"[2] His father also owned Pop's Billiards on Logan Avenue in Winnipeg, where Werbeniuk began playing snooker as a child.

[2] Werbeniuk spent a portion of his youth travelling with Cliff Thorburn and playing pool for money.

[4] He won the North American Amateur Championship by defeating Cliff Thorburn 26–22, winning five of the last six frames after the pair were level at 21–21.

He reached the semi-finals of the UK Championships (when it opened to non-UK based residents) but lost 9–3 to the reigning world champion Terry Griffiths.

[2][6] Doctors advised Werbeniuk to drink alcohol to counteract a familial benign essential tremor.

[8] Werbeniuk was reported to have successfully claimed the cost of 6 pints of lager before every match as a tax deductible expense.

[3] Some of Werbeniuk's alleged feats of drinking include: 76 cans of lager during a game with John Spencer in Australia in the 1970s;[2] 43 pints of lager in a snooker match/drinking contest against Scotsman Eddie Sinclair in which, after Sinclair had passed out following his 42nd pint, Werbeniuk was reported to say "I'm away to the bar now for a proper drink";[9] 28 pints of lager and 16 whiskies over the course of 11 frames during a match against Nigel Bond, in January 1990 – after which Werbeniuk then consumed an entire bottle of Scotch to "drown his sorrows" after losing the match.