What's a "Pool hall" to you?

[JesPiddlin]

To me, a pool hall is a place I can go where I can really enjoy playing pool around folks we know, who are also playing pool. I would say it has at least 5 tables and some great folks running it. I like the ones that allow the whole family in. No drinking (not a bar), no smoking (not a bar), maybe some snacks and a jukebox and, if you're lucky, a tv or two. It's also a place you can find some inexpensive cues, or maybe even a cuemaker. Yeah, probably got another few other game tables and pinball machines....

Oh yeah. It HAS to have at least one RESTROOM.

 

[Str8PoolPlayer]

THIS is a Pool Hall ...

Around (19) 9-footers, (3) Billiard Tables, a REAL Tournament Room with old-time bleacher seating and, of course, the Best Cheeseburger in Sacramento ...

My kind of Pool Hall ... The Jointed Cue

 

[1on1pooltournys]

A pool hall to me

I've been to several businesses that have pool tables in them, but only a handful of "pool halls". I will tell of a couple that I really enjoyed, one no longer in business unfortunately.

A 16 year old kid walks into a poolroom in St. Louis, grabs a rack of balls, a cream soda, and a couple pieces of chalk and walks through the old style counter things (not sure what they are called) that they use at amusement parks and such to keep track of the people that entered that day. You immediately run into a couple Billiard tables, a table that says "one pocket only" and then some 9 footers. A couple bar tables and a snooker table also. Then there are pictures all over the walls of all the events that happened in this place over the years, and you see pictures of Nick Varner, Louie Roberts, Tom Ferry and other local gamblers. The kid throws some balls on the table and practices for awhile and enjoy's his cream soda and then takes a break and watches some sports center. A black man has been watching him and says, "Hey kid, what are you playing over there?" The kid says, "nine ball." The black gentleman says, "I like one pocket, but I'll play you some cheap 9 ball so you don't have to play by yourself." Of course the young kid thinks he is unbeatable and really thinks he is about to make some more spending money. Eventually, the black man starts some small talk and realizes the kid is the son of somebody he knows and says, "I can't play you out of respect for your father, but I'd like to introduce myself, I'm Cliff Joyner." That was a good "pool hall" experience to me and that was at the Cue and Cushion in St. Louis, MO. There are plenty more stories of this genuine pool hall.

I'll save the other story if the thread stays alive.

 

[Paul Mon]

Rochester Pool halls

There's really only one in the entire county, population 750K. It has 8 gold crowns covered with Simonis that the regulars use. There is one billiard table, 5 more 9' Gandys and 6 bar boxes. There used to be a VIP room with 6 GC's but thats gone now and the regulars miss it. But at least we've got full size tables. No food and the bar serves beer and wine.

The only other PH in town is bar boxes (maybe 10) with seperate dining room that serves good food and a full bar.

Within the last three years two big rooms closed.

 

[trustyrusty]

I've been to several businesses that have pool tables in them, but only a handful of "pool halls". I will tell of a couple that I really enjoyed, one no longer in business unfortunately.

A 16 year old kid walks into a poolroom in St. Louis, grabs a rack of balls, a cream soda, and a couple pieces of chalk and walks through the old style counter things (not sure what they are called) that they use at amusement parks and such to keep track of the people that entered that day. You immediately run into a couple Billiard tables, a table that says "one pocket only" and then some 9 footers. A couple bar tables and a snooker table also. Then there are pictures all over the walls of all the events that happened in this place over the years, and you see pictures of Nick Varner, Louie Roberts, Tom Ferry and other local gamblers. The kid throws some balls on the table and practices for awhile and enjoy's his cream soda and then takes a break and watches some sports center. A black man has been watching him and says, "Hey kid, what are you playing over there?" The kid says, "nine ball." The black gentleman says, "I like one pocket, but I'll play you some cheap 9 ball so you don't have to play by yourself." Of course the young kid thinks he is unbeatable and really thinks he is about to make some more spending money. Eventually, the black man starts some small talk and realizes the kid is the son of somebody he knows and says, "I can't play you out of respect for your father, but I'd like to introduce myself, I'm Cliff Joyner." That was a good "pool hall" experience to me and that was at the Cue and Cushion in St. Louis, MO. There are plenty more stories of this genuine pool hall.

I'll save the other story if the thread stays alive.

so the kid has to go back to playing by himself?? bummer....

I'd hope that if the place were dead enough that Cliff came up to the teeniebopper to steal, then he coulda stayed a bit and played the kid anyways without stealing - outta respect for his father, of course. If he'd like to play some with this 30 something year old kid I'd gladly oblige, and I'm sure he doesn't know my dad....

 

[Fatboy]

Around (19) 9-footers, (3) Billiard Tables, a REAL Tournament Room with old-time bleacher seating and, of course, the Best Cheeseburger in Sacramento ...

My kind of Pool Hall ... The Jointed Cue

Thats the BEST pool room EVER in the history of pool period. I've been to about 100 rooms and as many bars over the years and the "Joint" is the best room ever, Terry had it right, 40 years later it still works. Sure there are fancier places, and a few rooms have a couple odds and ends that are better than the Joint, but as a whole package that room is the best ever. I'm half tempted to move to Sac again just to play there again. I had alot of good times there(after hours we had black jack games, pitching quarters to the line etc.) going on, ring games, one night I saw I guy bust out a machine gun in there at 2am just as we were closing(nope wont tell why) we settled him down, but i will say this, I dove under a table faster than you can imagine-he wasnt there to rob the place-long story. there is alot of history in that room. I FINALLY found a cue that Terry made for sale I get it this week, it took me for ever to find one, he was going to build me one but that didnt happen. Dave his son is great!!!

 

[1on1pooltournys]

so the kid has to go back to playing by himself?? bummer....

I'd hope that if the place were dead enough that Cliff came up to the teeniebopper to steal, then he coulda stayed a bit and played the kid anyways without stealing - outta respect for his father, of course. If he'd like to play some with this 30 something year old kid I'd gladly oblige, and I'm sure he doesn't know my dad....

He was waiting for bigger fish to fry, he gave up the world shortly there after to a local and lost I think.LOL

 

[Str8PoolPlayer]

Quote: Fatboy... I FINALLY found a cue that Terry made for sale I get it this week, it took me for ever to find one, he was going to build me one but that didnt happen. Dave his son is great!!!


I was in there talking with Terry the day before he passed away and he showed me two of his Custom Cues that were recently completed and were for sale ... They were plain-janes and he was asking $350.00 each ... I didn't buy one and the next day Terry was gone and I believe David kept both of those "last" cues made by his father. I would too.

I'm playing there 3-4 days a week and lovin' it ... When the weather warms up, I'll be back out at my place near Lake Mead ... Looking forward to the Riviera in May ...

BTW - All you AZ'ers in and around SacTown ... Don't miss the Terry Stonier Memorial Tournament on March 28-29th at "The Jointed Cue" ...

 

[ShootingArts]

pool is the reason for the place being

When I step through the door of a real pool hall I know it, doesn't matter what time of day or night it is or where the pool hall is at. The place has that certain faint smell, too the people hanging around might have been moved from the last real pool hall you left 500 miles behind, they seem the same.

With very rare exceptions real pool halls show a little or a lot of age. There is a faded glory about them so that you know there were better days but they are still proud of what they are today.

If you are a player you are accepted within minutes. Posers are busted even faster. The long term pool players are all members of a tight knit club, the great, the once great, the guy that never was much but has been going to the pool hall four to seven days a week for decades. Those just stumbling in off the street that don't belong stick out like a lady of the evening in church and it takes an earnest newcomer that is serious about learning the game a few months to find his niche and fit in.

A pool hall is where you find pool players as opposed to people that happen to be playing pool at the moment.

Hu

 

[CreeDo]

I guess I'm a little less strict. It doesn't have to have music, liquor, smoke, sharks, road players, billiards or snooker tables. It doesn't need age or character(s) or whatever. It just needs to exist primarily for people to play pool.

It does have to have multiple 9 footers, it cannot be 100% barboxes no matter how many there are and it can't be devoted mainly to something else with pool as a "side thing" that isn't as important to the owner. But I don't mind if the majority of their money isn't from table time, as long as the owner maintains the equipment.

My local hall is 8 full size tables and 2 8-foot quarter tables... a whopping 10 tables. Definitely a pool hall.

 

[14oneman]

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.

What a great story. I know Asbury Park very well, although from a different era....60's and 70's. :thumbup: