How to Own a Poolhall?

You need at least 6 tables to get started, 12 is better.
3×-6× 8-foot tables compared to 9-foot tables.
8-foot tables for league, 9-foot tables for "high Rollers."

You need the capital to buy all the tables, furnish the building, have 2-years of operating expenses, and equip the building for pool aficionados, their drinking habits and food tastes.

You NEED TO BUY THE BUILDING--do not let a lease holder squeeze you to death--its is easy enough for *.gov to do that.

You need to be the:
front register operator,
the security team,
the face to the police,
the face to *.gov,
the cleaning crew,
the maintenance crew,
the league operator,
the accountant,
the financial planner,
the legal team,
the bar tender,
and cook.

Figure 12-16 hour days for at least 2 years, until your finances allow you to employ your first employee.
Unless you’re in Texas you should forget about 8’ tables. If I can’t play on a nice 9’ table or a Diamond bar box I’d just quit playing.
 
I've never owned a Poolhall. It seems like a dream...Getting paid and playing pool all day everyday.
  • How many tables do you need to get started?
  • How much capital to get started?
  • What to know if you want to buy an existing Poolhall?
  • Do you need any special talents? (Like a car salesman)
There must be some Poolhall owners here. How sweet is your life?
Buy a copy of More Pool Wars. There is an entire chapter on how to open and make a poolroom successful. I've done it four times!
 
Yeah it has it's up sides...but having owned a room from 2017-2023 I will mention the issues.

- Your pool playing friends will expect special conderation...in fact they may be the worst behaved of the pool playing regulars.

-Employees may love working at a pool hall because they can hit balls for hours and give free things to their buddies. Real hard to get reliable help who will work until 3am and not rob you blind.

-The general public sucks. No concept that Simonis cloth on a 9 foot is $450 installed. Billiard cloth...worse.
They will soil every table within the first 3 months. You will learn how to clean an entire table.
IV drugs in the bathroom.
Missing 8 and 9 balls.
Property destruction for no reason.

- I survived the covid shutdowns....flourished actually....but know government at all levels despises a pool hall.

-You aren't ever "off". Problem comes up,it is yours to solve. Better be mechanically inclined and good at drywall/painting.

-Pool players...especially retired ones are the cheapest form of life on earth. They want 1 hour or less special proving when you have 8 dollar play all day. ..Half orders of home cooked food fir half price...and a glass of tap water.

Upsides
-It's a cash business and you sell time....do the math.
-Losing money in a pool hall is a fantastic thing if it offsets your day job pays if you make good money.
-You play a part in pro.oting pool as it should be in your area, but you get an up close view of how pool goes nowhere, turns into something unrecognizable or just dies.

I worked full time days in my medical job and 4 nights a week....17 hour days for years. Not for anyone without the drive to get there.
I can relate. When you own a poolroom you now have a seven day a week, 365 days a year JOB! You've just bought yourself a full time job. That is if you want it to be successful. Absentee owners go broke! For me a 60 hour or more work week was normal. But I was making good money and I was still young and loved the life. After age 60 it started getting very wearisome to do inventory every morning and then go to the various places where I stocked up on food and supplies. That meant business was good though. I did enjoy all the fun times, but remember clearly the times when things took a turn for the worse (see Pool Wars for details). It made a man out of me and I survived. I invested well and now don't need to do that gig anymore.

One last caveat any new owner should be aware it. It's Internal Theft that dooms many small businesses. Train your employees well, then trust they will do a good job, but always have a way (hidden camera) to verify they are not stealing from you. The best "managers" are the ones who can find a way to circumvent your controls when you are not around.
 
Have around 12 small bar boxes with big easy pockets. The tables should all be pearl white with pink cloth. Along one side have a salon with manicure stands, large mirrors and yoga classes.
It will be all women at first until the word gets out then guess who’s coming? 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️
If that actually worked, I think you would make money with that.
 
Be warned, your broken toilet seat could end up laying on the floor for months on end.
Total time between immediate replacement of course.

Have around 12 small bar boxes with big easy pockets. The tables should all be pearl white with pink cloth. Along one side have a salon with manicure stands, large mirrors and yoga classes.
It will be all women at first until the word gets out then guess who’s coming? 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️
Queens?
 
If that actually worked, I think you would make money with that.

Being self employed is not utopia, many small business people would be better off working at the VA for salary, bennies, and pension.

Many people who are self employed work for less then minimum wage at end of day, after the bills are paid.

Can not buy a New Car, Homes with love, owning a Pool Hall for love of game is goofy..

Have not seen many Pool Room Owners driving New Cars every year, most drive junkers.
 
To be a sucessful pool hall you need a few things.

You kinda need to be a sales person to get people in the door and to keep them there.
You can't make money just with pool alone you need other sources of income in the building. Selling pool stuff or food.
Pool players are really not your income, it's the bangers where the money is at.
 
To be a sucessful pool hall you need a few things.

You kinda need to be a sales person to get people in the door and to keep them there.
You can't make money just with pool alone you need other sources of income in the building. Selling pool stuff or food.
Pool players are really not your income, it's the bangers where the money is at.


Ditto.
 
if you are not an experienced business person successful in other things then dont even try it. and also want to work long hours and make less than a normal living even if successful.

be a customer.
 
Well Pool is not thriving like it was 10-15 years ago.

In Phoenix Arizona the list of Pool Rooms & Bars with Pool tables is long. That all closed.

Think over 15 are gone, and mambe 1 or 2 new places opened.

So let’s say opening a New Pool Room is risky venture.
 
The op is a clueless dreamer. There is NO way i'd open one UNLESS: i owned the building. No fkn way i'd pay rent. If you own the building and the business sux you sill have some equity. Would also have to be more of a sportsbar with tables to make any $$. A true old-school 'hall really has little chance of surviving. Possible under certain circumstances but rare.
Even owning the building is no guarantee of success. Jean Balukas family closed down their poolhall a couple of years ago because they couldn't keep up with the real estate taxes.

I agree, the majority of posters are clueless dreamers. My advice is anyone who is serious, hire the manager or owner of an existing successful poolhall as a consultant. Picked their brains. The owners of The Hub in Oceanside NY published a book detailing how they opened, and ran a pool hall. Last time I suggested this, one of people balked about buying a $40 book.
 
Baby Huey owns his building, otherwise he’d probably been done a long time ago.
Owning the building is not the secret really. I had two rooms and rented both. One is still open 40 later. At the same time I had a building that would have made a perfect pool room, 6000 sqft and a lot of parking on a main road. It was never even a consideration.

The building was rented to an armed navy store for $6000.00 a month. And they were great tenents. Always paid on time with no problems. Running a business in a building you own is not free. Right off the top you have to take into account what you could get from it just sitting at home without the headache of running something like a a pool room.

Having said that I do have a formula for opening a pool room that works. I helped to different guys open rooms that were both successful. I don't think the op was really serious and won't bother writing it out in this thread.
 
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