I'm really the last guy who should be answering this. I'll estimate I've spent 10,000 hours of my life playing pool. 9998 of those hours have been in my basement. Neverteless, I'm a Chicagoan and since no one else has answered you I'll have to say when I wanted to see what it was like to play on a 9 footer as opposed to the 8 footer in my basement, I spent two hours at "chris' billiards," 4637 N. Milwaukee ave. It's one of the two places in the area where the best players hang out. The other place is Red Shoes billiards in a south suburb called Alsip. Red Shoes has a web site where they're always plugging up coming tournaments. I don't know about the tournament situation at Chris'. There is also a place with a website called "The Carom Room" just over the border in Beloit, Wisconsin. They plug tournaments frequently and some seem to pay pretty handsomely. I'm kinda bashful. When I found out that the only difference between an 8 footer and 9 footer is that some of the shots are a little longer on the 9 footer, I went back to my basement.
