this month's tournament is coming up Sunday June 21st. just show up at the levee at 3pm with 5 bucks to play. bar rules and friendly competition. meet other pool enthusiasts and enjoy some great drink specials.

a complete set of rules can be found here. arrive early to be ensured a spot, or to reserve a spot, e-mail tournament@billiardsburg.com

so brooklyn ale house has always been on the bottom of the list of places we like to shoot pool. the bar is nice enough, but the MINI pool table was always such a turn off. guys would shoot balls off the table regularly (and there were times when the table would be eating balls). however, a few sundays ago, i randomly stopped in for their delightful free bagel brunch. while enjoying a bloody mary and a delicious bagel (with all the fixings) at the bar, i looked over and noticed that there was something very different about the pool table. it looked, well, like a regular sized table! upon closer inspection, it was. newly installed and with decent felt, plus lots of mediocre cue sticks to choose from. brooklyn ale house, you have arrived!!

East River Bar pre-Billiardsburg:

East River Bar today:

looks like the "pool wing" of subway bar, which has been shut down for months now, has now reopened as a good will. ok terrific.

last sunday's tournament was one for the books-- 12 eager players! friends! friends of friends! and of course, our favorite bartender, jeff! incredible games, upsets, jump shots, you name it, it happened. and who won? this guy joel, who just showed up at the tournament for the first time last month and came back for more. per my new routine, i asked him a few questions upon his victory. here's how it went:

K: Hey Joel, congratulations! Where are you from and what do you do?
J: I'm originally from Hibbing, MN, a small mining town close to the Canadian border which burped out the likes of Bob Dylan and Kevin McHale. I'd been chasing acting gigs for a number of years, but am a temporary sellout because the economy sucks and I needed some benefits. I work in the legal department of Viacom, 51 stories above Times Square.

metropolitan often gets overlooked along the vast lorimer stretch, but i serendiptiously rediscovered it this evening when david, the captain of my former pool league, suggested we meet there for a couple of games and some bourbon. neither of us were crazy about the games we had previously played there, but convenience of location was ultimately the deciding factor.  the bar turned out to be surprisingly peaceful, and we immediately noticed that the pool table had been re-felted (just last week). our couple of games evolved into 5 (of which i won 2), and david and i agreed that the table was an absolute dream to play on. usually i find the lighting to be slightly dim, and the table a little too close to the entrance, but tonight, everything came together and made sense. thank you, metropolitan.  we'll be back soon.

P.S. the beloved metropolitan sunday bbqs start memorial day weekend!

Congratulations to Jamie for winning this month's tournament! Reclaiming his title from September's tournament, Jamie is definitely one to watch out for. Did I mention that he won the championship game with 7 shots off the break?! I took some time to ask him about how he became the amazing pool player he is today. Here's what he had to say:

Hey Jamie! When did you first start shooting pool?

I started shooting pool when I was 10 or 11 years old. A friend had a pool table in his basement. When I moved to the city, I had only played pool a handful of times in the last 20 years.

What got you back into it?

it's a beautiful day for a game at redd's. sure, the list/wait has been getting increasingly longer recently, but you gotta love it-- APA rules (default), stiff (but friendly) competition, and they JUST refelted. we suspect a couple of new cue sticks are floating around too. cheap drinks. no pretense. even the annoying weekend crowd has become less annoying! what more could you ask for?

once upon a time, billiardsburg called East River Bar one of the worst, if not THE WORST place to shoot pool in all of the land. even though the games there were free, the table wasn't level, had significant water damage, and was located in an EXTREMELY dimly lit room. you had to get the balls and cue sticks from the bartender, and all that stuff was messed up too. then, one day, everything changed. a pristine table arrived and things looked hopeful...only, the table now cost $1.50 and was still located in an EXTREMELY dimly lit room. it was infuriating.

oh, supreme trading... WHAT HAPPENED? we first noticed it a few months ago-- the gates down, the yellow neon automobile sign unlit... we didn't want to believe it. once the site of the billiardsburg launch party, insound pre-siren bash, and many an epic happy hour...named "best pool spot" by billiardsburg and always such a friendly and accomodating staff...it seems that supreme trading has closed its doors permanently. SIGH...