Is it true that many pool rooms offer free table time to league players?

J

justinb386

Banned
I think I remember reading on here awhile back about some pool halls that offer free table time to their in house league players.

This is hard to believe, but maybe the free table time is only on league nights (when your team is playing).

Who all does this that you know of (places that offer free table time to their in house league players, at any time, and not just on league nights, when the players team is playing)?

I know that I remember reading something like this awhile back, but maybe I am wrong.

I would be very happy to join APA league, or any in house league, if it meant that the owner offered free pool to their in house league players.

I am just curious if their are actually pool halls that offer free table time (at any time, or maybe just during certain hours of the day) to their in house league players?

Thanks for sharing any truth that you know about this (I am just very curious, because I know that table time is very expensive at a lot of places).
 
Yes it is true. A lot of places here offer free table time to their league players during league night.....before and after the session begins that night.

I'm fortunate enough to be able to pay a $5 flat rate and play from open to close here on Diamond tables....7 or 9 ft so time doesn't bother me. The highest around here is about $7/hr.
 
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My suggest and the best way to figure this out is to ask the league operator or the bar owner. I was just part of a league recently (NAPL) that struck a deal with the owner that for the first season of the league all members would have free pool time. He had a list of names on a piece of paper and all the servers and bartenders knew who could get free time.

Otherwise the APA league I'm in only gives me free pool time during the day of. So my league is on Wednesday and starts at 7pm. But if I arrive at 4pm and stay til 2am, I get all that as free time.

That my personal experience.
 
Allen Brown said:
Yes it is true. A lot of places here offer free table time to their league players during league night.....before and after the session begins that night.

I'm fortunate enough to be able to pay a $5 flat rate and play from open to close here on Diamond tables....7 or 9 ft so time doesn't bother me. The highest around here is about $7/hr.
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That is really cool. I lived in Bristol VA for a year, and the local pool hall downtown had $5 daily pool (from like 6 pm until closing time, at midnight I think it was). The problem was that the place did not really have any good competition, and was mostly dead most of the time (except for league nights, during league play). Very nice place though (nice Brunswick tables, that were kept in very good condition). The pool hall in Johnson City TN (nearby) had free table time if you ordered a meal, and that place was awesome (the tables were all custom made, and the balls were super nice, and they cleaned them daily, so they were super shiny at all times). That was the nicest pool room I have ever been to.
 
IMHO join a league because you want to play in a league. Any discount etc is a perk.


When I played in college I payed $1 an hour on campus. They had all 9 foot Gold Crowns. When I played off campus I played for free at my favorite pool hall, but it was a couple years before I got free table time there. I was never in an amateur league until almost 9 years after I stopped playing seriously. I was home on an extended break between clinical assignments in med school. I played some league players in a bar and they convinced me to come play on their team. I found it very unsatisfying. I got called back to school before the team went to Vegas.

I am still not interested in leagues but my young protege started in one. I believe last week he won four of his five games.



Personally, I wouldn't do it just for table time or discounts.

But that's just me.



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I read that on here too a couple of times and yes I'd did sound like free time all the time for leaguers. I found that kinda hard to understand when I read it. Round here they open the tables like an hour or two before league starts and may or may not leave them open the rest of the night. I don't ever recall anyone round here giving free time all the time though.

We do have a couple places that basically give you a half day for $5. Talking about table time : one of the places I used to hang was Running Out Billiards and for like 30+ years there table time was $1 an hour. Then I think around 2005 they raised it to $2 /hr till they closed in 2013. They were not worried about the table time as that was not where they made their money 😉. Actually was past there the other day and it is now some kind of foreign market - very sad indeed.

On a side note, on that thread the other day about what pool halls have Diamonds , someone posted a link to the website for a room in CALI and they had their rate at $14/hr!!!! Is that normal out there? That's hard to imagine fun players paying that.
 
We absolutely offer free table time to any member of one of our pool teams. The only stipulation is, not after 6pm on Fridays and all day Saturday. We have 14-16 teams, depending on the time of year. So we give away a lot of free pool. Brian.
 
a1712 said:
We absolutely offer free table time to any member of one of our pool teams. The only stipulation is, not after 6pm on Fridays and all day Saturday. We have 14-16 teams, depending on the time of year. So we give away a lot of free pool. Brian.
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Aside from just being a nice perk, what / how does that benefit your pool room? Do you make it up in food / bev sales? Do you have alcohol ?
 
BmoreMoney said:
I read that on here too a couple of times and yes I'd did sound like free time all the time for leaguers. I found that kinda hard to understand when I read it. Round here they open the tables like an hour or two before league starts and may or may not leave them open the rest of the night. I don't ever recall anyone round here giving free time all the time though.

We do have a couple places that basically give you a half day for $5. Talking about table time : one of the places I used to hang was Running Out Billiards and for like 30+ years there table time was $1 an hour. Then I think around 2005 they raised it to $2 /hr till they closed in 2013. They were not worried about the table time as that was not where they made their money 😉. Actually was past there the other day and it is now some kind of foreign market - very sad indeed.

On a side note, on that thread the other day about what pool halls have Diamonds , someone posted a link to the website for a room in CALI and they had their rate at $14/hr!!!! Is that normal out there? That's hard to imagine fun players paying that.
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Wow, the highest rate that I ever seen was $9.00 per person (per hour) in a pool room in St. Louis MO, and I think it may have had a $27 cap on a table (per hour), and that was way back in the 90's.
 
BmoreMoney said:
Aside from just being a nice perk, what / how does that benefit your pool room? Do you make it up in food / bev sales? Do you have alcohol ?
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We sell a lot of food and alcohol, over 400lbs. of Chicken Wings every week. To be honest we really don't give that much free pool away. With our amount of teams playing Mon.-Thurs., there really isn't many tables left to shoot free pool on. There will be league down time between sessions, but this brings the guys/gals into practice that wouldn't be there without league play. Most will spend money while shooting for free, but you will have your people that will drink water for 4 hours while shooting, but the good outweighs the bad. Brian.
 
We play free on league nights, from 6 pm on till closing. One room gives league players a discounted rate on other nights ( other than friday or saturday), and I believe the new room in town has something similar. The Eagles Club that my team plays out of is ridiculously cheap tp play at anyway, so its kinda silly to expect it there. (.25 per game, free pool on Wednesdays).
 
If you are an EARLY riser on weekends, pool is free for everybody at Hawaiian Brian's every Saturday and Sunday, from 6:00 AM until noon on all regulation tables. Bar tables still require your money.
 
As long as you have a league team and pay your weekly rate (15-20 bucks a person), pool is free 7 days a week from open to close. And you're fees go towards year end prize pool, so you can win money back.

Sweetest deal ever.

That's

11.62-15.49 in USD
 
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The room closest to me is $10 per hour. If you are a APA or VNEA league member I think that goes to $5 per hour. However, if you are a "regular" there, they basically don't charge table time. When I first went there I was considered "good" or something, and the owner was very welcoming and told me I didn't have to pay table time. Now I'm sponsored by that place, and also play on an APA team out of there. I try my best to promote the room. Long before any sponsorship or anything, I made a point of getting my dinner there, buying drinks, tipping very well, and putting tips on the owners many cues for free. I suppose for this room it is kinda easy to do free pool, because it is a Chinese restaurant on the other half, you can get that full menu in the pool room, and they have full liquor and a decent size bar that is often full with non pool players. Its actually a very nice room, and they have been in business for like 40 years with the restaurant, and about 8 years with the pool room. Maybe 7...they were actually on the cover of Billiards Digest in the best new pool rooms issue in like 2009. They are obviously doing something right!


KMRUNOUT
 
When you join a team how are you gonna get there to play or practice? As far as I know you won''t be able to get your drivers license until you turn 16. Also some places you cannot get in until you're 21. Meanwhile,hang in there and keep posting questions,you have many fans !!!
 
In my league (pool hall not a bar and BCA) we start at 8PM. Tables open at 7PM for practice and you can play until midnight at no charge. In addition, the league members get a cut rate of approximately 30% on pool time during the week and weekends when the league is in session (36 or so weeks). A pretty good deal in my view.
 
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