Cued up

Barroom pool tables drawing an even bigger crowd these days

Dave Flomberg, Special to the News

Published April 13, 2007 at midnight

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Ever since Fast Eddie Felson squared off against Minnesota Fats for $200 a game, billiards has reigned as one of the most popular of American bar arts.

For the past 45 years, fads have failed to derail that lasting popularity. Not karaoke. Not Texas Hold 'em. Not even the ubiquitous Golden Tee video game.

Today, pool continues to be a mainstay of the bar scene. From high-end, high-class rooms with exquisite tables and expensive cues to dive bars under overpasses in warehouse districts with ratty, leaning tables and crooked, cracked sticks, the pool table is as much a fixture in a bar as the jukebox, the barfly and the bottle of gin.

A big draw to the tables now comes from league play, which pits different bars' teams against one another for bragging rights and trophies. More than 200 bars across the Front Range are involved in league play. Chuck Rooney, who owns one of two local franchises from the American Poolplayers Association, says about 700 teams are playing every week.

No surprise, really, to anyone who spends any time in a bar.

At establishments as diverse as one-table dives like Don's Mixed Drinks or the P.S. Lounge, where competition can vary wildly on any given night, and places like Shakespeare's or Table Steaks, where you're certain to find players who spent more on their cue than you did on your last home appliance, there's no shortage of opportunity for a rack and a game.

And don't let the rapid growth of league play daunt you. At its core, pool in bars remains a game for people looking merely to make a few bucks or a new drinking buddy.

"I play for the love of this game," says Samm Diep, the house pro at Table Steaks East (3525 S. Parker Road, Aurora, 303-743-8888). Her wide smile and approachable demeanor belie the stone-cold confidence she exudes on the pool table.

Diep registers a little alarm about the popularity shift to no-stakes poker that has occurred over the past couple of years at Denver bars - even the one in which she works.

"You can slap a poker table on top of the pool table here and seat 11 people around it." Diep says. "So poker can get a lot more people through the door."

On the other hand, pool at Table Steaks East costs anywhere from $5 to $10 an hour, depending on the time of day, whereas poker, which is played three nights a week, is free to all comers. So there's a trade-off for the bar.

Despite the poker fad, don't look for bar owners to start clearing out their pool tables. The sport remains a main draw at longtime Denver institutions like the Wynkoop, and has become an added attraction at places like the Skylark Lounge (where they turned the top floor into a small pool hall) and has stimulated the addition of newer nightlife hot spots like Tarantula, the gritty downtown billiards bar that opened a few years ago and has maintained a continuous presence in the high-rent digs on 15th Street.

Like the stick who's running the table no matter who breaks, pool probably isn't going anywhere soon.

Best tables in town

• Shakespeare's Pub and Billiards - (2620 Walnut St., 303-433-6000) In its new space in the so-called NoDo neighborhood, Shakespeare's continues to have the finest collection of tables and cues of any billiards room in the state. From the Spanish-imported Kim Steele tables to the collection of ales and fine pub fare, Shakespeare's remains atop the Denver billiards scene, thanks to its tireless upkeep and table maintenance and attentive service. There's plenty of room between tables and easy access to the bar, unless you're playing on one of the billiards tables in the back. Parking is at a premium in the new 'hood, though. Prices for table rental start at $4.25/hour and go up from there, depending on peak times and number of players.

Best games in town

Gambling on pool in Colorado is illegal, of course, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Finding a stick good enough that you're willing to wager on your skills is just a matter of heading to the right spot. A few places where players test their table mettle:

• Table Steaks (1931 Sheridan Blvd., Edgewater, 303-232-9847). "That's where you'll find the most consistent action," says Samm Diep, the house pro at Table Steaks East's (not affiliated with the one on Sheridan).

• Rack 'em Cue Club (1919 S. Havana St., 303-755-7675). This Aurora hot spot is known to attract some of the city's best players.

• Paradise Billiards (5250 W. 38th Ave., 303-424-1822). Features a collection of Gold Crown tables and hosts a tournament on Thursday nights that regularly draws some of the best players in Denver.

• Break Room (5151 S. Federal Blvd., 303-797-1155). Like Paradise Billiards, attracts some of the top talent on any of the league nights.

• Shakespeare's At its old home on 15th Street or its new one on Walnut, Shakespeare's has always attracted a lot of tough competition - although a notch or two below the best. "Shakespeare's has a lot of competition, but I'll find better money games at Table Steaks, anywhere from $20 to $200 a game," said James (who declined to give his last name), a self-described hustler in his early 20s who was plying his trade at Tarantula Billiards in Denver one evening.

• Skylark Lounge's upstairs billiards spot, the Pair-o-dice Poolroom (140 S. Broadway, 303-722-7844). Rumor has it the competition has gotten pretty stiff, depending on the night. (Former Shakespeare's house pro Tom Ross now does a clinic here on Thursday nights.)

In the kitchen or ball in hand?

No idea what we're talking about? Here's a glossary to tell you the difference between snooker, pool and billiards:

• Billiards - Usually the term given to all cue sports, including snooker and pool, billiards is more properly used to describe a game on a pocketless, 5-by-10-foot table, played with three balls. Points are scored by striking both balls with the cue ball on a single shot. Billiards tables are often heated to promote as long a roll as possible.

• Snooker - Snooker tables are very large, usually 6-by-12 feet. The game consists of 15 solid red balls, six balls of other colors and the cue ball. Points are scored by sinking the balls; the red balls are worth one point each, the other colors range in point value.

• Pocket Billiards (pool) - Pool tables range in size; the main requirement is that they are twice as long as they are wide. Nine-foot tables are standard sizes for serious pool players; seven-foot tables are often referred to as "bar tables" and are usually coin-operated.

• 8 ball - Most common bar table pool game. It's a two-person game in which one player pockets all stripe balls (9-15) and the other solids (1-7). The game is won by the first person to sink all his object balls, finishing with the 8 ball. Traditionally, all shots are called, and the 8 ball is not considered neutral - meaning that the player must strike an object ball prior to striking the 8 ball or it is a foul.

• 9 ball - Most popular spectator pool game. Numbers 1-9 are racked in a diamond shape. After the break, object balls are then sunk in numerical order; however, as long as the player strikes the object ball first, anything that drops on that shot subsequently counts. So, a one-nine combo can win the game early.

• 3 ball - Popular gambling game. Three balls are set up on the table, a player then tries to sink all three balls in as few shots as possible. Once the player sinks all three balls, the next player tries to sink them in fewer shots. Often each player will ante up a given amount with the winner taking all.

• In the kitchen - During a game of 8 ball, if a player scratches, the next player can spot the ball anywhere on the far end of the table but behind the second dot on the rail, or "in the kitchen."

• Ball-in-hand - During a game of 9 ball, if a player commits a foul (either scratches or fails to strike his object ball first), the other player gets the "ball-in-hand," meaning he can place the cue ball anywhere on the table and shoot from there.

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