Mike Sigel is an American professional pool player nicknamed "Captain Hook." He earned the nickname from his ability to hook his opponents with safety plays. He is now playing competitively again in the International Pool Tour. Sigel has won over 108 professional pool tournaments, including 3 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.
Early life
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 toHebrew school because he was too tired from playing pool nights." Mike also won the US open straight pool 14.1.
Professional career
Sigel turned pro in the early 1970s at the Johnston 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 IPTWorld 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. Today, he lives near Orlando, Florida, and his focus is to play pool and instruct. 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, and Bike Week. He has been featured in Sports Illustrated, Life, People, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Playboy, Parade, Baltimore Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, Silver Screen, and Cigar Aficionado. In December 2015 Sigel launched his official website, , dedicated to offering private lessons, Mike Sigel branded cues and new instructional videos to the public.
