quote:

Originally posted by Pizza Bob:
Love the game. I seem to alternate on about a 12-15 year cycle between pool and guns - never completely give-up the one for the other, but concentrate more on the game du jour.

IDPA / USPSA / ICORE are my current time wasters (it's OK, I'm retired now), but I find myself in my basement, hitting some balls, more often lately. I was into cue collecting and have about a dozen customs, that I play/played with and 40 or so Brunswicks that date from the 60's & 70's that I collect. While I don't gamble, I did play quite a bit of one pocket - like chess on a pool table.

Here's my current set-up...


Adios,

Pizza Bob

Pizza Bob,
Nice looking room, Gold crown? Can’t see if there are counters on the rail
Being from NJ, you’ve probably seen a few Balabushkas and Szambotis?
I’ve played with both of them that a friend owns, just can’t swing the kind of cash they bring now!

Nice table.

I would post pics of mine if I could figure out how. Maybe I don’t have enough posts yet....

quote:

Originally posted by ElKabong:
Pizza Bob,
Nice looking room, Gold crown? Can’t see if there are counters on the rail
Being from NJ, you’ve probably seen a few Balabushkas and Szambotis?
I’ve played with both of them that a friend owns, just can’t swing the kind of cash they bring now!

Thanks. Yes, it's Gold Crown II (skirts removed) covered with Simonis 760 and those are Brunswick Centennial balls.

Yes, I've seen a number of 'Bushka's and 'Boti's and also lots of Palmer's. A friend took a chance and bought a cue from a road player that was purported to be a Gus - got it for about $250. Sent it away to be restored without saying anything to the fellow doing the restoration. The guy called him about two weeks later and said, "I forgot what color wrap you wanted on this Szamboti." My friend replied that he hadn't told him that it was a Szamboti, how does he know? He identified it by a build technique that was uniquely Gus'. A picture of that cue is in the color plates of one of the earlier editions of the Blue Book.

Adios,

Pizza Bob

Reminds me of my first, aborted attempt at college. Hell of it is, I wasn’t that good at it either, “Quarta’ witchu.”

Twenty years later, Cum laude, but I started pretty much from scratch (notice the echo back to the above paragraph ).

I still play, getting my table reclothed and new cushions.

Me as well. We had pool tables (one at a time, of course) in my house most of my life, and I played in a bunch of tournaments and tons of casual games a lot when I was younger.

I'm so pool'd out these days as a result, but have many fond memories of it.

WOW! The good ole days. Shot many games chalked up with that stuff

My present table is a 7 foot Valley coin op circa 1969 complete with dents in the Formica. Just the way I wanted it, an "experienced" table. Gets a lot of use around the holidays when we host gatherings here.

Great photo Tucker. I play on a table that has been in my family for 3 generations. Ive been playing on it since I was a kid. I'm 53 now. Its an Atlantic Billiards Table that was made right around 1900-1910 or so, in Brooklyn, NY. I just had it moved into my house last year, new bumpers and felt. 8x4 ft. table, 1 inch thick slate. Mother of Pearl inlays. The company that moved it for me from my folks house remember when they moved it from my grandmothers to my Dads house. Nice old table, nothing fancy or ornate at all, but it does have the ball return, which I guess was something new at the time. I have a bunch of old cues as well, but most of which are junk. I really should spend a few $ and get a 1/2 dozen decent ones. Love the game.

Couple of memories come to mind from that great photo.
-- The custom first year of production Palmer French tipped cue I loved that was sadly stolen many years later.
-- The awe of stopping my practicing to watch Babe Cranfield run rack after rack after rack in the Syracuse pool hall I was in. No one was allowed on any table 2 deep surrounding the one he was on. An absolutely amazing talent and multiple titled champion.