How to kill your pool room's business.

Funny, but Sad!

I havent been on the road in two years, I thought it was just Houston, now I feel better knowing that you guys have to deal with it too!!!

As for the pool players not having any money, BCA, APA and the guys that play the local and regional tourny's have money, thats whats keping these places going...., maybe not the hustlers, but john doe player works and drinks and has a few bucks to give to the place...., teach the staff how to serve and sell!!
 
snipershot said:
As for dope, well, that kind of goes hand in hand with a lot of pool halls regardless of any high-stakes gambling going on.

Joe
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word. but where there's drugs there is other crime because where there's one ... What do people think the pool halls of the 50's-60's-70's were like? Now those were the good ole days! If you are scared call the police or jump in my back pocket.
 
went to a large, formerly reputable pool hall, accidentally on the wrong night i guess...

i love loud music a great deal, but this music was so loud that you had to yell to be heard right next to someone, like a dance club even. and of course the music wasnt actually demographically appropriate.

i politely asked the 'kid' in charge if he could turn it down a little, to which he responed " um.... not gunna happen ".
to which i responded " um...good luck with that " and left.

who the hell wants to pay money to get tortured?
and what bonehead came up with the idea that dance club + pool hall = good?

makes me want to choke somebody


*passes soap box to next person*
 
hdgis1 said:
Do you know someplace like that? :rolleyes:

Chris
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Hypothetical of course :rolleyes:

Hypothetically the asshat, after being promoted, would proceed to run off most of the wait staff and piss off regulars.... Would raise drink and pool prices....

Hypothetically I hope they would miss my $800-$1200 a month.....

Heard it was a ghost town thru the week now.....
 
1. Run late week night tournaments
2. Have bad ventilation and a super thick smoke cloud
3. AC that doesn't keep up in summer
4. Ragged out cloth with beer spilled on it
5. Loud music that doesn't represent the taste of your patrons
6. No drink specials
7. Really crappy wait staff with a manager that steals from you
8. Really bad food
 
mnorwood said:
1. Run late week night tournaments
2. Have bad ventilation and a super thick smoke cloud
3. AC that doesn't keep up in summer
4. Ragged out cloth with beer spilled on it
5. Loud music that doesn't represent the taste of your patrons
6. No drink specials
7. Really crappy wait staff with a manager that steals from you
8. Really bad food
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Sounds about like every place I've ever been in. I really miss those days. :love2:
 
Barkeep,counter person;
After thirty seven years in customer service, if the owner has no clue who he's hired, its not the employees fault. Its 20% pool room and 100% customer service, and if you give it 120% there's still no guarantee it'll work.
 
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Sounds quite a bit like the one and only hall left in our city.

Playing on the new Diamond plug table, the manager brings over the balls, switches the table from time to plug and then throws one ball down the hole
so I have to plug $1.50 to get it.

I looked at my wife and said, " He just blew his tip for the evening.
 
Business

Secaucus Fats said:
1.) Hire lazy, clueless people, who don't give a damn and have absolutely no personality or people skills.

2.) Make sure the flooring or carpeting is filthy and sticky.

3.) Make sure the rest rooms are filthy and don't have any soap or paper towels.

4.) Make sure the cloth on the tables is worn super thin and is full of nicks, tears, holes, and stains.

5.) Never clean the tables or the cloth.

6.) Never clean the balls, and make sure all the house cues are shot to hell.

7.) Charge outrageous prices for beer and booze.

OK, what else could a room owner do to drive customers away?
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There's no excuse for most of that, especially the stuff that doesn't cost much or anything. I'm constantly reminded that I need to do a better job, and it sounds like I'm not alone. My dad used to say "in business, there's always room right above whoever is doing the best job now". There's lots of empty buildings out there, and, as Fast Eddie said to Burt Gordon in 'The Hustler', "go find yourself a big fat 'pool hall' and get rich-you got all the answers".:smile:
 
Narcissistic, egomaniacal, over-the-hill "house pros" that think they know everything about everything, constantly pumping themselves up while putting everybody else down, and whenever they lose it was due to "luck" of a lesser player. LOLOL! :D
Also the stench of urine and vomit...clean the carpets and check the corners of the room at least daily.
:p
 
Charlie Hustle said:
Sounds like Slick Willies on Nasa Rd 1 in Houston. Oh yea, they just closed down...
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Hey Charlie,
Can't say I am surprised or upset to see this. I hated that fricking place. The tables were the worst in the southeast houston area. The next one to go will be Barnies up at Monroe. Its hot as hell in there, big thug factor and less than great tables or service.
 
Remove all the pool tables. Pretty much guaranteed way to put an end to a pool hall.
 
mnorwood said:
Tap, tap, tap.
Thanks for posting this. In my opinion this is the single biggest thing that kills weekly tournaments and keeps the game down. The problem is I don't know of a room owner that recognizes or gives a crap about this.

Whats wrong with having a weekly tournament that starts at 5:00 on Friday or 2:00 pm on Saturday?:mad:
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It's why I rarely do tournaments anymore.

I've seen it kill a lot of potential. The guy who works shows up to pactice before the tourney, buys a drink or two, brings a friend, buys table time, etc. so he's ready to play for the 7 o'clock start time.

By 8:30 when the tourney actually starts, he's drunk, tired of waiting for the good players to show up late again, loses his first match, buys a few more drinks, loses the second or third match which isn't played until 10:30 or so when his wife wants him home anyway...so he goes home, unlikely to return anytime soon.

If there was a tourney format that guaranteed everyone would play from 7 to 11, for example, I'd go much more often, knowing I didn't have to drive home in the dangerous hours and lose sleep and money just to place....or not.

Jeff Livingsto
 
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Secaucus Fats said:
1.) Hire lazy, clueless people, who don't give a damn and have absolutely no personality or people skills.

2.) Make sure the flooring or carpeting is filthy and sticky.

3.) Make sure the rest rooms are filthy and don't have any soap or paper towels.

7.) Charge outrageous prices for beer and booze.

OK, what else could a business owner do to drive customers away?
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Unfortunately, the above applies to lots o businesses in the US.
 
Ive noticed that the best rooms are ran by players of the game. Find yourself lucky if you call one of these halls your own...
 
ctyhntr said:
No sense to penalize the players who showed up on time. Why not go ahead and start the tournament with bye, if stragglers show up you can put them in place of bye (if there is room and match hasn't been completed). If its a double elimination, and they show up really late, then they could come in on the loser side.
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Something I did that worked well, and that IMO more weekly tournaments would benefit by doing, is to raise the entry fee after post time. So for a $10 tournament, I would charge late players $12 if they called ahead and $14 otherwise, assuming there was still an open bye to fill. That fairly small incentive did a pretty good job of getting people there on time.
 
Laughing at your customers while you install red cloth will slow down your pool business pretty quick.

Kevin
 
how to kill a pool room

Start charging a cover,because you took out 5 tables to make room for some BS Band, A band that noone wants to hear, then to make things worse raise the price on the remaining tables to make up for the others that were removed
 
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