How Bucks County pool player Steve Markle mastered the art of the trick shot

At 13 years old, Steve Markle asked his parents for a not-so-typical gift for his age — a pool table. Bill Markle, his father, asked his son if he was going to use it, and Steve assured him he would.

“Pool tables are good for storage and being in the way,” Bill recalled saying to his wife when Steve asked.

The Bucks County native was first interested in pool after spending long summer mornings playing stickball. One of his friends had a pool table in his basement, and they would play in the afternoons to cool off.

Steve eventually convinced his father to get him a pool table, so Bill took him to Kmart and bought him a seven-foot wooden table. Steve and his friends started making trick shot videos and posting them on YouTube. One night, Steve showed his parents one of the videos.

“We were taken aback at what he did,” Bill said. “We were like, ‘Did you really do that?’”

That shock and surprise nothing continued for the Markles as Steve’s career has taken off in ways they could have never imagined.

“This game has been able to open up so many doors for me that I never thought would be open,” Steve said.

Steve Markle, now 34, is Pennsylvania’s only professional artistic pool player and is ranked No. 1 in the United States by the Billiard Congress of America and No. 9 in the world by the World Pool Association. His trick-shot videos on social media have garnered more than 175 million views.

The Archbishop Ryan graduate’s introduction to artistic pool was random, he said.

He was shooting pool with his dad at a restaurant in Penndel when an older gentleman approached him and showed him a trick shot where he made four balls in one shot.

That same day, he ran over to his friend’s house and showed him the trick.

“I brought that back to him and was like ‘You’ve got to see this; look what I just learned,’” Markle recalled.

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Before long, he was spending nearly every day practicing on his pool table and filming videos with his friend. By 16, he competed in his first trick-shot tournament in New Jersey.

Artistic pool is one of the sport’s smallest niches, Markle said. Professional pool players must master 124 designated trick shots, with just three attempts allowed at each shot during competition.

“To be good and consistent and give yourself a chance to win these tournaments, you really have to be consistent with all 124 shots because at a tournament you only get three attempts at each,” Markle said.

The sport features six federations across the world, with the Billiard Congress of America in the U.S. The sport has two smaller events, U.S. Nationals and the Premier Billiards Masters Artistic Pool Championship, which are open tournaments and anyone can compete. Competitors qualify for the World Championship through smaller tournaments before earning a spot in the competition, which Markle compared to the Super Bowl for artistic pool players.

Markle competed professionally from 2008 to 2016 before deciding to take a break to join the police academy for Temple’s Ambler location.

“Police academy teaches you a lot about people and life skills,” Steve said. “The physical training you have to go through, it pushes you a lot.”

Markle worked part-time police jobs in Salisbury Township and Bristol Borough before joining the Lower Makefield Township Police Department, where he still actively serves.

Living in a one-bedroom apartment without room for his pool table and working a demanding job made competing professionally nearly impossible, he said.

In 2023, he and his wife bought a house with enough room for his pool table, so he picked it back up. That break made all the difference in his professional career.

The seven-year break was pivotal for his development, he said. In his second tournament back — the 2023 U.S. National — he ended up winning.

“I never expected to come back and the same year end up winning a tournament,” Markle said. “That was something I had been trying to do since 2008, and when I won I was like all right, I’m back and definitely stronger.”

Much of his growth was in the mental side of the game. He credits his time away from the sport and his experience as a police officer in strengthening his composure under pressure.

“Patience and composure are the two things this sport has really taught me,” he said. “That correlates to life as a police officer because we have to stay calm in a lot of situations.”

During June’s U.S. Nationals in West Virginia, Markle had to make one last shot to force a playoff for a chance to win the tournament. He missed the shot twice, and had one more attempt. He made the third attempt and went on to win the tournament.

“I’m more calm,” he said. “If I miss a shot, I don’t let it get to me because my mental game is a lot stronger now. I stay more composed. Back in the day if a crucial shot came up, I may have missed it and I would’ve let it get to me, now I just brush it off.”

For many people, pool is synonymous with smokey dive bars, Markle said, but it has grown into so much more. The sport has continued to expand through amateur organizations, like the American Poolplayers Association, while major networks have begun streaming professional events.

“If ESPN wants to tag along with pool, that just means that the sport is continuing to grow,” Steve said.

Part of that growth has come through social media, where Steve has gone viral with over 20,200 followers on Instagram and 34,700 on TikTok.

He initially posted three-to-four minute trick-shot videos on YouTube, but realized as social media began to evolve, audiences wanted shorter, more engaging content. He adapted by posting individual trick shots and combining multiple shots into fast-paced videos.

His most popular video, called “Man’s Best Friend Jump,” features his 85-pound golden retriever sitting on the pool table while Markle jumps a ball over the dog. One of his videos, he said, has gained more than 36 million views.

The popularity on his social media comes from the accessibility and uniqueness of the sport, Markle said.

“Trick shots are universal,” he said. “You don’t have to know a single thing about pool to understand what I’m doing in these trick shots. It’s entertainment.”

Markle was supposed to compete in the 2026 world championship in South Africa, but logistical issues involving exporting the tournament’s pool tables forced organizers to find another location.

“The door was open for me, and I’ve always thought about bringing the world championship to Philadelphia,” Markle said.

He is organizing the 2026 WPA World Artistic Pool and WPA World Freestyle Artistic Pool championship at Bluegrass Billiards in Northeast Philadelphia from Oct. 1-4. The competition will feature competitors from 10 different countries.

Hosting the event is significant for Markle because he will have the opportunity to compete for a world championship in his hometown while introducing something new to the Philadelphia sports scene.

“For people who are pool players that follow me, they’re used to your normal eight or nine ball matches. But this is something different that I’m bringing to the city,” he said. “It’s fun, it’s engaging, and it’s different for them.”