Right. There are only two pool halls in all of NYC I actually want to go to, and it's because the equipment is top-notch and the environment is decent. One has all Diamond Pro-Ams on the cheap, and the other is older but well kept GCs but with somewhat high table rates. But good serious players at both, so I'll spend whatever I have to to have a good practice environment. But certain nights you can't go play pool anywhere. It's sad really, the one with the Pro-Ams gets overrun with groups of screaming teenagers because it has reasonable prices and is in the ghetto, and the other gets overrun by heavy-drinking late-twenty-something Manhattaites and in both cases the pool halls actually cater to this by cranking the music up.
There's another pool hall I go to from time to time to practice on their snooker table but even during the middle of the day when I am literally the only one there trying to work on my snooker fundamentals, they have R&B cranked so loud I can't even hear myself think, then invariably by even 2 in the afternoon screaming packs of idiots come in and will gather 5 around a table next to me, who are screaming their proto-thoughts at each other constantly, before, during, and after every shot, being as loud as humanly possible. That's why I stick with the other two pool halls, because during the day, there aren't just random packs of idiots everywhere and when the DO wander in while the serious players are there during the day, everyone tells the to STFU and stop damaging the equipment, those people are quickly shown that they're not welcome, just wish management would do some of the booting as well.
