Need some advice please

[crappoolguy]

I'm looking to buy a pool table (outdoor pool table actually, as I have no room inside) and it seems I have three options. By the way, before I get started I'll just say that I like snooker very much as well as pool, maybe snooker a little more.

Option number one: 9 foot pool table. Pool would be the main game here, and I'd have the pockets fixed to 4 and a quarter inches. Then, when I want to play snooker, I put some pratice pro pocket reducers on (takes away about an inch of the pocket) and get a sorta half decent game of snooker.

Option number two: 12 foot snooker table (yes, they do make an outdoor version). The reason why I like this option is because I think it will make me a better player in the long run, because of the ability to practice distance shots and the size of the pockets (which I'd have made at 3 and a sixteenth of an inch, the same as on tv). The reason I DON'T like this option is because I don't get to practice pool AT ALL (the rails are too small). And while snooker may improve my pool game slightly, playing pool for pool will be better. So Somewhere down the line I'd probably get a cheap 6 or 7 foot american indoor pool table (we'd have to knock down a chimnie and even then we'd have to use shorter cues a lot). This could quite possibley be the best thing to do but it is also by far the most expensive.

Option number 3, the final choice: Get a 12 foot snooker table but with pool pockets and rails. I don't know whether that is possible but I'm sure it is. I'd have the pockets tight at 4 inches for pool (I'm sure that coupled with the distance will improve me dramatically) and then put the practice pro reducers (PPR) on for three inch pockets. I like this option a lot but I'm just wondering how good the PPR really are. If anyone has them then could you say how well they work please? Thank you.

I guess that's it and I'm sorry for the long, rambling post but I would just like to know what you guys think is the best in the long run for a player like me (who eventually wants to become pro in both cue sports). Thank you for your time.

 

[Jude Rosenstock]

I'm looking to buy a pool table (outdoor pool table actually, as I have no room inside) and it seems I have three options. By the way, before I get started I'll just say that I like snooker very much as well as pool, maybe snooker a little more.

Option number one: 9 foot pool table. Pool would be the main game here, and I'd have the pockets fixed to 4 and a quarter inches. Then, when I want to play snooker, I put some pratice pro pocket reducers on (takes away about an inch of the pocket) and get a sorta half decent game of snooker.

Option number two: 12 foot snooker table (yes, they do make an outdoor version). The reason why I like this option is because I think it will make me a better player in the long run, because of the ability to practice distance shots and the size of the pockets (which I'd have made at 3 and a sixteenth of an inch, the same as on tv). The reason I DON'T like this option is because I don't get to practice pool AT ALL (the rails are too small). And while snooker may improve my pool game slightly, playing pool for pool will be better. So Somewhere down the line I'd probably get a cheap 6 or 7 foot american indoor pool table (we'd have to knock down a chimnie and even then we'd have to use shorter cues a lot). This could quite possibley be the best thing to do but it is also by far the most expensive.

Option number 3, the final choice: Get a 12 foot snooker table but with pool pockets and rails. I don't know whether that is possible but I'm sure it is. I'd have the pockets tight at 4 inches for pool (I'm sure that coupled with the distance will improve me dramatically) and then put the practice pro reducers (PPR) on for three inch pockets. I like this option a lot but I'm just wondering how good the PPR really are. If anyone has them then could you say how well they work please? Thank you.

I guess that's it and I'm sorry for the long, rambling post but I would just like to know what you guys think is the best in the long run for a player like me (who eventually wants to become pro in both cue sports). Thank you for your time.

Seriously, if I were you, I would try to actually PLAY on an outdoor table before you buy one. It's not the same and I think most pool players would be disappointed.

 

[crappoolguy]

Seriously, if I were you, I would try to actually PLAY on an outdoor table before you buy one. It's not the same and I think most pool players would be disappointed.

Even the slate bedded, sunbrella clothed ones? And to be honest, for snooker, I don't really think I'd care. For pool I might.

 

[Jude Rosenstock]

Even the slate bedded, sunbrella clothed ones? And to be honest, for snooker, I don't really think I'd care. For pool I might.

I played outside in downtown Manhattan at Battery Park City, right off the Hudson and to say the least, it's a bit windy there. You can mess-up position just from a good gust of wind. That day, the wind was blowing up table so my breaks looked kind of hysterical.

 

[crappoolguy]

I played outside in downtown Manhattan at Battery Park City, right off the Hudson and to say the least, it's a bit windy there. You can mess-up position just from a good gust of wind. That day, the wind was blowing up table so my breaks looked kind of hysterical.

Maybe a marquee would help the wind problem. Would it then be so bad?

 

[Blackjack]

Pocket reducers...

Though they can tighten up the pockets, remember that they are made of rubber, and when a ball contacts them in the slightest way possible, the ball deflcts/bounces off of it.

I use them to tighten up my aim. I'll put them on for about 3 or 4 racks, then I remove them - and the pockets look like the grand canyon.

If you try to play with them all of the time, you will frustrate yourself.

Outside table...
Ditto what Jude said.

It has been my experience that if you cannot have a table in your home due to space constraints, find another option besides an outdoor table and/or trying to squeeze it in anyway. Even if you have to rent space at a storage facility. I did that a few years ago and it worked out very well. I ended up paying $105 a month for a 15X20 climate controlled storage unit, and it was far less than I was paying for table time at the pool hall. I had a very nice Olhuasen set up in there - and I had plenty of room. I had 24 hour access, nobody in my way, no cigarette smoke, no wife, no kids - if it had a kitchen and a bathroom I would have moved in there. lol

 

[crappoolguy]

Pocket reducers...

Though they can tighten up the pockets, remember that they are made of rubber, and when a ball contacts them in the slightest way possible, the ball deflcts/bounces off of it.

I use them to tighten up my aim. I'll put them on for about 3 or 4 racks, then I remove them - and the pockets look like the grand canyon.

If you try to play with them all of the time, you will frustrate yourself.

Outside table...
Ditto what Jude said.

It has been my experience that if you cannot have a table in your home due to space constraints, find another option besides an outdoor table and/or trying to squeeze it in anyway. Even if you have to rent space at a storage facility. I did that a few years ago and it worked out very well. I ended up paying $105 a month for a 15X20 climate controlled storage unit, and it was far less than I was paying for table time at the pool hall. I had a very nice Olhuasen set up in there - and I had plenty of room. I had 24 hour access, nobody in my way, no cigarette smoke, no wife, no kids - if it had a kitchen and a bathroom I would have moved in there. lol

Thank you, your post is most helpful, and that's a good idea about the renting a room.