Owning your own table.

mrpiper

Registered
With the utmost respect, I think you should take your own advice and see what your real priorities are. Looks like you do work a lot, maybe too much so that life is passing you by.
Thank you. I recognize the kind intent. Believe me I am keenly aware of my decisions and consequences. My wife may well agree with you. Recognizing the effort required, I set my goals very early in life. I am still fairly young and my goal is early and active retirement. We take a lot of time off with a minimum of 4, 1 week trips and 1, 2week trip per year that I totally need, but in 16 months, I will be working much less and only by choice. Now if God is willing and good health remains, I will be playing a LOT more pool!
 

BC21

https://www.playpoolbetter.com
Gold Member
Silver Member
Guys who play on bar leagues, how do you get in the amount of practice required to improve your game? Seems like it is hard to just go in a bar and practice on the table.

This is a good point, and the reason many league players never get any better than average.

I'm sure a lot of us have been asked too many times, "How'd you get so good?" My answer is typically, "I play a lot." Then the person will say, "I've been playing 5 years on this league already." I tell them it's not about "time", it's about "quantity".

An average one night per week league player might play 5 to 10 games of pool every week. That might come out to about 1500 games in 5 years. But a player like myself, or many others here, might be playing 50 games or more every week. We hit 1500 games within 3 or 4 months, versus 5 years. When looking at in a shot-by-shot basis, the numbers are even more staggering.

Simply put, if you want to be a better player, you have to play more pool and hit more balls on a daily or weekly basis.
 

fastone371

Certifiable
Silver Member
I'm in your position right now. Moving out of state this weekend. Sold my Diamond months ago, when I get to the new house, will have to start looking for a pool table, but I might be waiting longer than I thought.
Are you going north and joining us in Wisconsin?? If you are I think I know someone with a home table to play on for the time being. :)
 

fastone371

Certifiable
Silver Member
I have three that are 30min or less away. I never crave pool so bad that i'd buy a table. I lived in a place that had one and i was the only user. Got boring QUICK. Most people that i know that have a table rarely use it once the buzz of having one wears off. Ends up being a spot for storage usually.
I guess that depends on how much the individual likes pool. I've had my table for about 10 years now and the buzz of owning it has not wore out yet, not even close. The closest non bar table is over 30 minutes away from me, thats a minimum of 50 miles round trip whenever I want to hit some balls. I doubt I would be playing much pool if I had to travel every time I felt like hitting some balls. On average I play 5-6 nights a week on my table, less in the summer but still often enough that I'm glad I have it.
 

Lawnboy77

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I guess that depends on how much the individual likes pool. I've had my table for about 10 years now and the buzz of owning it has not wore out yet, not even close. The closest non bar table is over 30 minutes away from me, thats a minimum of 50 miles round trip whenever I want to hit some balls. I doubt I would be playing much pool if I had to travel every time I felt like hitting some balls. On average I play 5-6 nights a week on my table, less in the summer but still often enough that I'm glad I have it.
Same here! I love waking up in the afternoon (nighshifter) and making some coffee and turning on some good tunes and going to the table for some drills. That really wouldn’t be doable for me if i didn’t have a table at home.
 

KRJ

Support UKRAINE
Silver Member
Are you going north and joining us in Wisconsin?? If you are I think I know someone with a home table to play on for the time being. :)
Kentucky :) Political discussions are no longer allowed, but lets just say I'm not leaving because of the Pizza ;)
 

Bob Jewett

AZB Osmium Member
Staff member
Gold Member
Silver Member
There needs to be a resource for guys like you and guys like me to link up and play games.

The caveat is said resource would need some way to weed out all the weird people you might not necessarily want in your home haha
The Salotto app can be used to set up matches, I think. It can also put your results into FargoRate.


I don't know if they have a "weirdo" filter. Considering pool players, I doubt such a thing could ever work. 😋
 

soyale

Well-known member
I feel ya brother. I was there too. Keep plugging away. You can get there. Remember that no man is more free then one that has nothing to lose. Maybe a move to a different area?

That was a hypothetical situation to illustrate a point. You’re totally right though, i spent a few years on the road during my prime skating years and although the toll is heavy i wouldn’t trade those years for anything.

Nowadays i have a 1 bedroom apartment, a fiance, and a huge dog, so life on the road is all but a memory. I thought we got lucky with this place but the biggest room is about 2’ short on the wide side for a 7’.

We’ve actually considered putting a cheap CL table in here anyway just to bang balls on, but like i said in an earlier post, i’d rather not play at all than play with an obstruction.

Thanks for the support though, pal. Another life ago, your words would have been the fuel to my fire for that day.
 

soyale

Well-known member
The Salotto app can be used to set up matches, I think. It can also put your results into FargoRate.


I don't know if they have a "weirdo" filter. Considering pool players, I doubt such a thing could ever work. 😋

So if one was so inclined, they could set up a match on their home table open-invite style?

They should add a feature where you can either be looking for a home table or looking for folks for your home table game, with a way to connect those folks or to browse by category. I dunno i’m just spitballing here.

Weirdo filter is an absolute must though. They gotta develop some 1984 big brother type of thought police app to measure intent.
 

buckshotshoey

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
That was a hypothetical situation to illustrate a point. You’re totally right though, i spent a few years on the road during my prime skating years and although the toll is heavy i wouldn’t trade those years for anything.

Nowadays i have a 1 bedroom apartment, a fiance, and a huge dog, so life on the road is all but a memory. I thought we got lucky with this place but the biggest room is about 2’ short on the wide side for a 7’.

We’ve actually considered putting a cheap CL table in here anyway just to bang balls on, but like i said in an earlier post, i’d rather not play at all than play with an obstruction.

Thanks for the support though, pal. Another life ago, your words would have been the fuel to my fire for that day.
Got a house. I used to have an 8-footer in the basement. Had to take it out when I needed to support my downstairs floor. Went a couple of years without a table. Couldn't take it anymore so I got a bar box for the garage. I put on new cushions, new cloth, and it plays pretty nice. It's all I need for now.

Oh... And speaking of big ass dog.....
Screenshot_20210826-141715_Gallery.jpg
 
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ChrisinNC

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I have never not had a table. There was a table available for me since I was a young child and there has always been one in my house even when I owned a pool room. I would think anyone who likes to play pool it is their dream to have a table in their home. What is stopping them?

If you were a Golfer, Bowler, Tennis player, Skier, or played any number of other sports it is not even a choice. If you are a pool player you can play on and practice on the same equipment the pros play on right in your own home.

It also doesn’t have to be perfect. Most argue they don’t have enough room. I helped a professional player (You would recognize his name) set up a table in his house and at one end there was maybe 3.5 feet to the wall. The other three sides were ok. He could care less.

The table still let him work on everything he needed to do. In fact unless the cue ball was on the rail and you were shooting straight away it didn’t come into play as much as you would think.

I often read on here guys getting small tables because they will fit better. Like I said, it doesn’t have to be perfect. I would go with the bigger table if there was any way posable. You can do your drills and most all the things you need to improve your game regardless of a wall or pole.

The money should not be much of a consideration as you will play thousands of hours of pool for the one time cost. It is also nice to play when you really feel like it, maybe in the middle of the night or when ever you have the urge. Those can be the most productive sessions.

If you are a pool player, your goal needs to be get your own table. No more excuses.
Agreed, but it is absolutely necessary to compete against similar skill level or better players in a pool room, particularly if you are at a point where you are still improving your game as opposed to an older player on the decline, and even then competition is still the best way to keep your game.
 

JusticeNJ

Four Points/Steel Joints
Silver Member
This reminds me of an old joke along the lines of:

Three people are stranded on a desert island, a college professor, a Navy SEAL, and an engineer. There's no food or wildlife other than a giant pallet of canned food that washed ashore.

The SEAL makes the first attempt to open some food, smashing a can with a rock. While successful, it destroys the can and spills a good deal of the contents out, leaving enough for only one person.

The engineer believes that with the right rock, they can minimize the food loss and get enough food for each of the three people per can.

Suddenly, the college professor proclaims to have solved the problem and instructs the other two to gather round the campfire for his lecture about the solution.

He draws complex equations with a stick in the sand, and begins his lecture: "First, assume we have a can opener . . . ."
 

arnaldo

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
There needs to be a resource for guys like you and guys like me to link up and play games.

The caveat is said resource would need some way to weed out all the weird people you might not necessarily want in your home
Nyquil said: "Downside for me is I play by myself most of the time since my wife isn't into the game. That's the only thing I miss about the pool hall scene.
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Soyale said: "There needs to be a resource for guys like you and guys like me to link up and play games. The caveat is said resource would need some way to weed out all the weird people you might not necessarily want in your home"
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Addressing this to Nyquil + Soyale and posters in posts numbers 51, 52, 55, 63, and 65 who expressed similar "link up with other regional players" thoughts. Some of you might be interested in reading about the very effective, easy and pleasurably rewarding solution I once came up with (in 1992) :

I installed a great Diamond 9-footer in the finished basement of my then-*extremely* rural New England home. There were only two pool rooms in the whole state (VT) -- one was an approx. 90-minute round-trip drive, the other a little over two hours round-trip driving. And both could be not only longish, but very unpredictable, hazardous drives in cases of sudden driver-blinding rainstorms (with power-lines-down river floods) that were possible year-round, and I knew there would have been prohibitive snow/ice storms in winters (fatal accidents on icy roads).

There were however, dozens of villages, hamlets and low-population towns within a radius of just 25 or so, miles around me. I don't smoke or drink myself, so I wasn't a very good fit for the area's 4 or 5 small beer bars. I was very aware though, that folks of all ages were very friendly, who deeply knew -- and with good reason -- greatly trusted everyone else.

So, with that in mind, on a hunch, I placed an inexpensive small ad in the leading regional newspaper and included a good headline and four lines of text conveying that I'd enjoy meeting and having some regular sessions of Straight Pool, Eight-Ball or Nine-Ball with any local player who loves pool and "who might love playing on a 9-foot table". New, top-quality home table was mentioned as well.

I ran the classified ad for two weeks and quickly heard from four differently-skilled locals who were overjoyed with the opportunity. One of the "best of the best" contacts made me overjoyed. He was an aging, energetic lifelong 14.1 player who had a hard time meeting anyone who really knew the game in any depth. He had a multiply-witnessed lifetime practice run of 244 and a beautiful Mosconi/Jimmy Moore-like slip stroke. He had won numerous state titles in New England-wide Elks inter-club tournaments against very advanced players, and at age 84 would regularly run 30 or 40 at will, with short position rack navigation, rarely more than a tip of english, on my tight pocket Diamond after he got the feel of it. He'd spot me 20 on our usual 100-point matches and emerged as winner 75% of the time.

His eventual bad health made driving difficult and actually quite illegal for him. I did get most of the 8-, 9-ball guys very interested in improving their overall skills via a lot of 14.1 with me and the eventual 5 other locals I met directly or indirectly from my ad. Two of them later bought home tables and we'd travel to each other's homes. I became very close friends with the guys and their families.

So . . . pleasing and surprising results all around, and not a single thing ever damaged or "lifted" from my home. With due diligence, this daring-sounding approach might help a few AZBers interested in meeting interested local players. At first I'd always very tangentially ask about people we might know in common and would soon hear about where they worked, or attended school, and who they were related to. Trustworthy locals were never hesitant about casual, subtly reassuring (to me) conversation like that.

Arnaldo
 
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NevadaP

Well-known member
George Fels -- a longtime and well beloved monthly columnist for Billiards Digest -- had a home table for many years, and I've always loved his supremely on target, published comment on that exact point:

"Nothing in the world beats the sheer pleasure of running racks of Straight Pool . . . . playing barefoot, in your underwear, at 2 o'clock in the morning."

George characteristically -- and with his ad-man background showing -- beautifully captured the imagery and exhilarating *feeling* of an experience that many of us who've had a home table know so well..

Arnaldo
"Nothing in the world beats the sheer pleasure of running racks of Straight Pool . . . . playing barefoot, in your underwear, at 2 o'clock in the morning."

LOL. I used to think I was the only person who did this.
 

middleofnowhere

Registered
Agreed, but it is absolutely necessary to compete against similar skill level or better players in a pool room, particularly if you are at a point where you are still improving your game as opposed to an older player on the decline, and even then competition is still the best way to keep your game.
Its both, competing as well as training. It can be hard to train at a pool room, too many distractions. Not to mention you don't really want people in your business. I like to practice alone when I am working on things, not have kibitzers. Some also feel self-conscious doing drills in public.
 
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