Best Area in Florida for Pool
- Thread starter JAM
- Start date
Rolando Aravena - he does everything and more. He does cue repair, table setup, instruction... I think he was doing the leagues, tournament directing... all with a smile and an accommodating nature.
Freddie
Rolando is the best.
I've heard the action at The Villages is TOUGH. Those geezers really bear-down on their case ball when their bettin' their SS checks.
Lol ... I've heard the same thing from a buddy on mine that moved there several years ago. He loves it but admits he was used to being on the top of the food chain and now is just chum. A lot of A+ players have retired there and supplement their SS checks with the pool action.
Note to JAM ... sounds perfect for Keith!
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florida like many of the southern states also allow smoking in pool rooms and bars to some extent. that may effect your choice of towns and pool rooms.
i would only use florida as a snow bird place as once sprigtime comes it is as said you are a ball of sweat outside, no fun. november to feburary the weather is nice.
best weather in the country is the pacific northwest near the coast. cool summers and mild winters. and you can find many uncroweded places.
i would only use florida as a snow bird place as once sprigtime comes it is as said you are a ball of sweat outside, no fun. november to feburary the weather is nice.
best weather in the country is the pacific northwest near the coast. cool summers and mild winters. and you can find many uncroweded places.
And there is nothing wrong with renting each year. Renters are way ahead financially and don't have to worry about phone calls in the middle of the night about the house.
Buy if you can...or consider renting. Be a snowbird or rounder(year round).
justinb386
Banned
Yeah, pinellas county and the surrounding area around there might have the best pool scene in all of Florida, and it is not as dreadfully hot as other parts of FL down south. It sure is nice down there. I loved walking around the islands. Have not been there since the late 90's though. The pool scene was pretty good in that area back then. I really liked visited Strokers billiards in Palm Harbor. They had a really strong race to 3 9 ball tournament going on weekly.
justinb386
Banned
I would check out Palm Harbor if I were you. That area has a great pool scene I imagine, and there are really beautiful islands (that are not filled with tourists, I read) right there near by (Caladesi Island State Park, and Honeymoon Island State Park, which looks to have a lot of greenery). The gulf coast makes the temps much cooler then other parts of FL too, I think. I had a really nice time when I was down there.
I've lived in Florida for nearly 30 years. The Villages have some old-timer players who shot Straights up North. The average age is 50-plus, and that's being generous.
Here in Gainesville we also have tons to do and a super-low cost of living, one of the best small cities in the nation. The pool scene is okay but there's a good teacher in town.
For action and the pro scene, you need to go to South Florida between Palm Beach and Miami.
On the Gold Coast, the Ft. Myers area has a lot of league action, but frankly, a lot of famous sandbaggers, too.
Here in Gainesville we also have tons to do and a super-low cost of living, one of the best small cities in the nation. The pool scene is okay but there's a good teacher in town.
For action and the pro scene, you need to go to South Florida between Palm Beach and Miami.
On the Gold Coast, the Ft. Myers area has a lot of league action, but frankly, a lot of famous sandbaggers, too.
Naples has virtually no pool. You'd have to drive to Cape Coral/Ft. Myers. I don't live in Florida so my opinion comes from traveling there for work over the years. I think it comes down to which coast do you want to live on. Here are the two top areas.
Ft. Lauderdale. Lots of rooms to play in from West Palm Beach to Miami. Corner Pocket has some action but also has Billiard tables and a lady from Medellin Colombia plays there.
Tampa, St. Pete area, although I like Sarasota better(not for pool though)
My recommendation is to move to Pinellas County (Clearwater area). You'll be on the coast, and you can follow rt. 19 up or down and find the following pool halls:
Strokers - Palm Harbor: Strokers has an in house Straight Pool league, APA Masters, regular APA, and a Sunday night 10 ball tournament ($5 entry) where the house doubles the pot. Great food, too. This was my favorite place to play.
Also along route 19:
The Crooked Cue
Hammer Heads
Stix - Palm Harbor runs one or two tournaments a week, hosts leagues, and has good food. All 9 foot tables.
Also in the area:
Family Billiards - No website. Good one pocket action, small bar, no kitchen, sells chips & candy bars. Smokey.
Side-Pocket Billiards has beer & wine only, limited menu. 10 9' tables.
Stix - Dunedin has 9 or 10 9' Gold Crowns, hosts weekly tournaments. Full bar, no kitchen.
Jesse's Bar/CM's Place in Seminole
Corner Pocket in Largo, FL. They host leagues, including a handicapped straight pool, and I believe they are trying to start a one-pocket league. Also hosts tournaments.
Capone's up in Spring Hill (not Pinellas County, but not too far) has 11 diamond bar boxes and 8 9' tables (not sure of the make.) They have regular weekly tournies, leagues, and are a regular host of Tony Crosby's Florida Pool Tour.
Across the bay in the north part of Tampa, you have Fatso's (You'll find Jeannette Lee here w/her APA franchise), which runs regular weekly tournaments (8 & 9 ball), and there is almost ALWAYS one pocket action to be found. Fatso's is also NON-SMOKING, which I think is a big plus.
Finally, there is a great facebook group Pool Players of Pinellas where you will find postings for local tournaments (a number of bars in the area host bar table tournaments frequently), buy/sell cues, and most importantly, lots of barking for action (occasionally results in actual games being played!)
There are plenty of other reasons to choose this area, but as this is a pool forum, I will limit the response to pool-related info.
*Paid for by the Pinellas County Tourism Management Bureau.
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If you visit Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda area there's Veterans Billiards on Veterans highway off of Tamiamai Trail.
Very dark inside until your eyes adjust. No jukebox.. Just pool... 9 foot Gabriel's tables.. some with tight pockets.
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If you visit Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda area there's Veterans Billiards on Veterans highway off of Tamiamai Trail.
Very dark inside until your eyes adjust. No jukebox.. Just pool... 9 foot Gabriel's tables.. some with tight pockets.
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I do not recommend South Florida. I have a fairly long list of why I do not think it would be a good fit for you.
First its significantly hotter in miami/ft lauderdale than in even tampa/orlando. Northern florida like Tally/Jax actually get winter where it gets cold. In Miami I think we might have had two days this year where the temp got below sixty. for 9 months a year miami is just way too hot and humid and it a crap shoot if the remaining 3 months will pleasant. Usually they are but its not the greatest tradeoff for the blistering days of summer.
South Florida is primarily spanish and in many parts of town you can go into stores and restaurants where the staff only speak spanish and the menus and signs are in spanish.
Its much more expensive in south florida, both property costs, taxes and insurance.
The pool scene is weak in South Florida. We have not had a $1000 added event down here in years and years. We have good players down here but they dont match up alot, especially in miami. APA league largely is what most players have been forced to do if they want to compete every week in miami since we do not have a single weekly tournament in any of the pool rooms that I know of. There is one weekly event at pegs pocket in miami but they barred most of the good players and last i heard it was 10-12 players with speed of apa 5-7 with most of the better 7s in town barred. If you want to play tournaments in South Florida, the only regular big events where there is actual pressure is APA Playoffs, APA Jack and Jill and doubles, cities and maybe topgun events. Its really sad about the situation in miami but it is what it is. We had a long period in miami where many pool rooms closed and the surviving rooms started adopting the mindset that catering to the actual pool players was not profitable, and they instead focused on catering to the needs of those who buy food and drink and spend and tip.
Sharp shooters in miami and a new pool room called K & K billiards is where the better players in miami play and if there is going to be an irregular event held, they have been holding them there.Jan Sesh who runs the local BCA has been active in pushing some smaller events at K & K and the owners of Sharpshooters have been running a somewhat irregular invitational event at either 14.1 or 1p where they do a 16 man /100 entry a couple hundred added event.
There is pool action at Gold Crown billiards in Hollywood but its tough action. Most of the hard core gambling has left the pool room and went to the casinos in South Florida but there is still a large contingent of the old school pool room guys that moved from the now defunct Hollywood billiards, which was an action pool room that had a number of strong players in residence that would spar with the roadies.
First its significantly hotter in miami/ft lauderdale than in even tampa/orlando. Northern florida like Tally/Jax actually get winter where it gets cold. In Miami I think we might have had two days this year where the temp got below sixty. for 9 months a year miami is just way too hot and humid and it a crap shoot if the remaining 3 months will pleasant. Usually they are but its not the greatest tradeoff for the blistering days of summer.
South Florida is primarily spanish and in many parts of town you can go into stores and restaurants where the staff only speak spanish and the menus and signs are in spanish.
Its much more expensive in south florida, both property costs, taxes and insurance.
The pool scene is weak in South Florida. We have not had a $1000 added event down here in years and years. We have good players down here but they dont match up alot, especially in miami. APA league largely is what most players have been forced to do if they want to compete every week in miami since we do not have a single weekly tournament in any of the pool rooms that I know of. There is one weekly event at pegs pocket in miami but they barred most of the good players and last i heard it was 10-12 players with speed of apa 5-7 with most of the better 7s in town barred. If you want to play tournaments in South Florida, the only regular big events where there is actual pressure is APA Playoffs, APA Jack and Jill and doubles, cities and maybe topgun events. Its really sad about the situation in miami but it is what it is. We had a long period in miami where many pool rooms closed and the surviving rooms started adopting the mindset that catering to the actual pool players was not profitable, and they instead focused on catering to the needs of those who buy food and drink and spend and tip.
Sharp shooters in miami and a new pool room called K & K billiards is where the better players in miami play and if there is going to be an irregular event held, they have been holding them there.Jan Sesh who runs the local BCA has been active in pushing some smaller events at K & K and the owners of Sharpshooters have been running a somewhat irregular invitational event at either 14.1 or 1p where they do a 16 man /100 entry a couple hundred added event.
There is pool action at Gold Crown billiards in Hollywood but its tough action. Most of the hard core gambling has left the pool room and went to the casinos in South Florida but there is still a large contingent of the old school pool room guys that moved from the now defunct Hollywood billiards, which was an action pool room that had a number of strong players in residence that would spar with the roadies.
Keezdisease
Registered
Tables at veterans are Gandy's. nice folks but watch out for the sharks. Lol
I lived where Teddy lives for around 10 years and loved it. I can honestly say the last summer in Baltimore was worse than any summer in Hollywood FL. Housing will be much cheaper and no state income tax
Jason
I ran into Teddy all the time when I lived in Miami. Hollywood is a good place with a few halls, and not too far from another handful of good halls in Florida. Admittedly, summer is hot and humid (but only took me one summer to get used to) but you get to make 80% of america jealous when it's winter and you're sitting on a beach sipping pina coladas on a Monday.
I looked at the Villages when I moved down here, they have a lot of pool, leagues start at 7am, over 1000 things to do every week. We moved to Orlando to be closer to grandkids. I guess I would go to the West coast, Clearwater and the surrounding area, many pool rooms to chose from. Don't really know about the action though. Good luck.
Tom Harris
Tom Harris
JAM...I also live near Clearwater, and there are literally 10 pool halls (not pool bars) within 5-20 minutes of me, on this side of the bay. Great weather...the beach is just a few minutes away, and as Joe mentioned, not much hurricane activity, although it can rain hard. :thumbup:
Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com