Can someone tell me how many ten foot pool tables are there in the USA - approximately? I'll accept guesses, just after a "ball park" figure. Cheers!
The only 10-foot tables I've seen in person are snooker tables with the snooker rails and pockets. I have not run across very many 10-foot pool tables in the U.S. There are 12-foot Snooker tables that are sometimes called "English pool tables," while their American counterpart is the standard 10-foot snooker tables.
I think carom tables are straight rail 5-by-10-footers.
Also, when straight pool was in its heyday, I think -- and I may be wrong -- they played on 10-foot tables. I'm not sure when the 9-foot tables were introduced and became more prevalent, replacing the 10-foot tables for rotation pool games. Maybe Jay, Freddy, Grady, or other veterans of the game can provide more light on this question.
According to the
New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Billiards, Joe Procita defeated Willie Mosconi in a 14.1 tournament on a 10-foot table with a tournament high run of 182 in 1954. Supposedly, this may be the only recorded tournament high run at this time on a 10-foot table.
I'd venture to guess there's less than a hundred 10-foot non-snooker pool tables in the United States.
Here's an interesting little Willie Mosconi snippet:
Mosconi set the world record by running 526 consecutive balls without a miss during a straight pool exhibition in Springfield, Ohio on March 19–20, 1954. To this day the record has not been toppled and many speculate it may never be bested.
The record was set on a 4-by-8-foot Brunswick table with 4 7/8 inch pockets at the East High Billiard Club. Today's standard for tables are be considered more difficult to play on than this exhibition table in the sense that longer shots are required...but today's tables may be considered easier to play on in the sense that there is more room for the balls to spread, creating unfettered shots.
Mosconi competed successfully on 9-foot and 10-foot tables. The 526-ball record just happened to be on 8-foot table, a size seldom used in professional play, but used for the billiard club exhibition that day. In fact, the room owner expected the exhibition to take place on the room's 9-foot table. That table was not a Brunswick, so Willie was required to play on one of the Brunswick 8-foot tables. -- Wikipedia
Check out this vintage autographed photo of Hoppe, Chamaco, Cochran, Mosconi, Caras, Crane and Procita which is from a 1949 billiard brochure listing the top nine players in three cushion and pocket billiards. I can't tell if this is a 10-foot carom or 10-foot pocket billiard table in the photo, though. I think many of the active pool players in the '40s and '50s played both straight pool and caroms on 10-footers.
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