It tells the story of a young pool hustler, Edward "Fast Eddie" Felson, who challenges the legendary Minnesota Fats.

[1] The novel was well-received by critics, and was adapted into a 1961 film of the same title, starring Paul Newman as Fast Eddie, Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats, and Piper Laurie as Sarah.

Returning to Brannigan's he encounters Bert, a professional gambler, who tells Eddie that despite his talent he lost to Fats due to lack of character, as well as an ingrained eagerness to lose.

Nevertheless he offers to back him in a game with a rich pool player in Kentucky named Findlay, taking 75 percent of any winnings while absorbing all losses and paying expenses.

Watching Findlay falter, he realizes the validity of what Bert had been telling him about winning being everything, how people crave an excuse to lose, and how character is as important as skill.

New York Times critic Rex Lardner called the book "a tense, jolting trip to the tough, dusty, smoky, ball-clackety, money-filled world of the pool shark," and wrote that Tevis "writes like a streak, making straight pool as exciting as a Stanley Ketchell fight.

"[2] An unsigned review in Time said that The Hustler "has its faults as a novel, but opens the door on a world that books have not yet made commonplace".

It went on to say that: "The moral of The Hustler is obviously sententious, the love story is a cliche, and author Tevis' writing is sometimes too painfully exact.

"[3] Kirkus Reviews called it a "compact, tidy novel", and said: "Through a language of casual statement which does not disguise the seriousness of its intent, this exploration of moral experience is a pithy and competent performance.

But Tevis maintained that Fast Eddie was fictitious, and he resented assertions to the contrary, that he had "created such memorable characters out of mere reportage".