How often is does your pool hall tables get refelted?

measureman

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Romines in Milwaukee assign you a table when you pick up your balls, it is at that time they turn the light on over the table you will be using. I suppose if you wanna play in the dark you can use any table.
I worked part time in a room that had 36 Gold crowns and all the lights were off until someone rented a table.
Many times I would turn the lights on a table and they would go and play on a dark table.
This is when maybe 5 or 6 tables were being used.
I would not say a word and after a while they would come up and ask me to turn the light on.
I did it's that one next to where you are playing in the dark.
Another good one is when all the tables were being used except the one billiard table they would insist on that table.
So I would give them the 3 billiards balls and they would refuse them because they wanted to play 8 ball.
It's a billiards table.
Nope still wanted the tray of balls.
Back they come and complain theres no pockets on the table.
It's a billiards table.
Sometimes being the house man was a lot of fun with the tourists.
 

ChrisinNC

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Romines in Milwaukee assign you a table when you pick up your balls, it is at that time they turn the light on over the table you will be using. I suppose if you wanna play in the dark you can use any table.
We try to be as nice and as accommodating as we can to all our customers but the bottom line is, we can’t afford to lose customers. If they request a certain table and we tell them that particular table has extremely tight pockets and they still wish to play on it, oh well, it’s their choice.

If there’s really a table we don’t want bangers or kids to play on, on tourist weekends we will actually keep that table covered up. If someone asks why can’t they play on that covered up table, we tell them it’s under repair.
 

measureman

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
We try to be as nice and as accommodating as we can to all our customers but the bottom line is, we can’t afford to lose customers. If they request a certain table and we tell them that particular table has extremely tight pockets and they still wish to play on it, oh well, it’s their choice.

If there’s really a table we don’t want bangers or kids to play on, on tourist weekends we will actually keep that table covered up. If someone asks why can’t they play on that covered up table, we tell them it’s under repair.
You could tell them it's being refelted or is it cloth?
 

iusedtoberich

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
In the late 90's and early 2000's when pool was booming in my Philly hometown, the premier "player's room" would put new Simonis about every 6 months. When business slowed down in the late 2000's, it changed to about once per year. Other rooms were always much longer. Some went as long as 4-5 years before replacing the cloth.
 

Geosnookery

Well-known member
There are two pool halls close to where I live. Same owner. They recloth a couple tables each month. Tables are not ‘reserved ‘ but regular serious players know which tables to use. Most dabblers wouldn’t notice.

At our Royal Legion the Snooker and pool table are reclothed about every six months but done by volunteers and some company will donate the cost of the material. I think some of the older vets like to recloth them whether they need it or not...an excuse to be active. The Legion has a mini bus and its a standing joke that it’s the best maintained vehicle in the city...always a dozen ex maintenance guys looking under the hood.
 

Cuebuddy

Mini cues
Silver Member
I wouldn’t call a nick the same as a gouge. What I would call a nick certainly tears some fibers in the cloth surface, but nothing bad enough to worry about replacing the cloth. Using an electric razor does a good job of removing the fiber threads that are sticking up, so a slow rolling ball won’t be as affected by the small imperfections in the cloth caused by the nick.

There is certainly no way to prevent the white burn marks, break tracks and along the cushion tracks near the pockets and racking spots where the balls are racked. That is normal unpreventable wear that is slightly lessened by 860HR cloth as opposed to regular 860 cloth.
Scooping is much like a miscue. I have only cut the cloth on my home table a half dozen times in 12 years, always from a miscue. I don't jump often since I am almost always kick at balls. Probably jumped less then 25 times, never nicked the cloth while doing it.
 
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So I haven't been talking here much mostly cause I have stayed in my apartment since October. I have not played pool. Not cause the pool hall is closed or anything but because of Covid concerns. If you guys ever want to come to South Dakota we only had 1 lock down back in march of 2020. Since then everything has been open.

Also I have been spending more time on Reddit. So I made a post on Reddit about pool tables or such and someone commented that their pool hall changes the felt on the pool tables once every 18 months. Is this normal? How often should pool tables be refelted?

Thanks
The ones I play in once a year.
 

ChrisinNC

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Scooping is much like a miscue. I have only cut the cloth on my home table a half dozen times in 12 years, always from a miscue. I don't jump often since I am almost always kick at balls. Probably jumped less then 25 times, never nicked the cloth while doing it.
Legal jump shots are no issue - just a burn mark.
 

straightline

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Pool equipment is way stone age. Cloth could be kevlar on a screen. Take it out back, hose it off, remount. Tips need to be synthetic/chalkless. End of that. Slate could be composite but the Italians need time to move into composites.
 

garczar

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Pool equipment is way stone age. Cloth could be kevlar on a screen. Take it out back, hose it off, remount. Tips need to be synthetic/chalkless. End of that. Slate could be composite but the Italians need time to move into composites.
Royal Pro now has a pool cloth. 100%synthetic. The billiard version has been in use for some time and has gotten nothing but good reviews afaik.
 
I rapid reputable pool hall will do it every year,. A decent bar every 2-3 years. Crappy bar when the felt is torn to bad to patch most home tables about 4 years if they don't play all the time other wise every other year if it's used alot. I'm no mechanic but from personal experience these are the numbers most of the time
 

jtompilot

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
We try to be as nice and as accommodating as we can to all our customers but the bottom line is, we can’t afford to lose customers. If they request a certain table and we tell them that particular table has extremely tight pockets and they still wish to play on it, oh well, it’s their choice.

If there’s really a table we don’t want bangers or kids to play on, on tourist weekends we will actually keep that table covered up. If someone asks why can’t they play on that covered up table, we tell them it’s under repair.
Reminds me of the time when I used to play at Snookers in Lavonia. They only had like six tables with Simonis and reasonably tight pockets. I don’t think my table time was ever under $50 and a few times close to a hundred. One day I went in for my normal gambling match and all the Simonis tables were being played on by hacks, truly beginners. I asked the manager why he’s giving the all the best tables to hacks that don’t know what their doing. The manager gave me some smart @$$ remark and I never played there again.
 

ChrisinNC

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Reminds me of the time when I used to play at Snookers in Lavonia. They only had like six tables with Simonis and reasonably tight pockets. I don’t think my table time was ever under $50 and a few times close to a hundred. One day I went in for my normal gambling match and all the Simonis tables were being played on by hacks, truly beginners. I asked the manager why he’s giving the all the best tables to hacks that don’t know what their doing. The manager gave me some smart @$$ remark and I never played there again.
For a room owner/manager struggling to pay the bills, you can’t always pick and choose who is playing on your best tables. If the table is open and you have customers wanting to play, you can’t afford to turn them down. What you can do is to stay on top of it, to observe and make sure they don’t abuse the table. If they are, you have to handle it politely and with discretion, and realize that they likely don’t even know what is considered as abuse to a table.

When the tables are full and we have to put what I know are going to be kids or recreational bangers on our best table, if possible, I’ll try to pick whatever regulars may be playing on another table and ask them if they wouldn’t mind switching to the best table at the completion of their current game, so I can keep the other group off that table. Generally they are accommodating.
 
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garczar

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
For a room owner/manager struggling to pay the bills, you can’t always pick and choose who is playing on your best tables. If the table is open and you have customers wanting to play, you can’t afford to turn them down. What you can do is to stay on top of it, to observe and make sure they don’t abuse the tables. If they are, you have to handle it politely and with discretion, and realize that they may not even know what is and isn’t abuse to a table.
We just had tables recovered with ANDY988. Sat. night some ballbanger tried to jump without knowing a thing about pool. Yep, tore to cloth. Not real bad and i think they can super glue it down to keep it from growing. I hate jump shots. These jackoffs see a good player do it and they just assume they can too. Brutal.
 

KRJ

Support UKRAINE
Silver Member
For a room owner/manager struggling to pay the bills, you can’t always pick and choose who is playing on your best tables. If the table is open and you have customers wanting to play, you can’t afford to turn them down. What you can do is to stay on top of it, to observe and make sure they don’t abuse the tables. If they are, you have to handle it politely and with discretion, and realize that they may not even know what is and isn’t abuse to a table.
yup, good points.

In my dad's pool room back in the late 70s, I'd tell folks to not put drinks on the rails, or cigarettes, etc. I worked there after HS, but usually was cutting class to get there earlier. I was like a hawk. Most complied. The ones that didn't, and told this skinny kid to bug off, I'd just say well, I guess I will let Phil know you refused. He was one of my dads partners. Those who knew Racetrack Phil quickly removed whatever they put on the rails and apologized profusely, so I would not call him. The folks who have not yet met Phil were about to find out the hard way.

Phil was not what you would call "customer friendly" to anyone that didn't follow the rules. He was a hot tempered dude who looked like a boxer and had a permanent scowl on this face. He always carried a gun, concealed, but he never left home without it. 1970's Chicago had some of the toughest gun laws in the country. Concealed carry? Not unless you had a friend on the City Council or your dad was a judge, otherwise, no chance.

But, the only time I saw him pull the weapon was when some dude was trying to leaving without paying his $10 tab. He literally flew over the counter when he heard what was going on and the guy was trying to walk out. He grabbed him by the back of the shirt, put the gun to his head and politely asked, "going somewhere Jackson". I'll never forget that as long as I live. The customer was pissed and asked his question, "you gonna shoot me over $5". Phil said, "No i'm gonna shoot you over $10". It was quite a Quentin Tarantino esque moment.

He walked him back to the counter, told him to pay me and the guy threw out a $20 bill on the counter. Phil then asked, "is there something else you need". The guy said, "yeah, my change would be nice". Phil said, "you're a big tipper, now get out". I never got a $10 tip before, lol
 
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