New pool room: The Crooked Cue, Colorado Springs, CO

Rule should be 100 fine for placing food or drink anywhere except designated areas -- counter tops or eating table tops, plus 500 fine for a spill on pool table. Purpose is to prevent damage to pool tables. By the time they spill on a pool table . . .
 
Which remInds me of that evening I spent in the Colfax Billiards Lounge there were two fella's playing 9 ball on the snooker table and banking the 9 ball when I realized that I knew right then and there I was a tiny fish in a enormous fish bowl ha ha !
 
What if you brought in you're own pool balls to play with and just wanted to " rent " the use of their table then what ? I agree it's a insult to have to leave a deposit before use of their equipment .
 
maha said:
nice looking room. two things it needs to change, chairs near the tables not couches. but its a complete entertainment venue with good looking food.
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The picture shows the upstairs level, which contains 8 x 7' Diamonds. Upstairs is an open loft style setup with red brick walls. There are black upholstered square stools that line the walls upstairs. There are plenty of stools for both players and friends. I think the couches are for people that are having a cocktail or socializing and not playing pool. I spent all my time on the main floor downstairs, and I only went upstairs to stash a favored cue. I never saw anyone sitting in those couches, but I was also never there after 5pm.

Downstairs also has red brick walls and square stools lining the walls around the tables, and behind every table there is a raised high back upholstered bench that is tall enough so that you can see the table when you are sitting down. Between the upholstered benches, there is a table with cue claws to hold your sticks and where you can stash your ball tray and receive any food or drinks you order. It's a really nice setup.

...but you do have to leave your credit card to check out balls. I was not insulted.
 
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Rusty in Montana said:
What if you brought in you're own pool balls to play with and just wanted to " rent " the use of their table then what ?
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You could still dine and dash. If you haven't realized it yet, 90% of the people in the world are inconsiderate scumbags who only think of themselves, and they have no morality, so they will try to get away with anything they can. As long as they can record it with their phones and post it to social media, then it's all fun and games to them.
 
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Yes , I've realized that people can be really worthless this isn't anything new , I was referring to playing pool with my rack of pool balls and was wondering if I'd still have to leave a credit card for a deposit . Not eating a meal .
 
In my last poolroom the ping pong table was in a separate area apart from the rest of the poolroom. There was a wall with an opening you walked through to get in there. From time to time guys would come in (through a back entrance) with their own paddles and balls and just start playing. They knew it was part of our business but that didn't matter to them. The way I would catch them was if an errant ping pong ball came through the opening into the poolroom or I heard the click clack of a hard rally. When confronted they were all innocent like that thought it was for the public to use. Right! I told them I would not start charging them until now but I would need either a drivers license or credit card as a deposit. Sometimes they quit right then and sometimes they complied. I charged the same amount for playing ping pong as pool.
 
maha said:
its an insult and saying we think you might steal a cueball or run out on your bill.
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Sadly, that’s been a long standing policy at many poolrooms historically over the years. Luckily, in our Poolroom in rural NC, we have never required anything from customers when they check out a pool table. Many out of state players are shocked that they are not required to leave an ID or something with us to check out the balls. In nearly 30 years, we could probably count on one hand the number of times someone has dine and dashed or failed to pay for their pool time.

Unfortunately a little more frequent is over the phone takeout orders that no-show, but as an owner/manager, it’s still not enough to change our trust policy, which has always worked just fine.
 
ChrisinNC said:
Sadly, that’s been a long standing policy at many poolrooms historically over the years. Luckily, in our Poolroom in rural NC, we have never required anything from customers when they check out a pool table. Many out of state players are shocked that they are not required to leave an ID or something with us to check out the balls. In nearly 30 years, we could probably count on one hand the number of times someone has dine and dashed or failed to pay for their pool time.

Unfortunately a little more frequent is over the phone takeout orders that no-show, but as an owner/manager, it’s still not enough to change our trust policy, which has always worked just fine.
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In my first poolroom in Bakersfield I never required an ID or a cash deposit. I would average maybe one "walk out" a week, not enough to worry about. Nobody wanted to get banned from my poolroom so they minded their manners and paid their time.

Later on at Hard Times, Yankee Doodles and my last room at Hollywood Park we started to require either a $20 deposit, an ID or a credit card. Even then we still had some walk-outs. I would hold onto the print-out from the table and attach it to their ID or credit card and keep it in my office. About half the time they would come back a day or so later saying they had forgotten it. I would retrieve it from my office and show them the unpaid bill. They would try to get out of paying it, saying they left their ID so their friends could play or something like that. I told them it was their responsibility and they could show the receipt to their "friends" later and get paid back. They almost always paid the bill, with a few walking out still refusing to pay. I might end up with a couple of dozen ID's (drivers license) at the end of the year. One big Mexican guy demanded I give him back his ID and threatened me, said he was coming back there to take it from me. He frightened me a little, but I told him I wasn't going to give it to him and was calling our security (a bluff). I had an in-house phone at Hollywood Park and picked it up and pretended to talk to someone. He ended up paying the bill for close to $40. Relief!
 
Rusty in Montana said:
These will be on my bucket list of places to stop in and play a few racks and even better if I could be there when a tournament was going on even if I'd be at a disadvantage by not getting to play on any 9' tables .
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According to google, Felt Billiards and the Crooked Cue are 1 hour apart. If you stayed at a hotel half way between them, you could drive 30 minutes south to the Crooked Cue to play on the 10' or a 9' or a tourney on 9' footers on Sunday; or you could drive 30 minutes north to Felt and play on the 9' footers there. :)
 
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ChrisinNC said:
I have caught a lot of resistance on here when I’ve shared that at our poolroom, for the entire 29 years we’ve been open we strictly don’t permit players to eat while playing, and of course we don’t allow drinks to be placed on the pool table rails.

The reason for the rule is obvious to all our players that truly care about the condition of our tables and cloth. However, we don’t go as far as threatening them with a $500 fine, although the cost to recover a table is more like $700.
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that's exactly what it says where i play, 500$ (equivalent). i'd like to think it helps a little bit, but the best preventive measure is surely removing the ones that are too drunk from the table / pool hall in time. a really drunk person won't remember a sign by the bar.

big bouncers > small sign
 
skogstokig said:
that's exactly what it says where i play, 500$ (equivalent). i'd like to think it helps a little bit, but the best preventive measure is surely removing the ones that are too drunk from the table / pool hall in time. a really drunk person won't remember a sign by the bar.

big bouncers > small sign
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At the Crooked Cue, I could see some stains on the five month old cloth. Even the 10' which doesn't get as much play as the other tables had a circular stain from a glass or coffee cup with a wet bottom being set down on the cloth. I never saw any sign that said there was a $500 fine, nor did any employee ever mention the fine when checking out balls to play. I mean you gotta at least threaten people with the fine, right?

However, the tables rolled as true as any tables I've ever played on. On the 10', I could hit a ball at pocket speed the whole length of the table, and I didn't detect any roll off.
 
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7stud said:
...but you do have to leave your credit card to check out balls. I was not insulted.
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I can live with that but the places that want a drivers license is bull crap. I’m not used to that and have paid my bill and never received my license back and forgot to ask for it. It’s happened more than several times.
 
dont do it if you must give them business tell them ill leave a 100 dollar bill up. and show it to them most times they will say go ahead.

but usually they do it to younger folks or complete strangers. so that makes it more of an insult.
 
BuddyWing said:
Colorado Springs is a great place to play pool . There is a 55 table pool room in town also . Antiques Billiards has alot of Diamonds tables , both 7 and 9 footer and alot of OLD table from the past ... Great place to play
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That's only four miles from the Crooked Cue! I missed it.
 
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