Looking to move up to a 9 footer.

Luck1st

Luck1st

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have a Valley barbox now in my basement that I play on. Right now it gets used about 3-5 nights a week for about 30 min - 1 hour 30 min. I have a chance to buy a Brunswick Monticello for real cheap. It is a 9' table.
I need input...... Will I continue to play as much at home? Or will my playing time fade?
Will my play improve?

I am going to leave both up for a while.
Just need to make some skirts for the 9 footer.

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Don't know much about that model. Have you seen the table? If it plays like crap and you don't have a mechanic resolve it then your playing time might go down. But all other things being equal I don't see where the table size itself would affect anything, assuming you have sufficient room for the bigger table. The only thing I could see would be if you normally compete on bar boxes and have a hard time adjusting, then maybe you wouldn't use the table as much. I suppose if you just don't like nine footers you won't use it. If I went from my 9' table to a bar box I'd probably not use it as much, but I just don't care for the smaller box.
 
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If you always play on a BB it may hurt you because playing on a 9 ft is a different game.

There is a reason that many pros stay away from them and it isn't because they are too easy by being smaller.

The best thing to do is go to a PH and play on a 9 ft table and decide from that.


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I've been playing a long time, but I can count the times I've played on small tables on one hand. I just don't enjoy it.

IMO, it's not really a big problem adjusting down to a little table if you're playing on a 9' table. But going from a little table to a regulation table is another story.
 
As far as the setup of the 9 footer, yes it is best to have it set up right but look at the quality of the tables in the phillipines and the ability of their players. The 9 foot table does not have to be perfect.

As far as improving your game, it depends on what game you want to improve. If you are playing in tournaments, leagues, whatever on bar tables, keep the bar table. If you are playing outside of your home on 8 and 9 foot tables, get the bigger table.

When I first started playing pool I was playing mostly on bar tables, but wished to move up to tournaments and action on the 9 footers. Within a year of starting to play I had an 8 foot table set up in my house. My game on the 9 footers went up fast. This was back when they had the big cue ball on bar tables so the difference between and 8 and 9 foot table was not as big a jump as from a bar to 8 foot table. The cue ball was the big difference back then.
 
Thanks for the responses.

I really only play on bar box tables, for league, tournaments, State. Rarely do I play on big tables. Its just that I have heard that if you play well on a big table it will improve your bar box game???? Is this true???
 
I think that is only somewhat true. If you play too much on a 9 footer, it can actually take some adjusting when you go back down to the 7 footer
 
The nice thing about valley vs. brunswick is that the rails should play pretty similar (assuming they are original). If you said diamond barbox versus brunswick, or valley versus diamond 9'er, I would say you'd have a significant adjustment to make.

One of the nation's top barbox players told me that he practices exclusively on big tables.

Aaron
 
Luck1st said:
Thanks for the responses.

I really only play on bar box tables, for league, tournaments, State. Rarely do I play on big tables. Its just that I have heard that if you play well on a big table it will improve your bar box game???? Is this true???
Click to expand...

I have a 9 footer at home and unfortunately, I find myself competing more and more on the barboxes.

I prefer practicing on the 9 footer by a mile and then some. The 9 footer causes you to pay more attention to your fundamentals and you have to develop a better stroke....but this does come with a price - it takes me too long to adjust to a bar table (couple hours sometimes). It can be painful at times. I have to deliberate over every shot. I think the patterns are totally different when you are playing 9/10 ball on bar table vs. a big table.

Oh well, I think my struggles on the bar tables will disappear as I play on them more. But it doesn't work quite as easily the other way around - most decent bar table players are lost on a big table.

Get the big table.
 
Got the Big table home last night. Going to start to set it up this week.
I think I will leave both tables up for a while.
 
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