His nickname, "Machine Gun Lou", derives from his stunning the crowd and fellow competitors by running 150-and-out in straight pool in 21 minutes against Allen Hopkins in 1973.[1]
He gained exposure to the masses in 1981 and 1982 when he appeared in network trick shot competitions on CBS and ABC.[2]
When Lou was 14 years old, he saw BCA Hall of Famer Edwin Rudolph in
an exhibition match. From that point on, Lou devoted his life to
billiards.
Throughout his career, Lou won many tournaments. He was runner-up to
Irving Crane in the 1972 World Championship in Los Angeles.
In 1973, he
defeated Crane in the finals of the same event to win his first World
Championship.
Lou earned his famous nickname that same year when, in an
exhibition with Allen Hopkins, he ran 150 straight balls in just 21
minutes, the moniker “Machine Gun” for his fast-paced style.
He also won
the Pennsylvania State Championship twice.
Butera knocked off top
players regularly in the 1970s with his trademark fast-paced style,
which seemed to make the game of pool more exciting for the spectators.[3]
In 1974, Butera won the All Japan title against the world's best, and
also triumphed over Richie Florence to win the Bud Lundahl's Midwest
Open, a straight pool tournament he won by a score of 150-68 in the
title match.[4]
In 1991, Butera served as coach of the World Billiard Federation World
Team, whose members included such luminaries as Nick Varner, Mike Siegel
and Ray Martin.
In a profile that appeared in the May/June, 1995 issue
of Snap Magazine, he was referred to as "...the man who may be the fastest pool player the game has ever known."
Lou Butera was one of the 43 invited pool players who competed in the International Pool Tour's King of the Hill Shootout in Orlando, Florida, December 2005.[5]
Digitized videos of Butera demonstrating spectacular trick shots were included with the PC pool simulator Virtual Pool. He died from Parkinson's disease on June 25, 2015.[6]
Filmography
As an accomplished pool player, Butera has produced various
instructional videos for students of pool about the fundamentals of the
game.[7]
Lou Butera appeared in several films as an actor and technical advisor.
With a large family — he and his wife Caroline, who died in 2012, had
seven children — Butera cut down on his tournament schedule choosing
instead to run his pool room and work as a spokesman for Brunswick, a
maker of high-end, crafted pool tables.
Butera also worked in radio and television as a technical consultant
helping actors appear natural when the played pool on screen.
His clients included Tom Cruise, whose then wife Nicole Kidman paid
$3,750 for the pool lessons; Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Martin Sheen and
Michael Douglas whom he choreographed playing pool in a scene from the
movie American President.
On the TV show “War of the Stars” in the 1980s Butera played pool
against Don Adams, who played Maxwell Smart in “Get Smart,” and against
Paul Sorvino. He also worked on “The Fall Guy,” “Married With Children”
and “Living Single.”
He was also featured on the 1995 Virtual Pool CD Rom video game.
In
1986 he was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame.
In a way it can be said Machine Gun Lou Butera came full circle.
Last
month he was included as one of the 40 people on the Inspirational
Mural in Pittston, just down Main Street from where he once annoyed the
older pool players with his Ma’s soda box.
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Hustling is the deceptive act of disguising one's skill in a sport or game with the intent of luring someone of probably lesser skill into gambling (or gambling for higher than current stakes) with the hustler, as a form of both a confidence trick and match fixing.
It is most commonly associated with, and originated in, pool (and to an extent other billiards-family games), but also can be performed with regard to other sports and gambling activities.
Hustlers may also engage in "sharking"—distracting,
disheartening, enraging, or even threatening their opponents—to throw
them off. Hustlers are thus often called "pool sharks" (compare "card shark").
Professional and semi-pro hustlers sometimes work with a "stakehorse"—a
person who provides the money for the hustler to bet with (and who may
assist in the hustling)—in exchange for a substantial portion of all
winnings.
Another form of hustling (often engaged in by the same
hustlers who use the skill-disguising technique) is challenging "marks" (swindle targets) to bet on trick shots that seem nearly impossible but at which the hustler is exceptionally skilled.
Pool hustlers use deception and misdirection
in order to win cash from inexperienced players (or skilled players
inexperienced with the world of hustling). A skilled hustler
will usually play with a low-quality "house" cue stick provided by the pool hall, or an unadorned but high-quality personal cue that looks like one, known as a "sneaky pete"
(or, with the nascence of local competitive league play in recent
years, may play with a flashy-looking but evidently low-end personal
cue, to give the impression that the hustler is a beginning league
player);
will typically play a game or two for "fun" or for low bets (a beer
or equivalent amount of cash, for example) in order to check out the
opponent and give the impression that money can easily be won, often
losing on purpose (known as "sandbagging" or "dumping") – with the intent of winning a much larger wager later against a predictably overconfident opponent;
will pocket some difficult and impressive shots or make surprisingly
secure safety shots (ones crucial for winning), while missing many
simple ones, thus making early victories appear to be sheer luck
(a variant being the theatrical almost-making of shots that
inexperienced players may think of as crucial mistakes, but which really
give away very little advantage);
may pretend to be intoxicated, unintelligent, or otherwise impaired
(that is, until it is time to run the table or make a game-winning
shot).
when betting on trick shots, may intentionally miss the first or
several times and lose a small amount, then raise the bet to an amount
well beyond the loss and succeed at the well-practiced feat.
Many of these ploys can easily be mistaken for the honest faults of a
less-than-exceptional player. The engendered doubt and uncertainty is
what allows hustling to succeed, with the "faults" being dropped when a
significant amount of money is at stake.
In popular culture
Pool hustling is the subject of films such as The Hustler (1961) and The Color of Money (1986) (both adapted from earlier novels, see "Books", below), among others (see "Films", below).
In the 1972 Jim Croce song "You Don't Mess Around with Jim",
the character Slim teaches a lesson to Big Jim about pool hustling.
It
was also the principal subject of episodes of various television
programs, including The Dick Van Dyke Show episode "Hustling the Hustler" (season 2, episode 5, 1962), Quantum Leap episode "Pool Hall Blues" (sn. 2, ep. 18, 1990), The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode "Banks Shot" (sn. 1, ep. 22, 1991), The Steve Harvey Show episodes "Pool Sharks Git Bit" (sn. 1, ep. 12, 1996) followed up with "What You Won't Cue for Love" (sn. 3, ep. 6, 1998), and Drake and Josh
episode "Pool Shark" (sn. 2, ep. 5, 2004).
Main characters Dean and Sam
Winchester are also pool hustlers, among other sources of income, in
the TV series Supernatural (various episodes, 2005–present).
Hustler Days: Minnesota Fats, Wimpy Lassiter, Jersey Red, and America's Great Age of Pool (2003), nonfiction by R.A. Dyer, ISBN 1-59228-104-4, ISBN 1-59228-646-1
Striker (2010) Hindi "Bollywood" drama about hustling in the billiards-related table game carrom
Notable fictional hustlers
"Minnesota Fats" in The Hustler (played by Jackie Gleason in the film version) – the smooth character whose moniker Rudolf Wanderone (above) lifted after publication of Tevis's novel
"Edward 'Fast Eddie' Felson" in The Hustler and The Color of Money (played by Paul Newman in the film versions)
"Vincent (Vince) Lauria" in The Color of Money (played by Tom Cruise in the film version)
"Grady Seasons", said to be "the best money player in the world", in The Color of Money (played by Keith McCready, above, in the film version)
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A trick shot (also trickshot or trick-shot) is a shot played on a billiards table (most often a pool table, though snooker tables are also used), which seems unlikely or impossible or requires significant skill.
Trick shots frequently involve the balls organized in ways that are unlikely or impossible to appear in normal play, such as balls being in a straight line, or use props such as extra cues or a triangle that would not be allowed on the table during a game. As an organized cue sports discipline, trick shot competition is known as artistic pool.
Competition formats
Billiards trick shots are the subject of increasing international competition, both amateur and professional.
The formats vary depending on the competition. Some, such as the World Snooker Trickshot Championship are purely exhibitions, with a panel of judges scoring subjectively to determine the winner.
Events such as Trick Shot Magic and the World Cup feature
head-to-head competition where the players select shots that have
strictly outlined requirements specified in a playbook.
Each year, players are allowed to submit their own shot inventions,
however, they are disclosed prior to the event to give all players an
equal chance to practice them.
Players or teams are given two attempts
to complete a selected shot within the given parameters, and earn one
point for each successful shot, either a first shot or follow-up shot.
Each player or team gets to select a given number of shots, generally
eight or ten, and a winner is declared when one side is mathematically
eliminated.
Trick Shot Magic, ESPN's
annual artistic pool pro tournament, has been widely considered the
televised version of the World Artistic Pool Championship, and it has
held the highest ratings in televised cue sports competitions in the
United States between 2000 and 2009.
Artistic pool similarly (see below) has a program of shots (three attempts each, in a sliding-scale point system), with precisely outlined parameters requirements.
The Ultimate Trick Shot Tour [1]
features head-to-head competition between two players with no
pre-defined shots. Players challenge each other with shots outlining the
parameters of the shots just before shooting.
Each player gets three
attempts per shot, scoring one point per shot made. Each player gets to
select a given number of shots, generally six to ten, and the winner is
declared when one player is mathematically eliminated.
Artistic pool
Artistic pool trick shot competitions, inspired by the related discipline of artistic billiards,
began in the 1970s with international pros and coordinated by world
champion Paul Gerni, with the World Trick Shot Artists Association, and
in 2000, in Las Vegas, formed a new group, again with an international
cast.[2]
They feature a program of 160 tricks to attempt, many of which were used in the previous formats by the WTSAA,[3] and include the BCA North American Championship, EPBF European Championship, and WPA World Championship, among others.[2]
The tricks are now divided into eight "disciplines", including
trick/fancy, prop/novelty/special arts, and disciplines for extremes in
each of the core cueing techniques.[3][4]
In WTSAA and APTSA competitions, competitors would have three chances
to successfully perform each trick, earning full points if they are
successful on their first attempts and incrementally reduced points for
subsequent attempts.
Each shot has an associated difficulty rating (also
the point value) with a higher rating being more difficult. A
preliminary round of 40 shots is performed, and the top players (the
number varies depending on the number of competitors, but usually the
top 12) proceed into a head-to-head playoff format to determine the
winner.
Proper and official artistic pool competitions feature equipment
limitations, (one cue, one stroke per trick shot, one approved
universal prop per shot per diagram if necessary, all shots on the bed
of the table, etc.), and shot requirements (e.g., preclusion of any
off-the-table tricks, such as are popular in events like Trick Shot
Magic and World Cup of Trick Shots).[6]
Objects used
As with other pool and billiards games, trick shots usually utilize a cue ball, one or more object balls, and a cue stick.
Props are
used to change the difficulty of the shot or add aesthetic value. As
with artistic billiards pros, trick shot artists often have specialized
cue sticks for performing particular types of shots, particularly jump shots and massés.[7]
Trick and/or fancy: Primarily deals with setup shots,
multiple ball configurations, and/or a shot where cue ball travels in a
"kick" pattern to make final ball(s). May also include "extreme" cut
shots and special skill shots not in other disciplines.
Prop/novelty and special arts: Unusual or new shots of any
nature, shots with "props", such as cues, bridge(s), rack(s),coin(s),
chalk, etc., and shots of a unique or "special" art form, such as wing
shots, time shots, "legal" or "illegal" follow-thru shots, push shots,
roller coaster technique/waterfall specialties, plus demonstrations of
one-handed jack up, behind back, under leg, and more. Referred to as
general amusement category.
Draw: Basic to advanced with cue ball greater than 1/2" from
first object ball. The cue ball contacts an object ball with draw
(backspin) and pockets another.
Follow: A cue ball is hit with follow (topspin) and goes forth and hits in an object ball.
Bank/Kick: Bank, meaning to hit object ball(s) into
cushion(s), and kicks meaning to hit cue ball into "x" number of
cushions first and then to object ball(s).
Stroke: Cue ball less than 1/2" from first object ball(s),
for draw or follow, plus accuracy position shots, speed control shots,
or unique "stroke" shots.
Jump: Any shot utilizing jump shot technique, other than "prop" shots with bridge(s), and some special "stroke" shots.
Massé: Half and full massé – cue elevations over 10 degrees.
"Machine gun" (1): A line of object balls are placed in a row about a ball width away from a cushion,
and the cue ball is shot into the space between the balls and the
cushion so as to reverberate between them while traveling and hit each
one of the object balls in series, issuing a machine gun-like sound.
"Machine gun" (2): A line of object balls are placed in a row along
but not against a cushion, and are then shot directly with the cue, one
after another, around the table, each contacting three cushions, and
into the same pocket. The trick requires carefully timing the shots, so
that newly-shot balls travel between balls already in motion.[8]
"Machine gun" (3): A line of object balls are placed on the table.
The cue ball is shot into a pocket with deadweight and the object balls
are all potted into the same pocket directly one after the other with
the cue, while the cue ball is still traveling. Done right, the cue ball
is the first ball hit and the last ball falling.
"The dollar bill shot": Introduced into competition by Paul Gerni, this shot uses a banknote, typically a US$100
bill, placed on the short rail near the corner pocket as a target
landing zone. The cue ball is banked off of eight or nine cushions and
should land with the ball's edge over the banknote. This shot is used as
a tiebreaker on Trick Shot Magic with the competitor landing closest to the bill winning the match.
"Up and in": Mistakenly thought to be originated by World Champion Mike Massey,
this shot has much earlier origins, and was done in 1980 in Sweden by
European champion Bengt Jonasson of Stockholm. He showed it to the
gentleman of the American team (Paul Gerni, Jim Rempe, and Mike Sigel)
in an exhibition prior to the 1980 Swedish Open in Gothenburg, using a
wooden shoe instead of a floppy cowboy boot, and prompting both Gerni
and Rempe to stop at the gift shop at the Amsterdam airport on the way
back to pick up some wooden shoes. In this shot, the cue ball is jumped
off the table into a wooden shoe (a cowboy boot for Massey, 25 years
later) on the floor, which made a nice "klack" sound in the case of the
wooden shoe. In the U.S., the wooden shoe shot is sometimes referred to
as "the boot shot".
"The bottle shot": Two balls are balanced on top of a glass soda
bottle. The cue ball pockets a ball in the side and gets propelled in
the air, knocking the bottom ball from the top of the bottle, letting
the top ball drop to rest on top of the bottle. This shot was conceived
by Japanese player Yoshikazu Kimura, from Kyoto, and popularized by Polish champion Bogdan Wolkowski.
"The butterfly": For this popular exhibition shot from the days of
pool greats Willie Mosconi and Jimmy Caras, six object balls are grouped
in the middle of the table[9] in a butterfly shape; in a single shot, each ball drops into a different pocket in the billiards table.[10][11]
"Just showing off":[12] Five object balls are clustered near the left side pocket and a hanging object ball in the lower right corner.[13]
The cue ball is sent in to the cluster pocketing all five balls and
then travels 3 rails to pocket the hanging object ball. This shot was
originally designed in the '60s by Paul Gerni, combining two previously
popular trick shots, and made famous by Steve Mizerak
in a Miller Lite beer commercial in 1978. This shot and the subsequent
commercial boosted Mizerak's name recognition and vaulted him into the
Hall of Fame. Gerni still showcases this shot in his present-day
exhibitions, and it has now become a standard for most all pool
exhibitions.[14]
"The snake shot": Fifteen object balls are placed across the table.
The 15 ball is the first and it is placed 6 inches away from the corner
pocket. Each successive ball is placed 3 inches behind the previous one
in a winding chain. Each combination of balls beginning with the 1 and
the 2 should be aligned so they aim toward the next ball in the chain.
The cue ball must be set up in position to make a straight line with the
first two-ball combination. When the 1 ball is hit it should cause a
chain reaction as each two-ball set hits each other.[15]
"The Swing Shot": A rack hangs from above and swings back and forth.
The player proceeds to jump balls through the moving rack and into the
corner pockets.[
Source:Wikipedia.org
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