Do you remember your first pool hall?

Park Billiards Academy Neptune N.J. but always known as Pokes after the old time player Sam One Poke Fauver who was the co owner with Uncle Mike.
The house man was Fast Eddie Sontag.
8 Anniversary tables,1 bath room
Old slow cloth and clay balls.
Hardwood floors and peeling paint on the walls.

Pool was 50 cents and hour and soda 10 cents a bottle.
There was a small bakery next door that made the best brownies I've ever had to this day.
Circa 1961.

Campus Q in Benton Harbor MI.

Mostly a Black pool room and the game was full rack banks.

All GCs with 2 bar boxes and one 3 cushion table, still stop in when I go home but it's sad to see it turning into a bar box room, think they might outnumber the 9'ers now.

Miami Bowl on Archer and Pulaski.
The first time I was there Don Fenney was there doing trick shots and helping some younger players with basic instruction.

megatron69 said:

I was talking with a friend today, a guy I've played with and against for almost 20 years now, and we got to reminiscing about the old haunts we used to play in and the stories of those places. Somewhere during our ramblings we got to our first pool hall.

So mine was an actual pool hall back in the mid-80's in south St. Louis, MO off a road called Mackenzie rd.

It was on the corner of an run-down strip mall across from a diner that advertised "Fresh Cow Brains!" I remember walking in there and thinking I'd really walked into a real pool hall, with it's dozen or so tables evenly mixed between bar boxes up front and the real 9 foot Gold Crowns towards the back of the room. And those Gold Crowns were all surrounded by those high-backed pool chairs with the notches in the arms for your cue to rest in, a small table between each pair of chairs with a lamp on each table. I had found the big time.

I was exclusively a bar box guy back then, so for about a year I played in the front on those battered bar boxes but they were all level for a wonder. One day I finally decided to check out the back and those big gorgeous GCs, which is when my pool story really began.

The walk to the back was dark, even during the day. It was about twenty paces or so past the long bar that didn't serve alcohol and then you were in GC land as I used to think of it. Back there were the same half dozen or so guys shooting games for cash. Usually it was four or five older guys (I'm probably as old now as some of those guys were then) and a couple younger guys, maybe in their mid-thirties. I quickly found out that to play a game with these guys it cost money. And if you couldn't play their speed, they'd run you out of there pretty quick, with empty pockets.

It took me about two years to find a good enough game to hang out back there, and another two years before I was decent enough to have my own chair. most of these guys had a chair they liked, or a chair that everyone thought of as that guy's chair. One day I guess I'd earned one.

It turned out that several of these guys were gamblers and hustlers. Shocker, I know. What I did know is that they all were better players than I was, and I had an obsession to learn how to play better. So I paid for my lessons $5 at a time, and when I ran out of money, I'd just sit and watch these guys play and talk smack to each other. And it was from that place on those tables, with those fine men/bastards that I learned to play pool.

So anyway, I was just curious . . . do any of you guys/girls have any stories or memories about the bar/pool hall/whatever you ever really thought of as the birthplace of your love affair with pool?

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My first pool room was The Billiard Palacade, near the corner of Mission and Geneva, in San Francisco.

I probably spent two or three of my formative years there, sort of like a recently spawned baby salmon who stays in the tidal pools, before attempting the run upstream. I was probably fresh out of 8th grade.

It was a great room.

You’d walk in and there was a snooker table off to the right in the front window, where “the big boys” played pink ball. The counter was to the left. Perhaps a dozen or more Gold Crowns. The room had huge vaulted ceilings, a reminder of the vaudeville theatre it once was in a past life.

Cue in case in hand, I would make the 20 minute walk from my home on Winding Way to the pool room. There, at The Billiard Palacade, somehow I automatically fit in, immediately accepted into the fraternal order of pool players that populated the joint. I used to favor a table off on the right side of the room, perhaps three or four tables in. To this day I can still recall the pure, almost orgasmic joy I felt when I ran my first full rack of 15 balls off that table.

The two best players in the room were a guy called “Big Bob” and who looked like Robert Goulet dressed as a lumber jack, and Jim, mustached, long brown hair parted in the middle, and who favored leather jackets. There was also a whole cast of other supporting players, like the two black brothers, (no, really, they were related) Sammy and Fred, who took to calling me “Mr. Serious” (a nick name which can still elicit a chuckle from those that currently know me). Eventually I’d get to a level of play at which I could beat Sam, but not Fred, who was a straight shootin’ sum gun.

I can’t remember exactly how it came about, but there was an older Italian gentleman at The Billiard Palacade who befriended me and we began playing 25 point games of straight pool together. His name was Guido and he was built like one of those basketed Chianti bottles, wore black-rimmed glasses, and sported a shock of pure white hair and a matching mustache. Over the course of the two or so years we played, I improved, and improved, and improved a little more until I was beating Guido 25-2, 25-3, 25-0. And somehow, he seemed to take some sort of crazy pride in it all and never said an unkind, or mean-spirited word, while my younger insensitive self poured repeated beatings on him.

Eventually, after I got my first car, I became an adoptee of Town and Country Billiards, in Daly City, a few miles up the road on Mission Street. But I still fondly remember my first pool room.

Lou Figueroa

LaVista billiards atlanta ga around 1965 9 ball 10cents a rack 8 ball 15 cents a rack a lot of fond memories

Flynn's

Maple Hts Ohio Dec. 1962 Flynn's had just opened about 6 weeks earlier it was located above a Bowling Alley . One Saturday morning after Bowling I gathered up enough courage to walk in there. 6 nine ft Brunswick Sportsman tables. The place was packed all kids between 13-17 playing and waiting for a table a couple of Pin ball machines and a counter .
Bill was a gruffly looking guy who always had a 2 in Cigar in the corner of his mouth. I knew from the First time in there I was done with Bowling and becoming a regular at Bill Flynn's . In 1962 Ohio law said you had to be 18 to play Pool so Flynn's was unusual that he allowed us kids to play . We use to say if you were tall enough to put the money on the counter you were old enough to get a table at Flynn's.
Fromm time to time the cops would raid the place and take down all our names but that was all nothing more then that and a few days later it was business as usual . Maybe Bill had to slip them some cash we never asked or cared.
I have a picture of Bill Flynn on my wall by my Diamond table he was in the Bowling Congress records for having bowled back to back 300 games a rarity back then.

Smokehouse poolroom in Florence, Al. around 1973. The regulars were playing golf on a snooker table at the front of the room and that was my first real introduction to pool. The room had been around since around 1890 or so I was told and is still there today, just under a different name.

Sportsorama in Mattydale NY.............. about 1960

Kim

Texas Cue Lounge.

My 1st pool room was the one I grew up in. The fellow running this pool room was born to do just that. It would closely resemble ames from the hustler movie, It was a full fledged pool hall. Eight ball was the game and 5 steeplton pool tables with house racks all down the wall. A jukebox in the Corner, He also made the best Chili you ever ate. It was made with flour and really thick and you got a big bowl of oyster crackers with it and paired with one of the juiciest cheeseburgers you ever bit into. My best friend was the owners grandson so would not eat lunch at school most of the time and look forward to eating at the pool hall . When I got my 1st job I would eat lunch their everyday before it closed down. I could get A big bowl of chili , a cheeseburger , a pepsi and a moonpie for about $ 2.00. Those were the day's . Pool was 0.50cents a game and loser paid. or if you played by yourself you paid 0.50 a game. I spent most of my youth their , learning to play and also seeing some of the local greats play, My Uncle racked balls there for 25 years. The fellow that ran it started in the 50's and closed in the late 90's . so he had a pretty good run. I can remember being about 12 or and watching the Color of Money for the 1st time and using some of the lines from the movie during or games at the pool room lol . I bought my 1st cue , a Players for around $ 50 that I worked and saved for. I would give just about anything to spend a day there back in time. I really miss it and it is so sad that My kids did not get to experience anything like it. I would like to open a pool hall myself just to try to have that experience once more.

Reney's Billiards Academy , New Britain , Ct. 1961 . Rich Reney and his father TJ ran it. 9 -9 foot tables. Down a flight of stairs . Tables looked like the same tables at Ames .
Dark except for the lights over the tables that only were on if someone was playing on
the table and a light over the counter .

Northgate Bowling & Billiards.

It closed last year

Rack n Cue billiards in Orlando

The first time I walked in was in Xmas day about 1975 it became a tradition for my dad to take us on Xmas day for about 20 years.

Met Tommy Kennedy there when he was about 12 years old.


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I was introduced to billiards at age 15. The Officers mess on our military base had three snooker tables. Fortunately for me, my best friend’s father was the highest ranked general in the Canadian NATO forces in Europe so we more or less had a free run of the facilities. My father wasn’t an officer so I never would have been introduced to the game otherwise.A few of the officers taught us how to play snooker and that became our go-to game.

Funny story. My friend and I were both in army cadets ( in Canada for boys age 13 to 18).Neither of us officers. One day we entered the officers mess in uniform to play snooker and got the worse tongue lashing of our lives. It didn’t matter that he was the general’s son, we were in uniform and told to get out in no uncertain terms. It’s funny how naive we were at 15 and thought we would be charged and sent to some type of confinement. I’m sure the officers had a good laugh after kicking us out.. My father was a long time veteran and the Regimental Sergeant Major...we ended up having to report to him and had a stern lecture that left us shaking. My dad was usually a laid back guy but I saw another side of him. Later I learned he and the General had decided beforehand we were old enough to endure the full fury of military discipline. Both my friend and I both later went on to be army officers and whenever we met, both agreed the incident shaped our character for the good.

Anyways, we both got our baptism in billiards. We weren’t all that good but able to hold our own against some decent players. Snooker was a popular sport in British and Canadian Officers messes and most Royal Canadian legions in Canada still have snooker tables.

Russell’s pool hall in Belle Glade, FL. I was only 14, so I could only go in with my dad. Russell and my dad we’re good friends. One day Reid White beat me like I stole something playing 9 ball. Sat down very dejected; Russell came over and told my dad if I paid for table time (60 cents/hour) he would give me lessons free of charge. This was in 1965. After a couple of years, I got pretty good. One afternoon, a guy comes in and says he’ll play anyone there for 50 dollars a game. Russell had no one to watch the bar and told me he’d back me to play. At 16, I didn’t see 50 dollars all year!! I won the first three before my dad showed up to take me home. I’ll never forget the laugh on Russell’s face when he handed me $75!! The best Russell’s story is when he played a hustler from Chicago for $100 a game til 4 AM. They broke even. BTW, Russell hadn’t pick up a stick all day and he played with a house cue.

When I was 7, my grandpa let me play on the gold crowns in the rec room in the apts he managed after 10 PM. Then an old shoddy gold crown in an arcade near my house in rancho cucamonga when I was about 14. Who would let me play free the rest of the day if I could drop all 15 balls in 19 shots for .50 cents. Such incentive to try harder every day.

The first real room I played was the in 1988, in the back room at Great American billiards, (now called Hard Times I think) in Sacramento CA, for a few months while I waited to go into the military. Learned a lot from the hustlers that would come and go there. Paid my price of admission, even won a few all nighter races with the guys who would blow through town, with the old timers looking on, and looking out for me at 17/18 years of age. Best experience ever. Learned how to play one pocket, straight pool, and some other tricks that I still have in my pocket from that place.

Jason

First time I hit a pool ball on a table, and continued to play there for years was Mr Billiards in Framingham MA. The building used to be a Mr Meat and the owner gave the building to his son who turned it into a pool hall with Gold Crown 3 tables (I think they were 3s at least). I think I first started playing maybe in 87. I read a lot and was going through a bunch of pool books from the library, and bought Byrnes Standard Book to learn from. I remember having it next to me at a table as I played. It's been closed for a bunch of years along with every other one in my area I played in, it's an MRI place now.

Back then there were a bunch of pool halls within several towns of me, my town had at least two, next town to me had one.

The first pool hall I went to that expanded my idea of what a pool hall and pool players were was a small 8 table underground place called Brighton Billiards, in Brighton, MA near Boston. Place usually had a 30 min - 1 hr plus waiting list. My fiend and I would go there, put our name on the list then drive to another pool hall near there to play while we waited LOL Was my first time watching A players in person shoot and realizing that what I was playing at my B level was not quite the same game. Funny part is that it's been 20 years since then and I'm still not at the A level LOL

My son's first pool hall and first time playing was in a place in RI called Chalks, when he was 8 (he is 20 now). That place also closed years ago.

I grew up in a small town in SouthEast Missouri and there was an old pool hall in the middle of town square where most of the businesses and the County Courthouse was located. That is my first memory of a pool hall and my dad took me in there a couple of times when he stopped in to have a beer. I think he may have played a game with me once, but he was never a pool player, even casually.

I don't know if that gave me the bug, but a little later on I found a bumper pool table in the back of a rundown little taxi stand with a greasy spoon cafe inside. I never had any money so I seldom ever got a chance to play it. When I could scrape up a quarter to put in it, I'd stick a metal rod into the holes to keep the balls from falling back through and I'd play for hours and hours.

After that, I found a church beside the library that had a pool table in the basement and I'd go down there and play for hours and hours until they made us leave or they closed up the church for the day.

Then, my buddy got a pool table and installed it in his attic and I'd go over there and play for hours and hours.

The pool hall that was in the town square closed and the owner moved it about a block from my house. That is when my pool journey really began. I was an early teen by now and you had to be 21 to go inside. I'd sneak in and watch and get thrown out, over, and over, and over.

Eventually, the owner offered me a job for $1 an hour and all the free pool I could play. My job was brushing and cleaning the tables and sweeping the floor at night and eventually helping behind the bar...sodas and stuff. I wasn't allowed to touch the beer and wasn't even supposed to be in the place, but the owner knew everybody in town and nobody ever bothered him or me.

Now that I had free pool, I pretty much lived in the pool hall every day after school until it closed at nigh. On weekends, holidays, and during school breaks I'd be there almost every opening hour of the place.

I started out like everyone else by watching, playing, losing, learning and repeating that cycle over and over. Everyone always told me I was a "natural" and I seemed to pick the game up faster than others, but I also had the good fortune of practicing as much as I wanted.

Over the first couple of years, I went from novice to one of the best players in the house. Not too much later, I could beat anybody and everybody in the town.

At that point, the owner would stake me for whatever anybody wanted to play for and I'd play anybody and everybody at any game. I played snooker for $100 a game, one-pocket for $100 a game, and 9-ball for whatever anybody wanted to play for. When I was not at the pool hall and somebody was there or at another bar in town and wanting a game, the owner would send a taxi to my house with a bag full of money and I'd go off to play, all alone with this bag of cash. I was lucky that I knew the owner of every establishment in town, so I didn't have to worry about getting robbed. At this point, I was about 16 years old.

Over the next couple of years, I'd sometimes travel around the neighboring states and find games in other parts of Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee. You didn't have to travel very far to find games back then. Especially as a teen...everybody thinks they can beat a pimply-faced skinny kid.

When I graduated high school, I played pool for about a year and then joined the Air Force to see something different and I traveled the world after that and played pool and gambled everywhere I went. Texas, Mississippi, Taiwan, California, Philippines, Japan, North Dakota, Turkey and finally wound up in Hawaii.

My best pool is behind me, but I still love the game. Even being old and blind, I still can play all day. One of the guys I played with a while back commented on that and said, "you keep getting better and better as the hours go by and I'm worn out and you are still running racks and racks and not missing." We'd only been playing for 20 hours and I was just getting warmed up. After about 20 hours, I start getting my second wind. LOL. Not bad for being old...will turn 66 on Friday.

I only play once a week now on Sundays and that has been put on hold due to our current state of affairs.

I'll be glad when this virus situation is all done with so we can get back to playing pool. I got new cues on the way and am supposed to get my cataract fixed. Then I'll be like Paul Newman in the move and make my come back.

Stoneham MA Miltie's Room. My friends dad played there...

I spent the summers of my teens on the bar box in the local bowling alley owned by the parents of some classmates. It had limited summer hours with bowling leagues on break but we had the run of the place. I don't remember any of us bowling a single frame in a half dozen summers. But that was not a pool hall.

By the time I was 13 or soon the mid 70's the only hall in my hometown was barely alive and run by the widow of its owner...she had to be 70 years old at the time but opened 6 days a week for the old timers. I think they may have sold beer but all I remember when we went was a rack of chips, a nut dispenser and a soda bendinh machine. The tables were from the 20's or 30's I believe but cant recall much detail. It had creaky wood floors, dingy plaster walls, high ton ceilings and maybe 8 big ceiling fans connected by leather belts driven by a single central motor.

We would shoot 8 ball for hours and once an hour so the old lady would come over with tips or to dress us down for taking too long to rack if we did anything more than get the one and eight where they belonged. It was closed for good sometime after Iquit going and when I left that little town when I was 18.

Van's Pool Room in NW Ohio.

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