Mike Sigel
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Mike Sigel (born 1952 in Rochester, New York) is a notable American professional pool player.
Sigel has won over 102 major pool tournaments, including three US Opens and five World Championships. Sigel was named "Player of the Year" three times,[who?] and in 1989, at the age of 35, he was the youngest ever to be inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame.[1]
[edit] Professional Career
Sigel became pro in the early 1970s at the Johnson City, Illinois, All-Around Tournament, under the auspices of famous pool greats like Joe Balsis, Steve Mizerak, Ray Martin, and Irving Crane.[2]
In 2005, Sigel won the IPT World Eight-ball Championship, a challenge match between him and Loree Jon Jones. The victory earned him $150K. That same year, he was seeded in the final of the King of the Hill Eight-ball Shootout, the next event of the IPT. There he met Efren Reyes who played his way through the tournament. In the finals match, Reyes bested him with little trouble. Reyes took home $200K and Sigel got $100K for second.
He played himself in the movie Baltimore Bullet. He was also the technical advisor, instructor and sports choreographer for the shots made by Paul Newman and Tom Cruise in the Academy Award-winning film The Color of Money.[3]
Today, he lives in Orlando, Florida, and his focus today is to play pool and promote the International Pool Tour. Sigel was a dominant player in the 1980s and has been on the cover of numerous trade magazines such as Billiards Digest, Pool and Billiards, InsidePOOL, Billiard News, Bike Week. Because of his notoriety, he has been featured in Sports Illustrated, Life, People, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Playboy, Parade, Baltimore Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, Silver Screen, Cigar Aficionado.[4]
[edit] Filmography
- Mike Sigel's Winning Edge on Pocket Billiards (1987)
[edit] References
- ^ BCA Hall of Fame, BCA-POOL.com. Retrieved June 17, 2007
- ^ "The Poet of Pool", by Kenneth Shouler, Cigar Aficionado Magazine. Retrieved June 17, 2007
- ^ Sigel's web site
- ^ Player Bio, InternationalPoolTour.com. Retrieved June 17, 2007
| Preceded by Inaugural champion |
US Open Nine-ball Champion 1976 |
Succeeded by Allen Hopkins |
| Preceded by Louie Roberts |
US Open Nine-ball Champion 1980 |
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| Preceded by David Howard |
US Open Nine-ball Champion 1983 |
Succeeded by Earl Strickland |
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