Generally I don't think of pool as having a "Home Field" advantage. Maybe you go to someone else's house and you play, but it's their table and you would be rude if beat up on your host or hostess to badly. Or maybe you usually play at one room in your town and you go to another room or city / state to play a tournament or an event so you might be a little uncomfortable out side of your familiar surroundings. But the table is what it is and I feel that once you get down and hit your first few balls the familiarity comes back and you're back at the table where you're at home anyways.
Now, being a league player I've played on enough bar tables to recognize that each one has it's own personality and both teams and players have to deal with it, so it's been my experience that it has reasonably the same effect on both players and eventually, given a significant race the better player will rise up and preform well.
Last night we played on one of the oddest beasts that I had ever encountered. This table had cloth that played like deep pile shag carpet from the mid 70's. The table had some "interesting" spots. Where you might expect a ball to lose momentum and gradually roll to a stop, this table had spots where the ball would roll up to and just stop, like some mystical force wouldn't let the balls roll away from that area, there were other spots where the ball actually seemed to pick up speed. The table was tucked back in a room that could barely hold it, there was just enough room - unless you had your cue ball against the rail, and to make matters worse there was a shelf that ran all the way around the room right about at stick level. So anytime you drew your stick back you had to find the shelf and adjust the level of your draw so you had even less control off the rail.
Did I mention that this table was an 8 ft bar Valley? The opposing team was a nice group, but were all bangers that didn't seem to actually be trying to pocket any balls with a clean shot, but it was more like they tried to beat the balls into the pockets with their cues, sort of like a strange game of Wack-A-Mole.
Needless to say, we were soundly defeated but it was a learning experience for us all. Playing on an 8 foot Valley was weird enough, but I soon got the feeling that these guys on the other team knew exactly what they were doing and this time there really was a "Home Table" advantage, not that they were skillful, but they knew the slow spots, they knew which pocket had a severe lip so if you tried to slow roll a ball into that pocket it would stop right at the edge and they knew that if they hit the ball really hard in the general direction of a pocket it had a chance to go somewhere because the rails were really good. It's not in my nature to try and crush every shot and hit the ball with max speed and power, but the next time, if I can get a few cocktails into me before we play I might be inclined to use just my break cue. At least the bartender was a hottie.
Any of you guys ever have stuff like that happen?
Now, being a league player I've played on enough bar tables to recognize that each one has it's own personality and both teams and players have to deal with it, so it's been my experience that it has reasonably the same effect on both players and eventually, given a significant race the better player will rise up and preform well.
Last night we played on one of the oddest beasts that I had ever encountered. This table had cloth that played like deep pile shag carpet from the mid 70's. The table had some "interesting" spots. Where you might expect a ball to lose momentum and gradually roll to a stop, this table had spots where the ball would roll up to and just stop, like some mystical force wouldn't let the balls roll away from that area, there were other spots where the ball actually seemed to pick up speed. The table was tucked back in a room that could barely hold it, there was just enough room - unless you had your cue ball against the rail, and to make matters worse there was a shelf that ran all the way around the room right about at stick level. So anytime you drew your stick back you had to find the shelf and adjust the level of your draw so you had even less control off the rail.
Did I mention that this table was an 8 ft bar Valley? The opposing team was a nice group, but were all bangers that didn't seem to actually be trying to pocket any balls with a clean shot, but it was more like they tried to beat the balls into the pockets with their cues, sort of like a strange game of Wack-A-Mole.
Needless to say, we were soundly defeated but it was a learning experience for us all. Playing on an 8 foot Valley was weird enough, but I soon got the feeling that these guys on the other team knew exactly what they were doing and this time there really was a "Home Table" advantage, not that they were skillful, but they knew the slow spots, they knew which pocket had a severe lip so if you tried to slow roll a ball into that pocket it would stop right at the edge and they knew that if they hit the ball really hard in the general direction of a pocket it had a chance to go somewhere because the rails were really good. It's not in my nature to try and crush every shot and hit the ball with max speed and power, but the next time, if I can get a few cocktails into me before we play I might be inclined to use just my break cue. At least the bartender was a hottie.
Any of you guys ever have stuff like that happen?
