CJ's Billiard Palace Dallas Tx ( Play Where The Pro's Play ) ...... Action on every table .... good ole days for sure
Name a pool hall you wish was still open today
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Golden 8-ball on Livingston Avenue in Columbus, Ohio.
Started playing seriously at age 14. Played at the Bexley Rec Center at Jeffrey Mansion. 2 vintage Brunswick tables with the drop leather pockets. By the time I was 15 I had my own cue & case playing money games. Played out of the Golden 8 Ball on Livingston Ave. That's where Howard Vickery [Color of Money] hustled. Did NOT play him for $$$.
Started playing seriously at age 14. Played at the Bexley Rec Center at Jeffrey Mansion. 2 vintage Brunswick tables with the drop leather pockets. By the time I was 15 I had my own cue & case playing money games. Played out of the Golden 8 Ball on Livingston Ave. That's where Howard Vickery [Color of Money] hustled. Did NOT play him for $$$.
Where do you start in Mass? So many are gone.
Mickey's - Holbrook, MA
Accu Billiards - New Bedford, MA
Renaissance Billiards - Quincy, MA
Airport Billiards, Mr. Billiards, Chalky's, on and on.
Mickey's - Holbrook, MA
Accu Billiards - New Bedford, MA
Renaissance Billiards - Quincy, MA
Airport Billiards, Mr. Billiards, Chalky's, on and on.
Don’t forget THe Truckdriver....played a tad better than Vickery.
Correction: Jack and his wife had their situation at The Golden Cue in Bladensburg
But while we are talking closed poolrooms - I'm kind of partial towards 'The Playing Field' in Richmond Va.
DC area, Jack and Jill in Arlington Va and Guys n Dolls in Silverhill Md were the mainstays in my day. Both open 24 hrs with tons of 'real' players
Surprised that with all the NYC pools halls, no one has mentioned Guys and Dolls...
...7th ave near 50th street.
It had 36 new Gold Crowns...in the middle 1960s.
As the 7-11 went to seed, the action moved here....Brunswick was trying to give the game
a better image (even though The Hustler movie had created the boom)
I remember it had 36 tables, ‘cause a ‘pool room detective’ told me my first time there...
..”Watch out for table 36, it’s got trap pockets.”
Jerry Orbach played there....and backed players.
Somebody wrote on AZ a few years ago.....a street bum opened :sorry:the door one day and yelled..
...”It was twenty years ago today!”....a man practising by himself looked up and yelled...
...”Sargeant Pepper taught his band to play!”....the bum went back out the door....
...the player went back to shooting.....I love New York...
The warning I got went unheeded, BTW....I had busted ‘bout 30 players at the 7-11...
....lost it all on table 36.....
I did mention the NYC Guys and Dolls back on the second page (post #29). I played Jerry "The Actor" Orbach in there a few times. A lot of great players came through that room and they all got action!
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Forest Park Billiards in Dayton where Joe Burns hosted the big Dayton tournament for years. It was the biggest action event ever, just as big as DCC with money games going on every table. I won 9-Ball matches against Dan Louie and Cannonball and was scheduled to play Jersey Red next. He sharked me, telling me that I was playing so good he might not show up because he wasn't feeling that well and wanted to save his energy for One Pocket. I was secretly elated because it was a money match (maybe $250). He did show up of course to my dismay and trounced me something like 11-5.
I made a $6,000 score that week (in 1974!) playing cards (that's a whole other story) and was on top of the world. Blew $300 playing Joey Spaeth One Pocket getting 8-7 and the Break for fifty a game. Backed Youngblood playing David Sizemore some Banks and lost another $400 (they cut me up) and got hustled by Chuck Morgan for $800 as well. My highlight of the tournament was when Willie Munson hustled me to bet $50 on our Bank Pool match and I bombed him badly. He slipped me the fifty and said, "I had no idea you played that good!" My only compliment of the week. :smile:
My first poolroom was The Cue Ball Recreation in Bakersfield, CA. Bought it in 1972 and sold it in 1978. I played every living human that walked through the doors and won some and lost some. It was absolutely the busiest poolroom on the entire West Coast at the time, all 22 tables packed every night of the week, with a long waiting list on Friday and Saturday nights. I didn't have liquor and must have poured a million cokes and sold 60,000 pizzas (or more) in my time there. I pulled nearly a million dollars out of that room in six years (and spent most of it) and walked away with 100K and thought I was the richest man in the world, lol.
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I dropped by Joe Burns’ Forest Park quite often in the late 70s....I was fascinated by Joe..
...I miss sitting in his office and hearing his stories.
Played a lot of 9-ball and 3-cushion in his room....Joe was always threatening to play me
on the 5x10 snooker table....but it never happened.
My favorite room in Dayton was the Pickwick...owned by Russ Maddox...
...Russ would back players against me but never held a grudge if I won..
..he introduced me to George Rood and insisted that I go to the room where Willie ran
the 526....Russ and George owned it at that time.
Russ gave me a lot of good gambling advice....like never bet more than a tenth of your
bankroll at 9-ball....and only a sixth of your bankroll at snooker or one-pocket.
Russ is the man who flew George Chenier into Jacksonville and gave Sam Blumenthal
one of his rare losses at snooker in his own room.
I knew Russ well. He was a triple smart hustler and schooled me pretty good in Gin Rummy! He was actually a decent shortstop level player himself. Last I heard he was doing exhibitions at Senior citizen centers in Florida where he lived. He would be well into his 80's now (or 90) if he was still alive, but I think he passed away about five years ago. You're right about the room on High St. in Springfield, Ohio where Willie ran his 526. I hit balls on that table about ten years later. I remember hearing about the game between Snooker Sammy Blumenthal and Chenier. I knew George beat Sammy but I didn't know it was Russ who put it together. Sounds like something he would do. Sammy bet high in his own room!
Joe treated me like a son and even gifted me with one of his thousand dollar bills before he died. He used to carry a dozen or more of them in his pockets every day. He was the best Bank Pool player in Dayton and not a man to cross. He was packing at all times! There's more I could say about Joe but it does not belong on here. :wink:
Lassiter used to visit George and they would come to the Cue & Bridge to shoot some pool and have some fun talking about old times. Then Luther would go off to Pickwick or Airway to play some cards and gamble a little. I loved to watch him fold every dollar bill neatly in his pocket after he won. I got that habit from him. Don Willis was also friends with George and would stop by to visit him too. He never hit a ball unless he had a game. He might sit around for days and then get up there and make everything. By far the best wing shot shooter ever and he could do it for the cash!
All these great players were coming around Dayton and the guy I loved to see the most was Fats. I was totally smitten by him and all his chatter, as was everyone else. He liked me enough to let me carry his cue and that was a thrill for me.
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I played in Fatty’s home room in DuQuoin....late 70s...Fatty played gin non stop till he had
to leave for a show.....just being around him was like being on a TV show....live.
I got tired of playing $25 nine ball and asked for bigger action...the room owner got 8-5
at one-hole for $500 a game...I was up six games and tried to do a tricky take-out...
...it caught the point by accident and banked back into my hole...ran seven and out....
...he quit...I couldn’t convince him that I lucked it in.
He said “ You keep making shots like that, you ain’t stayin’ under the radar.”.....
rogedjohn
Registered
For me it would be the Le Cue Club at the corner of Rusk and Fannin in Houston, TX ... I first went there by Greyhound bus from 90 miles away at 17 ... Way out of my league at that time, but I didn't know anything about leagues ... lol ... t was located on the second floor of a stand alone building and had stairs and an elevator to go upstairs ,,, The stairs were always OK, but when you took the elevator you did not know what to expect as there were always different denizens of the city inside at times ... I saw ho's, ho's and pimps and a stabbing or two, etc ... But over all, I had a great time that weekend playing what today would be b - c players for a couple of bucks until 4am in the morning and then went across the street to a hotel spent the night getting up at 4pm and going back to Le Cue and doing it all over again until I had to leave and catch the bus back home ... Great memories ... !~
I remember walking in a 2:00 AM and in comes Jersey Red and Handsome Danny Jones. Eddie was already half blind, but super nice.
Remember John McCartney, Roger Rogers, Little Wayne and Jimmy Sanders, Buddy Hall's protégé?
Ahhhh, misspent youth!!
I played "Pedro" and "Billy" there when I was attending PSU in State College in 73. Pedro was a tall puerto rican who came in with 5 or 6 little short side-betters, all who could not have been more than 5' tall. It struck me funny. They would all go mum while I was stroking the cue-ball and delivering the shot...then chatter loudly in their own language after I made a ball. Comical.
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Don't forget the best One Pocket room ever in New England -- Brighton Billiards -- in Brighton
Playing Field was great. I passes it Las weekend, actually. It is a buffalo wild wings, I think.
No love for Westmont? I think you could still find the space. And I bet if you close your eyes and breathe deeply, you can still smell the bathroom.
No love for Westmont? I think you could still find the space. And I bet if you close your eyes and breathe deeply, you can still smell the bathroom.
Reggie1971
Registered
Jimmy Sanders and Little Wayne are two I remember. Little Wayne used to play people using the end of a broomstick! Country Calvin was another fellow you would see in there from time to time.
