Thankful for table 6

Not a lesson, well ya maybe it was. I started playing in 1967 at the ripe age of 14 in a burn of Los Angeles at a place called Lees pool hall. At the time from what I can recall anyway I don’t think it had any Gold Crowns, they were all the much older tables that at that time we’re taller or so it seemed and I was a little taller. I played pretty steady till I got out of the army in 75, then stopped playing, when I started again a few years later someone was watching my game and mentioned that I had a little bit of side arm to my stroke! So it took me a few a while to make a conscientious attempt to correct that and have been successful at it, I just wished I had the eyes from back then!


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Was it The Table 6?

It could have been nine and he’s dyslexic?!


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Having started playing pool before the days of Simonis cloth definitely helped me to develop more power in my stroke. Drawing the length of the table or stunning to the rail and back out on a relatively straight shot was far more difficult back in the day.

Of course, I had no idea that I was playing on substandard equipment at the time, but it crystal clear now that it was so.

them li'l fellas

'

alphadog said:

I played a lot of pool on table 6 in Arlington Texas.

A old gold crown with the corner sag as is so common.

Simonis cloth and a butchered triple shim job made for a couple of pockets that required "special" planning if you wanted any chance of getting a ball in them. A bad roll wouldnt allow babying shots. Shims that stuck out from the rail further reduced the pocket openings. A jag from shims not stacked correctly made the pockets even more contrary.

So why be thankful?
Well that table taught me how to go around the table to move those balls to a position where they at least stood a chance of going. Position play which still is needed all the time.

Anyone else learn a valueable lesson playing on substandard equipment ?

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I think those little fellas from the Philippines learned a lot playing on substandard equipment. I think it helped my game too, to play off the wall in places with nice tables, cues, and air conditioning. Rat holes with ten foot tables with cloth thicker than some carpet now. A big four or five foot fan in the wall sucked in wet air off of the Mississippi River and bugs under about three-eighths inch cross section came in right through the hardware cloth that kept rats and stray cats out anyway. You learned fast that speed could overcome small bugs but junebugs or bigger had to be moved out of the balls' path. You found out fast if you really had a stroke or not on those wet ten footers too.

I practiced on a snooker table some sadist had set up for golf too. I was getting where I could bank balls with some degree of success on the table before I moved away. I was talking about old times and that table to a fellow who worked at The World's Pool Hall and he got excited. He said that was exactly the kind of table he learned on. He was from the Philippines.

Myself, pretty much all of the US players, are hothouse players now. Works OK until we leave the hothouses then we can struggle.

Hu

Since i moved down here to Naples Fl. full time the only true billiard room within distance is diamond Billiards Cape Coral Fl with the old red label 9 ft diamonds-- forced me to alter my game to pocket on this table- 4 1/2 on the back 8 tables- bad rail speeds etc. etc- actually improved my game because i need to be letter perfect in getting close position at the perfect angles to continue runs in 14.1 and 9/10 ball- I have become much better because i accepted the challenge instead of fighting it.

location

mikemosconi said:

Since i moved down here to Naples Fl. full time the only true billiard room within distance is diamond Billiards Cape Coral Fl with the old red label 9 ft diamonds-- forced me to alter my game to pocket on this table- 4 1/2 on the back 8 tables- bad rail speeds etc. etc- actually improved my game because i need to be letter perfect in getting close position at the perfect angles to continue runs in 14.1 and 9/10 ball- I have become much better because i accepted the challenge instead of fighting it.

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Location is important for more than real estate! Playing on the Diamonds in New Orleans I had an impression that was completely different from the one I had after playing on some in much dryer Dallas.

Accepting what is and rolling with it was hammered home on the job for me years ago. I had been using AutoCAD for years, knew the workarounds and when I didn't like something about an upgrade I changed it. Did a little of my own mapping on the tablet overlay too. Then I had to start using Intergraph PC also. What took me one or two clicks to do in AutoCAD took four or five in Intergraph! I fought it for several weeks, crappy software! Felt like I was beating my head against a brick wall all day every day. One day I finally woke up, it R what it R and I am going to have to deal with it. My blood pressure went down about twenty points top and bottom when I accepted that I was going to work with Intergraph, didn't matter if I liked it or not. It wasn't AutoCAD and I had to accept that too. In a week or two I was rolling along.

Hu

When I first started playing pool - albeit poorly - in a small Iowa town the only tables were snooker tables. You kind of need to re-learn the game when you switch from that to pool although I'd say switching from snooker to pool is probably easier than pool to snooker. Some shots that drop on a pool table don't on a snooker table.

alphadog said:

That would be a indication of something but dyslexia isnt it.

Actually due to tables being moved around, there wasnt a table 9 .

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It could be a table 9 if he was Australian

I thought you were gonna talk about Table 6 at Hard Times Bellflower..
THE challenge and money game table.. super tight pockets.. if you
even grazed the rail shooting in the corner, the ball would rattle and
stand up.

sjm said:

Having started playing pool before the days of Simonis cloth definitely helped me to develop more power in my stroke. Drawing the length of the table or stunning to the rail and back out on a relatively straight shot was far more difficult back in the day.

Of course, I had no idea that I was playing on substandard equipment at the time, but it crystal clear now that it was so.

Click to expand...

I hear ya brother. Hey, that 'ol Mali-Stevens cloth was all we had. It wasn't substandard in fact i loved it. When 760 first came out i seriously thought about quitting. I hated that super-fast crap. They got the message and 860 arrived. Just the right speed imo. I was lucky i learned to play on really nice GC'1's in a post-Hustler all Brunswick family spot. It was great.

ShootingArts said:

Intergraph
Hu

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God, I had completely forgot about Intergraph.

What a blast from the past.

'94

kevoka said:

God, I had completely forgot about Intergraph.

What a blast from the past.

Click to expand...

I did the unplanned retirement thing in early '94. I don't remember which Intergraph PC I was using, Intergraph PC was only a year or two old. The rest of the department ran Intergraph on Unix micro-computers. Acad 13 was out and I had been using it about a month.

My thoughts, Acad started going downhill about nine or ten. The were making major revisions just to roll out a new version, making it bulkier and crappier to use. Acad was only compatible with the current version and one back, forcing companies using it to upgrade pretty often like it or not. I had a great printing department on site so as soon as I got a new overlay I would modify it to suit and go get a 1/2 to 3/4 size color print, heavily laminated to be better and a lot faster than the factory overlay. I didn't like to have to move more than my wrist and fingers.

I was a drawing motorscooter in Acad if I do say so myself. One day we had to draw a 12 connector switch in less than two hours. No question I would get the call, with everyone from the plant CEO down waiting on my drawing my back was to the wall. That drawing had to hit Washington DC before five, four our time. If not it was a sixty thousand a day fine and more importantly a power reduction. We were at the end of a refueling run and there was a good chance a power reduction would crash the process, about one-hundred twenty thousand a day lost, very possibly some damage. Nukes are kinda delicate in some respects.

I interrupted a meeting with god and the apostles to snatch an engineer to tell me what I was drawing. Nobody had to tell me my job was at stake, I was a contractor there.

The good ol' days when times were rotten. I did have some kinda fun jobs back then.

Hu

One of those insidepool videos jr calvert tells the story of how he learned to hit center ball.

His uncle, I believe, gave him a pool table. But the uncle lived far away so wasn’t around while the kid was learning. Eventually all the cue tips fall off, then the plastic cracks, then he is down to just wood. As he keeps hitting with bare wood, the tips frayed. So he whittled them down. And down. Eventually the uncle visited and screamed, what have you done to the cues?! Why are they so short?! Hilarious

He learned center ball, it was all he had.

It’s an excellent story wish i could find it

The story is much longer and better than my memory

In the mid sixties while in college the local pool hall had about 10
tables. Truthfully I don't remember the make but not one of them was level.
After about 6 months you learned the quirks of each one and I actually
kept a sheet of paper in my wallet with each tables directional roll offs.
Called it my little cheat sheet. By my second year didn't need the sheet anymore
and those tables still had the same rolls when I graduated.