Tonight I went to an American Legion Post to hear my brother-in-law's band play. As luck would have it, we showed up right when they took a break to eat. I was sitting around, bored out of my mind, when my wife told me they had a pool table in the room next door! I walked over to find a 7' Valley bar box with cloth as thick as the gold shag carpet on the floor. Another a quick look around revealed a few cues leaning in the corner. The best cue was only slightly less bent than the one WC Fields was using in the video that makes the rounds occasionally on AZBilliards. Unfortunately, one of the kid's played with the cue after he had his cake and ice cream, and I'm pretty sure he did not bother to wash his hands. Looking at the bright side I thought at least it had a tip on it, as opposed to "the stick" CJ used in one of his matches. Anyway, I now had something to do while I was waiting. I racked the balls and started to play. I quickly realized that anything other than center ball would result in a miscue. The tip was severely mushroomed, hard as a rock, and there was no chalk on the table. Within a couple minutes some guy approached me for a game-he brought his cue. Having read many threads here on AZB regarding establishing the rules ahead of time I set out to do just that. The problem was that I could not get any answer out of the guy other than "bar rules". No matter how specific the question, or how many times I asked, I got the same answer. All I was able to figure out was that there was no ball in hand? I managed to get by this guy, then a line formed. All these people must have been related as I still could not get any rules out of them other than "you know, 8 ball bar rules". I had one issue with this rack that I was working to solve. I had a ball on the long rail a foot short of the corner pocket, his ball was a couple of inches from mine, also on the rail, and blocking my path to the corner pocket. I banked a ball down toward the cluster to use as a break ball and left the CB on the same long rail, hooking him. He shoots directly at, and hits my ball first, comboing his in. Obviously this is where the discussion starts, and ends with "Bar Rules", No Foul, and this is how we play. So I learned a couple things today. First, I probably will not play my best shooting with a bent, sticky, dented shaft with a crappy tip. Second, and most importantly, If I can't get a clear explanation of the rules ahead of time, it's not worth playing. Up to this point I've led a very sheltered life playing only with people who play by the same set of published rules. Have fun out there. Steve
