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 in The 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 movie The 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 movie Poolhall 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



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―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.

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.

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