Good Question? Why is the Eastern half of the US loaded with players?

Ruthless

Ruthless

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I spent 5 years traveling the country. It was job related(some here that have pm'd me from around the country figured out who I was from this.) I spent a lot of time in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Denver, Houston, Dallas, Las Vegas, and the list goes on for the western side. I spent a lot of time(3 months a year avg.) in L.A. & San Diego and didn't get any action to speak of.

None at Hard Times (L.A.) or College Billiards(S.D.), the only place I got any in CA was at Danny K's by the Duck Pond. I went to some tournaments around the Areas and found most to be handicapped. I got warned in most that if I ran more than 1 rack they would kick me out of the tourny(that's before I hit a ball). I even drove all the way to Mr. Cues in Lancaster looking. The other player that traveled with me noted that: "These west coast players play 9-ball like one pocket", meaning slow and cautious(Hi Charlie B.)

Around Phoenix & Tuscon (spent a lot of time here also). The first place I was told to go was Main Street Billiards in Mesa, there were some guys playing cheap sets. I watched until they were finished and asked one if he wanted to play a few. He asked me what I was rated and when I asked rated in what?, The bartender ran out to him and said don't play him. That's how it went in all of AZ.

In Denver a friend(Hi Bruce) said that Mr. McChesney had built a room and sold it to another person(looked like an old bowling alley). I went there just about every day for a week, found no action, but it was the nicest pool room I found in my travels west. I heard it was closed now, but kudos to the table layout, dining area, and total design Mr. McChesney :) Then I played downtown at a 2 story older place(strange name I can't remember at the moment). I was there off and on for a couple weeks with no result.

In Houston the only place I got played was Slick Willy's down by Hobby Airport. I went a lot of places, but know I missed some also. Was going to meet Franco to find my way around, but he came to FL not knowing I was gone also.

I won't bore anyone with more stories and I'm not some wannabe world beater chasing gold, I play decent is all. And I still enjoyed all the rooms and people I met. The big thing was that I noticed is that I didn't find near as many players as on the East Coast(that's another story). Is this mainly an east coast game?
 
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Sounds like you’ve been working and traveling too much. You deserve a vacation.

How about Hawaii? It’s nice this time of year and Hawaiian Brian’s (www.hawaiianbrians.com) is a 24-hour room with 39 Gold Crown tables. They have a lot of pool players who enjoy gambling sociably ($10-$20 a game) in a wide range of classes. Quite a few of them also bet higher if the game is properly matched up. It is not uncommon to see a ring nine-ball game played for $40 on the five-ball and $40 on the nine-ball with the money balls re-spotted. You might not be able to compete with the “Top Dog” (Rodney Morris) unless you get spotted, but he’ll do that just to play.

Kim Davenport was here regularly before he injured his eye and got action. The last match I saw him play was with a local player who he spotted the seven-ball for $500 a game. Kim won a few thousand in that match. But he also enjoyed gambling on the golf course with some of the same players in the poolroom. Do you like to golf?

Alex Pagulayan was here a few years ago and won about $20,000.00. Jennifer Chen (WPBA) passed through town and played for $500 on the five and $500 on the nine with different players and won about $30,000.00. If you know any of the pro players on tour who have been here you might ask them about the action at Hawaiian Brian’s.

I have lived in California and Virginia, and played pool in both places. Generally speaking, if you want to play for $20 or more a game, you’re going to have to match up once they clock your speed. But in my experience, there are more “average” pool players in Hawaii who will gamble if they just think they have a chance, and I’m talking about for more than $20-$40 a game. It is also my opinion that there are more accomplished as well as “gambling” pool players in Hawaii per capita than anywhere in the country. I’m dead serious. I think you would enjoy a Hawaiian vacation. Allow at least a couple of weeks.

Aloha,

jayz
 
Is Hawaiian Brian's in Honolulu? I thought about going to graduate school there at the University of Hawaii
 
i just don't think that you were looking hard enough partner...there is quite a bit of action around the tucson and phoenix area...i lived there for a while and had no problem getting played from day one...and i know for a fact you can find plenty of action at al speeds on hard times...i now live in the east too and the talent level is a little higher across the board...your average player here can give the average player out west the 8 or the last 2 or something like that...anyway i've never heard of not getting played out west...if you like i can give you a few names and you can go out there and play some guys i know
 
East coast and action

I went to and got action in every place you mentioned except
McCheesneys. It was Cheesys or something like that when I went after he sold. My partner and I got action at TableStakes
and other places all over Denver and Colorado. I traveled working like you for about 6 years from coast to coast.
SoCal is where I live now and it doesnt have much going on unless your top player.
The south and the east in general benefit from a larger population and closer locations. Especially for tournaments.
The west is dead. Its too hard to get anywhere and is very spread out. Not to mention how expensive everything is out here. Some places out west is not bad though and thats mainly
the north west. Theres at least alarge amount of
weekly, monthly and bigger tournaments around to keep it interesting.

Another thing I noticed after leaving the south is that people bet more per game in bigger cities but quit faster. I cant count high
enough to have people not want o play unless its for 10-20 per game or 50 per set only to lose a game or two or one set and quit. In the south you might start at a buck a rack and win a car!
frankncali
 
I'm sure that's all true and I may have missed a lot of places(It prob. didn't help having Florida Pro Tour on my case either :) But I did enjoy all my time out west and if I ever moved that way it would be to Scottsdale, AZ where I made my base for work. I like the road systems there and the city is very much like Orlando in most other ways. Part of my family lived in HI for many years, but I never made the trip and sometimes wish I would have. Around 1985 my sister sent me a HawaiinBrians shirt actually :) Rodney is here a lot and rumor had it he was moving east soon also. Now my sister lives in Port Orchard, WA and I make frequent trips there.

I was just wondering if others had noticed the difference in styles and numbers of players. Where I live here and play Hall of Famers don't even raise an eyebrow or draw much attention.

I hope you all make the trip east sometime and enjoy the quality of play it has to offer.

:)
 
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jj,

There is plenty in and around Orlando if you look. Adam Wheeler, Josh Diegler, Nick Varner, Louis Viera, Charlie W., etc... all play out of Pro Billiards. The only problem there is it is slow on Friday and Saturday nights until around 11pm.
 
Originally posted by Ruthless

Around Phoenix & Tuscon (spent a lot of time here also). The first place I was told to go was Main Street Billiards in Mesa, there were some guys playing cheap sets. I watched until they were finished and asked one if he wanted to play a few. He asked me what I was rated and when I asked rated in what?, The bartender ran out to him and said don't play him. That's how it went in all of AZ.

Wow Ruthless,

I guess I'm not alone. When I travelled to Phoenix to visit one of the manufacturers I represented, I found the same thing. Maybe the same room in Mesa. Want to play some? Whats your rating? I'm from New York visiting. You got no action! What? Room on Scottsdale Road in Scottsdale, same question, same answer! I've meet several people form Phoenix at the BCA's since. They say it's the way things are done there. They don't like being robbed! Everyone wants a fair game. Right! Maybe Mike H or Chucklez65 will comment on this post.

Different story in Sacramento. I visited my God Daughter in May of this year. I walked into Hard Times about 10 PM on a Sunday night. Barely got past the front counter into the tournament room when, it seemed like one after another, I was asked to play. No one knew me. Or cared. Highly recommended room if you visit there.
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Yep it's pretty dead out here in SoCal except on the first Sunday of the month at Hardtimes in Bellflower. They have a $1,000.00 added 9 Ball tournament and during the warmups and between matches you can get into a +/- $50.00 10 ball ring game.
Victorville John Schmidt went east and Raphael Martinez went north for the money.
 
The reason why it's tough to find action in California is because everything is so spread out. The best way to get action is to search around for open tournaments. Most players who are in handicapped tournaments or leagues are usually afraid to lose more than $100. Open tournaments usually attract the shortstops and house pros.
 
Hi Cardiac,

You are absolutely right about Hard Times in Sacramento. There isn't any shortage of players there. If Tony C or Amar are in town, they'll be there and they always want to match up. There are other players there as well most of whom don't mind losing $100 or $200 just to get some action.

California Billiards in the Penninsula used to have tons of money floating around there until the dot comers took a crash. There is still money there I'm sure, you just have to be a little more patient now. When you're paying a million bucks for a 3 bedroom ranch style house in the burbs, you gotta have some cash.

Also, if you like billiards, carom or carombola, you could check out Edgies in Milpitas. There are lots of players that will accommodate your penchant for gambling.

The Jointed Cue in Sacramento has two billiard tables that have action on them from 8:00 at night until midnight just about every night too. The action is so good that some of the pool players are playing billiards instead of pool.

I guess the bottom line is that you're just lucky to walk into a room and find action waiting for you. It does take a little time to sniff it out but it's usually out there somewhere in most heavily populated areas. If I was going somewhere and wanted to find out where the players congregate, I'd put a post out on here. I'm sure you'd find out a lot in a very short time.
 
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