What Constitutes A Real Pool Hall?

[PlynSets]

Part One..

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.......

Sorry I haven't gotten back to this sooner, I've been extremely busy the last couple days and haven't had a chance to get online.

Let me first off say that sometimes my choice of wording leaves a little to be desired.. "Real" was in retrospect was in fact a poor choice. Obviously it's "real" becuase I didn't play in an "imaginary" tournament last night.. LOL If I did in fact play in an imaginary tourny last night, then believe me I have much bigger issues mentally that I need to deal with ASAP.

Ultimately what I would say is there's several different types of pool halls. I certainly didn't mean to offend by saying PQ isn't a real pool hall. That came out wrong, and for that I appologize. What I was trying to imply (by that I mean the general intent of the post wasn't whether or not PQ was a players hall or not, but rather a different point altogether.. The "real" comment was made as a basis to make an entirely different point) is that from my stand point, the reason I play there is because of the people, and the atmosphere, Not the pool.

When I said the word "real" what I suppose would've been a better word would've been "traditional." (To plagerize another poster on here) Pacific Q's goal at the end of the day is for every patron to have a good time. It's definatly a possitive experience going in there, and your right it flat absolves many of the problems that most "traditional" pool halls have.. Crime, shady people, etc. We have talked in the past, and I asked how come you don't tighten up the pockets on a few of the tables? To which the response was: "When people come in off the street I want them to be able to make a ball, and have a good time."

More traditional pool halls, (in my limited experience) are more about the game, and in some instances the "life" then necesarrily about the experience.. Well I shouldn't say experience becuase they are an experience in themselves.

I wouldn't say it's a question of upscale or seedy, but rather a "vibe" I suppose you'd say? Hollywood Billiards (Hollywood CA) was probably the nicest pool hall I've ever been too in my life, 1st class food delivered right to your table if you want it (they had a fine italian restaruant attached to the pool hall), nice fountain/smoking area out front, two stories, tight tables, 1st class equipment etc.. etc.. (No B.S. guy probably had a mill + into the joint), so it was upscale, and it was definately a "traditional" or "players" pool hall. It's not a question of whether or not the place has to be seedy to fit in that category as far as I'm concerned.. To be quite honest I'm not even sure (to answer your original question) if I can "qualify" it.. You just walk in the door and you know.. Does that make sense?

I went to OnCue for the first time in my life a few weeks ago to hit some balls with this guy. As soon as I walked through the door I immediately knew "This is a players hall." There mind as well not have been anybody in the joint and I still would've known.. Just a vibe the place kinda gives off.

You've made points on the board with regards to pools negative image.. You've pointed out that hustling, gambling, and other things are what contribute to that. While on the surface the argument would certainly make sense on another level I couldn't whole heartedly disagree with it more. (You read that right... )

DJ

 

[PlynSets]

Part II - The Story behind it all... LOL

The fact of the matter is the "underworld" so to speak of pool is probably what most attracted me to the game!

(Now I could get into the fact that when the movie THE HUSTLER came out there was a pool explosion, and when the Color of Money came out there was another one.. People are in fact infatuated with the gambling/hustling/and finally the unwritten code that goes with those things, but ultimately I'll just stick to my own personal experiences and share with you more or less what originally attracted me and got me into pool)

When I began playing pool, just like everyone else in here, I sucked. I banged them around like every other schlep on the planet for awhile, and I decided I wanted to get better. I eventually started hanging around a pool hall, and spent most of my time there.. It didn't take long for me to see a couple of unknown players "lockhorns" so to speak and go at it until one of them was done. It was Probably the most fascinating thing I've ever seen, I related it to the wild west in my head.. The ole "I dunno what you have, and you dunno what I have, but we're going to put it out here on the table and find out." Much like high noon is some mining town and gunslingers walking out to main street. I was absolutely fascinated by it.. So much so that I could almost repeat game for game that 1st set I watched!

I wanted to learn anything and everything I could about it, so pretty soon my hour or two at the pool hall, turned into 6 - 8 - 10 hours a day. Unfortunatley for me the pool hall I hung out in was Billiards by the Sea. It wasn't what I'd call a "real" pool hall. It was a place where people came to have a good time and play pool. Mostly kids at the time.. Point in fact some of those "kids" have now grown up and frequent Pacific Que! (Myself included) I remember my brother was a "B" player around that time and he invited me to play pool one night. He was going to show me what pool was all about, and I thank/curse (depending on the day.. LOL ) god almost on a daily basis for going with him that night. We head over to crown billiards. I had been there once before, and I had been to family as well, but I never really "got it." That night I definately "got it" point in fact my brother made damn sure I didn't have much choice in the matter.

I can't remember the table # now, but it was half way back on the right hand side of the pool hall and I'm pretty sure it had a 9 in it.. Table 9 or 19 I think. I remember it becuase when we arrived the pool hall was full, and this was one of the only tables left. The table had a wicked roll towards the foot rail. My brother threw up some coins, and I told him I really didn't want to gamble. It was explained to me that it really wasn't an option and this is in fact what you do when your at a pool hall.. like it or not we were playing for something. A fair bet at the time was the 7 out.. I was a pretty decent shot maker, but really had very little idea on how to play shape other then the most ridiculously obvious layouts.. (By layout I mean last 2 balls on the table ) Nothing could've prepared me for what happened. Point in fact nothing could've prepared my brother either.

Races to 3 for 5 was how we started our sets and I won the flip.. 9 ball break. Re rack, 9 ball break.. My brother just didn't have it in him to shit rack his little brother so he kept racking and it got so bad that I was breaking in (no bullshit) three 9 balls in a race to 5. This went on all damn night, he adjusted the weight down to the 8 ball, but it didn't matter.. I was breaking in 9's like it was going outta style and being a decent shot maker no B player on the planet was going to give me the 8, and 3 games on the wire (more or less) and win.. The #'s escalated into the triple digits pretty quicky on double or nothing bets and finally my brother was so rattled by this whole fiasco that he said.. "I quit, I can't win the f'n game." I couldn't tell you the amount he was down, but it was up in the 2 or 300 range. That was alot of money to both of us. I looked at him and told him that it was cool, and I really didn't want the money and it was no big deal..

This was when I learned probably the most important lesson I've ever learned with regards to this game.. "You don't ever welch on a bet, and you don't ever not collect your winnings." He took a last shot with his pool cue, and handed me my brand new (new to me anyways) Schon SL1... About 500 bucks retail at the time. I told him I didn't want it, but he insisted that I take it. I owned a few cuetecs before this, and even had a Bob Renus once.. There was something different about this cue though.. It was a "players" cue, and it demanded respect (more on that later in another post).

It wasn't 5 minutes after that two pool players approached looking for a scotch doubles game.. (For some reason in S.D. it was always called "Dutch Doubles?") One of the players was a very low A player, and the other was worse then me. It was a pretty even up game as far as Handicaps go. We played all night until closing, we were up several hundred right around that time. The cashier closed up the pool hall and we kept right on playing.. About 3:30 in the morning the cashier told us they had to leave, and with that took the keys out of their pocket and put them on the counter and said "lock up when your done, or I'll see you when I get back tomorrow afternoon."

He left and the bets got jacked up, and we were going back and forth all night long hovering around our couple hundred mark. These guys kept going to the bathroom over and over.. Eventually it was around 6 in the morning and neither myself nor my brother could hardly keep our eyes open, but these guys were wide awake? (Doing speed in the bathroom) Eventually our games fell off, and theres stayed the same and we lost everything back plus a hundred or two. I'll never forget that night, and I'll never forget my first experience in a "traditional/real" pool hall. I learned so much in one night that it would take me 100 pages in a book to fill it all. Some of the most important things I learned was the basics of gambling, when it comes to endurance I don't care how young you are you aren't going to outrun guys on drugs, and most importantly the shit that I always thought was just in the movies wasn't just in the movies, but alive and well in several more serious pool halls all across the country.

Here I had been banging balls around in Billiards by the sea for probably two years.. Hell I even gambled with my friends playing 5 dollar sets here and there. One night in crown billiards and I learned more then I had in two years and Billiards by the sea. I started going back, and hanging around a couple B players.. My second trip one of them looked at me and said "Man you sure look like a B player, but you shoot like a C player.." We talked about that for a second, and he showed me 2 pretty basic shape shots. I'm not sure why, but this same thing that I've seen 100 times just kinda made sense when this guy explained it. About 3 weeks later when I went to enter the crown tournament they made me a B player.. I pissed and moaned to holy hell about it, but there wasn't any budging on it. Inside I was a little proud that I crested this (what I thought was a mountain at the time) mole hill and moved up to the next level in my game. I placed in the money that night and there certainly wasn't any arguing about it anymore.. The thing I was most proud of though was I was now able to play sets with some of the weaker B players and be competive. Took me awhile to get over some of the basics (safety and not going for victory everytime etc..) But shooting well on any given night I could make balls, and play shape as good as most B players around..

What Qualifies a "real" pool hall? I'm not sure I can answer that.. I can just tell you that I goto P.Q. becuase of my friends (such as yourself) and the atmosphere.. For me it's a great place to go and get a beer and spend sometime hitting some balls, but looking back on my life I can see a huge difference between what Crown Billiards was, and what Billiards by the sea was.. One was a pool hall, the other was a hang out. P.Q. is in my mind a kind of "blend" between the two, but more leaning towards a fun place, then a serious night of pool. You obviously gotta be doing something right though becuase you see me in there all the time!

That being said I'll close with..

"Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and their always glad you came..
You want to be where you can see, the troubles are all the same..
You want to go where everybody knows your name.."

And then there's

"Sometimes you want to go where nobody knows your name, and nobody knows your game.."



DJ

 

[highrun55]

the old action room

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

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

Gerry,
Dont know if you read my prayer post earlier but this old action room has to move. I have until Sept 30th to get out, go figure.
Just celebrated my 13th yr in business to, sum b??ch

 

[ENCINITAS P.Q.]

To my good friend Dave and all the people who responded to my posting,I want to apologize again for the screwed up cap font last time. Thanks to all of you who responded with such supportive feedback. It is really exciting to find so many pool players and hear all their different perspectives. Dave, I love what you wrote and think your story telling really should be in a pool mag. I look forward to learning from all of you guys, your insights will help me to keep Pacific Q Billiards not only open, but most importantly,meeting the needs of both players, and our tight community of friends. Dave, let's play some sets soon. Your friend,Jim

 

[Ronoh]

To my good friend Dave and all the people who responded to my posting,I want to apologize again for the screwed up cap font last time. Thanks to all of you who responded with such supportive feedback. It is really exciting to find so many pool players and hear all their different perspectives. Dave, I love what you wrote and think your story telling really should be in a pool mag. I look forward to learning from all of you guys, your insights will help me to keep Pacific Q Billiards not only open, but most importantly,meeting the needs of both players, and our tight community of friends. Dave, let's play some sets soon. Your friend,Jim

You already have the right additude Jim, and again, I apologies for beating so hard on you for the original posting. It shows how steadfast you are for accepting it happened, moved on, and didn't delete the post. Shows fine character on your part.

By giving your clientele a learning environment, without distraction; will only help the sport of billiards. (make sure you have rooms with cameras to record the action ::: permission first ::: )

I can't wait to see what happens! I seriously mean that.

 

[Gerry]

Gerry,
Dont know if you read my prayer post earlier but this old action room has to move. I have until Sept 30th to get out, go figure.
Just celebrated my 13th yr in business to, sum b??ch

NO!

WTF Mick?.......What do you plan on doing?.....PM me and let me know whats up.....you know you got my help if you need it!

GMan

 

[catscradle]

Your room sounds like a nice place to play.
More to the point what constitutes a good room varies from person to person. To me "action" is absolutely meaningless, to others it is absolutely essential. The level of the players is important, but only relative to the player. I don't want to play in a room where I don't get out of my seat; on the other hand, neither do I want to play in a room where the players represent no challenge at all for my skill level. Ideally I want to be play a little above, at, and a little below my level.
More generally, good equipment is a must. Equipment quality is not relative to the player, it is an absolute.
Oh yeah, one other thing I really like is a jukebox that hasn't worked in 10 years and an owner to cheap to have it fixed.

 

[ENCINITAS P.Q.]

Thank you.

You already have the right additude Jim, and again, I apologies for beating so hard on you for the original posting. It shows how steadfast you are for accepting it happened, moved on, and didn't delete the post. Shows fine character on your part.

By giving your clientele a learning environment, without distraction; will only help the sport of billiards. (make sure you have rooms with cameras to record the action ::: permission first ::: )

I can't wait to see what happens! I seriously mean that.

Thank you for the kind feedback and I'm very grateful for the awesome links you gave me. I checked them out thoroughly and was amazed at the immense wealth of good info provided.Bob Jewett is awesome.Thanks for helping me. Your new pool friend, Jim.