What Constitutes A Real Pool Hall?

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ENCINITAS P.Q.

Registered
Hi Everyone. I'm Brand New To This But Love The Forum. My Name Is Jim Smith And My Wife And I Own A Pool Hall In Encinitas, North County Coastal In San Diego. A Friend I Met At Pacific Q Three Years Ago, D.j. Aka Plynsets, Wrote A Moving Piece About Our Friends Tragic Death And Billy's Loss. But Dj, How Can You Classify A Pool Hall Real Or Unreal, In Your Estimation, Based Solely On How Much Action(gambling) It Has Or It's Number Of "a" Players? I Love The Thrill Of Action As Much As Any Pool Player, But It Certainly Doesn't Define The Whole Picture Of The Sport.
You Consider Hard Times A Real Hall Simply Based On The Action.
Pacific Q Billiards May Not Have Heavy Or Lots Of Action But It Does Have Full Size 9' Olhausen Tables, With Tour Edition Cloth Which Is Just As Fast As Your Simonis 860 Or Faster. The Cloth On Every Single Table Is In Perfect Condition Since I Spend The Money To Refelt Every 6 Months And The Slate Is Leveled By Paul Hart, One Of The Best Table Mechanics Around.even The Slower Tables Have Fast Cloth Which Is Used In The U.s. Amateur
Championships. The Belgian Aramiths Are Cleaned By Machine Every Four Days And Our Cue-tec House Cues Are The Best I've Ever Seen For House Cues. Our Wednesday 9-ball Tourney Is Well Run ,by Your Room Mate, And He Has Created A Great, Consistent Following With Great Payouts And No Green Fee Money For The House. We Have Plenty Of Good B Players, Even If The C And D Players Are A Much Greater Number. We Even Have A Few "A" Players That Come By And Play Sets Or Teach Students. We Never Have Fights Or Muggings Like Some Real Pool Halls With Big Action. I'm Okay With That. We're More Of A Second Family Sharing In One The Greatest Sports Ever Devised. We Laugh Together. We Compete With Each Other. We Share Our Victories And Our Losses Together, Both On And Off The Tables. Cont.......
 
ENCINITAS P.Q. said:
Hi Everyone. I'm Brand New To This But Love The Forum. My Name Is Jim Smith And My Wife And I Own A Pool Hall In Encinitas, North County Coastal In San Diego. A Friend I Met At Pacific Q Three Years Ago, D.j. Aka Plynsets, Wrote A Moving Piece About Our Friends Tragic Death And Billy's Loss. But Dj, How Can You Classify A Pool Hall Real Or Unreal, In Your Estimation, Based Solely On How Much Action(gambling) It Has Or It's Number Of "a" Players? I Love The Thrill Of Action As Much As Any Pool Player, But It Certainly Doesn't Define The Whole Picture Of The Sport.
You Consider Hard Times A Real Hall Simply Based On The Action.
Pacific Q Billiards May Not Have Heavy Or Lots Of Action But It Does Have Full Size 9' Olhausen Tables, With Tour Edition Cloth Which Is Just As Fast As Your Simonis 860 Or Faster. The Cloth On Every Single Table Is In Perfect Condition Since I Spend The Money To Refelt Every 6 Months And The Slate Is Leveled By Paul Hart, One Of The Best Table Mechanics Around.even The Slower Tables Have Fast Cloth Which Is Used In The U.s. Amateur
Championships. The Belgian Aramiths Are Cleaned By Machine Every Four Days And Our Cue-tec House Cues Are The Best I've Ever Seen For House Cues. Our Wednesday 9-ball Tourney Is Well Run ,by Your Room Mate, And He Has Created A Great, Consistent Following With Great Payouts And No Green Fee Money For The House. We Have Plenty Of Good B Players, Even If The C And D Players Are A Much Greater Number. We Even Have A Few "A" Players That Come By And Play Sets Or Teach Students. We Never Have Fights Or Muggings Like Some Real Pool Halls With Big Action. I'm Okay With That. We're More Of A Second Family Sharing In One The Greatest Sports Ever Devised. We Laugh Together. We Compete With Each Other. We Share Our Victories And Our Losses Together, Both On And Off The Tables. Cont.......
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Sounds like a poolhall to me... and a very fine one at that!!
I wouldn't mind a poolhall like that in my town.

Tanner Pruess
 
Thanks Tp For The Feed Back. Read Part Two Which Is Now Posted If You Can And Let Me Know Your Thoughts Please. Your New Pool Friend, Jim.
 
Pool hall were I grew up in had 3 snooker tables,1 billiard,7 regular 9ft tables. Friday and Sat. nite usually a waiting list to get on a table.Smoke hung just below the table lites!
 
Wow do you have a program that automatically capitalizes words or did you do that by hand!?!?!?

Seems like a *lot* of extra work to make something so hard to read.....
 
sorry but i admitted i can't type for sh... i just kept the cap lock on and it posted weird. my bad, but the message is what counts. jim
 
To be facetious, pool tables. It's like asking what constitutes a real strip club.

All joking aside, it sounds like you have a nice business. Definately an enjoyable atmosphere for everyone.
 
The message is what counts, but it seriously hurts my eyes to read in all caps or trying to decifer the "all first letter capitalized" stuff.

No offense intended, don't worry about typing, it IS the message that counts, but as I said its a lot easier when you can actually make it out....

small edit:

sorry for edit but this question has been in the back of my mind...

I don't understand the connection between not being able to type and turning capslock on.

generally all over the internet, all-caps is considered extremely rude and "shouting", and that is probably the exact reason that this forum must turn all-caps post into only first letter caps...

In other words, I'd much rather see an all under-case post than one that was all caps or all first-letter-caps.

Sorry for the short rant but I still dont understand why not being able to type would make you want to turn on the all-caps....
 
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I think I'm blind now. WOW that was hard to read.

Thanks for introducing yourself Jim, but DAMN, do you reread before you post? I'm sorry for sounding harsh, I truely am, but that made my brain hurt.

Is the jist of your story, that you want to/are trying to sell a pool hall? I'm obviously missing something.
 
Jim, welcome to the forum. I see you have already received the etiquette lessons. Your place is what a "pool room" should be. The references to Hard Times is rather shallow. The original owners of Hard Times in Bell--what ever, now have another place in Northern Cal., and it sounds just like yours. Good business sense, lessons/teaching, tournaments. You are right on. Action is great, as an older player I love it because that is what the sport signified to me when was learning to play. I still play and gamble whenever I can. The two are not mutually exclusive. You need new blood to survive, and in order to compete with video games and x games, you will have to create an interesting and positive environment. Sounds like you have the right ideas. If you have any doubts, stop in Hard Times in Sacramento and see the median between action and good business. The former owners of the other one, and managers, I'm sure would be more than happy to share ideas and encourage you. And they still like action as there are several large tournament players in the house. Mid June is Jubilee week, women's tournament, men's tournaments 9 ball and 1 pocket, ring game and $18,000.00 added to the various tournaments. Many Pros make it to this tournament. Come up for a weekend. Flyers will be going out this week. It will be fun and you may learn something that will help you in your business.

Mike
 
Well what's happening Jim. Welcome aboard. I have been meaning to mention these Guys are really adament about this CAP thing. Yes you do have a nice clean room. But when is the last time you had 6 old geezers waiting at the door when you opened waiting to play Golf on the snooker table??? That's Hard Times Bellflower. Maybe the word TRADITIONAL would fit better then REAL?? I will stop in and see you soon. Take care!!
 
I think to classify a pool room, first you have to look at the source. When I first started going to pool rooms a friend said.....hey there's this great new pool room we need to check out with 20 tables, music, etc. I thought it was the best place in the world. So we played there for a year or so and thought I could play. Then, I heard rumors about a "real" pool room an hour or so up the road, so we went there to see whats up. This was a small room with 8 tables, and action EVERYWHERE. I could tell I was in a different league.

I ended up working in both places, and to tell you the truth they were both fun, but for different reasons. One was a "hang out" friendly, loud music fun place. While the second was an old time players type of room. Neither better than the other.....just depends on what your looking for.

Gerry
 
Gerry said:
...Neither better than the other.....just depends on what your looking for.

Gerry
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Nice post, Gerry. I am in complete agreement with what you say. That's why they make Almond-Joy and Mounds!

Welcome to our world, ENCINITAS P.Q.!:D
 
Agree

Gerry said:
I think to classify a pool room, first you have to look at the source. When I first started going to pool rooms a friend said.....hey there's this great new pool room we need to check out with 20 tables, music, etc. I thought it was the best place in the world. So we played there for a year or so and thought I could play. Then, I heard rumors about a "real" pool room an hour or so up the road, so we went there to see whats up. This was a small room with 8 tables, and action EVERYWHERE. I could tell I was in a different league.

I ended up working in both places, and to tell you the truth they were both fun, but for different reasons. One was a "hang out" friendly, loud music fun place. While the second was an old time players type of room. Neither better than the other.....just depends on what your looking for.

Gerry
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with Gerry on this. We, basically, have 4 rooms here that are popular
(we have more, but these 4 are the ones). One is SidePockets, a
franchise with 33 tables (24 bar tables, 9 9 footers) and a real nice place.
It draws a lot of the early 20's crowd that are working people, and quite3 a few college people. Good looking young women go in to this place.
This place is the only Billiard room on the west side of town.

The other 3 have about 10 bar tables a piece, and 2 of the 3 have 1
big table. But, these 3 have more of a homey atmosphere for Pool players
that Players like, and more league oriented also. 1 of the rooms is well known for the best tables in town, always level, clean, good cloth, and clean balls. In these 3, it is kind of like Cheers, where everyone knows your name. Plus the money action is the best in 2 of the 3, so the money players hang out at them. Plus these 3 are within 7 miles of each other, with 2 of them only being a mile apart.

Where the best players in town hang out is also a draw because people enjoy watching them play, and especially for good money matches.
People are Action junkies, and they like to be entertained.
 
For Me Personally

This only applies to me and what I like in a pool room. Nice, well kept equipment. Quiet, dark atmosphere. Some snacky type food that I can grab when I want some. And plenty of regulars that I can fit in with. I'm not an action player so I couldn't care less about how much money is changing hands. My last regular hall was almost void of action altogether, but I loved it and was there almost every day. I made several friends some of who I'm still close with after moving across the country. That's far more important to me than action.

Again, this is only my $0.0167 so take it for what it's worth.
 
Gerry said:
I think to classify a pool room, first you have to look at the source. When I first started going to pool rooms a friend said.....hey there's this great new pool room we need to check out with 20 tables, music, etc. I thought it was the best place in the world. So we played there for a year or so and thought I could play. Then, I heard rumors about a "real" pool room an hour or so up the road, so we went there to see whats up. This was a small room with 8 tables, and action EVERYWHERE. I could tell I was in a different league.

I ended up working in both places, and to tell you the truth they were both fun, but for different reasons. One was a "hang out" friendly, loud music fun place. While the second was an old time players type of room. Neither better than the other.....just depends on what your looking for.

Gerry
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Gerry is your avatar a picture of a pool room in Ormand Beach? Where are the 2 rooms you are talking about?
 
WingsFan said:
This only applies to me and what I like in a pool room. Nice, well kept equipment. Quiet, dark atmosphere. Some snacky type food that I can grab when I want some. And plenty of regulars that I can fit in with. I'm not an action player so I couldn't care less about how much money is changing hands. My last regular hall was almost void of action altogether, but I loved it and was there almost every day. I made several friends some of who I'm still close with after moving across the country. That's far more important to me than action.

Again, this is only my $0.0167 so take it for what it's worth.
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Where do you play in North port? That"s down south of Sarasoto, right?? As I read this thread it amazes me how many of these places I have been in. Best I can remember is they all had Pool Tables! Its the "Playas" is what REAL refers to!
 
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rackem said:
Where do you play in North port? That"s down south of Sarasoto, right?? As I read this thread it amazes me how many of these places I have been in. Best I can remember is they all had Pool Tables! Its the "Playas" is what REAL refers to!
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Well, the place I was talking about that I loved was back in Michigan. In North Port, I switch back and forth between Veterans Billiards (pros: good equipment, cons: full of high school kids) and Sport City Billiards (pros: older crowd, full bar, cons: worse equipment than Veterans). And yes, North Port is a little south of Sarasota. Both of the places I mentioned are actually in Port Charlotte which is a little south of North Port.
 
rackem said:
Gerry is your avatar a picture of a pool room in Ormand Beach? Where are the 2 rooms you are talking about?
Click to expand...


No, actually it's a picture of this room www.thebilliardstour.com thats where I used to work/play/and earned my chops...:D

That's the action room I was talking about, the other was Clicks billiards in Berwyn Pa....no longer around. It was one of the COM rooms that never made it over time, and real expensive rent...

Gerry
 
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