I recently attended an event where a game night was organized. The event organizers, unskilled in knowing quality equipment (or maybe they didn't realized what they were getting), had a pool table brought in and set up for the night. I, of course, was all excited that I would get to play pool and show off my skills. I was very disappointed when I got down to the room where the event was to be held. Upon entering the room and seeing the pool table I got really excited because it wasn't a bar box, which I was expecting. But looks can be deceiving.
Knowing that I played pool pretty well, I was immediately handed a "pool cue". I have pool cue in quotes because it resembled a pool cue...that is about where the distinction ends. I don't believe I have ever seen a cue stick with a brand new, FLAT cue tip. Luckily, I keep a Cuetech cue in my vehicle for billiard emergencies such as this and was able to use it instead.
The table was some brand I had never heard of and although from a distance it looked like a nice table, sometimes a freshly washed car looks new until you get up close. The first thing about the table I noticed was that the cloth looked funny. I inspected it and sure enough, it was crap. The next thing I noticed was that no matter where you hit a ball, it would end up on one side of the table (we fixed that with a couple stacks of napkins). Something else wasn't right and after tapping a ball down on the playing surface, yeah, it had a wood bed instead of slate. The last thing that made this table terrible was the rails. It was about like hitting balls against cardboard wedges.
Upon arriving back at my house, one of the first things I did after unpacking was to hit a few balls on my table and the world was right again.
So if you have a nice, well constructed, and properly set up table at home or where you play pool, know that there are some really terrible tables out there and be grateful that you have nice equipment to play on. It makes a huge difference playing on nice, well maintained equipment.
