Oh! I almost forgot to mention this!
There was such a huge table speed contrast today between my two tournaments. The tables at Greenfields were speedy with super springy rails and the tables at Rack ‘Em were pretty slow/normallish with pretty worn out cloth. The conditions were night and day.
I decided tonight that I think I prefer a slower bar table. Not to be a snob, but with my recent experience, I don’t prefer a bar table at all, but if I had to choose from a faster one and a slower one, I always thought I liked a faster table but I don’t think I do.
It is fun to zip the cue ball around on a lightning fast 9 foot table, but when it comes to bar tables, I catch myself short stroking, not following through, and just feeling super cramped with my stroke when it plays too fast.
There’s already more traffic than usual, and it’s just too risky to have to be so delicate on a bar table. I don’t know who coined this phrase (it surely wasn’t me), but it definitely comes to mind now: “When you play on a bar table, you have to treat it like your b*tch.” It’s tough to do that when you have to be so careful not to overstroke the ball.
A slower bar table allows you to stroke the shots more confidently and drift into position without fear of getting hooked or sliding too far. I hate it when it seems the cue ball accelerates off the rail rather than slows down. It’s tough to predict the outcome and I hate having to think twice about it. I don’t believe bar tables are intended to play mach speed. It completely changes your patterns, and definitely your style, and even mechanics.
~ just my $.02
Bar tables are notorious for being not level. Stroking soft on a fast cloth to control the cue ball can easily cause it to curve and miss it’s target. If the cloth is slow, the cue ball has less time to roll off course. Also, if the rails are dead or inconsistent in places, then a slower cloth can help control the cue ball distance off the rails.
So yeah, I usually prefer slow cloth on bar tables for those reasons.