After highly successful pool career, Varner winding down and focusing on his business

December 12, 2022 | 12:10 am

Updated December 11, 2022 | 5:48 pm

Nick Varner | Photo by Ryan Richardson

Local pool champion Nick Varner said he is as close to retirement as he can get, but that won’t keep him away from the world of pool. 

Varner only played one tournament this year — the 7th Annual Seniors One Pocket Classic, where he came in second. Not bad for the 74-year-old who said that he’s happy with the way his life — especially the last 24 years — has gone. 

Varner is an eight-time World Champion and a two-time U.S. Open Champion, among 80 other professional championships, and he was named the player of the year five times. 

In 1992, the Billiard Congress of America inducted Varner into the BCA Hall of Fame, and since then Varner has received other hall of fame inductions. 

When he’s not traveling and competing, Varner can be found in Owensboro. There, he humbly works at his business, Nick Varner Cues and Cases, which he began in 1999 and which is located at 1400 Triplett St.

Previously, Varner sold pool tables behind his pool room, but he saw the market as too small to stock and he wanted to have a business that he could continue into retirement. The pool room closed in 2000.

“I began designing my own cues and started with 27 cues in a four-page brochure,” Varner said. 

Varner would “stop in” places when he was out on the road and built the business one dealer at a time.

The brochure is now an 88-page catalog that includes one- and two-piece cues designed by Varner and manufactured to his specifications. He also sells cases, balls, cloth, and billiard accessories to distributors.

Varner said that he is not interested in having a retail website because those who know his cues and play with them are league players who that are already familiar with his products. 

“I would end up competing with my dealers and I don’t want to,” he said. 

Varner is still in good health and while there aren’t many senior tours, he still enjoys the game.

“I won three world titles after age 50,” he said. “That’s pretty good.”

Varner is not one to sit, however, and one-third of the year he is on the road. But he does work every day when he is in Owensboro. 

While his high-competition years are gone, Varner often teaches clinics and plays in exhibitions, demonstrating and teaching the younger players and reminiscing with those he has known for years. 

His Facebook page is filled with his travels, signings, and visits with friends.

Varner said that as he has gotten older, the training and doctor recommendations slowed him down.

“In pool, the only part of the body that is supposed to move is the forearm,” he said. “The pressure is intense and it is mental.”

For Varner, that seems to be the way he likes to roll.

December 12, 2022 | 12:10 am

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