I’ll be heading to the Boston area in about a week for a few days. The town I’ll be in is Wilmington. Does anyone have first hand and current experience of a good room to visit?
Thanks.
Thanks.
Player's room in Boston?
- Thread starter iusedtoberich
- Start date
It's about a 20-30 minute drive away, but definitely come to Amazin Billiards in Malden, MA if you're able. It's north of Boston, so pretty close to where you will be. It's about as much of a "player's room" as you can get with good table time rates (currently $6/hour per player) and excellent playing conditions. No loud music, alcohol or kitchen, however, but there are prepackaged snacks and canned soda/bottled water available for purchase.
I'm not sure on the exact numbers, but I believe there are at least 10 nine foot tables (one Rasson table with 4 1/4" pockets, one Brunswick with 4 1/8" pockets if you want to try your hand at that), a 12' snooker table, and six billiard tables. Mazin Shooni, the owner, is a professional 3C player from Iraq.
I used to live near Wilmington but fortunately I moved to Malden a few months ago and I'm now in walking distance from Amazin Billiards. One of the greatest benefits I could think of!
I'm not sure on the exact numbers, but I believe there are at least 10 nine foot tables (one Rasson table with 4 1/4" pockets, one Brunswick with 4 1/8" pockets if you want to try your hand at that), a 12' snooker table, and six billiard tables. Mazin Shooni, the owner, is a professional 3C player from Iraq.
I used to live near Wilmington but fortunately I moved to Malden a few months ago and I'm now in walking distance from Amazin Billiards. One of the greatest benefits I could think of!
Aside from Amazin, there is Crows Nest with good food and 8 foot Diamond tables in NH, about 40 mins North of where you will be. There are quite a few tournaments happening in the areas on weekends to check out also, there is usually one on the weekend in every region of N.E.
I was at amazin about 5 years ago. Was only able to pop in and look around. There were only 5 pool tables then and rails and other pieces of disassembled tables waiting for walls to be finished. Definitely a club (versus a bar/grill sports bar venue), definitely for players. They said Deschaine was there the night before. I’d never seen a carom table before so that was cool. I used to live in Boston in a previous life. Reminiscing about it is making me crave a Dunkin’ Donuts regular. Potholes, aggressive speeding and passing, angry sports radio… good times.
Hi all, I never took this work trip. I had the flight booked and ended up getting a bad cold and cancelled it. Now, 1.5 years later, I'm finally going for work from Mon to Friday Aug 7-11, and maybe I can stay an extra day or two on each weekend. I'm in the booking process now. Are the above rooms still the places to play? Are there any tournaments during the week? Or maybe the weekend before or after? Thanks!
No alcohol would be an immediate deal breaker for me. 
Take an hour trip south to Snookers in Providence. You won’t regret.
I have a ball roundness measuring device you may be interested in for your CB. Since you are filling/plugging your prototype.
Thank you! However I am now past the self-manufacturing prototyping stage and I can have balls made with industry standard roundness tolerances.
Since you are an ME, a neat device would be to try to figure out how to measure the CoM offset of a sphere, to the 0.001% of a radius. I am thinking of an air bearing of porous graphite, or a perfectly balanced bearing with a motor and a laser to measure vibration, or something. I think this is a hard problem to solve. Not critical because the math says I got the balance perfect, but would like to measure other than using a stimpmeter.
No bet.No alcohol would be an immediate deal breaker for me.
A rolling test -- basically a lag shot -- is going to tell you what you need to know. Of course you test in at least three orientations. It will also show problems with sphericity that could slip by the manufacturer on a new product.
Manufacturer already has a setup that does exactly this with a stimpmeter to detect roll off. Literally a lag shot on a perfectly level pool table. Any offset creates a micro precession with a radius less than infinity; curved path.
Though not necessary, I’m curious if I can measure offsets beyond what is detectable with a straight lag shot. It might not be possible and could disappear in the noise floor.
There is a sweet spot where the sensor density matches phenolic resin, and extends the allowable offset range. The secret is in making a perfectly balanced sensor to maximize this effect.
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I’m on my way to Amazin. 9pm arrival if anyone is there by chance. I’ll ask the houseman if there is anyone to play some cheap sets with otherwise.
Maybe the only place on the East coast equal to Amazin Billiards, is Carom Cafe in NYC.
Tables are cleaned regularly throughout the day. Not daily or weekly.. monthly.
Balls are cleaned when returned from a session.
Mazin is a professional and runs his room accordingly. Meaning he wants his customers to experience professional player conditions.
As best he can at any rate.
Tables are cleaned regularly throughout the day. Not daily or weekly.. monthly.
Balls are cleaned when returned from a session.
Mazin is a professional and runs his room accordingly. Meaning he wants his customers to experience professional player conditions.
As best he can at any rate.
I'm back from Boston. I had a great time at Amazin Billiards. You guys were all right, the room is TOP NOTCH. It's owned by a professional carom player, and he has the equipment prestine. It reminded me of my home room in PA (now gone) Drexeline billiards, which was owned by a professional pool player.
Everyone in the room could play. Even the weaker players were taking the game very seriously, as opposed to banging the balls around. It was great to see all the tables were going, and everyone was trying hard to play well.
The tables were the nicest GC4's I've seen. No dings on the rails, and they were the flat black rails with the nickel silver corners. Thats my personal favorite combo. The cloth was 860 HR. I have played for 20 years on 760 (at Drexeline), and 860 at all the other rooms, but I don't believe I ever played on 860 HR. It was a bit weird, in that I don't think the cloth was brand new, but it looked very clean, and the balls were squirting a lot more than swerving. In other words it was playing like brand new cloth. I also felt it was as fast as the 760 I knew. I may try this cloth on my next recloth on my home GC4, which now has 860.
The room also had 4 or 5 nice carom tables. I think 4 were going. I watched a few shots, and the guys and girls on those tables could play also.
Each table had a camera on the light that was pointing at its next table. Everything was streamed. It was first class.
There was also one Rasoon table. I had not seen one in person before, and it looked very very pretty. The hosueman was gambling on it, (even though it was furthest from the counter), so it must be very popular with the players. I didn't get a chance to play on it as it was always in use. The second night I was there the houseman was gambling at back-pocket on it. I haven't seen a backpacket game in 20 years. It was super popular in Philadelphia, and I used to play it a lot years back. But even in Philly I have not seen it played in years.
The first night there I walked in and looked around a bit, then went right to the houseman and said I was looking for some cheap sets. He said he would play me in a bit, and gave me a GC to practice on. We played a couple sets about 45 min later. He played very well, and got the best of me. I played well for me though, and had a nice time.
I also got the phone numbers of a couple other players to play, and shot the shit with a few. Unfortunately I was too busy at the office working late nights, and didn't get a chance to play them. If I go back I'll call them.
I did go back a second night and played in their weekly tournament. It was open, non-handicapped, but reported to Fargo, which I liked. They had big TV's all over the room with the brackets, and each match was live streamed. I went to watch my matches a few nights later, but got bored watching myself and turned it off! ha ha ha. It was a great format for a weekly event, IMO. 8 ball on the winner's side race to 2, and 9 ball on the loser's side race to 3. I won 2 and lost 2. Now I have Fargo tournaments in Boston, NJ, and PA, in a matter of 2 months. I need to find an Atlanta fargo event next (which is where I live now).
I think I might go back as my dayjob liked having me there. If I do, I'll bring my cue again.
Incidentally, all that I checked on the plane was a 1x1 round tube case, which I leave in my car year round with my travel cue. It didn't even register on the weighing scale, and we all had a laugh at the airport.
Everyone in the room could play. Even the weaker players were taking the game very seriously, as opposed to banging the balls around. It was great to see all the tables were going, and everyone was trying hard to play well.
The tables were the nicest GC4's I've seen. No dings on the rails, and they were the flat black rails with the nickel silver corners. Thats my personal favorite combo. The cloth was 860 HR. I have played for 20 years on 760 (at Drexeline), and 860 at all the other rooms, but I don't believe I ever played on 860 HR. It was a bit weird, in that I don't think the cloth was brand new, but it looked very clean, and the balls were squirting a lot more than swerving. In other words it was playing like brand new cloth. I also felt it was as fast as the 760 I knew. I may try this cloth on my next recloth on my home GC4, which now has 860.
The room also had 4 or 5 nice carom tables. I think 4 were going. I watched a few shots, and the guys and girls on those tables could play also.
Each table had a camera on the light that was pointing at its next table. Everything was streamed. It was first class.
There was also one Rasoon table. I had not seen one in person before, and it looked very very pretty. The hosueman was gambling on it, (even though it was furthest from the counter), so it must be very popular with the players. I didn't get a chance to play on it as it was always in use. The second night I was there the houseman was gambling at back-pocket on it. I haven't seen a backpacket game in 20 years. It was super popular in Philadelphia, and I used to play it a lot years back. But even in Philly I have not seen it played in years.
The first night there I walked in and looked around a bit, then went right to the houseman and said I was looking for some cheap sets. He said he would play me in a bit, and gave me a GC to practice on. We played a couple sets about 45 min later. He played very well, and got the best of me. I played well for me though, and had a nice time.
I also got the phone numbers of a couple other players to play, and shot the shit with a few. Unfortunately I was too busy at the office working late nights, and didn't get a chance to play them. If I go back I'll call them.
I did go back a second night and played in their weekly tournament. It was open, non-handicapped, but reported to Fargo, which I liked. They had big TV's all over the room with the brackets, and each match was live streamed. I went to watch my matches a few nights later, but got bored watching myself and turned it off! ha ha ha. It was a great format for a weekly event, IMO. 8 ball on the winner's side race to 2, and 9 ball on the loser's side race to 3. I won 2 and lost 2. Now I have Fargo tournaments in Boston, NJ, and PA, in a matter of 2 months. I need to find an Atlanta fargo event next (which is where I live now).
I think I might go back as my dayjob liked having me there. If I do, I'll bring my cue again.
Incidentally, all that I checked on the plane was a 1x1 round tube case, which I leave in my car year round with my travel cue. It didn't even register on the weighing scale, and we all had a laugh at the airport.
Oh I forgot to add, the ball set was the Dynasphere top of the line $300 one (I forgot the name). I have the Tungsten $70 set at home and love it. This set in Boston had the exact same top quality, but a more complicated aesthetic design warranting the higher price, and also more traditional colors. Anyway, I'm colorblind, and usually have a very hard time with new-to-me sets. On this set, the colors worked great for me.
I think his name is Bo. Maybe 35 years old? He is either a very strong B or a low A player, based on the couple sets we played. He was friendly and it seemed the whole room knew him and liked him. A good houseman IMO.