Have you ever visited a pool hall with really good house cues?

V

vintagecollectibles831

Active member
I know, there may have never even been a time, that you can remember, when you did not have your own cue, but I assume maybe some people out there, who enjoy playing, do not have their own cue, and use whatever house cues their local pool hall has to offer.

Well, in my experience, I can only recall one pool hall that I ever visited, that offered decent house cues, and that was my home town pool hall, from back in the 90's.

He offered Valley Supreme house cues, and they had a thin handle, with a nice long taper. He also never used slip on tips, and installed LePro tips on all of his house cues. He had this manual machine, that he would use to do the tip replacements.

They probably do not even made them like that anymore. The ones of today probably have fat handles, and very short tapers, if you know what I mean.

Anyways, curious if you have visited any pool halls in recent times where you felt the house cues were decent? Decent tips on them, with a decent taper, and straight? I know, probably not.

The only players who would ever even check out the house cues are probably just Bangers, for the most part, and would not care anyways. They might roll the cue on the table, to see how straight it is, but that is all.

I personally never liked the idea of going to a pool room, or a bar, if I did not have my own cue. The thought of doing that just makes me sad.

Still just curious what the odds would be of finding a decent house cue at a bar, or pool hall.

Thanks for any thoughts about this.
 
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Yes, back in the 90's and early 00's when pool halls were still using Dufferin. Then came Nick Varner's house cues and the plain Jane, merry widow house cues. LOL

My friend's house. He had his cues in the cue holders. Feel free to grab any cue unless he says otherwise. It's why I love Meucci. I got pretty close to one his Meucci cue. It sort of became mine.
 
At one time it was not difficult to find a good house cue to play with. Sort of reminds me of trying to find a decent house ball when you go bowling… at one time that wasn’t a problem either.
I’ll add that in my generation a “fat handles & short tapers” were prevalent. That did not make it a bad cue. House cues had enough meat on them to make a sneaky.
 
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T411 said:
At one time it was not difficult to find a good house cue to play with. Sort of reminds me of trying to find a decent house ball when you go bowling… at one time that wasn’t a problem either.
I’ll add that in my generation a “fat handles & short tapers” were prevalent. That did not make it a bad cue. House cues had enough meat on them to make a sneaky.
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Which reminds me of my early days just taking my time and going through the house cues and finding the best.

Now, if I ever needed one, I just grab anyone and look at the tip. If the tip is good then I play with it. Don't even bother going through them because they are bad.

If your poolhall serves food then forget about it. The cues will be stained from eating and the different formula in house chalks. They stain a lot more it seems.
 
T411 said:
At one time it was not difficult to find a good house cue to play with. Sort of reminds me of trying to find a decent house ball when you go bowling… at one time that wasn’t a problem either.
I’ll add that in my generation a “fat handles & short tapers” were prevalent. That did not make it a bad cue. House cues had enough meat on them to make a sneaky.
Click to expand...

I loved finding a good bowling ball off the rack back in the day. Sunday morning, $1 a game. $1 for shoes. Good memories of growing up right.
 
A room I think it was called perfect billiards in Texas Dallas area mostly 3 cushion tables only had 2 regular pool tables they- had the best playing house cues I have seen
 
Back in the early 90's, a pool room around Naples, Florida called "World Class Billiards", had all Cuetec house cues...they were kept behind the counter...you had to ask for one, and the room attendant would issue one to you...
 
Bavafongoul said:
Back in the late 60’s, there were house cues still in pretty good condition. I remember because when you found a cue
you really liked, you’d try storing it in some obscure location in the pool hall always hoping that no one would find it.
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The poolroom i started playing in (1969) had all Dufferin housecues and they put new tips on quite frequent. I found the magic cue one day and ran 135 points playing snooker and put it in a rack to use again the next day. The next day I was all excited about using that cue again ,pulled it out of the rack and it didn't work. I think i used up it's magic lol
 
Patrick Johnson said:
Chris’s here in Chicago has pretty good Dufferin wallabushkas and also a rack behind the counter of decent two-piece cues you can borrow for a few bucks.

pj
chgo
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I was out in the burbs.

The original 1960s Gold Crown I ''house cue'' wall racks held 16 cues.
The first supplier/mfg of house cues that Brunswick used, created the first generation of Sneaky Pete's.
 
Clicks used to have all top notch house cues and decent tables. The owners said if the equipment is good the customers will stay longer and return more often.


I went into a old small pool hall in a small college town. Amongst the many poor cues I found 2 very nice 59" 4 point one piece cues with rosewood butts. I offered the owner 300.00 for both. He said no those are cues the old guys playing snooker use. Well less then a month later the bar shut down and liquidated. Those cues were not in the auction.
 
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