Who were the best players for the Big Money?

(Probably my all-time favorite pool pic)

I look at this question from a little different perspective. I rate not who played the best for the big money, but rather who you had better not give a gamble to. Some guys played great for big money, but they always had a good game. My respect goes out to those guys that didn't need a good game, just a good gamble. Just show them that they could win big money, and how good the game was was secondary. Artie Bodendorfer played great for big money, but he wouldn’t play with a bad game. Cornbread Red Burge, Ronnie Allen and Leonard "Bugs" Rucker, their only requirement for playing was to just give them a gamble and tititlate them with the prospect of a score. Having the worst of it did not really matter. Actually, every time I ever seen those guys playing for the big stuff they had the worst of it. The standard advice about playing one of those guys for big cheese was, "Whatever it is you think you need to have the nuts, you better still try to get one or two more balls, if you want to win. I never in my life seen any of those guys get an even-up gamble for the mega-bucks. As the bet went up, so did their competitive nature.
The key factor that those guys had for outrunning the nuts, was when they did come with a shot they got all the way out! Games that had both players in the one-hole were rare because those guys never stopped on the game ball. If I had to pick the most frightening guy to play with for giant money out of those three it would have to be Cornbread Red. As the bet went up his already long slip stroke would lengthen ever further. I will never forget a set for 30k he won in Philly playing "Cornflakes" (aka John "World" Hennigan, he now plays in the World Series of Poker) with me, Buddy Hall, and Wade Crane each betting 1800 each on Red. Cornbread was shooting at a triple-shimmed 4" pocket, and he had a long straight-back for the money. He long-stroked it in 100mph. After the set he grumbled that he didn’t have time to go home to Detroit and get more money to bet than the measly 30k. He was my hero and I miss him terribly.