According to many of the better players back in the Johnston City days, Fats was a much better game maker than a player. He was best at setting up games he could win, always getting spots from better players, which was most of the time. And he loved the action.
I think I'd have beaten Fats and his yapping mouth if I had been around then, just as many here would've done. But chances are he'd have wanted too much weight and we'd have never gotten a game with him.
Too many people think of Jackie Gleason's character in The Hustler, and associate that fictional skill level with the fat man that hoodwinked people into believing he was Walter Tevis's "Minnesota Fats". Wanderone was probably a decent player, but not a real good player, despite his self-appointed crown of greatness.