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Cowboy Jimmy Moore September 14, 1910 – November 17, 1999), born James William Moore, was a world class American pool player from Hogansville, Georgia. He is most well known for his mastery in the game of straight pool (14.1 continuous) at which he won numerous titles including the United States National Pocket Billiards Championship in 1958, his status as a formidable, and for his powerful and unusual pool . He was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 1994.

"Hustlers avoided going through Albuquerque New Mexico because they didn't want to get into a money game with him."

ref name="NYTimesObit">The New York Times Company (1999). Obituaries section: [http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/25/obituaries/25CRAN.html? , Dies at 88] by Douglas Martin. Retrieved November 22, 2006.

Biography
Moore was born in 1910 on a farm just outside city of Hogansville, Georgia. His family moved to Detroit when he was 13. From that young age Moore began supplementing his family's income by running card games and pitching pennies. He was very good at such gambling pursuits and was a naturally gifted athlete. In a 1999 interview at age 88 he stated:"'I was shooting in the '70s soon after I took up golf. I thought about trying to become a pro but I figured there wasn't any money in it. That was true, back then. Same thing for baseball. I was a pretty good pitcher—I played in the minors for Belle Isle, out of Detroit—but I didn't think I could make a living at it.' – Moore, in Billiards Digest (1999)"

In 1928 at 18 years of age, Moore took a job as a pin setter at a local bowling alley, earning six cents a line. In his down time, he began playing pool on a 4 x 8 foot pool table in the bowling alley. Six months after first picking up the game, he entered and won the Michigan State billiard championship. He successfully defended that title in the following three years. During the midst of the Great Depression, however, playing pool for trophies was not a luxury Moore could afford, so he took his game 'on the road,' first partnering with a hustler cum exhibition player, Ray St. Laurent. St. Laurent was a colorful character who would perform exhibitions wearing a red cape and mask while billed as "The Red Devil."

St. Laurent fostered Moore but he did not have his rare talent. One winter evening in Canton, Ohio, St. Laurent was losing badly in an overmatched gambling to well known Ohio, Don Willis. The wager was 25 cents a ball—a not inconsiderable sum at the time— and Moore was {{Cuegloss|Stake|stakehorsing} the match. Eventually disgusted by the uneven proceedings, Moore told St. Laurent that he couldn't win and asked him to step aside and let him have a go. Willis later recalled:"'Here was this punk kid sitting there saying, 'I'll play you some.' Well, he got out of that overcoat and ran over me in my home poolroom. He never missed a ball.' – Don Willis quoted in Billiards Digest"

Moore and Willis became traveling partners following their match, often accompanied on the road by six-time world champion Luther Lassiter. Given his skill and prominent road partners, Moore's name began to be known in the billiard world. In 1940, the World Pocket Billiards (straight pool) titleholder of that year, Andrew Ponzi, sought out Moore looking for a challenge. At the match ultimately arranged, Moore first beat Ponzi out of $80 playing nine-ball, and then beat him at his own game of choice, straight pool, with Moore scoring 125 points to Ponzi's 82.

By that time Moore was recognizable by his cowboy-like image. He customarily wore cowboy boots, a White Stetson hat and a string tie, kept his hair in a crew-cut, and was rarely seen without a cigar. < He was also known for his unusual form of stroke. Moore employed a {{Cuegloss|Slip stroke|slip stroke]] —a stroking technique in which a player release his gripping hand briefly and re-grasps the cue farther back on the butt just before hitting the cue ball.

After Moore's match with Ponzi, he was hired by Ponzi's sometime employer, Sylvester Livingston, a pool impresario who hosted exhibitions with a stable of top pool talent including Irving Crane, who, like Lassiter, would be six-time world champion During 1941 Moore performed 250 exhibitions across the country, earning $5 for matinees, and $7 for evenings. He lost only one match over the year, and posted straight pool runs of 100 or more in 24 out of the 250 performances.