Do you see Challenge (winner stays on / quarters on the rail, waiting to play the winner) tables going on anymore?

[vintagecollectibles831]

This is something that I have not seen, or experienced in what seems like ages.

It is not something you would see at a pool hall, but it is something you might see at a bar, with maybe only a few Valley coin op bar tables.

Back in the early 2000's, after my home town pool hall ran out of business, I would spend all of my nights going to this bar, that had 3 Valley coin op tables.

It is / was in a college town, and back in the early 2000's, the college kids loved to play pool.

So, on any day of the week, from maybe 9pm, until 2am, you could walk into the bar, and see like 6-10 stacks of quarters on the rail, with people waiting to play the winner of the next game.

I miss those days so much. It was such a good time, even though I was not a drinker. I just loved to play pool.

The players were rarely that good, so I could hold the table for a very long time, once I got my turn. Sometimes, I could hold it until 2am, when the bar closed.

And, the quarters never dried up. They just kept putting their quarters on the rail.

But lol, it would get so packed sometimes, in that bar, that I would constantly have to say "excuse me" to the people just standing around drinking, because there were no seats at the bar.

Anyways, I really miss that.

I imagine that it is just not a thing anymore, because I have never seen it again, ever since back in the early to mid 2000's.

Curious if you see it anywhere in your local town, that might only have a few coin op bar tables, where a lot of people love to shoot pool.

 

[Biloxi Boy]

For a beer -- pass 'em out

 

[Poolhall60561]

Sometimes there would be 8 quarters lined up. There would be an arguments on who had the next quarter.
Finally they put up a chalk board, that fixed it.

 

[garczar]

You are curious about curious things. Haven't been in a bar in yrs so i have zero clue.

 

[Island Drive]

This is something that I have not seen, or experienced in what seems like ages.

It is not something you would see at a pool hall, but it is something you might see at a bar, with maybe only a few Valley coin op bar tables.

Back in the early 2000's, after my home town pool hall ran out of business, I would spend all of my nights going to this bar, that had 3 Valley coin op tables.

It is / was in a college town, and back in the early 2000's, the college kids loved to play pool.

So, on any day of the week, from maybe 9pm, until 2am, you could walk into the bar, and see like 6-10 stacks of quarters on the rail, with people waiting to play the winner of the next game.

I miss those days so much. It was such a good time, even though I was not a drinker. I just loved to play pool.

The players were rarely that good, so I could hold the table for a very long time, once I got my turn. Sometimes, I could hold it until 2am, when the bar closed.

And, the quarters never dried up. They just kept putting their quarters on the rail.

But lol, it would get so packed sometimes, in that bar, that I would constantly have to say "excuse me" to the people just standing around drinking, because there were no seats at the bar.

Anyways, I really miss that.

I imagine that it is just not a thing anymore, because I have never seen it again, ever since back in the early to mid 2000's.

Curious if you see it anywhere in your local town, that might only have a few coin op bar tables, where a lot of people love to shoot pool.

Yep in Co Spgs Westside/Scotts Smiths last hang out has, nicely kept Valleys with Simonis and a Challenge table with a chalk board list. Nice place, good owner and good players.

 

[tim913]

Yep those were great times! Walk into any local bar and put your quarter on the table. The bars were packed, even had to tell people to get out after last call.

 

[vintagecollectibles831]

Yep in Co Spgs Westside/Scotts Smiths last hang out has, nicely kept Valleys with Simonis and a Challenge table with a chalk board list. Nice place, good owner and good players.

That sounds awesome.

 

[vintagecollectibles831]

Yep those were great times! Walk into any local bar and put your quarter on the table. The bars were packed, even had to tell people to get out after last call.

Yeah, even waiting (sometimes maybe an hour), always had a really great time. I miss it so much. Miss my home town, just thinking about it. People lost the love for the game there, ages ago though, and I bet it never went back to the way it was. Did no good to help improve my game, lol, but still had a great time, just being a banger, who loved to play.

 

[middleofnowhere]

Yeah way back when that was the backbone of pool hustling in bars. Well it might sound nickel dime today just playing for a few dollars a game in a busy bar you could grind out 30 40 $50 in a good night. Plus they were everywhere you never ran out of places to go and play.

The secret was no one person is actually losing very much and they all tolerated maybe a $5 loss as just part of their night out. One of the things that killed this was when it got a little popular and bars started putting in three four five tables.

At that point people would often just say that they were playing and it was their table, the challenge aspect was gone. You had no right to just walk up to some people playing and challenged their table.

Another thing that people today don't realize what it was like back then was there was no ATM machines. Many bars actually would cash people's paychecks. So on a weekend you had guys walking around with sometimes their whole paycheck in your pocket.
Nowadays including me, nobody carries any money.

When it was pretty much coming to an end.
It wasn't unusual to be playing a guy nicely dressed who had a good job and you win like $18 and he's out of money and not even embarrassed by it. People just stopped carrying money. If they needed some for real they could just hit the ATM or most of the time things just went on their credit cards. Small time bar hustling was pretty much over.

It was nice while it lasted though. You didn't even have to be a champion, just a half-assed player could make $150 $200 a week in the bars almost effortlessly. This was at a time when a man making about the same money at a 40-hour a week job was raising a family on it.

In the context of things, bar hustling was actually a pretty good job. A lot of people who don't know any better, associate bar hustling with somebody looking for just helpless drunks to take their money. It was quite the opposite the last person you wanted to play with some drunk.

He went to the bars cuz there was activity and people and stuff going on and they bars everywhere.

An important part though was, you had to treat it like a job. You could not be a drinker. I would buy canned beer (you could not tell I was not drinking it) just so I was blending in with everybody else but I would never drink it. I'd look like I was sipping it but eventually I would just leave it somewhere and buy another one.

 

[alphadog]

Read Grisham's story about the Friday night challenge table.

 

[Island Drive]

I always did this.
As I'm putting mine on the rail I ask at the same time.
Who's quarter is this before me?
Then I might talk to em and see who's before him.
Keeps the problems from surfacing.... now you've got two men you've met supporting the situation if needed.

 

[u12armresl]

Sometimes there would be 8 quarters lined up. There would be an arguments on who had the next quarter.
Finally they put up a chalk board, that fixed it.

Same, and there were contests on who could hold the table the longest. If you lost you might as well leave as the line on the chalkboard was 15 people, that's all it could hold. One game of 8 ball and if you wanted it could be partners or singles, 99.9% of ppl used house sticks, players started walking into this dive bar with their own sticks and even they got beat

You'd have so many drinks lined up for free you had to give them away. Never any money games, just shots or beers.

 

[middleofnowhere]

Same, and there were contests on who could hold the table the longest. If you lost you might as well leave as the line on the chalkboard was 15 people, that's all it could hold. One game of 8 ball and if you wanted it could be partners or singles, 99.9% of ppl used house sticks, players started walking into this dive bar with their own sticks and even they got beat

You'd have so many drinks lined up for free you had to give them away. Never any money games, just shots or beers.

I think that was part of the incentive to add more tables and ultimately some bars became mini pool rooms with like four and five tables. I had a place, a strip bar, where I used to really win a lot of money. This place had a very transient crowd you could go in there every night and hardly ever see the same people.

The owner closed the liquor store next door and put in five more tables. That was it, I hardly won any money after that. Like I said in my original post people would get on the table in a little group and it was their table you had no right to challenge.

 

[j2pac]

I always did this.
As I'm putting mine on the rail I ask at the same time.
Who's quarter is this before me?
Then I might talk to em and see who's before him.
Keeps the problems from surfacing.... now you've got two men you've met supporting the situation if needed.

I used to set a penny, or some identifying marker down with my quarter.

 

[middleofnowhere]

I used to set a penny, or some identifying marker down with my quarter.

It's funny that we're talking about quarters, when's the last time a game of pool on a bar table cost a quarter. I remember playing a guy one night and I think the table was maybe 50 or 75 cents. And we were playing nine ball six ball that way you use all 15 balls so you get to play two games each time with each rack.
At the end of the night we were pretty even except we had put like over $50 in this stupid table.

 

[MitchAlsup]

Both tables at my local bar are challenge tables.

Anyone can put quarters on the table and get in line. {Its only $0.50/rack}

Previous winner chooses the game--generally 8-ball, occasionally bank-the-8, occasionally last-pocket-8, occasionally 1-15.
rules--Bar rules, BCA, Tournament ~= BCA
players--one-on-one, double-on-double, scotch-doubles.

A lot of the time when pure bangers are playing we just let them have their fun and wait with adult beverage.....

 

[Bob Jewett]

As far as the fish carrying no cash, I suppose you could ask them to do Venmo or Zelle.

 

[ShootingArts]

Buffalo put in a challenge table up front by the bar to accommodate the foreign workers after a hurricane or two. Challenge tables were a lot more popular with them. The bars in fat city had challenge tables too.

Been a long time since I went in bars so I don't know if challenge tables are common. I dropped a man working for me at his "office" the bar across the road from his home. I stepped in for a single cold one and there was a challenge table Joe asked if I wanted to play a game on. Had been a few years but I started banging a few games. After a couple games a third guy joined in. He played a little then looked at me like I was a rapist, "He is a pool player." The tone of voice was hard to believe. This wasn't a pingpong table we were on!

Hu

 

[j2pac]

As far as the fish carrying no cash, I suppose you could ask them to do Venmo or Zelle.

 

[Johnson]

My local small hometown bar would have players on both tables fri/sat night from 10p - 1am every weekend until the early 2000's. The only thing that changed to push out the older crowd (which were 80% of the regular players) was less classic rock/country music and people started getting more dui's. There was a weekly thurs night 8 ball tourney w $100 added that brought in top players from within 50 mins. They added a 3rd table in 2002 and had 2 big yearly tourneys that brought in 60+ players from up to 2 hours away. The 3rd table was gaffy and had a bad corner spot, it never got regular play and after 2003/2004 most of the older regulars quit showing up every weekend.

Just having the option to play in the rotation or for $5 a game and in tournies was huge for me to improve when I first started playing. Nowadays you have to literally ask people to play most of the time or they just want to play with their friends. Used to there'd be 20 regulars and now that's maybe 10 irregulars that you run into once every month or 2. Maybe an hour of playing a weekeend instead of all weekend, thurs tourney and ring games mixed in and I could drive 7 miles and play snooker for 12 hours straight on sats after the bar closed.