Hello from California

[Darth_Spud]

Welcome to TSF! Nice to see this sport spreading to the US. I'm sure if you played on a full size table you would be shocked at the difficulty!, I have only played on an American pool table a couple of times and I cleared the table quite easily so when you eventually find a full size snooker table your going to think the pockets are tiny! Good luck with your future “snookering” mate! :snooker:

[TheStranger]

Welcome to TSF! Nice to see this sport spreading to the US. I'm sure if you played on a full size table you would be shocked at the difficulty!, I have only played on an American pool table a couple of times and I cleared the table quite easily so when you eventually find a full size snooker table your going to think the pockets are tiny! Good luck with your future “snookering” mate! :snooker:

The 5x10 snooker table in Franklin (outskirts of Sacramento County) that I have played on, those pockets were TINY! Took some getting used to.

Only place so far in this state that I know has regulation size tables would be Embassy in San Gabriel, where that US championship is held. Not sure if the Santa Clara County/San Jose area has any, though they had that snooker tournament in 2006? Not sure it ever took hold there, sadly, even though it is close to where I grew up.

Some pub in San Francisco supposedly had a snooker table, but it was replaced with a regular bar pool table by the time I and a mate got there this weekend. Funny enough, that tavern was located next to one of only two American pool halls left in the entire city!

Emeryville looks like my best bet to search for regulation tables.

[spike]

Hi Chris. It's nice to know that someone from the States appreciates how great this game is!

[TheStranger]

Hi Chris. It's nice to know that someone from the States appreciates how great this game is!

I've been telling my friends and family about it, and mentioning it a bit on other message boards I post at (Crapwagon.com, an auto racing forum where several Canadians also have mentioned their knowledge of the sport; Thefeeder.com, a board dedicated to the NHL team San Jose Sharks). I have absolutely gone snooker loopy haven't I? :snooker:

Apparently ESPN has shown three-cushion billiards footage as late as last year; I can't see why they've avoided snooker in the States for so long, especially with the snooker pedigrees of their top women's 9-ball players.

[spike]

Good for you, pleased to hear it!

[TheStranger]

Good for you, pleased to hear it!

Thank you Just doing my part to spread the snooker gospel.

Have any Americans ever participated in the WSC or the main tour, BTW? Obviously several Canadians (Stevens, Thorburn, Roubidoux) have.

[spike]

No not as far as i know

[TheStranger]

Other than Mizerak's exhibitions against White and Davis, have any other well-known American pool players attempted snooker?

[RaNeN]

Hi Chris, Welcome to TSF.

[jayhoming]

I'm curious: in NYC, how hard is it to acquire a snooker cue?

Capitol Billiard in north Sacramento has a few, but I don't think any of those are British imports, some of them don't even have the flat spade! Cheapest snooker cues there are $50, but they can go up in price considerably from that. Not sure if any of those are quality.

it's really tough to get a good snooker cue here, and i have two friends are using JP for 5 years now, both of them have little problems(bent a little), they tried to ship their cues back to shop to fix, but the post will cost them around $100(each)..Since the Trevor White cue is highly recomended in this forum, so, i just decided to give a shot, and wish the best. it's been a month now, and people are saying his cue is worth to wait, he he..hopefully..

[TheStranger]

Since the Trevor White cue is highly recomended in this forum, so, i just decided to give a shot, and wish the best. it's been a month now, and people are saying his cue is worth to wait, he he..hopefully..

How much is the shipping for a Trevor White cue to your side of the country? I wonder if it's too much more to get one of those out to California.

[logosmurf]

Snooker in the states

welcome to the snooker world...

In '89 I was lucky enough to get to play some snooker in the states, at Utah State University, I played like crap but had loads of fun. Don't know if they still have snooker there...? Hope You get to play the real thing soon, it doesn't get any better than this!!

By the way, Mike Massey has played some snooker and his snooker trick shots are brilliant. You might find him on youtube...

Have a good one!

[TheStranger]

welcome to the snooker world...

Thanks

In '89 I was lucky enough to get to play some snooker in the states, at Utah State University, I played like crap but had loads of fun. Don't know if they still have snooker there...? Hope You get to play the real thing soon, it doesn't get any better than this!!

I know that an online friend of mine used to go to Kent State University in Ohio, and their game room had a snooker table in the mid-80s, not sure if it has one now. Talk about two very random outposts for the game...

That reminds me, anyone know why snooker rules in the US were somewhat divergent years ago? Here's a link showing the differences before the standardization of regulations:
http://departments.weber.edu/wildcat...rVersions.html

By the way, Mike Massey has played some snooker and his snooker trick shots are brilliant. You might find him on youtube...

Have a good one!

I think he won one of the snooker trickshot championships in the mid-90s...shame that that's not going on anymore.

[TheStranger]

I took the plunge and scored myself a Dufferin (Canadian-made brand) snooker cue at Capitol Billiard today in northern Sacramento:

17oz, 9mm tip
I want to say it's machine-spliced, but not 100% sure about that...it's a one-piece deal
59 inches long

Tested it out a bit with a couple of balls and I loved the feel, and it was only $50. Hopefully I'll get to try it on the snooker table later today.

[TheStranger]

Finally hit up the hall with the full sized snooker table, in the San Francisco/Oakland suburb of Emeryville.

It's a 40 year old Brunswick table according to the staffer, with napless fast cloth. It has the D but not a full baulk line marked out.

I played a frame by myself and then did some straight-shot practice around the blue spot, testing my Dufferin cue and the house cues...turns out my maple Dufferin cue doesn't feel quite as good as one of the heavier 19oz house cues, I had great results practicing screw with one of them (on a straight pot, I was able to screw the white right back into the other center pocket!). The Dufferin cue is well-balanced but just feels overall a bit too light; another factor as to my lack of consistency with it also might have been the rather hard tip it came with.

The staffer there did say that they may be getting a shipment of new snooker cues soon. :snooker: I'm planning to hit the place up with a mate of mine tomorrow afternoon.