Been moved up here to the frozen north for over a year. Two hours or so to Buff's and haven't found a place to play closer. Been a rumor of a place off in the woods but no first hand info and I was a little leery of banjo music as I pulled up in the parking lot!
Open the door and it is a hall, one table wide plus room for a drinks table and chairs. That is good, not so good are the tables, a row of seven foot Valleys. Nice new looking Valleys, great cloth. I look at the wall, lots of tournaments, mostly the kind to build a business. Nothing wrong with that. A tournament is in full swing and there are plenty of cues with hinges and cue cases everywhere, the occasional cue claw, the occasional glove.
According to the wall they seem to be handicapping by the alphabet in some tournaments, numbers in others. Never had a number or a letter but I'm in no rush to play handicapped tournaments anyway. Guy comes up and talks a bit, seems to be management. Seems a bit pushy but I don't blame him for protecting his players. I just watched awhile but the games I saw were in a little different class than I am used to.
The management type told me the two end tables were open for play and the cost a game was four bits, not bad. Grabbed a cue off the wall, skinny shaft, had a tip, didn't have a weight bolt. Hadn't planned to play pool tonight and hadn't played for awhile so nothing in my pocket to work on the one spot in the shaft that took small chunks out of my hide every time it went by.
Education time, I ain't ready to freewheel, 'specially on a Valley. Side pockets are microscopic but the holes are pretty large, no shelf. The rails are very grabby, struggling with banking very short. Hitting the cue ball far too hard too, not used to playing on the short track and I'm expecting roll off also, which didn't seem to be an issue on the table I played on. I'd get on and make a handful of balls, get off and not make a ball in the ocean. Banks at much faster than low idle weren't falling.
Practiced forty-five minutes or an hour, seemed like I might find a stroke. Might get interested in the tournaments, some payouts didn't look too bad. Gotta tell them like the last place with Valleys, I play like pure dirt but I'm subject to flashbacks. Better to rank me high and start down than the other way around.
These people seem fine and the place is only about ten country miles away from home. Guess I'm gonna brush up on my short tracking. Calling JohnnyT, Calling JohnnyT . . .
Hu
Open the door and it is a hall, one table wide plus room for a drinks table and chairs. That is good, not so good are the tables, a row of seven foot Valleys. Nice new looking Valleys, great cloth. I look at the wall, lots of tournaments, mostly the kind to build a business. Nothing wrong with that. A tournament is in full swing and there are plenty of cues with hinges and cue cases everywhere, the occasional cue claw, the occasional glove.
According to the wall they seem to be handicapping by the alphabet in some tournaments, numbers in others. Never had a number or a letter but I'm in no rush to play handicapped tournaments anyway. Guy comes up and talks a bit, seems to be management. Seems a bit pushy but I don't blame him for protecting his players. I just watched awhile but the games I saw were in a little different class than I am used to.
The management type told me the two end tables were open for play and the cost a game was four bits, not bad. Grabbed a cue off the wall, skinny shaft, had a tip, didn't have a weight bolt. Hadn't planned to play pool tonight and hadn't played for awhile so nothing in my pocket to work on the one spot in the shaft that took small chunks out of my hide every time it went by.
Education time, I ain't ready to freewheel, 'specially on a Valley. Side pockets are microscopic but the holes are pretty large, no shelf. The rails are very grabby, struggling with banking very short. Hitting the cue ball far too hard too, not used to playing on the short track and I'm expecting roll off also, which didn't seem to be an issue on the table I played on. I'd get on and make a handful of balls, get off and not make a ball in the ocean. Banks at much faster than low idle weren't falling.
Practiced forty-five minutes or an hour, seemed like I might find a stroke. Might get interested in the tournaments, some payouts didn't look too bad. Gotta tell them like the last place with Valleys, I play like pure dirt but I'm subject to flashbacks. Better to rank me high and start down than the other way around.
These people seem fine and the place is only about ten country miles away from home. Guess I'm gonna brush up on my short tracking. Calling JohnnyT, Calling JohnnyT . . .
Hu