Mike Sigel

Mike 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 won over 107 professional pool tournaments, including 6 US Open Nine-ball Championship tournaments and 10 world pocket billiard championship titles. Sigel was named "Player of the Year" three times by Billiards Digest and Pool and Billiards, pool industry trade magazines, and in 1989, at the age of 35, was the youngest ever to be inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame.

Sigel is Jewish, and was born in Rochester, New York. His mother Ruth was aggravated with him at times, because as she said "he wouldn't go to Hebrew school because he was too tired from playing pool nights."

Sigel turned pro in the early 1970s at the Johnson City, Illinois, All-Around Tournament, under the auspices of pool players like Joe Balsis, Steve Mizerak, Ray Martin, and Irving Crane. Sigel has the ability to shoot pool both left-handed and right-handed.

In 2005, Sigel won the IPT World Eight-ball Championship, a challenge match between him and Loree Jon Jones. The victory earned him $150,000. 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 match, Reyes bested him with little trouble. Reyes took home $200,000 and Sigel got $100,000 for second place.

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.

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