Help me understand about 7 foot tables
- Thread starter Sweatin'
- Start date
I really enjoy my 'Fold up' Table I picked up on side of road with a 'Free' sign taped on it. Makes me feel like a 'big shot' with those 1.5" balls and buckets for pockets.
Hell ya....I'll have a "I beat a 6" patch soon the way I'm slamming and banging them around.
-Kat,
Hell ya....I'll have a "I beat a 6" patch soon the way I'm slamming and banging them around.
-Kat,
Don't let that distract you from the fact that In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them....maybe you can hire The A-Team........
Pro's play on them once in a blue moon. One tourney a year that I'm aware of it. So, if you made your living playing snooker, and there was a snooker tourney that had a nice payout, and it was on a 9 foot table, and you were a good pro, you'd turn down that money ? Sorry, there are not too many pro's that would turn it down. And I'd bet some pro's actually like playing at the Bar Table Championships.
This thread was not started about "pro's on 7 footers".
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I prefer 9 footers and would like it if everybody did too. But, we are the minority. The paying customer prefers the 7 foot table.
A new pool hall opened 1.5 miles from my home. 2 x Diamond 9' and 15 x (I'm guessing) 7' tables. I was surprised. The group I was with are only serious about league play. They love it and two of them, including one lady, play 2 nights a week. Their response to my 9' lament was that they would quit before they would play on 9 footers.
That is the reason for 7 footers. The majority of PAYING customers prefer 7 foot tables. Eat, drink, play pool and have a good time. Then, pay your tab.
By the way, I noticed that some of the qualifying loactions for the US Amature Chaionships were on 7 foot tables now. I was wondering when that would start. When I started playing in this 8 - 10 years ago, Mr Cues would have 120 participants. It's down below 80 the last few years. This could be the reason why.
A new pool hall opened 1.5 miles from my home. 2 x Diamond 9' and 15 x (I'm guessing) 7' tables. I was surprised. The group I was with are only serious about league play. They love it and two of them, including one lady, play 2 nights a week. Their response to my 9' lament was that they would quit before they would play on 9 footers.
That is the reason for 7 footers. The majority of PAYING customers prefer 7 foot tables. Eat, drink, play pool and have a good time. Then, pay your tab.
By the way, I noticed that some of the qualifying loactions for the US Amature Chaionships were on 7 foot tables now. I was wondering when that would start. When I started playing in this 8 - 10 years ago, Mr Cues would have 120 participants. It's down below 80 the last few years. This could be the reason why.
No, it wasn't. Funny how threads veer off and take on alternate lives.
But that's how the internet rolls...
Reviving an old thread here, but had an interesting comment from an "old timer" the other day and it got me to thinking about so-called table snobs and the "Barbox pool ain't real pool" crowd.
My buddy just got pro cut rails (not sure if he went penguin or ridgeback, but I am thinking Penguin) for the valleys in his bar. Everyone that has played them agrees that they play every bit as tough as the diamonds. So I'm sitting around shooting and talking to this guy that must have been mid 70's about the new rails and how difficult the table is. That inevitably got around to the diamond vs. valley, diamond vs. GC, and ultimately 7 vs. 9 ft.
When I told him there was a certain population that didn't view 7 footer as real tables, he snorted and said the new 9 footers weren't real table either. He said the worsted cloth ruined pool, in that even an old man like him could spin the ball around and move up and down the table. Real pool requires a monster stroke to go 3 rails on that shag carpet he grew up on.
It seems that everyone has an opinion on what constitutes " real pool".
My buddy just got pro cut rails (not sure if he went penguin or ridgeback, but I am thinking Penguin) for the valleys in his bar. Everyone that has played them agrees that they play every bit as tough as the diamonds. So I'm sitting around shooting and talking to this guy that must have been mid 70's about the new rails and how difficult the table is. That inevitably got around to the diamond vs. valley, diamond vs. GC, and ultimately 7 vs. 9 ft.
When I told him there was a certain population that didn't view 7 footer as real tables, he snorted and said the new 9 footers weren't real table either. He said the worsted cloth ruined pool, in that even an old man like him could spin the ball around and move up and down the table. Real pool requires a monster stroke to go 3 rails on that shag carpet he grew up on.
It seems that everyone has an opinion on what constitutes " real pool".
In general, the room you have to put the table in dictates what size table is "best" for you in that room. It seems in cities these days that the average "ancillary" room is too small for a 9-footer, a squeeze for an 8-footer*, and pretty tolerable for a 7-footer.
(*) certain obstructions like a corner or column may make some shots "unfriendly" requiring "house rules" or short sticks to "even up" the whole of the playing surface.
The physics of smaller tables is "just a bit ""off"" ". The diamonds are places back from the nose of the rail a certain amount to compensate for the forward roll of a naturally rolling ball and the distance was specified for a 10-foot table. After a naturally rolling ball bounces off the nose of the rail, it arcs-forward a bit due to the roll changing the angle of departure. The smaller the table, the less distance this effect has to "play out" and the shorter the table plays. 3-rail corner to corner shots are the most obvious point, but corner to other side to corner single banks also manifest the effect. Most players just "get used to" whatever effects their table has and adjust rather than figuring out the physics.
Smaller tables need somewhat tighter pockets than larger tables so the the "basic shot" difficulty remains rather constant. 7-foot tables with bar box pockets are too easy and allow one to play without needing to develop the proper precision in his/her skill set.
8-ball on smaller tables is more about clusters and delicate position. The player who can read, break, and avoid clusters has a distinct advantage on smaller tables. While these skill are less necessary on larger tables, they remain part of a well developed skill set, nonetheless.
Cloth:: a high speed cloth (Simonis 760 or even faster Simonis 300) on a small table will cause you to develop a mastery of delicate CB control, or will drive you batty, or both. I have Simonis 760 on my 8-footer and the local bar box has regular felt and one of those larger CBs; the combination is that the energy imparted into the CB is pretty close between my home table and the local bar box, in making the shot, avoiding interference, and traveling the proper distance to the next shooting position.
With proper choice of pocket size and cloth, you can make a smaller table have similar difficulty as the larger "pool hall" tables--you can't get it exact, but you can get in the same ball park. And if you get it in the same ball park, your game transfers from home to hall efficiently. My 8-footer is as large as I can fit in my room, but I have the pockets shimmed, the corner angles recut, and faster cloth. This translates to the local bar box, and also transfers to the pool hall league tables rather efficiently.
The problem is that few who choose the smaller table get the table optimized for the game they need to develop and just use the table "as delivered" until they tire of it, complain that it does not play "correctly"*, is too easy, too hard, ..... and go for a bigger table, or change houses for one with a bigger room and fit an appropriate table to the new room.
(*) for any definition of correctly you desire.