Earl Strickland

Earl Strickland, nicknamed Earl the Pearl, is an American professional pool player, born on June 8, 1961, and widely considered one of the best nine-ball players of all time. He began playing at the age of eight, entered his first professional tournament at sixteen and rose to national prominence in 1983 by winning the Caesars Tahoe Billiard Classic. He has won more than a hundred championship titles, including a record three WPA World Nine-ball Championships in 1990, 1991 and 2002, and in 1996 he won the PCA Million Dollar Challenge by running ten consecutive racks. He was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame in 2006 and played for Team USA in the Mosconi Cup as late as 2022.