Our Table

Today, I've got some free time between classes and decided to post another blog. Anything to kill the four hours between 2-D design and Calculus.

So....what to share with you? Well as I told you in my first post, I practice my game everyday. I try to play about and hour a day trying everything. I practice my run outs, banks, caroms, masses, anything I can think of. Now at home I play on a very nice eight foot table. I believe its a Connelley table.... claw legs, beautiful. However, as nice as this table is, I HATE it. It got resurfaced about three years ago and with as much as I play on it it makes sense for it to begin to have some...misfortunate roll to it. I understand this but what I don't get is why our felt is so fuzzy. It is a thicker felt and it leaves little fuzz balls, not cool. And, because the felt is thick this makes the table really slow and makes the pockets even tighter.

Part of this I like though. The tight pockets has taught me to always play my shots center pocket, but at angles this can get pretty difficult. So, this table is in a way training me to be better. Also, the slow table forces me to always go for my shots. It eliminates my urge to be cautious and play the good old slow roll because not ony would it not reach its destination but it may roll off course. Which, like at most bar tables, there is table roll and speed takes that out of the equation. There are times you need to slow roll though and those are the times I don't like this table.

Another problem, I have with our table is that on two sides a wall comes into play. A bar box length table would be perfect for the room but the extra foot of table we have means that its time to hike. The rack side of the table is the worst. the ball can be like six-eight inches from the rail and you will still need to hike up your cue due to the wall. The break side isn't so bad though because the only time you have to jack your cue up is when the ball is dead on the rail.

Other than these problems this table is great. My step-dad has talked about switching it out for a table a foot short (7ft bar box), but his problem is that he wants to get something very similar in quality and be able to sell the current table and not have to spend any extra on the new one. Basically an even trade for the tables. Now obviously, everything depreciates so this is not an easy trade to find. The table is probably like eight to ten years old or more but still in excellent condition. But, who knows maybe we will get an opportunity down the road for a smoking deal. You never know. The glass is half full right?