Where is one-pocket number one?

[Eight & Out]

What area of the country would you say plays the most one-pocket?It sure isn't Missouri where I live.

Pete

[SactownTom]

Having lived in the MidWest for more than 15 years, I would have to say that One Pocket is very popular in most major pool rooms. Ohio and Kentucky seem to have a lot of great One Pocket players.

But, since I moved to California, I am seeing a new breed of One Pocket players. Aggressive and Smart play with some really wild shot selections. The matchups and spots don't seem to bother many players here. The amount of jellybeans is also quite high.

"7 ahead" with or without a spot has been the recent favorite.

Ok... now there are two areas... Mid-West and California.

What area of the country would you say plays the most one-pocket?It sure isn't Missouri where I live.

Pete

[hemicudas]

Having lived in the MidWest for more than 15 years, I would have to say that One Pocket is very popular in most major pool rooms. Ohio and Kentucky seem to have a lot of great One Pocket players.

But, since I moved to California, I am seeing a new breed of One Pocket players. Aggressive and Smart play with some really wild shot selections. The matchups and spots don't seem to bother many players here. The amount of jellybeans is also quite high.

"7 ahead" with or without a spot has been the recent favorite.

Ok... now there are two areas... Mid-West and California.
Don't know about Calafornia but Tom is right about Kentucky, Ohio, southern Illinois and parts of Tennessee being big time one pocket areas as far back as I can remember.

[jrhendy]

I have been sweating & playing one pocket since the late 50's & early 60's. I used to go down to Hollywood & Western in LA whenever I had a little $$. It was a great old poolroom down in the basement of a commercial bldg. with a table in a private room with chairs all around inside. It was full of characters & top notch pool players ready to take a would be pool hustlers $$. I got trapped, dumped & just about anything else it took to get a pool room education. It also had a lot of snooker action on a tight 5x10 & Ronnie Allen was just becoming a well known player then. He was a great snooker & golf player before everyone heard about his one pocket game. He ran around with a guy named Buck Barrett who was from Oklahoma & a pretty good player in his own right. Buck played the old style one pocket & wouldn't run more than 3 balls & then lock you up. He played with a Rambo cue that was all taped up to look like a cheap bar room cue. The road players in the room would go back & forth from Hollywood Billiards to Cochrans in San Francisco & there were always new road players to sweat. Most of the good players in the country came through CA from the early to mid 60's & it was pool player heaven.

[BackPocket9Ball]

Philadelphia is a huge one pocket town. Even though Jimmy and Pete Fusco don't play as much or as well as they used to, they are a big reason. Tacony Palmyra is probably the biggest action room on the east coast, and if you want 9-ball action, you won't find too much there -- all one pocket or back pocket 9-ball.

But the most popular area for one pocket that I've seen is Texas, specifically Houston. In most places, younger players start with 9-ball and may move to one pocket when they get older and more experienced. In Texas, many players start playing one pocket when they first start playing pool. And there are a lot of Mexicans who you've never heard of who play jam-up one pocket.

[Pelican]

Kinda odd how towns close together can be different. Mobile, AL has quite a lot of one hole action but just an hour away in Pensacola, FL the game of choice seems to be 9 ball. May be due to Pensacola having a large military base gives it more younger players that prefer the faster game.

[One Pocket Ghost]

I've gotten around the country a bit in the last several years and here's what i found > Imo, the five places where one pocket is played the most are : the New Orleans area - the Maryland area - Tulsa & Oklahoma City - Texas (particularly the Houston area) and California (LA to Sacramento). After that, there's a lot of one pocket scattered all through the south (but for some strange reason not Florida - for the most part, the only one pocket games that you can get in Florida are with the pro tour players). In the north : Chicago and Detroit have decent one pocket action. Northeast : Buffalo NY up through Portland Maine has some. From the midwest through the east : Indianapolis, and in the big cities in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York have decent action.....Thinking about all of these places, has got me all psyched up to play...I'm heading to the hall...