Last night was a very interesting night at the table. Started out at my bud’s house as I usually do every Monday and Wednesday night. We played some Equal Offense to start off with, got tired of it and switched to Straight Pool, my game of choice anywhere, any time. I found a very cool little Straight Pool scoring app for the PalmOS that I wanted to try out. The interesting thing though, is that on the one hand, I nearly matched my all time high run of 17 with a night high of 15, while on the other hand I had three fouls in a row. In Straight Pool, three fouls in a row is a Bad Thing, costing the player (in this case, me) 18 points (one point per foul, plus 15 for going three in a row). I came back to win the match, but it was hard getting over that triple foul, mentally speaking.

Around 11:30 or so, I left his house and hit the local pool hall (appropriately called The Pool Room) and played on the 50 cent 8-ball tables against some regular locals. Once I hit those 8-ball tables, my playing got much more consistent, and though I didn’t win every game, I didn’t lose on my own mistakes. I don’t mind losing, as long as the other player actually wins, rather than me handing the game over.

I like playing up there. Good folk, they are, at least when you’re at the table with them. I really like the crowd. It’s a tad on the rough side, which gives it a hard and gritty feel that I just lose myself in. The more I play with them, the more I want to play with them. There’s nothing in the world quite like blues in both ears, a rum & coke in one hand, a pool stick in the other, and a rack of balls out in front. No siree, that there’s the life.

Lately I’ve been playing their 7′ bar boxes, though I would much prefer playing on their 9′ tables. Two things keep me away from the 9′ers though… not only are they usually all taken by that time of night, they *really* need to be re-covered. The cloth has huge rips and gashes in it on all but one of the tables. Besides, at 50 cents a pop, the 7′ bar boxes are much cheaper than the 9′ at $6.50/hr. Two of their 4 9′ tables have decent cloth, and one of those has snooker railes on it. Wanna work on your aim? Hit a 15-ball rack around on a snooker table. Those pockets are about as unforgiving as you can imagine. If you’re off by just a few millimeters, it ain’t going in.