Everybody knows that coin-operated pool tables operated differently from regulated pool tables. In coin-op tables, the cue ball must be returned to the game after a scratch, the pool hall owners usually use slightly bigger cue balls or magnetic cue balls. Can these special cue balls affect your game? Continue reading to find out the answer.
Even if you have never played pool on one, you must be familiar with these coin-operated pool tables often found in billiards parlors, and other recreation establishments. And as you might have guessed already, these pool tables are operated by coins.
Coin-op pool tables must differentiate the cue ball from the rest of the object balls, otherwise, once a player scratch (i.e. accidentally sinks the cue ball in a pocket), the cue ball will be out of the play until another coin will be inserted into the machine.
How Do Coin-op Pool Tables Work?
In coin-op tables, as opposed to standard pool tables that are not operated by coins, every time a ball sinks into a pocket, its stays locked inside the internal storage area connected to the table pockets via a chutes system. Since the cue ball is necessary for the continuation of the whole pool game, there must be a way to get it out of the storage area and back on the table when arrived there by mistake.
For that reason, many coin-op pool tables are programmed to recognize the cue ball by its slightly larger size and to sent it back to the table instead of store it until another coin pops in. Some other coin pool tables are using magnetic cue balls and a special return mechanism, which can sensor the magnet in the cue ball and send it back to the table before it gets to the storage area.
Large Cue Ball vs. Magnetic Mechanism
The main disadvantage in playing pool on coin-op tables using the larger cue balls is that their overweight can affect the play. Therefore, it is not rare to hear complaints on the lack of cue ball control following a pool game taken on a coin-op pool table. Though these complaints may be righteous, it is important to note that the cue ball is only 1.875 inches larger than the regularized cue ball. Therefore, a player needs to be very sensitive and/or gain vast experience playing on standardized pool tables to notice the different.
Since operating a coin-op pool table that works on a magnetic mechanism is relatively more expensive, their presence is rarer and so are the complaints about the negative affect of the magnetic filed upon the smoothness of one's pool game. However, since pool players are part of the always complaining humanity, it will not be too hard to hear players bitch about the magnetic power that shifts the balls from their natural path.
