The House Man

Y

yobagua

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
There has been a lot of talk about Equipment, Places to play, Etiquette, etc. But for me what can ruin a good place is the House man. There is a place I frequent in Santa Monica California where there is a nice place with 3 good tables that are set aside for house players. Mostly the match play is on these tables. The regulars here are cordial and the food is good. With a good clentele from UCLA and the west side of town. Its settled in a nice neighborhood with a lot of good restaurants and bars and clubs. However I just stopped going to the place because the night house man there has just become an absolute jerk. Very officious and confrontational. Also he loves to chat it up with the cute local coeds while regular customers have to wait to get any service. He also gives preferential treatment to personal friends (show biz types since he is a wannabe) letting them play on the table reserved for match play. These buddies who dont know a thing about pool will mess up the cloth with their attempts at masses and terrible shooting.
I know it is a lot of pressure running a pool hall particularly on the weekends. But I'd like to hear other views on this. We have talked to the owners about this but since they are making money nightly on the college crowd they just dont want to move on it. A lot of the serious action players have gone away.
 
yobagua said:
A lot of the serious action players have gone away.
Click to expand...

As should you, Yo. No, you make up your own mind guy but what you are talking about is my pet peeve. There is simply no need for having to put up with this guy. I have known many like him. I didn't stay long.

I don't play much any more, Yo but when I do play I travel 133 miles, one way, to Starkville, MS just because of the way the Professor, his family and the people he has hired run Southern Billiards.

Does your guy have any redeeming qualities?
 
Since you've already brought it up with the owner to no avail, I have to say that's your answer.
It is NOT the pool players keeping pool rooms open and in business.
It IS the ball bangers spending money keeping the rooms open and in business.
Sad but true. Pool players are cheap.

Troy...~~~ Has managed pool rooms for enough years to know
yobagua said:
There has been a lot of talk about Equipment, Places to play, Etiquette, etc. But for me what can ruin a good place is the House man. There is a place I frequent in Santa Monica California where there is a nice place with 3 good tables that are set aside for house players. Mostly the match play is on these tables. The regulars here are cordial and the food is good. With a good clentele from UCLA and the west side of town. Its settled in a nice neighborhood with a lot of good restaurants and bars and clubs. However I just stopped going to the place because the night house man there has just become an absolute jerk. Very officious and confrontational. Also he loves to chat it up with the cute local coeds while regular customers have to wait to get any service. He also gives preferential treatment to personal friends (show biz types since he is a wannabe) letting them play on the table reserved for match play. These buddies who dont know a thing about pool will mess up the cloth with their attempts at masses and terrible shooting.
I know it is a lot of pressure running a pool hall particularly on the weekends. But I'd like to hear other views on this. We have talked to the owners about this but since they are making money nightly on the college crowd they just dont want to move on it. A lot of the serious action players have gone away.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Originally posted by Troy Sad but true. Pool players are cheap.
Click to expand...

Troy you are absolutelly right. You will hardly make any money of the pool players. All they care about is to have free table time during a tournament, and after, so they can gamble all nite on one coca-cola and tons of refills.

I've been working in more than 10 pool houses since 1992.
 
I have quit frequenting a local pool hall for the same reason, I must be a ballbanger because I dropped alot more than soda money when I did frequent the place.
 
Hold on. We have about 12 to 15 regulars who play every day. These guys spend about $20 to $30 a night there. These arent mooches but have good jobs and come to play after work. There is also about 10 to 12 semi regulars that come in at least 4 days a week. So $20 a person times 30 days is $600 a month. Times that by 12 is $7200 a month at least. Factor in the Semi's thats about $10,000 a month. I am not even counting the Billiard players( about 8 guys who play from 10 AM to 6PM.) We have our mooches too. We have guys besides playing 3 or 4 hours a nite have a sandwich and 3 beers. Thats $50 in LA at $10 an hour at nite table time.

I think that the owners are taking the regulars for granted. That is his monthly nut. Everything else is gravy. Ball bangers come and go but it is your regulars that will keep you going. I dont mind paying but a bad House Man can ruin it for everybody.
 
Originally posted by yobagua
I dont mind paying but a bad House Man can ruin it for everybody.
Click to expand...

I'm sure that lots of you people knows this place in Memphis, TN - High Pockets. I've been working there for a year about 3-4 years ago under the owner, that runs of everybody including me. His way of deallig with regulars was just ridiculous! Weekly tournaments went down from 70-80 to 20-30 people. This was the best pool hall in all mid-south area with high celling and 23 tables including 9footer brunswicks + 1 10f 3 cushion and 1 10f snooker. Finally previous owner has to sell it. Now this place is nothing!
 
So in other words, what you're really saying is that you'd like a little more respect and have the recognition that you feel you deserve? Works like that everywhere, doesn't it yo. Here on AZ, your local room, some dimwit sales clerk in a department store that's chewing gum and talking up a storm on the telephone with a friend as you stand there totally invisible, somebody rolling down their window and calling you an asshole and every other thing they can think of for a driving infraction that they didn't like. It's frustrating and is everywhere in today's society. The other possibility is that the guy just flat out doesn't like YOU and purposely doesn't pay any attention to you.
 
drivermaker said:
So in other words, what you're really saying is that you'd like a little more respect and have the recognition that you feel you deserve? Works like that everywhere, doesn't it yo. Here on AZ, your local room, some dimwit sales clerk in a department store that's chewing gum and talking up a storm on the telephone with a friend as you stand there totally invisible, somebody rolling down their window and calling you an asshole and every other thing they can think of for a driving infraction that they didn't like. It's frustrating and is everywhere in today's society. The other possibility is that the guy just flat out doesn't like YOU and purposely doesn't pay any attention to you.
Click to expand...


That's probably it, and in that case, I would just find a new place to hang.
 
Using your numbers, there are about 20-23 regular players who are ALL being treated like dirt and the owner stands for that treatment. If this is truely what you are saying, that owner is brain dead !!!
It's time to move on...

Troy
yobagua said:
Hold on. We have about 12 to 15 regulars who play every day. These guys spend about $20 to $30 a night there. These arent mooches but have good jobs and come to play after work. There is also about 10 to 12 semi regulars that come in at least 4 days a week. So $20 a person times 30 days is $600 a month. Times that by 12 is $7200 a month at least. Factor in the Semi's thats about $10,000 a month. I am not even counting the Billiard players( about 8 guys who play from 10 AM to 6PM.) We have our mooches too. We have guys besides playing 3 or 4 hours a nite have a sandwich and 3 beers. Thats $50 in LA at $10 an hour at nite table time.

I think that the owners are taking the regulars for granted. That is his monthly nut. Everything else is gravy. Ball bangers come and go but it is your regulars that will keep you going. I dont mind paying but a bad House Man can ruin it for everybody.
Click to expand...
 
"The other possibility is that the guy just flat out doesn't like YOU and purposely doesn't pay any attention to you."

Nah I dont think thats it because of the pattern of behaviour is not towards ME but to many others. I am immune to that shit by now after being over 50 years on this planet. Lunatics, cry babies, and grumps dont bother me. Its just hate to see a good place go down hill. The post was about how a house man can ruin it.

Youre right Troy. Time to move on.
 
yobagua said:
I am immune to that shit by now after being over 50 years on this planet. Lunatics, cry babies, and grumps dont bother me. Time to move on.
Click to expand...


Oooh...an immunity for that develops once you reach the magic age of 50?
Take a vacation in south Fla. where you have a preponderance of elderly in various areas. What you'll see is impatience, intolerance, hypersensitivity, short tempered, aggressive, combative individuals everywhere you go. You're more apt to get into a verbal altercation with someone over 50 than you are with the younger set. It also seems to get worse with each decade beyond 50. I've seen older individuals reading the riot act to store clerks, waitresses, and managers for poor service. I agree, moving on is the best thing to do. Why should you or anyone have to beg to spend your own hard earned money and have them take it for poor service. That's inexcusable and I refuse to do it also. But, the guy really DID get to you, hence, your departure. Normally, you only have contact with him upon arrival and departure, he doesn't come back and harrass people during table time. As I said in a previous post, he wasn't giving you the respect and recognition that you felt you deserved and you're not only pissed, but you're probably feeling belittled and unimportant. The coeds, his buddies, and the acting in-crowd don't seem to be too displeased as well as the owner. Ohmmmmm....Ohmmmm...Ohmmmmm....Ohmmmm.....Ohmmmm.....Ohmmmmm..
 
yobagua, Been there, done that. When I was about 17, I went to the local cigar store and they had 2 8' brunswick's. Very nice old tables with big pockets, but I just loved the way they played. The owner was a grumpy old guy who pissed off a lot of people but they always came back. I would quit going in there for a couple of months but I couldn't stay away as the table time was only $1.00 an hour. The other thing was one of the customers there had more knowledge about pool than anyone I knew and he showed me why the balls reacted in certain ways. Look at the good and the bad, then decide whether to take your money elsewhere. Sam
 
Yobagua, I'm guessing you play at House of Billiards Santa Monica. I've heard a few things about the owner of that place. If you are a regular to that place, you must know Ted. He is a young Japanese guy, about 24 years old. He shoots very strong, recently just moved back to Japan. He was the guy who played Mika Immonen over there, and went hill-hill on one of the sets with him getting the 8-ball (Mika won).

Anyways, if you are serious about leaving the room, the next time that guy does something like that, say to your friends loud enough for him to hear "Let's go to [insert rival poolroom name here], I heard they treat their regular customers alot better there." And then leave and don't come back for a long time. Maybe that will wake the jerk up.
 
Yobagua,

Have you said anything to the owners? Maybe they don't realize what's going on? The good news for you is that you probably have other pool halls close by. It would be pretty tough for someone that would have to go over a hundred miles to go to the next nearest pool hall.
 
Yes Rick Happily there are. The post was really not about me and my feelings but more about The Pool Hall, The Pool Players, and the Industry itself. Its another way of how our sport does not get recognition not me Management in a pool hall wouldnt think of doing half the things they do on a golf course or rifle range or poker room. I think it is high time we demanded some recognition for the player who comes every day and takes the game seriously. Sorry if I did not make myself clear for some.
 
I don't disagree with you Yobagua, I just wondered if the owners knew what was going on. They're not in the business to lose money and you certainly illustrated just how much money they are in jeopardy of losing.

One of the problems with small businesses is that anyone with enough money can open one. They don't need any experience or knowledge of how to run that business. The consequence for not doing a good job is that they don't stay in business for long. Doesn't sound like these people will be in business for long if they don't make some fast changes.




yobagua said:
Yes Rick Happily there are. The post was really not about me and my feelings but more about The Pool Hall, The Pool Players, and the Industry itself. Its another way of how our sport does not get recognition not me Management in a pool hall wouldnt think of doing half the things they do on a golf course or rifle range or poker room. I think it is high time we demanded some recognition for the player who comes every day and takes the game seriously. Sorry if I did not make myself clear for some.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Rick! I think having patience is probably the road to go. I go by the adage I was always taught. "A fool and his money are soon parted." LOL!!!!!
 
yobagua said:
Thanks Rick! I think having patience is probably the road to go. I go by the adage I was always taught. "A fool and his money are soon parted." LOL!!!!!
Click to expand...

Yo, does the guy gamble? ROLLEYES..... Just kidding, you're probably right. You sir, are a better man than I.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top