Part 5 - Now

It’s only been going on for a little while but here’s what the local pool hall is like now.

There is valet parking now.  Yes, I know but you don’t want to deal with trying to find a spot anymore, or walking the entire length of the parking lot.

There are Coors Light girls right when you walk in near the entrance.  Really.  For $5 they grab you a beer out of the ice chest.

Jerry’s apt looked huge on the giant curved screen TV that is now over the counter.  Larry even got a monkey for some reason and he hangs out back there too.

It’s something like a 3 hour wait to get a table.  Most people put their names down and head right over to the mexican restaurant which was so grateful for the new business that pool hall employees (and me) get free food delivered whenever we want it.  After a few days of this they just put a sliding glass window in the wall where you could just order and they would hand you your food.

They're trying to redo all the tables but it's hard with all the chaos.

Turns out pretty much everyone here is playing this game which I call kind of jokingly called “Jonas Ball”.  There are tournaments pretty much every other day I guess, and the payouts on the last one were something like $1375, $850, and $425.

The APA players just want to play this now.  We also have the bank and one pocket players into it, I guess because they feel they can bank their way out of trouble in the sequential phase.

Ned even comes out of hiding every once in a while and plays, but we still have to remind him of the rules (he still thinks its rotation 8).

It actually has gotten to be a bit much and when I went on vacation recently it was a relief to find a dirty old quiet pool hall.  This place didn’t look like it had changed much from the 1970s.  They had a little food counter, so I got a hot dog with a stale bun served in one of those cardboard red and white checkered trays.

I got back to my table and the only other guy in the place asked if I wanted to play a bit, you know nothing serious, just maybe for table time.

I said sure.

“What’s your game?  9-Ball?  You call it, ” he said.

“Well, ” I hesitated, and I took in the dusty room, the water stains on the ceiling tiles, the torn cloth on the tables, the worn carpet, and then I said,  “I got this game you should try.  You see, it works like this...”