What is the most important thing in a successful pool hall?

Another vote for quality equipment.
Recloth the tables regularly and keep 'em level. Usually that goes hand-in-hand
but I've seen tables with sparkling new simonis and horrible rolls, which is a total waste.

Clean the balls, it's such a small thing but everything just plays better... better breaks,
fewer skids, easier cue ball movement.

Fix stupid little things like a ball return that keeps getting stuck, nails sticking out of pockets,
broken wooden racks, etc.

If the tables are right, I could give a crap if they even have food or alcohol or music.
This is Ames, mister.

nailed it right there... +1

Bob
 
I agree about having good equipment, but good customer service is at least equally important!
 
You would love Chris's! Two of the three rooms have NO music, and there is NO alcohol, and the new owners just recovered 16 of the tables in the two main rooms. Add to that seven 5x10 heated carom tables and a snooker table and you have a pool room!!

What is this Chris's you speak of? Sounds like a nice place. I'm pretty partial to red shoes but I'm always there early. Not sure if I would like it when it's busy
 
1) Good equipment, repairs, upkeep
2) Good ownership-goes along way
3) Regulars- let's keep this going
4) Action
5) Leagues-not just 8-ball
6) Atmosphere
7) Action-c'mon who are we kidding right?
 
Poolrooms require tables & staff... decent equipment & friendly staff help

If you want to make some money too... alcohol, alcohol, alcohol & food help

Leagues, tournaments and sales (equipment or repair) give a local presence.

Good luck!!!
 
#1 Good Equipment
#2 Good Atmosphere (Here in Taiwan, some pool halls have high school students who won't stop swearing and shouting in the pool hall and they'd throw house cues when they miss. I like a well controlled pool house, not one where noobs shout and try some really powerful shots and make the pool balls fly out the table every few shots)
 
If there was an episode of Pool Hall Rescue, they would run the hustlers out of the door, and get a full alcohol license. You can have a club type atmosphere with fantastic equipment and good (top 40? Dj) music.
A place about 20 min, from where I live has a bunch of Gold Crowns, centennial balls, and good house cues. It happens to be a Bikini Bar, but it doesn't have to be. The atmosphere works, and you don't feel like your slowly dying in a time warp. We wonder why pool isn't exactly thriving, but most pool halls have dead atmospheres. Add Old unsightly men, mingling with the shady hustler staring at everyone playing.
Pool must redo the venues the game is played in, before any progress with the masses is gained.
 
If there was an episode of Pool Hall Rescue, they would run the hustlers out of the door, and get a full alcohol license. You can have a club type atmosphere with fantastic equipment and good (top 40? Dj) music.
A place about 20 min, from where I live has a bunch of Gold Crowns, centennial balls, and good house cues. It happens to be a Bikini Bar, but it doesn't have to be. The atmosphere works, and you don't feel like your slowly dying in a time warp. We wonder why pool isn't exactly thriving, but most pool halls have dead atmospheres. Add Old unsightly men, mingling with the shady hustler staring at everyone playing.
Pool must redo the venues the game is played in, before any progress with the masses is gained.

I totally agree!
Pool halls in general seem a bit run down and generally not keeping up with the times.
As a chef and mixologist i wonder why pool halls don`t seem to understand that the money is in food and drink, not the table rent.
Music is dam hard, taste is so individual, but this is a subject well worth the time you invest in finding good and likeable music.
The places i have been manager at, we have made playlist on spotify and labeled them according to mood and tempo, so we could have things like: "slow sunday", "friday and saturday night", "daytime" etc.
That way we seldom had employees who played music solely according to their taste.
We were pretty liberal in what we played, anything from Johnny Cash to System of a down would be ok as long as it was in the right context.
Why shyed away from classical music, top 30 and MTV music, very intense jazz, opera, black/death metal and commercial country music.
 
Gotta be clean. If it feels like I'm going to contract a disease by washing my hands in the restroom, I'm out the door.
 
Clearance from walls on all sides of the table.
I like to hear music but I don't care if it's so loud I can't hear myself thinking.
 
"Byrne's Wonderful World of Pool and Billiards" by Robert Byrne has a whole chapter entitled "My Dream Room" that has a bunch of good suggestions in it.
 
A waitress with a third boob on her back.
I know they're hard to come by, but they're great for slow dancing. :smile:
 
Location, location, location. That's the one most important thing in a successful business. Open a room in the wrong part of town and it won't matter what you do. Find the right location and you'll be taking money hand over fist. The key to success after that is to build a room that caters to your location. You want to pay attention to your immediate audience and let that dictate what to do. You can be ritzy but you need to be in a ritzy part of town. You can be laid-back but find a laid-back part of town for that. Don't be laid-back in the ritzy section and vice-versa.

If you choose to have great equipment, awesome but don't think for one second that it's necessary. The most successful rooms in NYC spend a great amount of effort in their atmosphere and liquor business. Of those successful rooms, the level of equipment varies from decent to excellent. The good news is, the cost of great equipment is relatively modest. Diamond (my preference) and Brunswick both offer deals when purchasing multiple tables. You can also go the route of used tables but bear in mind, this can have an impact on your overall appearance and although this might be viewed as a nice savings during start-up, the savings will not be as significant as you might've hoped. Even if you get the tables for free, there's still installation, repairs, accessories.. After a year, you'll be kicking yourself for not spending the extra 60k.

So in sum, find a location that needs more social entertainment. You want to be in an area that has bars, perhaps a nearby college, maybe even in the downtown part of a city so you can take advantage of corporate events. See if there are established leagues in the area. In my opinion, it's great to be flexible, to have many streams of revenue but if you decide to pick one flavor, you have to make sure everyone in that area likes that flavor.
 
I think it is a combination of things that make a pool hall successful. In todays world that would include a full bar, some sort of food that is acceptable, clean rest rooms and pool hall to start with. As far as the tables go the pocket sizing is more important than some folks consider. I know one owner that has been successful for nearly 30 years now and has tweeked his place in every way imaginable. One time he tightened up his pockets to 4 1/2 corners and then watched his overall income drop steadily for six months. He then went back to his 5 inch corner pockets and watched his business go back to where it was. He told me the weekend everyday players got frustrated by the tighter tables and went elsewhere. He learned quickly how those folks affected his bottom line, loss of table income, food and liquor all added up quickly for him. To this day he has 5 inch corner pockets and tightened up one table for the guys to play one pocket and the gamblers to use. He also takes very good care of his equipment and has his tables recovered as soon as he feels it's necessary. To survive today you have to experiment and do what keeps the folks coming back. His staff are all friendly he has a dedicated core of regulars and is always filling up his tournaments.. His is an example to follow IMO..
 
A lot of great answers in this thread, but if you don't sell alcohol then you won't be staying in business very long. Owning the building is a huge plus, because when you lease your lucky if you can break even each month unless your room is in a big city or suburb where you can get a ton of business.
 
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