Ice Man’ Immonen, Larry ’Boston Shorty’ Johnson, ’Champagne’ Ed Kelly, Johnny Layton, Sang Chun Lee, Johnny ’Irish’ Lineen, Ray ’Cool Cat’ Martin, Mike ’Tennessee Tarzan’ Massey, ’Cowboy’ Jimmy Moore, James ’Cisero’ Murphy, Alex ’The Lion’ Pagulayan, Jim ’King James’ Rempe, Erwin Rudolph, Jake ’the Prodigy’ Schaefer Jr., Frank ’The Inexorable Snail’ Taberski, Alfie Taylor, Nick ’Kentucky Colonel’ Varner
Ironic trivia question:Was Harold Worst the best pool shark? Some keen observers who saw him play thoughtso, including Ronnie ’Fast Eddie’ Allen, Minnesota Fats, ’Champagne’ Ed Kelly, Jay Helfert, Freddy ’the Beard’ Bentivegna,Bill ’Mr. Three Cushion’ Smith, andArtie Bodendorfer. And one might suggest that other greats, such as Luther Lassiter and Eddie Taylor, endorsed Harold Worst as the best by refusing to play him. Thus, the last player on the alphabetical list is certainly not least.
The best pool nickname of all time? Frank ’The Inexorable Snail’ Taberski gets my vote. He was also called ’The Sloth.’ His hustle was to play so slowly and deliberately that he drove his competitors insane (or at least boiling mad). The first pool tournament shot clock was instituted because of his laggardly antics. He forfeited his world title in 1919 after officials set a one-minute time limit on shots, but he came back to win four more titles in the late 1920s. Despite his slow play (or perhaps because of it), Taberski was ranked number seven in the Billiard Digest list of the fifty greatest players of the century. And if his slow play was a psychological tactic, he might have been the greatest pool hustler of his era, to boot!
Any player on the list above, at his absolute best would be hard for us mortals to beat, so the ’best player’ at any time is the one with the most talent, playing his best game, who has the hottest hand. But the very best players were the ones who played at the highest levels the longest. When Louie Roberts and Keith McCready were ’on’ they could play with anybody, but they didn’t hit their top speed and maintain it as consistently as the higher ranked players. If I had to pick one player to shoot for me with everything on the line, I would pick Buddy Hall for his r
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