Unfortunately, in the US, the most commonly used table is made for banks and one pocket, and in tournaments they tend to reduce the pockets even more. At a certain point, the pockets become so difficult that even slight cloth wear will make it impossible (and I do mean that in the absolute, litteral sense) to break 500, and the only solution is to constantly change cloths when attempting to break the record and even that may not be enough. Not to speak of abnormally short cushion rebound, and how that affects the viability of certain breakshots etc..
If there was a standard for straight pool, it should probably be a stock GC or something slightly similar to that, like a Dynamic or a Chinese GC clone of some sort. The cushions should have natural, traditional rebound and the pockets should be similar in cut and slate depth to that of stock GC at a min of 4.75 ideally, possibly a 4.5 inch, but then a normal 4.5 not some deep shelf nonsense. I do not think the brand or even exact pocket size matters as much as having the table perform within a reasonable range of cushion speed, pocket sizes etc. Most importantly, the table should not be SPECIFICALLY made to make balls hang up or bank short. So, if one could make certain criteria, I think that would be better than insisting on absolute brands. There are people who will never be happy, unless every physical part of the players environment is recreated exactly in new record attempts, down to temperature, humidity and so on. Those are people who do not see the bigger picture of how hard running 500 actually is, on any table.
Straight pool is not a tight pocket game. It's a game of creativity and using every part of the pool players arsenal. So, for instance, you should be able to shoot a break shot down the rail, without having the ball hang up. It should be viable to shoot a billiard, a combination or maybe even a bank at some point. If you make the pockets too tight, you will never break Mosconis run. NEVER. Both Mosconis and JS' run were made on tables with generous pockets, and now some of you want the new record holder to not only break a record that stood for half a century, but go beyond to the new number, on much more difficult pockets and tables that are not playing correctly? It's like they suddenly decided that the mens 100 meter sprint in the olympics from now on should be uphill at a 10% incline, knee deep in mud, and still expect the record to be broken. Not only that, but some people with pool players mindsets would then talk about how much better previous generations of sprinters were..If they were proper into the pool player culture, they'd probably suggest breaking the runners legs just to increase the challenge.This game and the people in it, man....You just can't win.