Elsewhere on this site, you can read about snooker documentaries and the numerous different people that have had an impact on that sport over the years. Although the sports will often get sandwiched together when people discuss them, they are very different propositions.

As a result, those of you that don’t necessarily know a huge amount about pool might be keen to find some documentaries that will teach you all you need to know, whilst those of you that already love the sport will no doubt be happy to spend some time in the company of those who share your love of it and have put that love down on celluloid.

Obviously, the list we have here is far from exhaustive, but it should serve to offer you a sense of what to expect from time spent in the company of documentary makers who love the sport of pool.

Efren Reyes Shocking Life Story

• Format: Short biographical documentary
• First Released: 2020
• Length: 15 minutes 34 seconds
• Watch in the UK: Free on YouTube
• Subtitles: Auto-generated English subtitles are available

There is perhaps no story that better sums up pool than the fact that Efren Reyes came out of nowhere to become a Hall of Fame great of the sport. Born in the Philippines on the 26th of August 1954, he moved to Manila when he was five in order to live with his uncle, who happened to own a pool hall.

Cleaning the hall and sleeping on the tables, Reyes had what many might refer to as a ‘wasted youth’, but in his case it led him to become one of the best pool players ever to pick up a cue. When he was learning, he had to stand on a Coca-Cola box that he moved around the table, on account of the fact that he wasn’t tall enough to reach.

He was just nine years old when he won his first match for money, with this short documentary showing how he went on to compete at three-cushion billiards before being discovered by promoters. He soon became considered a top-class player in the Philippines, but was practically unheard of elsewhere.

That remained the case until he went to the US and eventually became known thanks to his victory in the US Open 9-Ball Championship of 1994. He went on to win more than 100 international titles in the sport, becoming the first player to win world championships in two different disciplines of pool. If you watch one documentary, make it this one.

The Strickland Story

• Format: Documentary film
• First Released: 2013
• Length: 46 minutes 20 seconds
• Watch in the UK: Free on Dailymotion via a third-party upload

Made by Sky Sports, The Strickland Story looks into the life and times of Earl Strickland, covering his youth in North Carolina through to his dominance of pool in the 1980s and 1990s, which was often wrought with controversy. Battling with his mental health and changes to the sport of pool in general, Strickland was never an easy man to like during his time and the top of the sport.

We learn all about ‘The Pearl’s’ Jekyll and Hyde persona, which often presented itself in a man who was combative and passionate as well as intense. He started out as a gambler, making the shift to become a professional player who interacted with the audience.

In the documentary, we also take a look at the career highlights of Strickland, who won the US Open 9-Ball Championship five times as well as the World 9-Ball Championships. His on-table behaviour was often erratic, which the documentary doesn’t shy away from, showing numerous arguments with opposition players, referees and even fans.

Strickland himself reflects back on his career, but if you’re hoping that this might make him more likeable as a person, then you’re almost certainly going to end up disappointed. He is not someone to whom contrition comes easily, but winning with a pool cue most certainly did.

“The South Dakota Kid”: The Shane van Boening Story

• Format: Short documentary
• First Released: 2014
• Length: 7 minutes 54 seconds
• Watch in the UK: Free on YouTube
• Subtitles: English subtitles are available

It isn’t exactly outrageous to suggest that pool documentaries are neither as easy to come by nor as in-depth as documentaries for other sports, which is perhaps best demonstrated by the fact that “The South Dakota Kid”: The Shane Van Boening Story is only a touch over seven and a half minutes long.

Even so, it managed to pack a lot into that time, teaching you all about Shane van Boening’s rise to the top of the sport of pool. Unlike in The Strickland Story, the centre of attention here actually does come across like a good guy, which will be music to the ears of those that have found him an interesting and engaging player on the baize.

Born in Rapid City, South Dakota, on the 14th of July 1983, Boening’s grandfather, Gary Bloomberg, was a pool trick shot artist, whilst his grandmother, Jeanne Bloomberg, was a VNEA national champion. Not only that, his mother, Timi Bloomberg, was a BCA national champion, whilst his aunt also won in the sport.

By the time 2007 came around and van Boening had proven that he could follow in his family’s footsteps, he was tipped by Inside POOL Magazine as someone who could become the best pool player in the United States of America. In the end, he did even better than that, becoming one of the best players of all time.

The Mosconi Cup: A 30-Year Story

• Format: Short documentary
• First Released: 2023
• Length: 23 minutes 29 seconds
• Watch in the UK: Free on YouTube
• Subtitles: Auto-generated English subtitles are available

As you can probably work out from the title, this short film was released to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Mosconi Cup, which had been launched in 1994 by Matchroom Sport as a premier 9-ball pool tournament that pitted the best of Europe against the top players from the USA. Imagine it as pool’s equivalent of golf’s Ryder Cup and you’ll have some sense of where we are.

Here, we see exclusive interviews with players like Steve Davis, Earl Strickland and Barry Hearn, the President of Matchroom Sports, talking about the impact that the Mosconi Cup has had both on them and on the sport in general.

Given the fact that the competition began in a pool hall in Romford before eventually heading to the bright lights of Las Vegas, it is fair to say that it has gone through a big change in the 30 years that the documentary looks at. In The Mosconi Cup: A 30-Year Story, you get to relive some of the highs and lows that the competition endured across three decades.

That includes the ice-cold precision of Joshua Filler through to some entirely in-character outbursts from Earl Strickland, meaning that it feels as though there’s never a dull moment in a documentary that tells the story with an unashamed sense of bias.

Ronnie’s American Hustle

• Format: Documentary television series
• First Released: 2017
• Length: Approximately 44–45 minutes per episodes
• Episodes: 4 episodes
• Watch in the UK: Free with adverts on Channel 5

Ronnie O’Sullivan is a man much better known for his ability with a snooker cue than his pool game, but in this series, he travels to some of the biggest cities in America in order to learn about the history of both the sport of pool and the country itself.

He plays some of the legends of pool in the US, turning up in New York, Chicago, Memphis and San Francisco in a fascinating exploration of how the sport developed to become what it is today. Snooker isn’t overly popular in the United States, but pool is arguably more popular now than it’s ever been, which is what O’Sullivan and presenter Matt Smith learn on their journey.

Given the fact that most of the documentaries on our list are quite short, being able to sit down in front of four different episodes of 45 minutes or so in length is a marked change from what we’re used to.

What makes Ronnie’s American Hustle so engaging is the fact that O’Sullivan and Smith are friends in real life, so they are more than happy to chat away with each other as they immerse themselves in the history of the various locations that they end up in. Less about pool as a sport than the history of it and of America itself, this is a really interesting variation on the documentary genre that might otherwise have passed you by.

Secrets of Pool Hustling

• Format: Instructional video
• First Released: 1989
• Length: 47 minutes 32 seconds
• Watch in the UK: Free on YouTube
• Subtitles: Auto-generated English subtitles are available

There is a world in which we could be described as being slightly unethical for posting this in our list of pool documentaries, but the reality is that Secrets of Pool Hustling tells the story of a part of the sport that often gets brushed under the carpet. Some of the biggest names in the sport began life as hustlers, taking on others as a means of making money.

The film is all about taking us on a journey with Jimmy ‘Pretty Boy Floyd’ Mataya, who was considered by some to be the world’s greatest pool hustler. He tells us that there are ‘two types of players’ in the pool world: trophy players and cash players, with the man himself preferring the latter.

Lasting for just over 47 minutes, this film talks you through the likes of how to identify a mark, what you need to do to persuade them to put their money on the table and how you go about turning the screw to ensure you come out on top. Films such as The Hustler and The Colour of Money introduced us all to the idea of hustling as a concept, but this is more about how you go about achieving it without needing to bring in a Hollywood scriptwriter in order to do it.

The various techniques used by hustlers are exposed, so it is a film worth watching even if you’d rather just learn how not to be taking advantage of rather than do it yourself.