phreaticus
Well-known member
Same bar scene problem here in NorCal, come here & we can help each other out!
Enjoy EU! Watching this thread to learn more about the scene there myself.
Europe pool scene
- Thread starter markusca
- Start date
Enjoy EU! Watching this thread to learn more about the scene there myself.
I am in NorCal. Where are you?Same bar scene problem here in NorCal, come here & we can help each other out!
Enjoy EU! Watching this thread to learn more about the scene there myself.
phreaticus
Well-known member
South SF Bay Area
kanzzo
hobby player
9-Ball, alternate break, 9 on the spot, kitchen rule. Buy in is 10 Euro, Race to 4 til last 8, then it's single elimination and race to 5. Most times there is a cash game running parallel for 10 a game, winner stays at the table. Know one guy who managed to win 400 in one evening just from this cash game. And plenty of folks who like to gamble for a friendly amount (like 20-100 Euro a set, more if you give good action). Most time you will find action for higher amounts you will be the underdog (obviously, no gambler likes to give away his money for free). But there are a few guys who like to play for money. You can even find One Pocket action (which is very rare in Germany otherwise). Nobody plays banks over here. But plenty of action in 10-Ball, 8-Ball or 14.1.
You can get to know the players on this Monday tournament and if you give good action, they will come back again on other days of the week also, to play you.
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It sounds like those are the options. If anyone else knows of good weekly tournaments we will chase those. Gotta pay for the trip somehow.
Just curious relative to the Europe pool scene: Is smoking inside the venue more common in some countries than other ones (where it might even be prohibited)?
Arnaldo
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Arnaldo
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stewie
Active member
Just throwing this out here: there is a huge one in Bruchsal: Sportpark Bruchsal. This is from like 20 years ago, but they have 20+ 9ft and several clubs. They usually do 2 or 3 nights free practice, so on these days the place was packed with good players. They had a monthly tournament back then, which was cool. If you find a phone number, you would find out. It's 90.minutes south of Frankfurt,.though. but maybe other places also have these practice days worth checking out.
kanzzo
hobby player
no idea how it's in the other european countries. In Germany you can as the owner designate a smoking area (which has to be smaller then half of your overall space and be separated with doors / wall from the rest). So some bigger pool halls have "smoking areas" as big as a small pool room. Sindelfingen (the pool hall described above) has a "smoking area" with 6 or 7 pool tables (they have 21 tables overall). Most of the money matches are played in this smoking area.
Check out Barcelona
www.lapeceradelpool.com
Inicio - Billares - La Pecera del Pool
La Pecera del Pool Barcelona es mucho mas que un Sports Bar con 400 m2 de pura diversion.Con 7 mesas de billares, zona de dardos ,futbolín, .Zona restauracion, cervecería ,coketeleria ,cafeteria , zonas chill out , musica , terraza exterior y entrada gratuita todos los dias de la semana.
www.lapeceradelpool.com
Thanks for your detailed reply, Kanzzo. As is the case throughout pool's history in the US, being a non-smoker in a predominantly smoking money game arena is a distinct disadvantage . . . a percentage of "weight" that your opponent is receiving from the get-go.
So many of us who were hooked on the game at an early age in the 1940s and '50s (and routinely wagering on our skills) started smoking just to even out/greatly eliminate that disadvantage.
Arnaldo ~ Thankfully I and most of my friends managed to kick the smoking habit well before we turned thirty -- usually because we started dating health-minded ladies who were non-smokers and we had to make a choice. Getting insanely hooked on bodybuilding and other fitness regimens also convinced most of us as well.
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Was it weight lifting that made it your first priority to bitch about smoking or was that the girlfriends?
We came and saw all the posts are right. We found a few really bad tables in super divey bars but nobody was playing. Possibly because they were like 15 an hour. Most of the pool halls are either non existent or members only and not even findable. The pool halls we did find were 20-24ish an hour and had just ok equipment. I have never seen such bad shimming to tighten pockets. The language barriers don’t help getting any games. That’s not to say there aren’t good players. We played a few of the people running the halls they were pretty good. Obviously eu has some ridiculously good players. Unless you know someone from here maybe leave the cue at home. It’s not really worth checking a bag.
stewie
Active member
where did you end up going? Language barrier sounds a little weird, wouldn't have expected that, especially in western Europe.
One big difference I would expect is gambling culture. In the US it never takes long or big effort to gamble, if you like. In Germany, not so much. Easier if you would go to one of these "Casinos" (like a Spielothek), they have mainly slot machines and some pool tables and some mini-dave&busters-corner.
Amsterdam Utrecht Brussels Antwerp Luxembourg Munich Zurich Geneva. It’s not that it doesn’t exist it’s just not the same scene as the us. I will be coming over here often enough for a few years I might figure it out. It’s probably the culture shock of just eu plus the difference of the rooms themselves that makes it hard to get right the first trip. Plus staying a max of 2 days in one place doesn’t help either. I just wanted to note in this thread in case someone else runs across it. I tried. It didn’t work as I imagined. But that’s also just me.
stewie
Active member
With that kind of itinerary I can clearly see the challenge
I can only really compare the US and Germany. The approach is very different. I moved to the US 16 years ago and was surprised about the focus on locally/regional self-organized leagues and tournaments. And almost always handicapped. In Germany I was missing tournaments. They are so busy in their league system, there were not many house/local tournaments.
Germans take any sport really serious and organize in clubs. Many of those clubs run their own facilities. They might be great places to play, but they are not open to the public or not advertised. What I meant earlier was to find a club which plays in a public pool hall. They should have league days on Sundays (starting early in the morning!), but should also have their training days during the week. Which would be a good day to go and find good players and then maybe some action. The top governing body is the DBU. It maybe is only in German, but they list clubs and their location. If you invest some time, you find the public pool halls they call their homebase. Call them and go during the week on those training days. Some of the club-run places might also be open to walk-ins. They will be no place in Germany without beer, but they might be in remote/industrial areas and without food/kitchen.
Tha
Thanks for the link. I think any country is hard, maybe impossible, to get right the first time. I will be back and truth is I will always have a cue with me. We did find bal-Enzo in Antwerp. We found PoolGate in Brussels. And Lucky Panda in Zurich. All the people running those places were super cool. And Diana from poolgate even played a few games and destroyed us. All in all it was still worth it. It’s not the pool scene you find in Vegas it’s just different. But that is kind of the point right?With that kind of itinerary I can clearly see the challenge
I can only really compare the US and Germany. The approach is very different. I moved to the US 16 years ago and was surprised about the focus on locally/regional self-organized leagues and tournaments. And almost always handicapped. In Germany I was missing tournaments. They are so busy in their league system, there were not many house/local tournaments.
Germans take any sport really serious and organize in clubs. Many of those clubs run their own facilities. They might be great places to play, but they are not open to the public or not advertised. What I meant earlier was to find a club which plays in a public pool hall. They should have league days on Sundays (starting early in the morning!), but should also have their training days during the week. Which would be a good day to go and find good players and then maybe some action. The top governing body is the DBU. It maybe is only in German, but they list clubs and their location. If you invest some time, you find the public pool halls they call their homebase. Call them and go during the week on those training days. Some of the club-run places might also be open to walk-ins. They will be no place in Germany without beer, but they might be in remote/industrial areas and without food/kitchen.
stewie
Active member
Exactly