Are you looking for somewhere to shoot pool but just don’t know where to go?
This is a common problem for new players or if players interested in billiards just recently moved to a new location. Many of the players who have been shooting pool for a long time at the same bar for 15 years will know the area like the back of their hand. They will be able to tell you the 5 nearest places that have decent tables and the places where the tables are not so great. This all comes from experience, being in the pool scene for a bit and just getting yourself out there and chatting with people.
In this post, I’ll go over the different methods to find your nearest pool hall, find pool leagues near you, and tips to find tournaments.
Search Online
Using the internet will be your biggest resource and there are a few different ways to utilize the internet to get you your answers. It will also give you the most accurate information because someone may suggest this bar or poolhall they visited a few years ago but, you come to find out that it has been closed for the last 3 months. If you had just Google’d the name of the bar first, you would have discovered the bar shut down permanently much sooner and saved yourself a drive.
How to find the nearest Pool Hall – Google
Here is the fastest way to find a pool hall near you.
- Go to www.google.com
- Search “Pool Hall near me”
- Ta-da!
Using the internet and Google’s search engine will be one of the best resources to finding a nearby poolhall to you. It may ask you for your location if you have not already enabled it, just hit “Yes” if it asks you.
Once you see a list of results, be sure to view the information displayed to give you a better idea of each place. Some poolhalls may not allow smoking whilst others may.
Images
The images of an establishment can give away a lot about the pool hall or bar. Are you looking for a pool hall with 8-10+ tables? Are you looking for a very large or very small pool hall? Images that the owner and visitors have posted can help you determine this.
Reviews
Reviews are king today and people will often write very detailed or accurate reviews about their experiences. I urge you to take everything with a grain of salt because the people who had the worst experience are very quick to write up a review while the regulars who have a great time don’t care to mention it on Google Reviews.
Happy hours, specials and deals
The reviews section is also a great resource to find out the happy hour specials a bar may have one certain day. If you can save some money to drink and shoot pool, that’s a great combination of having a good time! I’ve personally discovered places during the day that offer food and if you buy lunch during the day, they will allow you to shoot pool for free! That’s a great deal if you are already planning on eating lunch!
Use a Pool Leagues website to search
There are a lot of Pool Leagues out there, the largest being the APA (American Poolplayers Association) League with over 250,000+ members. The ones closest to my area and the most known to me is APA, BCA, and UPA. These may differ from your location but with APA being the largest league of them all, I would suggest starting with APA if you are looking for a pool league to join – especially if you are a beginner because they have a handicap system to make it fair to all players ranging from beginner to advanced.
- APA (American Poolplayers Association)
- TAP (Pool’s Amateur Tour)
- BCA (Billiard Congress of America) & CSI (Cue Sports International)
- BCAPL (Billiard Congress of America Pool League)
- USAPL (United States of America Pool League)
- VNEA (Valley National 8-Ball League Association)
- Plus a lot more!
Here is a link to APA’s website to the page where new players would sign up and search for nearby locations depending on your zip code. This is a great online tool that APA has created and it makes it very easy to locate the nearest location a bar or pool hall offers Pool League near you.
APA will require you to enter some information like your Birth Date because this form is also a form for new players to sign up. Once you entered the required information, you should see a screen like this with the results:
Here you’ll see detailed information on all the locations that offer APA league. Click on one of them and you’ll see the names of who is the League Operator(s) in the area.
Once you choose a location and submit the form, an APA representative will reach out to you and let you know if the location you selected has openings and give you more information to get you started on joining a pool league!
Use Google to search – Tarrant county
Find your Local Area’s League website
So earlier we just went to APA’s actual website as a League.
Your local area will have their own website specifically dedicated to them too. For example, my leagues website is
- http://tarrant.apaleagues.com/
This is specifically for all APA residing in Tarrant County in Texas which covers a lot of different smaller cities inside Tarrant County. Other league sites near my location is Dallas’s website for APA league play. These are two different league sites because they cover different areas.
Use Google to do searches that include “APA LEAGUE” and the nearest major City or County (“TARRANT” or “DALLAS”). Example of Google Searches:
- [Major city] + APA League
So it would look like this when you’re searching:
- Tarrant County APA League
- Dallas APA League
- Denton APA League
Those searches all direct me to different websites for specific areas for APA League play.
Tarrant County’s APA website is a great resource because it provides a lot of information on how to sign up for a team, who to contact, newsletter information, National tournaments to get to Vegas, and announcements.
Good thing to note is you can apply this searching technique to other leagues like BCA, UPA, or any other league to see if they have a local website.
Find your favorite bar or pool halls website
This is another great resource because the bar or pool hall will usually post details about all the sports/games they offer at their venue. They will additionally post certain times/days of when league play or tournaments occur at their venue.
Here is a screenshot from one of the bars that I often go to:
Beforehand when I would just go on any day, I would be surprised to see a tournament or league in full swing and not enough pool tables for me and my friends to shoot on :(. If I had just looked on their website earlier, I would’ve known and could have planned to go to a different pool hall.
Local Billiard Store
If you haven’t had the chance to visit a local billiard store, you should because there are most likely employees who will have some information on where to shoot pool, where to join tournaments and what bars offer League play.
This is also a great place just to check out billiard products in person and get some advice on a number of other things like what cues are selling the best and which ones you may want to stay away from.
If you can’t find any local billiard stores near you, use the good ol’ Google Search and type in “Nearest Billiard Store”.
Visit your local bar
Have you ever driven by a bar or pool hall and never stopped by? Or maybe you did but you didn’t really talk to a lot of people or go hunting for information. Well, you need to go back and do some work!
The local pool hall or bar can be a great resource for finding out information.
Talk to people – Ask around
There are some key people in the bar or pool hall that can help you find out more information. For example:
- Bartender
- Server/Waitress
- Manager
- (Any Employee really)
- Other Poolplayers
Approach these people and ask them kindly questions like:
- Do you offer Pool League here?
- If so, what kind? APA? BCA? Is it 8-ball? 9-ball? Something with a twist?
- What days do pool league play? Only Mondays? 5 days a week?
- What time do they start? 7pm? 2pm?
- Are there often tournaments here?
- If not, do you know other places that offer tournaments?
- What days and times do they occur?
- Is there a prize?
- Who runs the league or tournaments?
- What is their name?
- What is their phone number?
- Who is the best to contact for all of the above?
Asking a few people a few of these questions listed above is a sure way to find out more solid information about where tournaments are hosted.
Billboard Postings
Billboard posting is a great resource to find out information because tournament/league reps will post physically printed ads on here about upcoming tournaments and leagues. They will also often times list phone numbers or contact information to reach them for more info.
Summary
Overall, there are a lot of ways to find out what pool community is near you and where the closest pool hall is to your location. The internet is a great place to search because it offers you detailed and accurate information + directions/reviews/images.
Talking to people in person/visiting places in person is one of the best methods of finding out information because they will give you honest opinions. This is also great for making new pool friends so you can get out of your comfort zones and get more social! Meet new people, make new pool friends and strive to get better. I hope this post helped you in finding out the information you needed and feel free to leave a comment or question below.