Nick Varner (born May 15, 1948, in

Owensboro, Kentucky Owensboro is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Daviess County, Kentucky, United States. It is the fourth-largest city in the state by population. Owensboro is located on U.S. Route 60 and Interstate 165 about southwest of Lou ...

) is an American pool player who was inducted into the

Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame This is the list of people inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's hall of fame to honour outstanding people who, through their competitive skills and dedication, have enriched the sport and industry. Two categories have been established in ...

in 1992. Varner is a world champion and has won back to back

U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship The U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship is an annual professional men's nine-ball pool tournament that began in its current form in 1976. The U.S. Open is one of the most sought-after titles in nine-ball and in pool generally. Traditionally, winners of ...

s, in addition to winning the 1999 WPA World Nine-ball Championship at 51 years old.

Career

Nick D. Varner graduated from Tell City High School in Tell City, Indiana in 1966. Varner learned to play pool in his father's (Nick Varner) pool hall in Grandview, Indiana. After graduating from high school, Varner gained notoriety on the professional pool scene after he won two ACU-I Intercollegiate Championships while attending Purdue University and playing "money games" at an on campus pool room called "The Hole". A cliché given to Varner was "Speak softly and carry a big stick" because of the way he conducted himself as well as his competitive endeavors. In 1989, Varner became only the second man to

Mike Sigel Michael Sigel (born July 11, 1953) is an American professional pool player nicknamed "Captain Hook." He earned the nickname from his ability to hook his opponents with safety plays. Sigel has the ability to shoot pool both left-handed and righ ...

, to earn over $100,000 in prize winnings in single year, accumulating an unprecedented 11 out of 22

Nine-ball Nine-ball (sometimes written 9-ball) is a discipline of the cue sport pool. The game's origins are traceable to the 1920s in the United States. It is played on a rectangular billiard table with at each of the four corners and in the middle of e ...

events that year. He was named Player of the Year in 1980, 1982, 1989, 1994, by the pool media, including the National Billiard News and Billiards Digest Magazine. He also represented Team USA eight times at the

Mosconi Cup The Mosconi Cup is an annual nine-ball pool tournament contested since 1994 between teams representing Europe and the United States. Named after American pool player Willie Mosconi, the event is comparable to the Ryder Cup in golf and the Weber ...

, four times as a non-playing team captain. Varner is also an author, a video personality, a pool room proprietor, a manufacturer's representative, and an

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

player.''The Snap'', "Players of the Year", by Kreole Freddie, page 8, February/March 1980. Retrieved June 17, 2007 Varner has won world pocket billiard championship's and is considered one of the best all-around players of all time, winning titles in

Eight-ball Eight-ball (also spelled 8-ball or eightball, and sometimes called solids and stripes, spots and stripes or rarely highs and lows) is a discipline of pool played on a billiard table with six pockets, cue sticks, and sixteen billiard balls (a ...

Straight Pool Straight pool, which is also called 14.1 continuous and 14.1 rack, is a cue sport in which two competing players attempt to as many billiard balls as possible without playing a . The game was the primary version of pool played in professional ...

One Pocket One-pocket is a pool game. Unlike other games played on a pool table where any can be used to score , only one pocket for each player is used in this game. The object of the game is to score points. A point is made when a player pockets any obje ...

and

Bank Pool Bank pool is a pool game that has as its most fundamental requirement that all scoring shots in the game must be made by a called ball off a and into a called pocket. While the game has multiple variations, the predominant version through much ...

. Varner is the only player to be inducted into the BCA,

and

Hall of Fame.

Career titles and achievements

References

External links

"bio on NickVarner.com"

"Nick Varner Custom Cues"
Nick Varner Custom Cues
"Nick Varner Player Profile"
''InternationalPoolTour.com'', International Pool Tour {{DEFAULTSORT:Varner, Nick American pool players 1948 births Living people People from Owensboro, Kentucky World champions in pool WPA World Nine-ball Champions