Vietnamese Billiards.

mnorwood

mnorwood

Moon
Silver Member
I am a white dude that married a vietnamese woman.

One of the nice features of the vietnamese culture is their love for carom billiards. They play a game that ruffly translated in English is "Three ball billiards". A player scores by contacting their opponents cueball and a red ball without having to contact any cushions.

They also play a carom game that involves numbered pins and dice.

Any city that has a sizable vietnemese population has billiards halls where these great games can be played. They also have some serious poker and pai gao action going on and a poker variation called bing.

Are there any other azer's out there that are familiar with the vietnamese games? The vietnamese word for billiards is Bida. If you see an asian establishment with this word drop in and check it out.
 
mnorwood said:
I am a white dude that married a vietnamese woman.

One of the nice features of the vietnamese culture is their love for carom billiards. They play a game that ruffly translated in English is "Three ball billiards". A player scores by contacting their opponents cueball and a red ball without having to contact any cushions.

They also play a carom game that involves numbered pins and dice.

Any city that has a sizable vietnemese population has billiards halls where these great games can be played. They also have some serious poker and pai gao action going on and a poker variation called bing.

Are there any other azer's out there that are familiar with the vietnamese games? The vietnamese word for billiards is Bida. If you see an asian establishment with this word drop in and check it out.
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Im dating a Vietnamese girl, she says there is a pool hall in a vietnamese part of westminster city here in orange county. That plays these games, I will go check it out next week and see what its like.

Thanks mnorwood

Mack
 
mnorwood said:
I am a white dude that married a vietnamese woman.

One of the nice features of the vietnamese culture is their love for carom billiards. They play a game that ruffly translated in English is "Three ball billiards". A player scores by contacting their opponents cueball and a red ball without having to contact any cushions.

They also play a carom game that involves numbered pins and dice.

Any city that has a sizable vietnemese population has billiards halls where these great games can be played. They also have some serious poker and pai gao action going on and a poker variation called bing.

Are there any other azer's out there that are familiar with the vietnamese games? The vietnamese word for billiards is Bida. If you see an asian establishment with this word drop in and check it out.
Click to expand...

Being Vietnamese myself and a former owner of a Vietnamese pool room, I'm very familiar with the different type of games that the Vietnamese play on the carom table.

One of the more interesting games is called "bida du", a rough translation into English, it is called "pins billiards". There are 11 different pins that are placed throughout the table with different numbers (1,2,3,4,5,6 & 10). Each one of the pins represents a different number. The object of the game is to knock down the pins to match the exact number that you draw. Whoever knocks down his number first, he wins the game. Every new game, you have to re-draw the number. The numbers range from 11 through 20. If you draw a number 11, you can try to knock down the 5 & 6 pins or 10 & 1 pins, etc....

This is an awesome game to practice your cue ball control.

John
 
John (thebestpoolroom):

I'm fluent in French and do many Vietnamese these days speak it so that if I walked into a Vietnamese establishment they'd understand what I'm saying?
 
There is a local Pool hall here that used to have a large group of Lo'ation
(sp) players. They were always playing Caroms, and a couple of them are great Pool players also. The Pool room was sold a few years back and the new owner who is oriental, (not sure of his culture) Took out the Billiard Table?:mad: and he does not like to turn the AC on?:mad: The place sucks now and Tron & Boy had to find a new Pool hall to play in. In the old days there was always allot of action there. Those guys really liked playing there, it is a shame what the new owner did to that place.:mad:
 
stolz2 said:
Im dating a Vietnamese girl, she says there is a pool hall in a vietnamese part of westminster city here in orange county. That plays these games, I will go check it out next week and see what its like.


Actually there are quite a few Vietnamese pool rooms along Westminster Blvd. and Bolsa ave. I checked one out that was just off the 22. For safety sakes I would reccomend going in the afternoon or early evening when the older guys are there. They were playing that pin game and lots of cash was involved. Not knowing the language I could not really understand what was going on. They did appear to be having a lot of fun and there was definately some sharking going on.
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I think only older Vietnamese would have much chance of speaking French. The French had their hand in Viet affairs for a long time but after they got beat up and had to leave the country, I think their influence began to wane. Vietnamese restaurants still have some french influences though, like espresso drinks. I've heard that the word "pho",the beef noodle soup so popular at Viet restaurants, comes from the term "pot de feux". There's a Vietnamese place in San Diego (Saigon)that offers chicken curry with a baguette, for example. I've been to about 50 different Vietnamese restauraunts- I like it much better than Chinese food.

I tried to drop in and check out a Vietnamese pool hall in San Jose, CA but the local gangbangers in there didn't look happy (only time in my life a room actually stopped when I walked in) and the equipment was crap so I left.

I've been in some other Asian pool halls and noticed that they charge higher rates, usually play on smaller tables with crappy cloth, and Asian pool halls seem to have 99+% Asian players. I played some three cushion in San Diego at a place that charged 6-8 bucks an hour to play on a 8' billiards table with slow cloth. They were cool, though. They seemed a little excited to have a white guy who actually can play billiards come in. I tried to tell the guy I was playing that he could play on heated 10' tables for less money at College Billiards, but I think they like having their own space and they probably gamble it up big sometimes.
 
bud green said:
... They were cool, though. They seemed a little excited to have a white guy who actually can play billiards come in...
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Same guys in the pool hall here (on East Coast)! They always say, "no pocket" about 4 times before they will give me the dammmmn balls!
 
Are you kidding ...

The one here, if you go there, you could end up in the alley with a knife
in your gut .... no thanks ... And I don't care to be 'talked around' by another language in my country.
 
TO ALL:

Damn, the image of poll and billiards in the country is utterly astounding.

It ain't "Know thyself.' Rather, it's "Arm thyself to the hilt!!"
 
kokopuffs said:
John (thebestpoolroom):

I'm fluent in French and do many Vietnamese these days speak it so that if I walked into a Vietnamese establishment they'd understand what I'm saying?
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The older generation is fluent in French, however, the younger generation will say je ne comprend pas francois (hope i spell it right, it's been a while).

john
 
rackem said:
stolz2 said:
Im dating a Vietnamese girl, she says there is a pool hall in a vietnamese part of westminster city here in orange county. That plays these games, I will go check it out next week and see what its like.


Actually there are quite a few Vietnamese pool rooms along Westminster Blvd. and Bolsa ave. I checked one out that was just off the 22. For safety sakes I would reccomend going in the afternoon or early evening when the older guys are there. They were playing that pin game and lots of cash was involved. Not knowing the language I could not really understand what was going on. They did appear to be having a lot of fun and there was definately some sharking going on.
Click to expand...

I went to the one right off the 22 freeway. They mainly had 4x8 foot tables with no pockets. I guess for these games, no one spoke english so I will go back during the day with my girlfriend and see if I cant get my self stabbed or beat up. I will just have to use my "brace knuckle" bridge when playing. :mad:

Mack
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Ruff places.

I hope I did not mislead anyone by suggesting the vietnamese games. Yes these places are ruff. The only reason why I went because my father-in-law is a respected member of asian organized crime. The young gang bangers know to stay away from me when I am in his presence. However, for the average white joe you need to go with someone who speaks the language, so you will know when to get the hell out. The only reason why I mentioned it is because most pool halls are ruff so I thought the average az reader would be accustomed to the risk. But like another poster pointed out you can get gutted like a fish and take it from me no one will testify.
 
mnorwood said:
I hope I did not mislead anyone by suggesting the vietnamese games. Yes these places are ruff. The only reason why I went because my father-in-law is a respected member of asian organized crime. The young gang bangers know to stay away from me when I am in his presence. However, for the average white joe you need to go with someone who speaks the language, so you will know when to get the hell out. The only reason why I mentioned it is because most pool halls are ruff so I thought the average az reader would be accustomed to the risk. But like another poster pointed out you can get gutted like a fish and take it from me no one will testify.
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These places must be in california where gangs are every where. From my experience, Asians find it very interesting when a non-asian plays carom. 99% of the time, no one will bother you (if you don't mess with them). They might look at your play because of the curiosity factor. However, be careful with that remaining 1%.

John
 
Hey John:

Please recommend a good Vietnamese restaurant in Atlanta: I'm hard up for some tastey jellyfish, seriously.
 
We had a pretty big Vietnamese pool hall where I live and it got so roudy the police finally closed it down. They tried to open another one and the city council refused to give them a license.

We had 3 Vietnamese guys that used to love to play 9b for money. They were all in their late 20's or early 30's. I was playing one of them and while we were playing, several young Vietnamese guys (mid to late teens) came up to him and they had a brief conversation in Vietnamese. After the young guys left, he told me that I should stay away from the younger Vietnamese because they were all in gangs and liked to shoot people but that anyone that was considered his friend, such a me, would be all right because they respected and even feared him.

We have Cambodians, Loatians and the Vietnamese and I don't think any of them like one another as a group. The gangbanging has simmered down a little as of late but it used to be pretty bad when it was at it's height.

One last thing, I think if you play good pool, you have a chance of surviving in a hostile ph because talent often transcends race and bigotry if not entirely, enough to help you to survive. I walked into a Mexican ph not knowing the area and things were pretty dicey until I started shooting ball in. A guy came over smiling and said I shot a good game. That really eased the tension. I think the best thing I did was not to walk in and then try to walk out. I walked in asked for a table and started shooting. I didn't stay real long but long enough to show that I wasn't afraid or prejudiced.
 
Generalizing vs. Good common sense.

If your experience with asian carom joints are good in your area than great. I am speaking about the New Orleans/Houston asian carom world. Maybe what I should say is that not all asian places are ruff but be very aware that they may be. In a response to stolz I cautioned him based on the experiences that I have had. However, if the atlanta asian carom world is clean than that is great.

Regardless of the company you might find my original point was centered around how interesting the games they play are.

NOTE!!!! For all people who are frustrated at the lack of action at the local pool hall there is plenty of action in an asian establishment. To them poker is not a new fad, it is old hat. They love to bet high on carom games even if they lack the skill to back it up.
 
One of my favorite vietnamese places in Atlanta was Bien Thuy at 5095 Buford Highway. It's right next to "My Dung " video - an asian movie store with a lot of movie posters on the window. There's a gas station 50' from Bien Thuy if that helps you find it.

Atlanta has some great Vietnamese food. When I lived in Athens, GA, I used to occasionally freak out and drive 85 miles each way to go get some pho. Good excuse to go play at Mr Cues II, anyway.

There must be 30 different places on Buford Hwy alone to eat vietnamese.

There's also an asian pool hall or two on that road but, again, they're not always friendly. I went into one, looked around, and then asked how much to play.

"10 dollars per hour"

I responded "Is that for two players or just one?" thinking 10/hr can't be right for one player.

"10 DOLLA PER HOUR!" he half yelled. Wow, 10 bucks an hour and the staff is SO friendly. One guy in there looked like he could play a little bit but it wasn't worth the money or listening to some jerk trying to act tough. I just laughed and left. I ended up going to Mr Cues II and then to a different pool hall with some good billiard tables. I can't remember the name but they hosted a carom event years ago and taped some matches you can get from caromtv.
 
bud green said:
One of my favorite vietnamese places in Atlanta was Bien Thuy at 5095 Buford Highway. It's right next to "My Dung " video - an asian movie store with a lot of movie posters on the window. There's a gas station 50' from Bien Thuy if that helps you find it.

Don't go there to look for it. You will never find it because it went out of business a few months back. It is now a Vietnamese coffee shop.

John
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