Briesath, Jerry

Jerry Briesath is widely regarded as one of the most influential instructors in the history of pocket billiards, often described as the “father of modern pool instruction.” Born in March 1937 in Winona, Minnesota, Jerry’s journey to becoming the game’s definitive teacher didn’t begin under bright tournament lights or inside a training academy. It began with work, hard, everyday, small-town work, at his father’s one-man gas station, where discipline and service weren’t motivational slogans, they were simply the price of admission to life. Jerry has recalled pumping gas for 23 cents a gallon, checking oil by hand, and learning early that consistency and pride in the basics are what separate “good enough” from exceptional.

Before pool ever took hold, Jerry was an athlete. His first love was golf, and he was good enough to play high-school varsity as the number one player—an important detail because so much of Jerry’s later teaching would be built around athletic movement, rhythm, and repeatable mechanics rather than guesswork or superstition. That athletic foundation, paired with a curious mind, made him a natural problem-solver when he eventually found his way to a cue and a set of balls.

Jerry’s introduction to pool came during his time in Milwaukee, where, in an era with little formal instruction available, he learned the old-fashioned way: watching strong players, asking questions, experimenting, and running balls late into the night. In our four-part conversation, Jerry describes the poolroom not just as a place to play, but as a living classroom, one where information was earned through observation and repetition, and where the difference between a casual player and a serious one could be measured in quiet hours spent working on uncomfortable fundamentals. One of the names tied to Jerry’s early development is Willis Covington, a straight-pool runner whose influence helped Jerry fall in love with the precision and patterns of the game.

As a player, Jerry was active during the 1960s and 1970s, competing in regional events and building a reputation not only for ability, but for seriousness of purpose. Yet what ultimately set him apart wasn’t simply how well he could play, it was how clearly he could explain why things happened on the table, and how relentlessly he pursued the “why” behind performance. That mindset would become the foundation of his life’s work.

A pivotal chapter in the Briesath story unfolded in Madison, Wisconsin, where Jerry became a long-time poolroom owner and created one of the most important instruction hubs the sport has ever known. In 1973 he established Cue-Nique Billiards at 317 West Gorham Street in downtown Madison, just off State Street. The room itself became legendary: sixteen nine-foot Brunswick Gold Crowns, additional bar boxes, three 3-cushion tables, and even a 10-foot snooker table, all under oversized bright box lights designed to illuminate every detail of the playing surface. There was even a large fish tank in the room, part character, part calm amid the intensity. And crucially, Cue-Nique wasn’t just a pool hall; it was a true training environment, remembered as the “Home of the Pool School,” a place where lessons were central to the identity of the room.

That “pool school” concept, structured, methodical, fundamentals-first, would spread far beyond Madison. Jerry became instrumental in professionalizing instruction within the sport itself. He helped launch the BCA Certified Instructor Program in 1992 (which evolved into today’s Professional Billiard Instructors Association), and he helped launch the BCA Summer Youth Cue Camps in 1993, creating pathways for young players to learn correctly from the beginning. For his continued efforts to improve how players learn the game, Jerry received the BCA President’s Award in 1997. He also contributed to major educational resources, including the BCA “How to Play Pool Right” book and video.

If Jerry’s résumé were only “builder of programs,” it would already be Hall-of-Fame worthy. But his greatest influence is personal and generational: the players and instructors he shaped. He is identified as a founding figure in modern instructor certification and has long operated his pool school in both Wisconsin and Arizona. His student list spans champions and respected leaders in the sport, including Mark Wilson, Jeanette Lee (“the Black Widow”), Danny Harriman, and Jeff Carter, along with multiple champions at the collegiate and junior levels. That range matters: Jerry didn’t teach “one type” of player. He taught anyone willing to commit to the craft.

In Parts 2–4 of our series, Jerry’s teaching philosophy comes through with striking clarity. The modern pool world is full of aiming systems and quick fixes, but Jerry repeatedly returns to what he sees as the bedrock: delivery of the cue, repeatable stroke mechanics, and training habits that hold up under pressure. He’s famous for emphasizing process over results, how excellence is built long before competition begins. And he has a gift for turning complex topics into plain truths: why banks near the rail come up short, how sliding changes outcomes, why certain “easy” banks must be overcut, ideas passed down, refined, and tested across decades.

Jerry’s broader legacy is also preserved in one of the most respected instructional works in pool: “A Pool Lesson,” a multi-disc instructional DVD set featuring Jerry and demonstrations by his longtime student Mark Wilson. The set is widely regarded as a comprehensive foundation in fundamentals, cue-ball control, banking and kicking, drills, and corrections, essentially Jerry’s lifetime of teaching distilled into a course players can revisit again and again. It’s a fitting artifact for a man whose central mission has always been to help players learn correctly, and to help instructors teach responsibly.

Recognition followed the impact. Jerry was inducted into the Billiards Congress of America Hall of Fame in 2022. His legacy is also celebrated in Wisconsin, where he is recognized as a master instructor, longtime pool-school operator, former pool-hall owner (including Cue-Nique and The Green Room), a state champion in straight pool, and a competitor on the Midwest professional tour. Even the professional teaching community reflects Jerry’s enduring footprint through an annual instructor honor that bears his name, an acknowledgment that, to today’s teaching world, “Briesath” is synonymous with the highest standard.

But if you ask the people who know Jerry best, students, peers, champions, the first thing they talk about isn’t his awards. It’s his presence: the patience, the enthusiasm, the insistence that fundamentals aren’t boring, they’re freedom. In our conversations, the warmth comes through as strongly as the instruction. Jerry doesn’t merely teach shots; he teaches players how to think, how to practice, and how to build a game that lasts.

That is why Jerry Briesath is a perfect Legends of the Cue guest. His story is the story of American pool learning how to teach itself better, one student, one camp, one cleanly delivered cue stroke at a time.