Pool Tourism

Biloxi Boy

Biloxi Boy

Man With A Golden Arm
Please bear with me. This is an idea that will not leave me, so I am compelled to write. Wherever I have traveled, I have always visited pool halls -- mainly to check things out and see how the other half lived. Usually, I traveled for business, had no choice in my destination, and what I found was one really good pool hall in an area. Now that I am retired, I keep envisioning flying to an area with a solid pool ethos and a concentration of real pool halls within easy travel distance of each other. My fear is that I am fifty years too late, but if any such areas exist, I would like to know.

I guess we can always be thankful for just a single room, but if this is what it comes to, I can always keep on driving to New Orleans or Mobile. Any thoughts?
 
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Easy travel distance for an area, Chicago maybe, although I think many of those storied rooms have closed. NJ in the Sandcastle area, NY also with Steinway and a few others pretty close by. Florida may be good but you will need to travel a bit to hit the decent ones. Usually there is one "hub" room for the serious tournaments and players and a few near by rooms with normal players, casual date type things. It's probably 2-5 hours of driving between some of the worthy rooms to visit there.

I do the same thing you do, when traveling for work I map out all the nearby pool halls to visit, it's a great sport to be in for never being bored and meeting new people that have things in common. I have a lot of fun finding local tournaments and hanging out with the people in new places. Last few months I spent a bunch of time in Florida and Detroit area, met and played with CJ Wiley and cashed in a few local tournaments, it's a blast.
 
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My last work assignment in USA, I spent 3 weeks in Houston, Texas.
Doing exactly this, finished work for the day, then toured poolhalls each night.
That city turned out to have some good rooms, needed a car 100%.
The city is prone to flash floods, so a GPS is essential to re-route you.

Not that I was bothered, but the city is split in half. The south being more latino and the north being more good old boys. Interesting place. Downtown is a ghost town though, seen a stronger pulse in a wax museum.
 
Try the Phoenix area.

Main Street Billiards
Bullshooter's
Mills Modern Social (formerly Freezer's Ice House)

And plenty of other pool rooms that you might enjoy. I've also traveled the country for work and played in most places. Main Street Billiards in Mesa, AZ is my favorite pool room I've ever been to. Super clean, wall to wall Diamond tables, balls cleaned between each use, tournaments, good staff, etc.

Honorable mentions:
Zingale's in Tallahassee is great
Snooker's in Providence had great food
Hard Times Sacramento was awesome, but I haven't been there in almost 20 years
Lacy's Cue in New Orleans area was nice
Diamond Billiards in Richmond was a lot of fun
 
Biloxi Boy said:
Please bear with me. This is an idea that will not leave me, so I am compelled to write. Wherever I have traveled, I have always visited pool halls -- mainly to check things out and see how the other half lived. Usually, I traveled for business, had no choice in my destination, and what I found was one really good pool hall in an area. Now that I am retired, I keep envisioning flying to an area with a solid pool ethos and a concentration of real pool halls within easy travel distance of each other. My fear is that I am fifty years too late, but if any such areas exist, I would like to know.

I guess we can always be thankful for just a single room, but if this is what it comes to, I can always keep on driving to New Orleans or Mobile. Any thoughts?
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No idea what a 'solid pool ethos' is but finding a place with more than 1-2 rooms of any kind can be tough. KC has a few: Shooters, RaytownRec, the SidePockets chain(more of a sports bar but still good pool there). Vegas and Phoenix both have some good spots. Dallas also has some decent spots. To me Shooters in Olathe is one of the best rooms in the Midwest, big(ex-Safeway store) LOTS of tables(22 Valleys, 4 D'mond 7fts, GC and D'mond 9fts, Gabriels 3c, Anniversary snooker) pro shop, food, bar. David Matlock is a houseman there too. Great place.
 
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When I retired in 2014, I traveled the country with an RV for two and a half years. Whenever I was stopping in an area that was new to me, I would contact my buddy Scott Lee (RIP) and he would tell me the place(s) to go. He seemed to know them all because he never stopped traveling and teaching pool. I've been to many of the places mentioned so far in this thread.

I now live two miles from Strokers in Palm Harbor, Florida. When not there, I usually drive 8 miles south to a room in Largo which is where Scott lived. On my way I pass several more pool rooms. The density of pool in this area is hard to beat.
 
I heard a rumor that Metro Sports Bar, Phoenix (I-17 & Peoria) recently underwent management change.

All table now are Diamonds, they got rid of 9’ Gold Crowns, replaced with Diamonds 9 footer.

Metro use to have some sort of tournaments 7 nights/week.
 
Patrick Johnson said:
Here's a search site for pool rooms - they also have an app.

Let's Go Play Pool

Search for pool rooms nearby, find discounts, tournaments or a league on the app and Go Play Pool!
www.goplaypool.com

pj
chgo
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LMAO. Searched Biloxi, and not that there's anything wrong with it . . . , but the first listing was our local gay bar that might have a bar box, or two, but def. not a pool hall.
 
Biloxi Boy said:
Biloxi Boy said:
LMAO. Searched Biloxi, and not that there's anything wrong with it . . . , but the first listing was our local gay bar that might have a bar box, or two, but def. not a pool hall.
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What did you think about Bumpers in North Biloxi? It has three 4&1/2' x 9', few 4' x 8', one carom table and several bar boxes for league players.
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Edit: there's another one on the west side that has mostly 4&1/2' x 9's and only a couple of coin-operated bar boxes.
 
Off-brand tables. Bad cloth. Banger drinking hall. Have not noticed the carom table but it would not surprise me. It is not a bad place, it's just that pool is not high on the list.

Skeeter's (Old Jim-Bob's) is far better. 9' Diamonds, Kim Steels, assorted bar boxes.

Don't know about West Side. Where is it?
 
Biloxi Boy said:
Off-brand tables. Bad cloth. Banger drinking hall. Have not noticed the carom table but it would not surprise me. It is not a bad place, it's just that pool is not high on the list.

Skeeter's (Old Jim-Bob's) is far better. 9' Diamonds, Kim Steels, assorted bar boxes.
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Yes, Skeeters was one I thought about on the west side. I would've thought Slidell had a couple
 
Skeeter's is Gulfport. Not to be confused with Biloxi. Right next door, but a different animal.
Two Sisters in Slidell was good last time I was there, just smallish -- tables crowded. Nowadays, if I am that far west, I am going to Buffalo's.
 
Biloxi Boy said:
Skeeter's is Gulfport. Not to be confused with Biloxi. Right next door, but a different animal.
Two Sisters in Slidell was good last time I was there, just smallish -- tables crowded. Nowadays, if I am that far west, I am going to Buffalo's.
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Ok. It's been a pretty good while, so I wasn't really sure.
 
Biloxi Boy said:
Please bear with me. This is an idea that will not leave me, so I am compelled to write. Wherever I have traveled, I have always visited pool halls -- mainly to check things out and see how the other half lived. Usually, I traveled for business, had no choice in my destination, and what I found was one really good pool hall in an area. Now that I am retired, I keep envisioning flying to an area with a solid pool ethos and a concentration of real pool halls within easy travel distance of each other. My fear is that I am fifty years too late, but if any such areas exist, I would like to know.

I guess we can always be thankful for just a single room, but if this is what it comes to, I can always keep on driving to New Orleans or Mobile. Any thoughts?
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Fargo billiards and gastropub.
 
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