Worst room you ever went in?

[mnorwood]

Over the past couple of decades many rooms have closed. Some were all time treasures but for the most part they were dumps and I’m not sad that they are gone.

The worst room I ever went in was in southeast Houston. On the sign it was called fat dats bilards. Not sure why they spelled billiards that way. I was new to the area and was trying to find a place where the wife and I could play. She sat in the car while I scouted it. I walk in and the door was hard to open. The place had two tables one pool table and one carom table. The felt was completely shredded, had stains on it and cigarette ash. There were cigarette burn marks all over the rails. There was a bar to the right as you walk in and the bar tender didn’t have a tooth in his head. He also didn’t even acknowledge that I walked in. On the back wall was a shredded leather couch where a man and a prostitute was passed out. Both looked rough as hell. The floor was sticky can had spots where beer had been spilled but not cleaned up. The lighting was awful. Old flickering fluorescent greenish lights. Some of the tubes were burned out. The place smelled like stale beer, body odor and cigarette smoke. The balls on the table were gashed all up and bleached out. I went back to the car and my wife asked me how was it to which I replied you don’t want to know let’s just move on.

So the question is: what was the worst room you have ever experienced? Describe it.

 

[garczar]

Over the past couple of decades many rooms have closed. Some were all time treasures but for the most part they were dumps and I’m not sad that they are gone.

The worst room I ever went in was in southeast Houston. On the sign it was called fat dats bilards. Not sure why they spelled billiards that way. I was new to the area and was trying to find a place where the wife and I could play. She sat in the car while I scouted it. I walk in and the door was hard to open. The place had two tables one pool table and one carom table. The felt was completely shredded, had stains on it and cigarette ash. There were cigarette burn marks all over the rails. There was a bar to the right as you walk in and the bar tender didn’t have a tooth in his head. He also didn’t even acknowledge that I walked in. On the back wall was a shredded leather couch where a man and a prostitute was passed out. Both looked rough as hell. The floor was sticky can had spots where beer had been spilled but not cleaned up. The lighting was awful. Old flickering fluorescent greenish lights. Some of the tubes were burned out. The place smelled like stale beer, body odor and cigarette smoke. The balls on the table were gashed all up and bleached out. I went back to the car and my wife asked me how was it to which I replied you don’t want to know let’s just move on.

So the question is: what was the worst room you have ever experienced? Describe it.

Damn, i like the place already. RaytownRec in KC is combination of shit and shinola. Walk-down dump of a place with a great history. I love it. They have an original Kling that come out of the old Kling-Allen room in downtown KC. Don Brink was a good 3c player that ran the place for years. https://www.google.com/search?clien...Mai1UV1RnTWNxZkFTQURMci1pV2FxRWdBSkZjVTVtUG16 looks like they cleaned it up. a lot.

 

[ShootingArts]

Sad to say, while I will add a few more as memories get stirred, Greenway in Baton Rouge was one of the worst. I walked in about 10:30 one morning. The place was filthy. The nine foot tables looked like they hadn't been recovered since I was was last in there twenty years before. The cloth stains weren't to be thought about, I didn't want to know what many of them were. The lighting was dim, probably another product of the filth.

Nobody there except a few old men at the counter. I walked back to the counter still determined to hit a few balls for old times sake. When the counterman managed to drag himself away from his three friends, cigarette, and coffee, I asked how much for a tray of balls. Fourteen an hour! I think it was about half that in it's heyday.

That was one of the things that made Greenway one of the worst halls ever. In it's day it had been a hub of US pool. Sooner or later anybody that could claim to be a player came through there. Tournaments paid little but were an excuse for four or five days of heavy action. The place was clean, equipment great, atmosphere safe. I brought dates there sometimes. Long and narrow it was what a pool hall should be. Even in the seventies and eighties action was as easy as walking in the door, nice forty or fifty a game action. Stakes at the nosebleed level were available for the asking and a phone call.

Oddly enough, Lambert owned Greenway and I think the entire shopping center. He had built it when the inner city caught up with his earlier Shopper's Pool Hall that was the proto-type I believe, a hall in a small strip mall. Shoppers was old and battered, ran down and dingy. Two snooker tables and about a dozen of the Brunswick Super Eights, not quite nine foot tables. It had a few pinball machines, air hockey, fooseball, I guess a few more things, in a front corner to help keep it alive. No liquor, beer only for unknown reasons. A locked walk through door gave entrance to the Green Frog, a naked dancing lady bar next door that served hard liquor and other things. Still Shoppers was my second home from fifteen until I moved away many years later. Good people made a good hall.

As memories flow I remember another place I cut my teeth, Nick's Steak House. The steak house was many years gone but I guess nobody felt like buying a new sign. As you went in the front door there was an oval bar that wrapped around barring your direct path. This was pretty much the only reason for the place being open. A worn out, washed out bartender served a half-dozen or so regulars most evenings. No music, no conversation to speak of, these people were here to consume alcohol in peace and privacy.

Behind the bar was what had once been a huge dining room. Maybe a hundred feet wide by two hundred deep. In a back corner there was a pile of dining tables and chairs piled and jammed ceiling high. Not enough to have filled the dining room, maybe half of it. Now the room was filled with five by tens. This enterprise might have once thrived but now the tables were ancient and uncared for. The room was a dark cavern. Most nights I was the only person playing pool with the lights over my table turned on by me. Maybe a half dozen times a month somebody would hit balls a few hours on another table. I learned to move back a few rows of tables from the bar to not disturb the people drinking. Hard drinking myself, I quickly became a regular.

The worst thing about Nick's was that it was part of the Port Allen strip. The entire strip was owned by Family. Fights on the strip by the dozen nightly, knifings common especially on weekends, shootings frowned on unless the Family did them. Somebody saw that I had several twenties in my pocket one night and came back to play a game for "a dollar". I was first learning to play and I lost. He demanded ten dollars, a day's pay! He was at least four inches taller and seventy-five pounds heavier so when he charged around the table to collect I reflexively snapped the cue in my hands and jammed the pointy end in his face ripping it deeply from the corner of his mouth to his ear! Three nights later I came back shooting pool and nobody mentioned the incident. Another time someone staggered in cut to pieces. He made it to the bar and fell at the drinker's feet. After awhile the lady he was almost under complained that the smell of blood wasn't making her drink taste any better so they drug him the few feet to the door. A couple hours later he was still out so they decided he wasn't leaving on his own and an ambulance eventually arrived. Nick's had only two things going for it, it let me shoot pool and drink hard liquor the night I turned fifteen and could drive to it.

There was a place on Choctaw, but enough for one post. I want to read other tales of the worst places. I would like JAM to find this thread and read the tale of Keith's worst place he visited! There are at least a half-dozen others that traveled the roads and could tell some tales I am sure besides the worst places in every town and city.

Hu

 

[CocoboloCowboy]

When I think of Worst still open, Bulldhooter in Phoenix get my vote.

Last time I walked in to pickup local Pool Newspaper.

All I could smell was like Greasy Spoon Resturant.

Honestly the problem is homeless in area.

Do not understand why owner don’t put some effort into cleaning.

 

[hurricane145]

The original Golden Fleece Billiards on Lake City Way in Seattle was pretty bad. Nonetheless I was bummed when they moved to Everett because I was just about to retire at that time and I lived a short distance from it.
The place in Everett is far nicer but a bit of a drive now.

 

[DaWizard]

In Utrecht city, the Netherlands, we had 3 quality pool places. As a student I was riding the bus one day saw a sign "Pool Centre" where there had not been one before. "Huh? A new pool centre? I got to check it out!"

So I took my cue and went there. The window was blacked out glass. The moment I stepped in I realized I was not supposed to be there. There were two pooltables, yes, but this was really a shisha lounge. I was the only person not of Arab origin. Immediately got a couple "why are you here?" looks. Having a pool case made me look extra out of place.

Turning around and leave would feel extra awkward so I decided to play a game. I got a coke which was ridiculous expensive. The tables were old and I started shooting while beimg watched by a bunch of Arab men one young guy asked to play and we had a couple fun games (black one rail rule). He was friendly.

When I had spend the minimum amount of time I left. Not long after a person had tried to burn the place in the middle of the night and the place remained closed. I was not surprised.

 

[book collector]

I have one , but it is so disgusting, I like most of you too much to leave you with the images in your heads.

 

[skogstokig]

in the city i grew up close to there was a brothel masquerading as a pool joint. the owner called the ladies ukrainian pool instructors pretty sure not all stains on the tables were from beverages. got raided and shut down eventually.

 

[Poteet]

Any room that allows smoking it's 2025. I live in a non smoking state. And I can't even get smokers to go with me to places that allow smoking.

 

[gcmortal]

When I think of Worst still open, Bullshooter's in Phoenix get my vote.

Last time I walked in to pickup local Pool Newspaper.

All I could smell was like Greasy Spoon Restaurant.

Honestly the problem is homeless in area.

Do not understand why owner don’t put some effort into cleaning.

Sorry to hear this. I went several times ten years ago and would have been delighted to have it as my home room.

 

[Fatboy]

Sad to say, while I will add a few more as memories get stirred, Greenway in Baton Rouge was one of the worst. I walked in about 10:30 one morning. The place was filthy. The nine foot tables looked like they hadn't been recovered since I was was last in there twenty years before. The cloth stains weren't to be thought about, I didn't want to know what many of them were. The lighting was dim, probably another product of the filth.

Nobody there except a few old men at the counter. I walked back to the counter still determined to hit a few balls for old times sake. When the counterman managed to drag himself away from his three friends, cigarette, and coffee, I asked how much for a tray of balls. Fourteen an hour! I think it was about half that in it's heyday.

That was one of the things that made Greenway one of the worst halls ever. In it's day it had been a hub of US pool. Sooner or later anybody that could claim to be a player came through there. Tournaments paid little but were an excuse for four or five days of heavy action. The place was clean, equipment great, atmosphere safe. I brought dates there sometimes. Long and narrow it was what a pool hall should be. Even in the seventies and eighties action was as easy as walking in the door, nice forty or fifty a game action. Stakes at the nosebleed level were available for the asking and a phone call.

Oddly enough, Lambert owned Greenway and I think the entire shopping center. He had built it when the inner city caught up with his earlier Shopper's Pool Hall that was the proto-type I believe, a hall in a small strip mall. Shoppers was old and battered, ran down and dingy. Two snooker tables and about a dozen of the Brunswick Super Eights, not quite nine foot tables. It had a few pinball machines, air hockey, fooseball, I guess a few more things, in a front corner to help keep it alive. No liquor, beer only for unknown reasons. A locked walk through door gave entrance to the Green Frog, a naked dancing lady bar next door that served hard liquor and other things. Still Shoppers was my second home from fifteen until I moved away many years later. Good people made a good hall.

As memories flow I remember another place I cut my teeth, Nick's Steak House. The steak house was many years gone but I guess nobody felt like buying a new sign. As you went in the front door there was an oval bar that wrapped around barring your direct path. This was pretty much the only reason for the place being open. A worn out, washed out bartender served a half-dozen or so regulars most evenings. No music, no conversation to speak of, these people were here to consume alcohol in peace and privacy.

Behind the bar was what had once been a huge dining room. Maybe a hundred feet wide by two hundred deep. In a back corner there was a pile of dining tables and chairs piled and jammed ceiling high. Not enough to have filled the dining room, maybe half of it. Now the room was filled with five by tens. This enterprise might have once thrived but now the tables were ancient and uncared for. The room was a dark cavern. Most nights I was the only person playing pool with the lights over my table turned on by me. Maybe a half dozen times a month somebody would hit balls a few hours on another table. I learned to move back a few rows of tables from the bar to not disturb the people drinking. Hard drinking myself, I quickly became a regular.

The worst thing about Nick's was that it was part of the Port Allen strip. The entire strip was owned by Family. Fights on the strip by the dozen nightly, knifings common especially on weekends, shootings frowned on unless the Family did them. Somebody saw that I had several twenties in my pocket one night and came back to play a game for "a dollar". I was first learning to play and I lost. He demanded ten dollars, a day's pay! He was at least four inches taller and seventy-five pounds heavier so when he charged around the table to collect I reflexively snapped the cue in my hands and jammed the pointy end in his face ripping it deeply from the corner of his mouth to his ear! Three nights later I came back shooting pool and nobody mentioned the incident. Another time someone staggered in cut to pieces. He made it to the bar and fell at the drinker's feet. After awhile the lady he was almost under complained that the smell of blood wasn't making her drink taste any better so they drug him the few feet to the door. A couple hours later he was still out so they decided he wasn't leaving on his own and an ambulance eventually arrived. Nick's had only two things going for it, it let me shoot pool and drink hard liquor the night I turned fifteen and could drive to it.

There was a place on Choctaw, but enough for one post. I want to read other tales of the worst places. I would like JAM to find this thread and read the tale of Keith's worst place he visited! There are at least a half-dozen others that traveled the roads and could tell some tales I am sure besides the worst places in every town and city.

Hu

I was in Greenway in 87 and it was pretty ok then. Lots of action, kinda run down but had a great vibe. I was there until 7am, won a bit and carried on. Never went back.

I always wondered what happened to that room.

Best
Fatboy

 

[Mensabum]

Over the past couple of decades many rooms have closed. Some were all time treasures but for the most part they were dumps and I’m not sad that they are gone.

The worst room I ever went in was in southeast Houston. On the sign it was called fat dats bilards. Not sure why they spelled billiards that way. I was new to the area and was trying to find a place where the wife and I could play. She sat in the car while I scouted it. I walk in and the door was hard to open. The place had two tables one pool table and one carom table. The felt was completely shredded, had stains on it and cigarette ash. There were cigarette burn marks all over the rails. There was a bar to the right as you walk in and the bar tender didn’t have a tooth in his head. He also didn’t even acknowledge that I walked in. On the back wall was a shredded leather couch where a man and a prostitute was passed out. Both looked rough as hell. The floor was sticky can had spots where beer had been spilled but not cleaned up. The lighting was awful. Old flickering fluorescent greenish lights. Some of the tubes were burned out. The place smelled like stale beer, body odor and cigarette smoke. The balls on the table were gashed all up and bleached out. I went back to the car and my wife asked me how was it to which I replied you don’t want to know let’s just move on.

So the question is: what was the worst room you have ever experienced? Describe it.

River bend Alton IL.

 

[Mensabum]

River bend Alton IL.

Did I mention I had a cue stolen there?? Place burned down shortly after.

 

[jay helfert]

I’ve been in many little poolrooms in alleyways in the Philippines. Usually only a few tables with a tent like roof. No windows, open to the heat and humidity all the way around. Restroom was an open hole in the ground behind a swinging door. No toilet paper of course. Just a water tap! Tables were ragged and they rolled off in all directions. The balls were all chipped and filthy. Some rails played better than others. Just a couple of backless benches to sit on. No food, only bottled water.

I’m embarrassed to say I sought these places out. I always got challenged immediately to play for 50 or 100 pesos a game. They all loved to play and watch the games, everyone friendly and nice. Almost always we played Rotation.

I took all this as a challenge and embraced it.

 

[Black-Balled]

Did I mention I had a cue stolen there?? Place burned down shortly after.

That'll teach those bastards.

 

[Black-Balled]

I went to a place in Alabama that BAD.

Decades old and looked worse than that suggests
.

 

[GoldCrown]

These were the VIP tables. Somewhere in Cali. Not exactly calibrated. I forget the name… was a sports bar.

 

[Zerksies]

I am actually sitting in it right now. About 25 years ago a bowling alley had a pool room of about 10 tables. Unknown tables, red cloth. Balls and tables were never kept clean. Worst part of all they charged $10 for Chalk. If you returned it you got your money back. Well that bowling alley lost it's lease and my company bought the place. So my desk is where the pool room use to be.

 

[Fatboy]

I’ve been in many little poolrooms in alleyways in the Philippines. Usually only a few tables with a tent like roof. No windows, open to the heat and humidity all the way around. Restroom was an open hole in the ground behind a swinging door. No toilet paper of course. Just a water tap! Tables were ragged and they rolled off in all directions. The balls were all chipped and filthy. Some rails played better than others. Just a couple of backless benches to sit on. No food, only bottled water.

I’m embarrassed to say I sought these places out. I always got challenged immediately to play for 50 or 100 pesos a game. They all loved to play and watch the games, everyone friendly and nice. Almost always we played Rotation.

I took all this as a challenge and embraced it.

I went into some real bad rooms in Mexico, not quite that rough, they had indoor pluming. The action was always great. Small $, nobody ever figured to lose to me-this was back in the 80’s. Usually I’d buy beers for everyone or give a big rebate. I just loved the action and atmosphere, wasn’t ever about money. Never had a problem. Great times. Good people.

 

[kling&allen]

Damn, i like the place already. RaytownRec in KC is combination of shit and shinola. Walk-down dump of a place with a great history. I love it. They have an original Kling that come out of the old Kling-Allen room in downtown KC. Don Brink was a good 3c player that ran the place for years. https://www.google.com/search?clien...Mai1UV1RnTWNxZkFTQURMci1pV2FxRWdBSkZjVTVtUG16 looks like they cleaned it up. a lot.

Raytown Rec is a nice room by my standards! Good players, tables are typically in great shape, lots of 9ft gold crowns, no bar. People are there mostly to play pool.