Billy Incardona - Part 5 (Hustlers, High Stakes & the Golden Age of Pool)
In this fifth installment of our six-part series with legendary cue artist and road warrior Billy Incardona, listeners are treated to a vivid journey through the smoky, cash-fueled pool halls of America’s golden era. With trademark candor and humor, Billy recalls epic encounters with some of the game’s most colorful—and notorious—characters, bringing to life the grit and glory of a bygone hustler’s world.
From a wild high-stakes showdown with Weenie Beanie in Detroit to his induction into the One Pocket Hall of Fame, Billy’s storytelling captures both the thrill of victory and the sting of loss. He paints unforgettable portraits of poolroom legends like Artie Bodendorfer, the quiet Chicago genius who outsmarted opponents and bookmakers alike, and Cuban Joe Valdez, the proud Miami jeweler whose temper and toughness were matched only by his love for the game.
Billy also remembers Bunny Rogoff, the Pittsburgh hustler who could sell any act—from truck driver to Charlie Chaplin—and who once turned a near-shootout into a tale for the ages. Alongside co-hosts Mike Gonzalez, Allison Fisher and Mark Wilson, Billy reflects on the vanished romance of the road, when every poolroom was alive with characters, wagers, and whispers of easy money.
Today’s players may have lost that mystery, he says, but the stories remain—and in Billy’s hands, they shine as brightly as ever.
Join us for a captivating trip down memory lane with one of pool’s great storytellers, as he celebrates the brilliance, bravery, and beautiful madness of those who lived and played for the love of the game.
Give Allison, Mark & Mike some feedback via Text.
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Our website: https://www.legendsofthecue.com
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Music by Lyrium.
About
"Legends of the Cue" is a pool history podcast featuring interviews with Pool Hall of Fame members, winners of major championships and other people of influence in and around pocket billiards. We also plan to highlight memorable pool brands, events and venues. Focusing on the positive aspects of the sport, we aim to create and provide an engaging and timeless repository of content that listeners can enjoy now and forever. Co-hosted by WPA and BCA Hall of Fame member Allison Fisher, Mosconi Cup player and captain Mark Wilson, our podcast focuses on telling the life stories of pool's greatest, in their voices. Join Allison, Mark and Mike Gonzalez for “Legends of the Cue.”
Pool Professional
Billy “Pittsburgh Billy” Incardona is one of pocket billiards’ rare, enduring hybrids: a feared action player with a surgeon’s understanding of one-pocket, a nine-ball force from the era when road men wrote their own rules, and, later, the unmistakable broadcast voice who helped teach the modern world how champions actually think. Born December 2, 1943, and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Incardona’s story is inseparable from the gritty romance of American poolrooms, places where talent mattered, nerve mattered more, and reputation was currency you guarded as carefully as the cash in your pocket.
On our Legends of the Cue six-part series, Billy takes listeners back to the origin point: a kid’s fascination that becomes an obsession, and then becomes a life. He describes those early days in Pittsburgh, learning at places like the YMCA, soaking up patterns and angles, and quickly discovering that pool wasn’t only a game of balls and pockets, but a game of people: who’s watching, who’s talking, who’s under pressure, and who’s pretending not to be. That “people-reading” skill becomes one of his defining traits. Billy wasn’t just learning how to run racks, he was learning how to "match up", how to hide speed, and how to control the emotional temperature of a room.
Pittsburgh in those years was fertile soil for that kind of education. The city produced tough players and sharp minds, and Billy grew up in an environment where pool culture was both competitive and intensely social, where you could learn a world-class lesson simply by keeping your mou…Read More