Did you know Russia has its own form of billiards? Somehow, despite studying the culture and living here for aggregate 8 months, I only became aware of this fact about a week ago. Fast forward to today, when I joined Boris & Company from the Political Science department to shoot some pool. Now I fancy myself a bit of a pool player. My parents own a table, and I've gotten decently good over the years. At my playing peak, I even practiced playing right-handed--I shoot lefty--in case I ever needed to hustle some stooge in a pool hall like Fast Eddie. (That reference was for the old-timers in the audience.)
Anyway, Russian pool is hard. Like, really hard. Why? Let me tell you. First of all, the table is massive. The typical American pool table is nine feet. The typical Russian pool table, which we played on, is twelve feet. Second, the balls are bigger. Why does this matter? Well, it wouldn't, except for the fact that the pocket openings are smaller. How small? The diagonal pockets (i.e. the ones usually used most often) are only 4-5mm wider than the diameter of the balls. Translation: no one ever gets a ball in a pocket. Ever.
Seriously.
But lest you think this led to some "fish out of water" embarrassment for yours truly, as far as I could tell, no one in the pool hall was particularly good at this game. In fact, after about nine minutes of this, the six of us switched the American-style tables and played 8-ball for the next two hours or so. Things got better.
How much better? Well, a gentlemen pool shark never shoots and tells, but let's just say I put the "American" in "American billiards."
I've seen some seriously good Russian pool players. I don't understand how they do it.
ReplyDelete