Worst Place/Table U Ever Played

Kickin' Chicken

Kick Shot Aficionado
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Hello all;

I am interested to hear what place or table you ever played on that was the absolute worst. Where and why?

I never participated in any leagues until later in my life, beginning maybe three or four years ago. It was a traveling APA 8 ball team and there was a team we played out of a bar in a very tough New Haven neighborhood.

There were so many games within the game, like for instance: Will I get to park close enough to this bar to where I feel I have better than a 50/50 chance of not becoming a crime statistic? :eek:

Once you made it inside, your reward was that you got to play on one of the strangest setups ever. The pool room section of their bar was a converted sun porch featuring a concrete floor with a pitch so steep that when you played a shot on one side of the table, the rail came up to your belly button but on the other side, the rail only made it to just above your knees. Seriously! It was like trying to shoot pool alternating between being The Jolly Green Giant and a Lilliputian.

Add to this, all the characters coming and going who seemed pissed off that outsiders were there trying to win pool games. For some reason, none of this appeared on the APA brochure. :grin-square:

After our matches were played, and with the benefit of confidence-building alcohol, it was off into the darkness of night hoping, first, to get to your car, second, that your car is still where you left it and, finally, that the tires and wheels would still be on. I've been in some rough areas in my life but this hood rated pretty high up on the list.

I will say, though, that the team members from that bar were always very gracious and pleasant, but man, there were too many games within the game.

Looking forward to hearing about yours.

Best,
Brian kc
 
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Had a similiar situation as well. First time playing league at this place and walk up to the front entrance to find 2 bullet holes right through the steel door. A quick glance to the right and there's another one through the picture window were one of the tables is sitting.
We took turns watching our vehicles in the parking lot in two man shifts. We basically laid down and let the other team win just to get out of there before night fall. Yeah, we switched leagues after that...
 
Hello all;

I am interested to hear what place or table you ever played that was the absolute worst. Where and why?

I never played in any leagues until later in my life, maybe three or four years ago. It was a traveling APA 8 ball team and there was a team we played out of a bar in a very tough New Haven neighborhood.

There were so many games within the game, like for instance: Will I get to park close enough to this bar to where I feel I have better than a 50/50 chance of not becoming a crime statistic. :eek:

Once you made it inside, your reward was that you got to play on one of the strangest setups ever. Their pool room section of the bar was a converted sun porch featuring a concrete floor with a pitch so steep that when you played a shot on one side of the table, the rail came and met your belly button but on the other side, the rail only made it to just above your knees. Seriously! It was like trying to shoot pool alternating between being The Jolly Green Giant and a Lilliputian.

Add to this, all the characters coming and going who seemed pissed off that outsiders were there trying to win pool games. For some reason, none of this appeared on the APA brochure. :grin-square:

Then after the match is played, and with the benefit of confidence-building alcohol, it's off into the darkness of night hoping, first, to get to your car, second, that your car is still where you left it and, finally, that the tires and wheels are intact. I've been in some rough areas in my life but this hood rates pretty high up on the list.

I will say, though, that the team members from that bar were always very gracious and pleasant, but man, there were too many games within the game.

Looking forward to hearing about yours.

Best,
Brian kc



campos billiards as i grew up calling it or some of you know it as boycies in stockton ca. some guys from la came through and beat a local player out of 200. just about everyone in the room had 5/10/20 of it and the outsider was getting the 8 when he won. some guys that had 5-20 of it said he wasn't walking out of there at all unless he played again and tried it even.

i'm not even going to waste time talking about the condition of the tables but they're pretty bad. ok i'll say 1 thing. the pockets are shimmed too tight and the shims are shorter than the rail so if you hit the shim the ball is likely to jump off the table
 
The worst table I ever played on was for an exhibition I did at Hofstra University several years ago. They had taken one of the 9' tables from one of the dorms and set it up in their student club, called Club USA. I had arranged to meet the maintenance guys to watch the setup, but they fooled me, and at the prearranged time had already finished the table and left. Believe it or not, they left out one of the corner pockets...no pocket at all, where the ball would just fall to the floor. In addition, there was only 1 section of rail, out of 6, that had all the cloth on it. The other ranged from some tears, to huge gaps of rubber showing. Add to that, there was a section of cloth in the middle of the table, about 3' across, where it looked like someone had spilled pop, and it had dried. The cloth was hard as a rock.

Sadly, because of these conditions, there were several of my tricks, involving rails, that could not be performed. It was also just plain difficult to play on the table. Still, I am a professional, and can fade anything...and the show went on as planned...with my contact (the Chancellor of the University) watching. I was still a hit (I had been there before), and afterwards I spoke with the Chancellor about the table, and she was very angry. Personally, I could not believe that anyone would actually leave a pool table, set up in that condition, as "ready" for someone to perform a show on! :eek:

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
 
We played APA at a bar like that here. Red felt bar table. Nasty crowd, all black(not trying to offend anyone, just stating the facts) After the first match i knew we were not well liked. Luckly i had two others on my team who could fight, but the problem is we had 3 ladies + we had no weapons. :(

When we were getting close to finishing i could tell a fight was about to break out. I pre-signed the score sheets and told everyone to have their stuff ready.

We walked the girls to their cars, and we all waited for each other to leave. Within an hour someone was stabbed to death in that bar.

Our local APA LO told the bar she would not allow teams to play out of there anymore. They said if you try that we will sue you for racism. She did nothing. My teams forfeited after that, i decided it was not worth it for my friends/wife and i to be in that much danger for a league match.
 
Forty years ago in a poolroom upstairs in downtown Tijuana. Cloth missing from the rails, bed cloth worn to bare threads, rolls every which way and bad rubber. And I was playing the best player around for the equivalent of $10 a game. The "spectators" crowded right up to the table and I had to push through them to get to my next shot. They were literally hanging on my shoulders as I shot.

I was with Banker Mike, a burly black guy out of the hood. He was pissed, but I kept him under control. Somehow, some way, we got out with the money. Then it was time to party in Mejico. OLAY!!! But that's another story with a weird ending. ;)
 
A converted cabin into a bar. The table is up a flight of stairs that your average person has a hard time climbing because they are so steep. Parts of the ceiling in the room with the table are only about 6 ft tall. The trap to catch the balls in the bar box does not work so many balls fall out. The room is about 15 leaving little room for other players besides those at the table and having to use a jump cue to shoot some level shots.
 
The 7ft table that used to be in my dad's garage in south Mississippi during the summer. Really high humidity with no air conditioner/dehumidifier. The cloth was horrible; it was really beat up and it was loose. One of the end rails was dead; I could not play banks or kicks off of this rail; I think it had collapsed.
 
A 'few' years ago, when I still played leagues, I was on a traveling one and had to play at a bar that I never went to otherwise.
I shot 4 straight in balls at a medium stroke that did a complete turn and ended up on the opposite sides of the table without hitting a rail. Aside from the table 'rolls.....my hand actually stuck to the table. It was disgusting. LOL
Kind of funny looking back at it though.
 
Every tuesday night I play on 60 year old tables with the heaviest balls i've ever seen with the worst rails, cloth, and humidity you can imagine on top of playing with the mudd ball.

I play even with people that are 2 sometimes 3 balls better then me on them heh.. they just don't have a clue until we start.
 
Last time I play at Palace Billiards, Missoula Montana. The place was a disaster, nothing was clean....

It is now a Punk Rock Lounge with a few Pool Tables, most of the Table have seen the result of a few drunks loosing there stomach contents!
 
League play? A friend of mine told his technique for winning their home bar matches...he'd hit up a Nude dancing bar to sponsor his team...surprisingly they agreed.

For some strange reason, the competing teams had trouble concentrating on their game...
 
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dance floor

There's a watering hole I frequent in Chicago w/buddies from work, they don't really play, so they don't care much about the unique quality of this particular table, and typically I will play on just about anything, as I love this game so much...

Try to picture the smallest bar box, non obstructed, plenty of room for all shots. Except for one small feature, there's an elevated dance floor which spans one of the long rail sides of the table. Anytime you have a shot on that side, you'll be about 12 inches higher than the floor. It's like bending down to tie your shoes when your taking a shot. All the blood rushes to my face.

One of the only tables that I usually say "nah" when asked to play :)

Kevin
 
Small hole in the wall bar in Shreveport, La..

They have 3 bar boxes, 2 - 3.5' x 7' and 1 - of those small bar boxes, don't know the dimensions.

Anyway all of the tables had atleast 3" of roll off.

It just so happened to be raining and the roof had several leaks all around the head-end of the table.

It was painful.

:thumbup:
 
For me...it would have to be downtown Cleveland,Oh.I once shot a couple of guys on a table at a bar called Trincka's,it had one of the short rails missing the rubber,true story,you couldn't bank anything,and of course they wanted to play bank the 8...LOL! And you wonder why I hate this town..LOL.
 
League play? A friend of mine told his technique for winning their home bar matches...he'd hit up a Nude dancing bar to sponsor his team...surprisingly they agreed.

For some strange reason, the competing teams had trouble concentrating on their game...

Hey now, this would be a "Best" room you have played in, you're off topic my friend ;) :D
 
Back in the early 1980's there was a bar(Young crowd) that had a beer garden out back. They had 2 old Valley 7' tables out in the beer garden with no cover from the weather. Everytime a rainy weekend came around I would go over there no matter what else I had planned. Everyone that played bet big thinking that it was all luck and anyone had a chance to win with the water flooding the table. I took thousands off those two tables for about a year. Then a lot of them caught on that I was the big winner everytime I came there in the rain. A lot of them started getting nasty and said they were going to do things bad things:eek: to me. I knew it was time to move my act to a different stage. Johnnyt
 
Mothers Billiards in Charlotte.

I had heard good things about the place so on my to Florida one year, i decided to stop there and hang out for a few days. It was a filthy dump. My info was obviously dated.

The one thing i remember was the chalk-it was about 2/3 gone and cracked with the paper barely holding it together. I went back to the front showed the house man the chalk and asked for a couple of better pieces. The guy looks around the counter and comes back with. "that's all we have-the damn kids steal it all". I didnt stick around.
 
Back in the early 1980's there was a bar(Young crowd) that had a beer garden out back. They had 2 old Valley 7' tables out in the beer garden with no cover from the weather. Everytime a rainy weekend came around I would go over there no matter what else I had planned. Everyone that played bet big thinking that it was all luck and anyone had a chance to win with the water flooding the table. I took thousands off those two tables for about a year. Then a lot of them caught on that I was the big winner everytime I came there in the rain. A lot of them started getting nasty and said they were going to do things bad things:eek: to me. I knew it was time to move my act to a different stage. Johnnyt

At least you got out with your winnings...:thumbup:
 
The worst place would probably just be a bar with two beat valley barboxes. Nothing special.

The worst table I ever saw (I would never play on it) had a big dollar-sized rip in the felt that was patched with hot pink duck tape.

The rest of the pool hall isn't bad and the tables have good pockets and rails. I just found that so unacceptible though that I doubt I'll ever be back. The (newish) owner seems like a nice guy but he needs to get his priorities straight.
 
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