Embrace The Crappy Table -or- Run The Other Way?

Kickin' Chicken

Kickin' Chicken

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I play regularly on lousy equipment at bars and as many of you know, when doing so, you have to make big adjustments.

In one game I watched as whitey was coming to a stop it did an "S-turn" ending up married to the ball I was positioning for. Oh well, I didn't allow for that one.

To say the least, it is frustrating. It's a given that when playing on crappy tables like these, we lose pretty much all of our finesse game and that's a shame for those who have a pretty good one.

So, now with the better players having to play a dumbed-down game, much less skilled players have a significantly better chance to win.

My question about this is twofold:

Should we continue to play on such inferior equipment and embrace the extra challenge of having to outrun unpredictability and bad rolls?

Also, do you think playing on lousy equipment takes a toll on our game?

I've played a lot of years in bars on bad tables and have done well. But after having had the pleasure in later life of enjoying great equipment, it really makes me ask myself, why should I go backward?

What do you all think?

best,
brian kc
 
I just had this situation come up a few weeks ago. I was in a bar table tournament in El Paso and they had two Dynamo tables. One played pretty nice but the other was horrible! The horrible one was the "feature table" viewable by most of the bar so we played the semi-finals and finals on it instead of the decent table. It drove me nuts. I had to really change the way I played. It was equally crappy conditions for my opponent, so I guess it was still fair.

I hate equipment like that.
 
KC,

The problem is not poor equipment. The problem is that your personal table makes 99.9% of other tables seem like crap.

As a service to you, I am willing to swap tables with you to help you with your problem.

HTH,
Berko
 
I think you have to define what you mean by bad equipment.

The thing that throws my game off the most is the table speed. Especially if you have rails that don't play right and they spring the cue ball all over the place. To me, that's bad equipment. Or a table that has a dead rail. If someone plays on a table like this all all the time and you come walking in there, they have a huge advantage.

Now if you are playing on a table that just has really worn out cloth and/or it plays slower than you are used to - to me, that's not bad equipment, it's just different. I don't even consider playing on an unlevel table to be bad equipment (within reason). It only takes a couple of shots to determine whether or not a table is level. If it's not you can't slow roll balls and either can your opponent.

Overall, I guess I don't mind playing on less than pristine tables, but then again that's what I play on at home. Playing on a perfect table is a luxury for me.
 
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Embrace the challenge.

Last Sunday at my favorite watering hole where they have a gawdawful bar table I couldn't seem to play up to snuff. I was off.

I took a long shot (OK, not so long...it's a bar table, but you know what I mean) at pocket speed and saw what was going on.

I know that table. Everything is crooked and it leans in funny ways. But if you know it, you can play it.

What was going on? The guy I was playing had leveled the table earlier in the week! LOL! He was kicking my ass! LOL! We had a great laugh over that. Imagine screwing up somebodies game by leveling the table! :grin:



Get out there and have fun.


.
 
When Steve Davis, multiple world snooker champ, was asked what his greatest ability was, he answered by saying "The ability to adjust to the condition of the table faster than anyone else."

I like good equipment, but when gambling, I only have two rules.

We play on the same table and play by the same rules. Other than that, I don't care.


Stones
 
Deep thought for today:

How can you truly appreciate the good without experiencing the bad?
 
We have a variety of tables at our winter rec centers. The best is a Brunswick, down side huge pockets. I play mostly on an Olhausen and it's pretty bad.

I hate it when you change the shot from what it should be to what you have to do on that particular table. Example, the rails are not that great
so you use draw more than follow even though you know that the "correct" shot is follow. Of course I'm spoiled by having a nice Brunswick Anniversary at home. The other thing with the Olhausen is the dreaded rattle.

Just to clarify we have three different rooms, I have always played primarily at one room, about 7 years now, this is the group I want to play with so unless we would all move to a different room , probably not practical, we are all facing the same conditions.
 
I always figured it was part of the game.
In addition to that, I've seen a lot of mistakes made by the player that was blamed on the table, so there you go.
In the bars and poolrooms where the equiptment is pure-dee crap though, I say form a picket line out in front of the place. Get some lawn chairs. Make up some signs. Have someone go get coffee and donuts.
Power to the people, Brian. :smile:TS
 
Brian,

Don't even think about playing in any of the following events. The APA Nationals, the VNEA Nationals or the ACS Nationals. All three are played on Valley tables with an ASSORTMENT of cue balls. Usually varying from table to table. Add in the age of the tables and their condition, what you're describing is an every rack occurrence. At the ACS's a few years ago, I actually had a cue ball stop then turn 90 degrees and hook me. Unbelieveable! Of course I'm going back for more punishment :eek:.

Lyn
 
Bad equipment ruins the game! Pool's hard enough without having to contend with dead rails, balls rolling off, over sized cue balls, etc.

The more skill you have, the bigger disadvantage you are at. Bad players will play bad regardless of the equipment. A good player is at a much bigger loss. You hit a shot perfect and the table screws you.

I've played league pool in dive bars before, and if the equipment is really bad, I get the hell out of that division and take my game elsewhere. I only play pool on pool tables.
 
I can't have fun on bad equipment. I take joy in my ability to play with precision and get rewarded for it. If the table steals that from me, it's not much consolation to go on and win (and it's extra painful to lose).

I try not to let it wreck my mood, but if I get f*cked by a bad roll, it takes a long time for me to get over it.

My solution is to try to play on good equipment as much as possible and to encourage my friends to do the same... even if it might cost a little more or require extra driving. I've even offered to pay their table time for the sake of convincing them to shoot at the hall with good tables.
 
I lost a game last week on a valley because of the table condition. I had to roll the cueball to the 12 hanging in the pocket to get shape on the last ball before the 8. I rolled it down, the cueball curved an inch to the right and I missed the whole ball giving him BIH and never getting to the table again.

Just roll with the punches and play. Sometimes it sucks, but you can alter your game to accomodate most of the time. Change your patterns so you are trying to use punch and stun shots most of the time. Make it a challenge and try to look at the table differently than you normally would.

By the way, my team ended up winning the league despite my bad roll. Off to BCA tourney in July. Here we come Rio.
 
If you're playing on a table that has dead rails, pockets that aren't uniform in size, badly worn/damaged cloth, is out of level, etc., you aren't playing a game of pool. What you're doing then is playing a random game of chance that happens to involve pool balls and cue sticks. Same thing applies if you're playing on a world class table that has obstructions that require you to use a short stick or jack up to avoid hitting the wall.
 
Brian, we used to play at a large sports bar that had 6 tables. The problem was that once a week, the bar had a huge buffet and would move several of the tables. The table owners used to go in once a week and re level but how much of a pain is that.

There would always be one or two that were so out of whack, absolutely no sense in even trying to play on it. So, before we started, if we were so unlucky to have one of the bad ones, someone would go to the bar and get a ton of drink coasters and we would be trying to level the table with those.

It would end up being barely acceptable but we had no other choice.
Luckily, the Greeks wanted the tables out so that was a good thing.

They also had a Senile Greek guy that hung out there. I guess they baby sat him. He would always wander out of the kitchen, pick up a bar cue and start shooting balls around on any given table.

Hey, we're still playing here. He'd just look at you all confused and put the cue down and wander away to bug someone else.

Crooked tables and senile Greeks. Twas part of the night. You could count on it.
 
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