very funny, lmao, thx for the story.
Some oberservations of Vietnamese Pool Halls.
- Thread starter mnorwood
- Start date
very funny, lmao, thx for the story.
When I was 22 I was a senior at Cal Berkeley. There were a number of asian students at Cal (actually more than a number, like ALOT) and a bunch of them were FOBs (fresh off the boat) as they called them. Asian students sent by their parents to school in the USA. Alot were from Taiwan and a few from other places like Vietnam. Anyways, a bunch of the hard core FOBs played at the student union. I was top gun on campus at the time and spring break rolled around and a few of them asked me to come to Los Angeles with them to play pool and hang out.
So off we went to LA arriving at 3am on a Sunday. Im pretty beat but they say "no we got to pool room, lots of action Dave, we get u action...." I was ok...and sure as hell we walk into this Asian only pool room and the place is full of people gambling. I may look asian but I dont speak a lick of anything but English. The story I got was that these guys were from Taiwan but stayed alot in LA. They had been coming to this pool room for years and getting beat by everyone. The asians in there gambled it up but would only play those they knew. I was the secret weapon because I blended in nicely. So they set the games up and the first opponent my buddy says play off the wall Dave, you can give this guy the 5. And we are playing even, races to 4 for 200. A nice bet for 1989. And STEALING. At the end of the night we had won over 1k and I never had to play anyone that I couldnt beat giving the 7 or 8 to. I played off the wall the whole night.
This went on for like 4 days, them taking me into different asian pool rooms and getting matched up. I only got beat one time that whole week and these guys put me up at their LA condo and I laid at the pool all day snoozing.
A funny story from this trip. One night, we finished playing around 5am and they say to me, hey we know this restaurant that runs a casino in the back. So im like hell yeah lets go. We show up and the place is jammed full of asians. The menu is all in Chinese. They order for me and I look around amazed at how active things are at 530am, all with people who had not gone to bed. After we eat they take to the back and into this room where a bar is setup and they have a blackjack game, craps, pai gow and a poker game going. I sit at the bar playing blackjack and its an all cash game. So the first hand I sit down at, the guys next to me have a pile of money they each put down in front of them and the dealer deals out. All these guys are smoking and drinking and none speak english. The dealer busts out and goes to pay off. The first guy has a littler stack of money with a ten on top...he laughs and spreads em and there are 20s and 50s underneath. The next guy says something i dont understand and he has his stack with a 5 on top. Underneath he spreads a cluster of 100s. The first guy just starts laughing as does everyone else. I felt like a big nit sitting there betting 10 a hand. Hey, I was a student still.
That was one of my more interesting pool road trips. At the end of the trip I bought 3 nice cues off of a guy and then sold em in Berkeley and made about 500 there. Took all the dough we won and went out and followed the grateful dead around for two weeks on their spring tour of the bay area. Good times....
So off we went to LA arriving at 3am on a Sunday. Im pretty beat but they say "no we got to pool room, lots of action Dave, we get u action...." I was ok...and sure as hell we walk into this Asian only pool room and the place is full of people gambling. I may look asian but I dont speak a lick of anything but English. The story I got was that these guys were from Taiwan but stayed alot in LA. They had been coming to this pool room for years and getting beat by everyone. The asians in there gambled it up but would only play those they knew. I was the secret weapon because I blended in nicely. So they set the games up and the first opponent my buddy says play off the wall Dave, you can give this guy the 5. And we are playing even, races to 4 for 200. A nice bet for 1989. And STEALING. At the end of the night we had won over 1k and I never had to play anyone that I couldnt beat giving the 7 or 8 to. I played off the wall the whole night.
This went on for like 4 days, them taking me into different asian pool rooms and getting matched up. I only got beat one time that whole week and these guys put me up at their LA condo and I laid at the pool all day snoozing.
A funny story from this trip. One night, we finished playing around 5am and they say to me, hey we know this restaurant that runs a casino in the back. So im like hell yeah lets go. We show up and the place is jammed full of asians. The menu is all in Chinese. They order for me and I look around amazed at how active things are at 530am, all with people who had not gone to bed. After we eat they take to the back and into this room where a bar is setup and they have a blackjack game, craps, pai gow and a poker game going. I sit at the bar playing blackjack and its an all cash game. So the first hand I sit down at, the guys next to me have a pile of money they each put down in front of them and the dealer deals out. All these guys are smoking and drinking and none speak english. The dealer busts out and goes to pay off. The first guy has a littler stack of money with a ten on top...he laughs and spreads em and there are 20s and 50s underneath. The next guy says something i dont understand and he has his stack with a 5 on top. Underneath he spreads a cluster of 100s. The first guy just starts laughing as does everyone else. I felt like a big nit sitting there betting 10 a hand. Hey, I was a student still.
That was one of my more interesting pool road trips. At the end of the trip I bought 3 nice cues off of a guy and then sold em in Berkeley and made about 500 there. Took all the dough we won and went out and followed the grateful dead around for two weeks on their spring tour of the bay area. Good times....
I missed foxcues story the first time around. That was a great story. I can imagine white, very, country boy attempting to speak Vietnamese.
TheThaiger
Banned
Stereotyping, but Asians are simply crazy when it comes to gambling. I strongly suspect PP would change his "pool needs action" mantra if he saw it up close and personal. The further gambling is from pool the better IMO.
TheThaiger
Banned
I only found a handful of places to play in the whole country, and none of them were upmarket. There's a bar in Hanoi called the Hair of the Dog, which has a table that disturbs me to this day...
Quite common in Taiwan as well. The racking service is free but usually these rooms have a more expensive rate. You can also pay extra to play with the girls and some of them are actually pretty good.
Are you in the South or North?
I've gone to a few Chinese pool halls (those who are from NYC may know about them, they're along the Sunset Park area close to 8th Avenue in Brooklyn) and their tables and cues are terribad. The pool halls cater to teenagers who hang out in flocks because they don't charge by the person but by the hour. So for $10 a hour, there can be over 10 kids to a table. :angry: You had to wait for someone to finish shooting before you can make you way to the side of the table.
The cues have so many dents on them as if they were given to babies to chew on as their teeth were coming in. The cues don't have tips sometimes and even if it did, it was flat or mushroomed. The cues' butts were smashed and most of the time the weight bolts were missing, so you were shooting with a hollowed log.
The tables cloth had holes in them, the rails were dead, and they had the worst rolls on them. Your cue ball would slow down and then slump over in its place. The balls were those no name pool balls you can get from Modells and what not.
The cues have so many dents on them as if they were given to babies to chew on as their teeth were coming in. The cues don't have tips sometimes and even if it did, it was flat or mushroomed. The cues' butts were smashed and most of the time the weight bolts were missing, so you were shooting with a hollowed log.
The tables cloth had holes in them, the rails were dead, and they had the worst rolls on them. Your cue ball would slow down and then slump over in its place. The balls were those no name pool balls you can get from Modells and what not.
It's funny how the Asia pool halls here are so garbage. There's a room here called Embassy in SoCal. Last time I went it was 17dollars an HR!!! WTF??? And the tables are crappy, so are the cues.
Then back home in Taiwan, the rates are about 2 to less than 3 dollars an hour, cloth refelted at least twice a year, clean balls, opened 24/7 and AC on most of the time. At least half of these rooms are professionally designed as well and looks like a lounge. I have been to a couple Asian owned pool halls here in Socal, and even the one you mentioned in Brooklyn and they are seriously garbage.
off topic a bit perhaps.... but in termas of contrasts with US pool halls, ive been to a couple thailand pool halls. i have one word for you on these..... FUN! but really, there are some nice pool halls in bangkok-- not insanely cheap.... but ive been told pool has really just opened up in the past 10 years or so-- before it was predominantly snooker i guess. and its totally still gorwing there too which is exciting. just to give some people here a taste, in thailand the girls working at the pool halls many times wont even let you rack your own, they come over and do it for you.... a nice touch.... not my favorite thing in the world (especially when they tell me im racking wrong, haha), but a very thoughtful touch.
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Yup, sometimes u try to rack my own and they sprint over! Lol! It's funny because straight pool is popular there and they always come to rack when I'm on my last shot in 8 ball, I get shared like that many times! Pool is growing fast in China and in the southeast, but its on a decline in Taiwan for sure.
I've only seen it in videos where there are workers that rack the balls for you, it's cool to know that it exists. 
I saw a video of a snooker club where Ding Junhui was making a 147, they have girls with remotes keeping score and spotting the colors. That's awesome. :thumbup:
I saw a video of a snooker club where Ding Junhui was making a 147, they have girls with remotes keeping score and spotting the colors. That's awesome. :thumbup:
I've only seen it in videos where there are workers that rack the balls for you, it's cool to know that it exists.
I saw a video of a snooker club where Ding Junhui was making a 147, they have girls with remotes keeping score and spotting the colors. That's awesome. :thumbup:
They could make that happen here
Except the rates would cost an arm and a leg.
By Monday morning Houston, TX will have the first 3 Diamond 9ft billiards tables...located at Best Friend Cafe & Bida-7200 Eldridge PKWY Suit 108, Houson, TX.
Glen
Glen
About 15-20 years ago a buddy of mine and I go to Robstown, Tx to a small tournament we've heard has a lot of vietnamese players who like to gamble. It was a shrimping town in south Texas. A white guy owned the place but hardly any white people were there. We played in an 8-ball tournament and slacked off to get some action afterwards. My buddy ends up playing one guy giving him the 8 in 9-ball for $10 a game. After two games the guy pulls up. I give the next guy the 7&8 for $10 and he pulls up after one game. We thought the action was really crappy until they asked us to play some weird billiard game with metal pins(?) in the way. If you knocked them over on your way to a carom I think you lost points.
Anyway, these vietnamese guys couldn't draw their rock playing 9-ball but my buddy, who was a serious shortstop at the time, was getting drilled at this carom game. They were force-following 3 rails around these pins for points. There strokes went from bar pool 8-ball players to almost shortstop speed power follows. It was insane. It took my buddy almost two hours to get even and they quit. We were glad to get even and get out of there after thinking nobody could make a ball in there.
Anyway, these vietnamese guys couldn't draw their rock playing 9-ball but my buddy, who was a serious shortstop at the time, was getting drilled at this carom game. They were force-following 3 rails around these pins for points. There strokes went from bar pool 8-ball players to almost shortstop speed power follows. It was insane. It took my buddy almost two hours to get even and they quit. We were glad to get even and get out of there after thinking nobody could make a ball in there.
Are you planning on stopping by New Orleans on your way back? Buffalo Billiards wants to know. :wink: