>>I used to be a pretty serious pool player ( when you grew up with Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason in your head in The Hustler in a pretty continuous loop that happened. Fortunately, I went to college with a lot of rich kids who had tables in their basement and could beat their coursins so they thought they could play <g> )
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>I hope you didn't get your hands broken as Newman did.
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Naw, the worst they would do would be to make fun of your tie <bg> or insult your car.
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>>Very different game - the size of the balls is probably the biggest adjustment.
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>Billiards on a pool table. How so and how many balls in the game?
Nine ball has 9 of course, numbered. You shoot them in rotation ( at least you must hit the next number ball first ) but you win money by sinking the 5, 7 and 9 ( usually twice as much on the 9 ) Balls start racked in a diamond shape. He who sinks the 9 breaks on the next rack.
Straight pool, 15 plus the cueball. Shoot anything, anywhere calling ball and pocket. Shoot until you miss. After 14 are sunk the 15th is left in place while the other 14 are reracked and the shooter continues. Usually to 150. Runs of over 30 are not uncommon. Runs of over 100 are not unknown. (this is in professional or big money competition )
>>I've never seen a snooker table in the US though I've been told there's a place in Boston that has a pretty nice setup.
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>>Of course, I can't stand playing 8 ball or on tables you put coins in either. 9 ball and straight pool are the only games I can take seriously. And I really prefer to play in places where my Balabushka isn't the only one in the house. <s>
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>Ah, there's another difference. I've only ever encountered the coin-op 8-ball tables in British pubs and clubs. I get the impression from TV and film that the professional tables (often in blue baize) seem bigger than these, and I don't know what you mean by 9-ball pool.
Yeah, 8 ball is pretty much a bar/pub game and there the tables are usually smaller. Real pool halls see a lot more 9 ball, straight and one-pocket ( 9 ball being the best money game ) And the tables are regulation - though still not the size of a snooker table.
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>"Balabushka" - sounds like something Kate Bush would sing about :-)
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Well, she did sing "Rolling the ball" ... <s>
( bespoke cue made by George Balabushka )
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
