Worst pool hall ever?

[Donny Lutz]

I enjoyed the thread on best pool halls, and thought it would be fun to ask the opposite!

I'd like to see someone top this:

In 1960, I asked a drug dealer on a street corner in Tijuana where I could find a pool hall. He directed to a small stucco building that you could smell from a block away. Outside the door sat a woman maybe 50 (?) with no teeth, who propositioned me. "Thanks, but no thanks!" I told her with a smile, and entered through the door that had no door. There were four 9-foot tables (unidentifiable) that had virtually no cloth at all. There was a "bar" that served warm beer for 10 cents a bottle. The kicker was a urinal that ran the length of two tables against one wall. I watched an old man shoot a shot, turn around, take a pee, and turn back to shoot again! I'd have given anything for a camera!

Donny L
BPIA/ACS Instructor

 

[Donny Lutz]

I enjoyed the thread on best pool halls, and thought it would be fun to ask the opposite!

I'd like to see someone top this:

In 1960, I asked a drug dealer on a street corner in Tijuana where I could find a pool hall. He directed to a small stucco building that you could smell from a block away. Outside the door sat a woman maybe 50 (?) with no teeth, who propositioned me. "Thanks, but no thanks!" I told her with a smile, and entered through the door that had no door. There were four 9-foot tables (unidentifiable) that had virtually no cloth at all. There was a "bar" that served warm beer for 10 cents a bottle. The kicker was a urinal that ran the length of two tables against one wall. I watched an old man shoot a shot, turn around, take a pee, and turn back to shoot again! I'd have given anything for a camera!

Donny L
BPIA/ACS Instructor

Come on guys! I abandon my serious posts for a little humor with a TRUE STORY, and get no responses??

Donny L

 

[8pack]

Come on guys! I abandon my serious posts for a little humor with a TRUE STORY, and get no responses??

Donny L

Great story the only thing that makes me think this story isnt true is the women with no teeth.No one passes up on a smoothie..:thumbup:

 

[mnorwood]

By far and its not even close the worst pool hall ever was Fat Dat's Billards, yes they spelled it "billards" in Houston Texas. The place was just off of 45 on Broadway just south of 610. It had two pool tables and one carom table. The place stank like smoke, pot and ass. The felt was more like animal fur. When I went in a guy was passed out on a couch that sat along the back wall. A woman that looked like she had been dead for three days was sitting at the bar. I spent all of 30 seconds in the place before making a quick getaway.

Second worst ever was Bida Bong on the west bank of New Orleans. It was in a room that was in the back of a very old and run down retail strip in Gretna. You couldn't find the place unless someone took you there. It had a sign on the front door that read "No drugs or outside food." The place had 4 off brand really crappy carom tables with crap cloth and the floor was split level in part of the room. The walls were stained yellow with cigarette tar and the AC vent literally bled orange cigarette tar. The place had an odor that was a mixture of body odor and stale cigarette smoke. The whole place was nasty. I was afraid to take a leak in the bathroom standing up.

Both joints are long gone now. No tears here. LOL....

 

[Spider1]

The "Lucky Cue" on 16th and McDowell in Phoenix was pretty bad.

By 'bad' I mean crappy equipment, run down building, full of vatos/gangbangers and "I think I'm going to get stabbed in here" kind of bad.

To be fair, I heard it wasn't so sketchy during the daytime. Still not a good building or tables though.

 

[Alf Taylor]

does poor equip. count?

In the 60s at the Cotton Palace , in Dallas, we were sitting around talking about the worst equipment any of us had seen. The standard answers, torn cloth, broken pockets, bad rolling, etc. were there. Then one guy told us about playing in a pool room in a small town in New Mexico that had two tables without any cloth whatsoever. He said they covered them each day with newspapers. He went on to say the town didn't have any good players but had an inordinate amount of pool bums who were educated on current events.
True story...I think.
Keep it nice. Alfie

 

[mnorwood]

I think the sports palace in new orleans and Slick Willies off of I-10 east in Houston have to put in to this conversation.

Someone once tried to put a cigarette on one of Jamie Ferrel's tables at the Corner Pocket. Jamie saw it and yelled out: "Hey this isn't the F@#king sports palace, get that damn thing off my table. That should tell you what type of rep the sports palace has.

 

[measureman]

Maybe not a real "Pool Room" but when I was in Viet Nam during the war we had a large concrete slab with a tin roof and no walls and a pool table. Now given the very high humidity the table played like crap. The pool cues were all warped and had flat tips. I was the only to know how to shape the tip by grinding it on the concrete slab and with a little work it shaped it pretty good.

 

[Trent]

wizards in rochester minnesota (sp)

i was there for junior nationals at the convention center years ago and the place outside of the tournament (wizards) had no AC, the tables were so unlevel i made trick shots look easy they had masking tape on the pockets and thick packing tape on the rails to hold the cloth on. and its where we were all gambling what a dump, i hope its better today.

 

[Woof Biscuit]

I think the sports palace in new orleans and Slick Willies off of I-10 east in Houston have to put in to this conversation.

Someone once tried to put a cigarette on one of Jamie Ferrel's tables at the Corner Pocket. Jamie saw it and yelled out: "Hey this isn't the F@#king sports palace, get that damn thing off my table. That should tell you what type of rep the sports palace has.

I remember the sports palace being a real dump too but I have seen crazy action in there at nose bleed stakes. It was a real pool room for action back in the 90's.

 

[ShootingArts]

not a hall

It used to be that seemingly every combo country store/house in south Louisiana had a pool table in it. Three of my uncles in Pointe Coupee Parish had these old stores within five miles of each other. The tables all featured original cloth even if it was well past voting age. Stained, ripped, and so loose you could pinch it and raise it up a foot or two. Usually very greasy feeling from sweaty hands and the food frying often in the same room without little details like hoods or anything, generally frying in a big black pot that hadn't been washed since the cloth on the table was new!

Often these places didn't have ceilings or even with board ceilings you could see the nail holes in the tin roof through the gaps in the ceilings. All of these stores were up on piers and the one inch floor boards often gave a half inch or more when you walked on them. This naturally resulted in less than level tables and someone walking across the floor during a shot could have a lot more effect than the broom action when people are curling the rocks on ice.

For some reason it never mattered if the tables had adjustable feet or not, the only acceptable way to level a table was with the cardboard beer coasters under the feet. There was an unwritten law that coasters could never be removed, only added, so eventually there were coasters under all four feet, sometimes an inch or more of coasters.

With no air conditioning and torn screens bugs all over the table was the norm and the occasional splatter of bird manure! Usually a few posts and such in your way trying to shoot and every one of these places had their own rules. Finding a stick that wasn't cracked or had a loose weight and still had a tip on it was a matter of great good fortune. I eased my Buck out of my pocket to shave a few splinters on the shaft down when the drew blood or impaled my bridge hand so deeply I couldn't move the cue.

Once in a blue moon I still stumble on a place like this. I almost always play a game or two just because. Many many a good time on those tables and one of my favorite action spots was one of these places in Satsuma Louisiana. They didn't have a sign and I don't remember if they had a name, it was just Satsuma bar which was once a house with one room being a store. Back then the bar and a few shacks and old house trailers was Satsuma, it has grown a bit since then.

When I think about it maybe I posted this in the wrong place, might should have listed these as the best pool halls. :thumbup:

Hu

 

[mnorwood]

It used to be that seemingly every combo country store/house in south Louisiana had a pool table in it. Three of my uncles in Pointe Coupee Parish had these old stores within five miles of each other. The tables all featured original cloth even if it was well past voting age. Stained, ripped, and so loose you could pinch it and raise it up a foot or two. Usually very greasy feeling from sweaty hands and the food frying often in the same room without little details like hoods or anything, generally frying in a big black pot that hadn't been washed since the cloth on the table was new!


Often these places didn't have ceilings or even with board ceilings you could see the nail holes in the tin roof through the gaps in the ceilings. All of these stores were up on piers and the one inch floor boards often gave a half inch or more when you walked on them. This naturally resulted in less than level tables and someone walking across the floor during a shot could have a lot more effect than the broom action when people are curling the rocks on ice.

For some reason it never mattered if the tables had adjustable feet or not, the only acceptable way to level a table was with the cardboard beer coasters under the feet. There was an unwritten law that coasters could never be removed, only added, so eventually there were coasters under all four feet, sometimes an inch or more of coasters.

With no air conditioning and torn screens bugs all over the table was the norm and the occasional splatter of bird manure! Usually a few posts and such in your way trying to shoot and every one of these places had their own rules. Finding a stick that wasn't cracked or had a loose weight and still had a tip on it was a matter of great good fortune. I eased my Buck out of my pocket to shave a few splinters on the shaft down when the drew blood or impaled my bridge hand so deeply I couldn't move the cue.

Once in a blue moon I still stumble on a place like this. I almost always play a game or two just because. Many many a good time on those tables and one of my favorite action spots was one of these places in Satsuma Louisiana. They didn't have a sign and I don't remember if they had a name, it was just Satsuma bar which was once a house with one room being a store. Back then the bar and a few shacks and old house trailers was Satsuma, it has grown a bit since then.

When I think about it maybe I posted this in the wrong place, might should have listed these as the best pool halls. :thumbup:

Hu

In my hometown of Natchitoches Louisiana a house was turned in to a bar that had two really old tables. When you walked across the wood floor sometimes the balls would move a little. They would have a race to 1, 8 ball tournament where you were not allowed to play safe. The place was called Roques. I don't think Roques is there anymore. There is a new place on the other side of town that is a converted church.

 

[Group Therapy]

Good Times

I was lucky enough to spend a little time down in Ecuador. The area was pretty rough and there was only one bar that Americans went to. They had an armed gaurd at the door with a short barrelled shotgun, usually dressed in jeans, sleeveless shirt, and a bulletproof vest. They had one barbox, that had a plywood bed on it. It had obvioulsy been rained on more than once, and the bed was pretty warped. Still had a lot of fun times in that bar though.

 

[MrHCaulfield]

In my hometown of Natchitoches Louisiana a house was turned in to a bar that had two really old tables. When you walked across the wood floor sometimes the balls would move a little. They would have a race to 1, 8 ball tournament where you were not allowed to play safe. The place was called Roques. I don't think Roques is there anymore. There is a new place on the other side of town that is a converted church.

Roques Blues Room on Scarborough st. Its actually still there.

 

[steveinflorida]

I enjoyed the thread on best pool halls, and thought it would be fun to ask the opposite!

I'd like to see someone top this:

In 1960, I asked a drug dealer on a street corner in Tijuana where I could find a pool hall. He directed to a small stucco building that you could smell from a block away. Outside the door sat a woman maybe 50 (?) with no teeth, who propositioned me. "Thanks, but no thanks!" I told her with a smile, and entered through the door that had no door. There were four 9-foot tables (unidentifiable) that had virtually no cloth at all. There was a "bar" that served warm beer for 10 cents a bottle. The kicker was a urinal that ran the length of two tables against one wall. I watched an old man shoot a shot, turn around, take a pee, and turn back to shoot again! I'd have given anything for a camera!

Donny L
BPIA/ACS Instructor

That was the owners mother,
and I have it on good authority she's a virgin. :barf:

 

[Tony_in_MD]

Would no pool room qualify?

 

[Chip Roberson]

Late 70's Steve (Silas) Carter and I were tooling around throught West Va and were steered to Peirsburg. The room there was about half a block from where we parked and there was a small Motel with the parking lot full of Harley's. Couple of gals sitting on the brick wall in front of the place asked us if we wanted a date as we passed by--just kept on walking. Got into the joint and there was a long bar serving the coldest beer I think I ever had--the bar tender gent was rather large with a big beer belly and a tshirt that covered only half of it with a Swasticker tattooed right there on his gut. While Steve sat and drank a beer I ventured back into the portion of the building where the tables were. They had four 9ft'ers but looking at the cue rack I didn't see any cues--then I looked over in a corner and there were about 7 or more broken in half laying on the floor--well at this time I needed to relive myself and headed for the john--walked inside and on the walls were bloody hand prints that started about head high and slid down the wall from there--after finishing my biz, I returned to where I had left Steve, looked over at him and said, This is mighty cold beer--Steve hadn't moved since we got in the place but, he looked back at me and said--If I worked here I'd be afraid to serve nothing but cold beer--Oh, we never asked anyone to play while we were there-----needed to add that

 

[CocoboloCowboy]

My Choice would be the now CLOSED Alexaner's in Phoenix AZ. The place alway smelled from smoke even with the Smoke Eater Fans. Owner should have change out the Smoke Eating Fliter IMHO. The Tables were most of the time in need of recovering with the Cloth looking like an old pilled flannel shirt. The place was more of a BAR, than a Pool Room, or Pool Bar. I was told the place at one time was the place in Phoenix, but I m sure that was in the day of the Famous Eightball on Indiann School Shut its doors.

 

[CocoboloCowboy]

Palace Billiards in Missoula MT was another place that was, but is not no more. When I was living in the Big Sky Country in the late 1970's Palace Billiards was the place below ground level. Last time I was in Missoula I went by to check out Palace Billiards. It had become a Night Club, the pool tables were still there, but let say it was nothing like it was in the late 1970's. It was a kids night club, beer joint, and the pool tables were in the room I think because they were too heavy to move to the TRASH CAN UPSTAIRS!

 

[ShootingArts]

just reading this

Late 70's Steve (Silas) Carter and I were tooling around throught West Va and were steered to Peirsburg. The room there was about half a block from where we parked and there was a small Motel with the parking lot full of Harley's. Couple of gals sitting on the brick wall in front of the place asked us if we wanted a date as we passed by--just kept on walking. Got into the joint and there was a long bar serving the coldest beer I think I ever had--the bar tender gent was rather large with a big beer belly and a tshirt that covered only half of it with a Swasticker tattooed right there on his gut. While Steve sat and drank a beer I ventured back into the portion of the building where the tables were. They had four 9ft'ers but looking at the cue rack I didn't see any cues--then I looked over in a corner and there were about 7 or more broken in half laying on the floor--well at this time I needed to relive myself and headed for the john--walked inside and on the walls were bloody hand prints that started about head high and slid down the wall from there--after finishing my biz, I returned to where I had left Steve, looked over at him and said, This is mighty cold beer--Steve hadn't moved since we got in the place but, he looked back at me and said--If I worked here I'd be afraid to serve nothing but cold beer--Oh, we never asked anyone to play while we were there-----needed to add that

Brought back a memory. I was working a 3000 man job near Corpus Cristi Texas. Closest place to find a room was Flour Bluff, I believe was the name, just before Padre Island. Blew my transmission and my working partner and I had to spend three days at the apartment. No store nearby and we had scored sixteen fried chicken breasts for food. We were both drinking men and got powerful dry. The only bar we found was a biker bar. My friend sat in a chair with his back to the wall, kept his eyes on the floor to avoid seeing their women, and never twitched other than to drink his beer. I played pool and made myself at home, not my first biker bar. This one seemed to be more clubhouse than bar, I don't remember anyone but the one club in it. They didn't mind a couple stangers spending money though.

Hu