What's a "Pool hall" to you?

MilwShooter

MilwShooter

Pool? Never heard of it..
Silver Member
When I think of a pool hall, I think of the pool hall about 2 miles from my house. They've got 51 tables, including a snooker table, 9 foot tables, 8 foot tables, some Billiard tables, and a hand full of 7ft barboxes.

I've stumbled across a few different "pool hall" videos and stories that talk about the place only having a dozen tables and this and that. How many tables does a place have to have to be a pool hall? Is it NUMBER of tables, or just the quality? I can't picture a place with less than 2 dozen tables being a pool hall, that sounds more like a bar with a bunch of boxes. Dave'n'Busters in Chicago has something like 12 tables...they certainly wouldn't be a pool hall.

Is it just a place that has enough tables to run some sort of leagues and the occasional tournament? Because I think a pool hall, in it's true form....should just about appear to be a warehouse full of tables. But that's just my opinion. What do you think?
 
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we only have one "pool hall" in our town.

it has about 10 9ft, and 35 bar tables. Had a snooker and billiard table but noone used them.
 
I guess i didnt answer your question.

To me a Pool Hall has a:
Snooker table
Billiard table
several 9's
Bar tables

a jukebox with good music and not tooooooooo loud.

a rail area set up to bet and watch action.

Tournaments tournaments tournaments.

Players who actually play and try to create action.

And a owner/manager who cares about pool players and promoting the sport.
 
My thought of a "Pool Hall", brings me back to my second ever job, was in a little town at the time called Round Lake, Il. in a little strip mall, between an Ace Hardware and a bowling alley, I was a mere 16 at the time, and it had just opened, had 20 9' tables, a jukebox, soda machine, and the counter.

Old man ran it, if memory serves me correctly I want to say Gus. I hung out there from opening day every day for about 2 months straight, until he finally said, i could work there, every morning, from 9 till 1 until he came in, free table time as well as i think 3.50 an hr.

That was pool hall to me. There was another on the opposite side of town that had about 8 bar tables in it but nothing major mostly young kids playing. Although the owners daughter (Brooke, never forget her name was beautiful)

A pool hall to me is just that, Billiards, no bowling, no go carts, no tiny basketball hoops. Could have 2 tables could have 200, but it is all about pool.
 
Most pool hall in the Clearwater area have about 12 9ft. tables. One pool hall in Tampa has 22 9ft tables. One in Holiday has 14 9ft tables and about 10 7ft. tables.

But we still call them pool halls because they aren't just bars!
 
Richardson said:
I guess i didnt answer your question.

To me a Pool Hall has a:
Snooker table
Billiard table
several 9's
Bar tables

a jukebox with good music and not tooooooooo loud.

a rail area set up to bet and watch action.

Tournaments tournaments tournaments.

Players who actually play and try to create action.

And a owner/manager who cares about pool players and promoting the sport.
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What he said without the juke box and bar tables.
 
Local pool hall burns down...hundreds homeless !!!

Naturally the more variety, and the number of tables, the better.
But in order to qualify as a"pool room" you must have at least one, or more of the following.

(1) A resident nit.
(2) A resident hi-roller.
(3) An abundance of naive individuals. (suckers)
(4) The occasional hot babe or two.
(5) Banger kids who drive you crazy with rap music.
(6) A crusty old owner to keep the bangers in line.

And last, but not least, a comfort level sufficient to make you feel at home when you know thats where you should probably be.

Dick <---Never met a pool hall he couldn't adjust to.
 
A place that's about to go out of business? :confused:

If it has tables to play pool on, I'd consider it a pool hall.
 
I think Richardson touched on it. It's the clientele that make it a pool hall. Are the customers there for the primary activity of playing pool or to eat, drink, dance, play video games and pick up girls? After that it is the management, the equipment, the action and again, the customers that determine whether it is a good pool hall.

When I was a kid the pool hall closest to me had 8 nine foot tables. That was it. But that's all it had. No food, no bar, no jukebox. If you were there it was to play pool. There was also a very good room at one of the local bowling alleys. Obviously the primary purpose of the business was bowling. But inside that room it was pool and there was action there.
 
Antique Billiards in Colorado Springs, it's pretty awesome. There is probably 14-15 9' tables. A snooker table, a billiard table, a 10' table. Then about 30-35 7' Diamonds. The guy that owns it is a hell-uv-a player too. I don't go too often but there is always a ring game going on and usually some other action. Awesome pool hall.
 
Pool Hall definition....

I would definitively say that a "pool hall" is any recreational venue where the primary purpose of those who enter is "cue sports"! I don't care how many tables a place has or what type, but what activity is predominant by the patrons. So many places refered to as "pool halls" these days are more predominantly "bars" or "hang-outs" IMO as the people who frequent them didn't walk through the doors with the purpose of hittin' balls into the center of the pockets!

Unfortunately former "pool hall" owners are realizing that to stay afloat they have to adjust their target market and we as pool players are being overrun by many other groups of people who couldn't give a damn about you and I playin' our $100/sets on the table they're walkin' by...

The true "pool hall" is now a rarity and it scares the hell outta me personally! :(
 
SJDinPHX said:
Naturally the more variety, and the number of tables, the better.
But in order to qualify as a"pool room" you must have at least one, or more of the following.

(1) A resident nit.
(2) A resident hi-roller.
(3) An abundance of naive individuals. (suckers)
(4) The occasional hot babe or two.
(5) Banger kids who drive you crazy with rap music.
(6) A crusty old owner to keep the bangers in line.

And last, but not least, a comfort level sufficient to make you feel at home when you know thats where you should probably be.

Dick <---Never met a pool hall he couldn't adjust to.
Click to expand...


the 'pool halls' around me have plenty of 5 .. but not enough of 6 ...

i hate to call em pool halls .. mostly they are just bars (complete with karoke and other stuff) that happen to have about 10 to 15 of the 'bar boxes' as others call them) .. don't think i have seen a single 9 foot table in my town so far.
 
Some place quiet, dark, smokey, with good tables and good players.

Basically a place from the past, that sadly, no longer exists.
 
Speaking of pool halls

Asbury Park, N.J. "SPRINGWOOD" Ave. Late 40's early 50's. North side of a two lane street with parallel parking. Old building which had been a 4 lane bowling alley in it's better days, Had 8 tables. "Joe Pops" wore a green apron and had a changer on his belt, Owner or manager, I never knew which. He was the "HOUSEMAN." had the only rack in the place. At the end of the game you rapped your cue on the wood floor to call him, gave him your "DIME" and he racked the balls for you. No banking, anything down stayed down, in other words get the game over and start an new one. Directly across the street, was another room about 14 tables if I remember, basically the same rules. About 3 blocks east another room with 10 or 12 tables and again, the same rules. Up the street go north on main street 2 blocks,there was another room, about the same as the other three. They were "POOL HALLS." No radio, no TV, no Juke box, No candy machine, "NO NOTHING," except pool. NEVER saw a women in any of them. Didn't know what we were missing.
 
Richardson said:
I guess i didnt answer your question.

To me a Pool Hall has a:
Snooker table
Billiard table
several 9's
Bar tables

a jukebox with good music and not tooooooooo loud.

a rail area set up to bet and watch action.

Tournaments tournaments tournaments.

Players who actually play and try to create action.

And a owner/manager who cares about pool players and promoting the sport.
Click to expand...

My Pool Hall:

10 9' Brunswicks
8 8' Brunswicks

XM/Sirius plus Internet Jukebox (unfortunately, XM always on Classic Rewind or Classic Vinyl)

Elevated Rail/Eating area with fair view of the tables

Tournaments and League out the YinYang

Lots of regulars who come in at least 3/week (at least I see them 3/week)

An owner who was recently part owner. As soon as he became sole owner, ALL the tables were recovered and levelled, commercials on TV, website re-vamped, write-ups in the paper... and then there is the promise of new balls!

THEY'RE EVEN BUYING NEW HOUSE CUES.

Free pool M-F 11-2 as long as you buy lunch - can I get a Yayuh!?

I really couldn't ask for anything more. Except some new music on the XM... as in from the last few years or so... there's 100 channels fer cryin' outloud.
 
The Cue Corner was the best place on Earth!....8- 9' GCIII's....action all over the place, smelled like smoke, but who cares. The regular crew was on schedule every day....rolling in at noon, and waiting for the door to open and the coffee to perk.

You could get all the 3 line Knock Gin action, 9ball, Chess, BUT straight pool was THE GAME, and if you could play a little you would get a nickname, and God willing be called....A Player!

There are quirks like whenever the phone rings.....5 guys scream..."if thats my wife...I"m not here!" :) or hearing someone yell....Bang Bang Bang.....thats what you yelled when you shit out a hand in Gin!

You also had to become the operator...taking messages from everyones wives or girlfriends .....AND not get them wrong!

Climbing the ladder was not easy, but I got lucky and scored a job there behind the counter......and on the side....collecting bets for the local book. I learned the reason why you write bets on rice paper :)

Theres nothing like walking into the room....feeling like home...AND getting berated but loving every minute of it. There are times when you need to be a loan shark.....booky....psychiatrist....mommy....cop...janitor or whatever the job calls for...

I knew no matter what, I had friends in that place, thats what made that room the best on earth!

G.
 
I don't care if a poolhall has 50 procut Diamonds or 5 crappy old Gold Crowns. Don't care if the music is blaring DEATH METAL, gangsta rap, the BeeGees, or if there is a string quartet playing. I don't care if it has the best food I've ever had, or a vending machine that gets changed monthly. I'm there for one reason - competition.....I have a table at home, and the only reason I go to a poolhall is to play different people. Don't care if it has an old school ombience, or if it's tricked out with a million dollar sound system and laser light show. I don't care if the waitress looks like Jessica Biehl or Jessica Lang....I just wanna play against someone. Competition is what a poolhall is to me!
 
To me, there are different kinds of pool halls, then there are places that have pool tables, that claim to be pool halls.
A pool hall to me, is an action room. A place where something is always going on. Where you can walk in, and figure on getting to wager on something... anything.... Generally speaking this is a more serious room, without the loud music.... without the screaming kids, without the video games and the pinball machines..... A place where guys go to get away from the boredom of life, and find something interesting to do. Be it betting on a set, rail betting, betting on something as trivial as who will walk in the door next, or just sitting around shooting the bull. To me, thats a pool hall.
Then you have the newer pool halls, they have the loud music, the screamin idiots.... and a bunch of nits rounding out the cast of characters that inhabit the place. Every once in a blue moon, you can find decent action in these places, but its usually more trouble than its worth in some form or fashion. Guys flexing for the little tramps that hang out there, and talkin shit trying to be something they have seen in a movie.
Then there is my least favorite of all..... bars that have tables who PRETEND to be pool halls. You can tell these places by subtle nuances such as table quality, by action quality and by player quality. They might have nice 9 foot tables..... but there is usually no action or players there.... just a bunch of people hanging out slurping down overprices longnecks, and watered down cocktails. They might have a few players..... most of them will have drinking problems and tons of stories about things they think they remember from 30 years ago. They might have a little action going on here and there... but nothing too serious. And usually if anything start stirring.... you can bet that some nit will ruin it.
Unfortunately, real honest pool halls are becoming harder and harder to find. They arent extinct........ there are still some out there, but you have to look long and hard to find one. And even more unfortunate is the fact that the wanna be pool hall bars are increasing in numbers...... Is this a good thing for pool? In a way. Its keeping the game alive a little bit, it gives Joe Blow a place to go on Friday night and massacre the game with his buddies while slurping down those 5 dollar bottles of beer..... But it just isnt the same, now is it?
Chuck
 
Are there any pool halls that have private rooms for people to rent out. 1st floor would be open floor like a regular pool hall, all 9ft tables, a few 10ft and a few snooker tables and 2 carom tables. 2nd floor would have the private rooms. 5 9ft rooms, and two rooms would have 10ft and two rooms would have full size snooker tables. All monitored with cameras of course and call buttons for waitresses if they need any service. I think that would be a cool idea if you want to just be by yourself or with the group you are with and not mingle with anyone else. Have a jukebox in there if you want or have your own headphones on etc. I don't know if it is just me, but I find many many so-call players at the pool rooms very freaken annoying, but I wouldn't really consider them players, they are really just bangers. I'm done venting lol. I just like to see a more upscale club kind of pool room that would have serious players in there, rather than have bangers come in.
 
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