Pool Table Color Change - Wish It Wasn’t So……

Oak/Cherry just doesn’t connect well with gray cloth, IMO.
Tournament Blue would or one of the Simonis Green choices.

Contact Simonis and ask for samples of the cloth colors you like.
Gray is just a color that works for me despite making colors brighter.

The Centennial balls and my cues color design seem more accentuated
with a neutral color like gray. It’s almost like matting for a framed picture.
 

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I miss Powder Blue Simonis that was used throughout the late 90’s and 2000’s. To me it’s the perfect middle ground between the tournament blue thats almost neon it’s so harsh, and the bland shark grey. I get Simonis needs to stay fresh with new colours just like Aramith does with their black series balls, but to me it’s a downgrade.



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I miss Powder Blue Simonis that was used throughout the late 90’s and 2000’s. To me it’s the perfect middle ground between the tournament blue thats almost neon it’s so harsh, and the bland shark grey. I get Simonis needs to stay fresh with new colours just like Aramith does with their black series balls, but to me it’s a downgrade.



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Yes, I agree. Powder Blue is a good color. I usually alternate on my Gold Crown IV between Apple Green and Powder Blue. Currently I have Apple Green so the next time it's changed I will go to Powder Blue.

I anticipate having Standard Simonis Green on my new Diamond Professional. And while they are here I hope the installers can put new Powder Blue on my Gold Crown IV. I assume the Diamond installers would do that since they would already be on site.
 
I recall my initial resistance when the room I played in at the time forsook the standard green and switched to the Blue Cloth brought about by the owner of Diamond.
Then once I played on it, I could see that the reasoning of the research Greg at Diamond did, indicating Blue was easier on the eyes was true.

The advent of Grey, ugly balls, and cheap Rasson tables, all byproducts of a bad personnel choice by Barry of MR in Emily Frazier, I don’t enjoy those. Many point to MR and “how good it is for pool”, I don’t necessarily agree. Yeah, pros make better money, that serves me no benefit. It has also led to the Grey cloth, ugly balls, and crap tables I note above. That’s now bleeding off into pool rooms which does affect me and everyone else that plays this game as a gambler or league or hobby player.

How? in a time where the number of rooms opening pales as compared to the amount closing, I’ve seen 2 new rooms open within my area, both with crappy Rasson tables, one with crappy grey cloth and the other with a mix of Grey and Blue. My point? Bad decisions by unqualified personnel at MR now leaks over to the pool world outside MR, with the reason given as, “that’s what the pros play on now”. 😤
 
Count yourself lucky. The trendiest bar/poolhall in Houston in the 90's had red cloth.
When I used to cover tables as a side hustle I would out right refuse the job if it was red. Lol
Dan,

I have a friend with a 7’ Brunswick pool table……it is lovely but the dumb SOB had red cloth installed.
It looks like it belongs in a brothel and just looks awful. But his Harley Davidson & speedboat are also red.
I’ll never understand it. It’s mostly people who just want a table at home but don’t really play that seem to want red cloth and I never understood why lol
My new Diamond Professional is going to be Oak/Cherry.

This conversation makes me wonder what color of cloth will I put on it when I have to decide that?

r/DCP
That’s my favorite color for a diamond but I was going to have a long wait for it and I’m not good at waiting lol a black one I could have in a couple weeks so I was fine with it. The only down side is I’m anal and finger prints really show up so I’m always wiping it down.
 
I recall my initial resistance when the room I played in at the time forsook the standard green and switched to the Blue Cloth brought about by the owner of Diamond.
Then once I played on it, I could see that the reasoning of the research Greg at Diamond did, indicating Blue was easier on the eyes was true.

The advent of Grey, ugly balls, and cheap Rasson tables, all byproducts of a bad personnel choice by Barry of MR in Emily Frazier, I don’t enjoy those. Many point to MR and “how good it is for pool”, I don’t necessarily agree. Yeah, pros make better money, that serves me no benefit. It has also led to the Grey cloth, ugly balls, and crap tables I note above. That’s now bleeding off into pool rooms which does affect me and everyone else that plays this game as a gambler or league or hobby player.

How? in a time where the number of rooms opening pales as compared to the amount closing, I’ve seen 2 new rooms open within my area, both with crappy Rasson tables, one with crappy grey cloth and the other with a mix of Grey and Blue. My point? Bad decisions by unqualified personnel at MR now leaks over to the pool world outside MR, with the reason given as, “that’s what the pros play on now”. 😤
This is where I play pool which has monthly and annual memberships. The Blue cloth is what the room originally had 2 years ago. This week all the tables were recovered with gray cloth. Change can be good but IMO, not this time. But it’s obvious the owners must have a winning formula because Sierra Billiards & Bar opened in May 2023 and a 2nd pool room is underway and scheduled to open by year end. It will have a even larger bar which is already the largest assortment of alcohol between San Francisco and LA. The liquor inventory at Sierra presently exceeds in excess of $400,000 in booze.
 

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I like green but that seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur.
Is that the color they used for bonus ball?

yes, bonus ball had that grey color shown in OP's photos. it's lighter than simonis shark grey, and imo preferable.

pool room i played in changed from that grey to crimson red cloth because they wanted to attract the party people. it was horrible. all it attracted to me was red chalk marks (obligatory to use) that i then had to explain at home that it wasn't lipstick.
 
I like the look of the gray but it's not available in 860hr. We learned that the hard way when our favorite room put it on last year.

I think everyone was surprised at the difference in play/speed between the 860hr and the plain 860.

They went back to the hr at the next cloth change...
My wife doesn’t like the tournament blue but said powder blue would be acceptable. So I’ve got 860 powder blue cloth coming. I’m praying it will be fast enough. I’ve been looking at Andy and Championship cloth but for now I’ll be stuck with the 860.
 
I put tournament green on my GCI 10 years ago and I'm pretty sure I'm going with blue when I recover it soon, grey cloth would make for too much grey with my Turkish Prison motif I have going on.
 
I recall my initial resistance when the room I played in at the time forsook the standard green and switched to the Blue Cloth brought about by the owner of Diamond.
Then once I played on it, I could see that the reasoning of the research Greg at Diamond did, indicating Blue was easier on the eyes was true.

The advent of Grey, ugly balls, and cheap Rasson tables, all byproducts of a bad personnel choice by Barry of MR in Emily Frazier, I don’t enjoy those. Many point to MR and “how good it is for pool”, I don’t necessarily agree. Yeah, pros make better money, that serves me no benefit. It has also led to the Grey cloth, ugly balls, and crap tables I note above. That’s now bleeding off into pool rooms which does affect me and everyone else that plays this game as a gambler or league or hobby player.

How? in a time where the number of rooms opening pales as compared to the amount closing, I’ve seen 2 new rooms open within my area, both with crappy Rasson tables, one with crappy grey cloth and the other with a mix of Grey and Blue. My point? Bad decisions by unqualified personnel at MR now leaks over to the pool world outside MR, with the reason given as, “that’s what the pros play on now”. 😤
Never played on a Rasson table: why are they so crappy?
 
Where I play league has green cloth. Where I play in some weekly tournaments has blue. And a room a ways away from me where a buddy lives has the grey. All on Diamond tables (9' for the green, 7' for the other two)

Having played on them all a lot, though grey the least, my preference in order is:

1 - Tournament Blue
2 - Classic Green
3 - Grey

The grey looks fine when new and doesn't look bad on the table, but I hate playing on it. I don't know what it is, maybe the amount of light it reflects or something, but I find it hard on the eyes and honestly it takes me a period of adjustment to get used to it....not long, like 15mins or so, but until I adapt I tend to misread shots a lot when I first start playing on it.

I find the blue very easy on the eyes and very easy and consistent to play, by far my favorite. Green isn't bad either, it's a pretty close second. But I pretty strongly dislike playing on the grey honestly.
 
My wife doesn’t like the tournament blue but said powder blue would be acceptable. So I’ve got 860 powder blue cloth coming. I’m praying it will be fast enough. I’ve been looking at Andy and Championship cloth but for now I’ll be stuck with the 860.

Here's my Gold Crown IV in Powder Blue 860.
 

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I'm going shark grey when i get my Diamond next summer (hopefully).
Don't think i'd choose it for a pool hall though. It's going to start looking grubby really quick with people eating/drinking/etc around them.

I don't mind Tourney Blue, light green, or the gray.
Worst i've played on for comfort is red, just straight up burned my retinas... Black cloth is the worst i've ever played on though. Pockets were nearly invisible.
 
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