Needing some thoughts on what size table to buy.
- Thread starter boogieman
- Start date
I'm almost an hour + from ANY tables here - my wife and I both played previously on 9's and rarely (if ever) on bar boxes. We ended up going with a 9' Brunswick Tournament table. She's a SL3 and I was a SL6/7, I'm sure it will bring her game up since we got a bigger table and if we went smaller we'd regret it very quickly. Go big IMO.
JC
Coos Cues
They play sweet but the pockets are closer to 4.5 inches than 4. Close them up a half inch and they may cross the line of "not sweet" and affect your game negatively. When shots that should go in do not a person can develop habits not usefull in the real world.
Size of table
It is harder to adjust up than to adjust down, but I have seen big table players that play worse on a Barbox than the big table. On a big table, players have a tendency to play halfway close position, which ends up with them missing. On a barbox, lots of the time, you have to play pinpoint position.
If you are a money player, then get the size of table you make the most money from, and shim it up. Otherwise, probably get the 9 footer, but beware, cause your wife may not shoot any better on the big table, and continue to hate it. Position play on a 9 footer takes a stronger stroke, and she may be limited on her stroke.
It is harder to adjust up than to adjust down, but I have seen big table players that play worse on a Barbox than the big table. On a big table, players have a tendency to play halfway close position, which ends up with them missing. On a barbox, lots of the time, you have to play pinpoint position.
If you are a money player, then get the size of table you make the most money from, and shim it up. Otherwise, probably get the 9 footer, but beware, cause your wife may not shoot any better on the big table, and continue to hate it. Position play on a 9 footer takes a stronger stroke, and she may be limited on her stroke.
My thoughts exactly when it comes to the debate of wether or not 'over' shimming can be good or bad for you. Accurately well hit balls should always go in regardless of the tighness of the pockets. When you mess with that, you mess with your mental game in a bad way.
dave
Sounds like you have plenty of room for a 9' table somewhere in your house so I'd go with that. Or, do like I did, get both -- I have a used 9' GC IV and an 8' Valley bar box in the garage (picked the bar box up cheap on Craigslist and added Ridgeback rails).
The GC is what tournament play is on when I travel to a bigger city. Also, most all of my pool playing friends that come over much prefer playing on it since there are no commercial 9'ers in the area. The 8' bar box is what we all play on in local leagues/tournaments and I'll warm up on mine before going out.
If you play mostly on 7' bar boxes locally, get one of those for practice and playing with your wife.
Also, when you have friends over, the 2nd pool table makes it a lot easier to run your own mini-tournaments.
Either way you can get a pad and cover for the bar box:
http://www.muellers.com/Convertible-Cover-44-x-88-,344.html
http://www.muellers.com/H-D-Leatherette-8-Fitted-Cover-575-x-1015-,2840.html
Then, when your wife either (a) burns out and gives up pool or (b) learns to love pool and prefers the 9'er, the bar box can become a full-time cloths-sorting-folding table like most garage-based pool tables with lots of storage space underneath.
The GC is what tournament play is on when I travel to a bigger city. Also, most all of my pool playing friends that come over much prefer playing on it since there are no commercial 9'ers in the area. The 8' bar box is what we all play on in local leagues/tournaments and I'll warm up on mine before going out.
If you play mostly on 7' bar boxes locally, get one of those for practice and playing with your wife.
Also, when you have friends over, the 2nd pool table makes it a lot easier to run your own mini-tournaments.
Either way you can get a pad and cover for the bar box:
http://www.muellers.com/Convertible-Cover-44-x-88-,344.html
http://www.muellers.com/H-D-Leatherette-8-Fitted-Cover-575-x-1015-,2840.html
Then, when your wife either (a) burns out and gives up pool or (b) learns to love pool and prefers the 9'er, the bar box can become a full-time cloths-sorting-folding table like most garage-based pool tables with lots of storage space underneath.