Flakeandrun
Well-known member
Chinese-8 by a long way - It's 'their game' and they treat it as such.
Snooker has decreased in popularity since covid, many of my favorite halls closed.
There was also the match-fixing scandal, and I think this will have damaged snooker until the next crop of talent rises.
American table based games have decreased in popularity, but with MatchRoom/WPA dramas, and the China open returning, there has been a bump in interest. I think money will be needed to lure more people back away from 'their game' (which they also treat as superior).
All halls with American tables have a couple of Chinese-8 tables, and one or two snooker tables. But, I've rarely seen a snooker or Chinese-8 focussed hall with an American table. Chinese-8 halls out number snooker and American table halls 20:1 (exaggerated but seems true).
The halls vary in quality, my favorites are the smaller, family run ones with a couple of cats or dogs running around, where you can rock up at anytime of day, smoke, drink and do whatever you like (used to go to one on Ding Xi road in Shanghai, that was more of a spot for us to play drinking games). They feel a bit 'Wild West' to me (or should I say 'wild east'
).To have a serious game, there are some insanely nice halls, that have rows of immaculate tables, cameras and digital scoreboards on every table, bar and restaurant attached.
