Table mechanics: have you been asked to "trick" a table?

[longhair]

Have you ever been asked to make a table play funny? maybe by using a different rubber on one side, making one pocket tighter than another, or sanding the slate of a pocket drop to make it more friendly?

If so, what did they ask for, and did you do it? Do you know of any tricked-up tables in major poolrooms? I know you might not want to say where these are if they are still in operation.

 

[realkingcobra]

I had a bar owner ask me once if I'd sand the first 3/4" of the edge of all the pockets on his 4 Valley bar tables so all the balls had to do was get close to the pockets and they'd drop in! I told him he called the wrong guy for the job, and left!!

Glen

 

[Black-Balled]

I had a bar owner ask me once if I'd sand the first 3/4" of the edge of all the pockets on his 4 Valley bar tables so all the balls had to do was get close to the pockets and they'd drop in! I told him he called the wrong guy for the job, and left!!

Glen

Damn bastard must've owned the antique in my basement!

 

[realkingcobra]

Damn bastard must've owned the antique in my basement!

Now that you mention it, I think he did own one, that he sold when he closed his bar down for lack of business...LOL

Glen

 

[Frankenstroke]

I've heard that in the old days pockets were adjusted so the owner would make money faster at 10 cents a rack. Thats why antiques are so sloppy.

 

[longhair]

I had a bar owner ask me once if I'd sand the first 3/4" of the edge of all the pockets on his 4 Valley bar tables so all the balls had to do was get close to the pockets and they'd drop in! I told him he called the wrong guy for the job, and left!!

Glen

Thanks for your reply, and I'm glad you turned it down, though valleys are so sloppy already that it might not have made much difference. I was really asking about making a table unfair for strangers, rather than extra-super-beyond fair for the bangers.

I was in Ride the Nine in Bloomington IL one afternoon before a tournament started. I took a set of balls, picked up two and started measuring pocket sizes around the room with them (the place was almost empty). The house man, (Tony Lane, if anybody is curious: Hi Tony!) saw what I was doing and got irate. He actually yelled at me and told me to only use the table I had rented. He was so angry that he made me wonder about the pockets there. It turns out that there is more than 3/8" difference between the smallest corner and the largest corner on one of the ninefooters there and the others are hardly uniform. I don't know if it was intentional. In fact, it probably wasn't originally, but I bet the regulars know about it.

 

[M HOUSE]

I've heard that in the old days pockets were adjusted so the owner would make money faster at 10 cents a rack. Thats why antiques are so sloppy.

I know in the deep south this was true. The room owners wanted the games to go as quickly as possible. More games played meant more money for them. One place I played at (and later worked on the tables) the owner would have the slate sanded down in front of the pockets more every time he recovered them. It got to the point that if a ball was frozen to the rail and had to pass the side pocket on its way to a corner pocket the shot had to be hit very hard. Otherwise, the depression in front of the side pocket would catch the ball, pull it into the point and cause a miss. On the up side, if the corner pocket was blocked you could hit this shot with just the right speed and make it in the side pocket. Talk about having a home court advantage!

The practice of sanding the slate stopped with the advent of the time clock and and most of the rooms started charging by the hour. But by this time there were hundreds of tables in the area that an average player couldn't miss on. Fact is, I got in more than one arguement when someone would start telling me how so-n-so ran 8, 9, or 10 racks of nine-ball back in the day. My answer was always the same, " He must not have had a good break, or he would have run a lot more than that".

 

[n10spool]

I know of a pool hall in the sf bay area that uses three different rubbers on 1 table and on another 2 new 2 old and 2 dead rails on the other gambling table for when nobodies come in to gamble. I didn't do it but I know a few that got bit by it...

Craig

 

[Wybrook]

I got one for you. A pool hall in Edgewater, FL used to have the most gaffed up table for one pocket. I went there to play one of the regulars and he asked for 8-7 and the breaks. I could give him 9-7 or 10-7 at my pool hall, but had never played him. I went to the place and started hitting balls on the table he already had taken out and we got ready to play. I didn't notice anything really strange about the table until a little ways into the match. Since I gave him the breaks, he always broke to the bottom right. Things were rolling a little funny from time to time so when my opponent went to the bathroom, I examined the table a little closer. Here is what I found:

his pocket - 5"
my pocket - 4 1/4"
rail cloth by his hole - loose
rail cloth by my hole - super tight
table rolled down on the bottom rail into his pocket and up on my side
table rolled about a foot to the right, straight into his pocket

We were playing $100 a game and I was down 4 games at this point. I told him I would give him 9-7 and the snaps on the brand new Gold Crown 3 one table over and he said "no", and if I didn't like the game then quit.
I bore down and never shot at my hole again and beat him 9 games in a row and he quit.