I love the game of snooker. To watch the professionals playing is a real joy (at least it is usually, unless the players get into a safety dual), especially when you play the game yourself, you can appreciate the skill these guys have. To see Ronnnie get a 147 break is to see a craftsman at work; he is so talented he can even play the game left handed! To be able to play the game to professional standard left or right handed is just sheer genius. And those snooker tables they play on are more difficult than club tables as the pockets are cut tighter making it more difficult to pot the balls, making those 147 breaks even more miraculous.
After watching a big tournament like the world 5 world snooker championship schedule championships at Sheffield inspires you to practice even more and then you either have to get down to your snooker hall or get a snooker table of your own to practice on. Now it’s a lot more convenient to get a table of your own, so which one do you get? If you can afford it the simple answer is to get one of those Riley tournament tables the pros play on at the tournaments. But at £10,000 each, they are a tad pricey. But never fear, there are cheaper alternatives. A full size table is still a big investment but a new one starts at £2500 or so and a second hand one reconditioned at about half that. Occasionally , you can get one for free if the owner is just trying to get rid of one but the transport costs and professional installation will still put you back £600 at least. Also do you have the room needed? For a full size snooker table, you would need a room 22 feet by 16 feet to comfortably allow you to play a game. Basically add 10 foot to each dimension to allow for cueing at the sides of the table, a cue being approximately 5 foot long.
Now if you haven’t got a room that big, consider the smaller tables, like a 10 foot or even 8 foot table. The size for an 8 foot table for example is only 18 foot by 14 ft. When you get smaller than even 8 foot, the game is not as good to play, but you can still get in some practice even on a 6 foot table. The trouble is when you go from a small table like a 6 foot one then go and play on a full sized table in your snooker hall, the table just looks enormous and it can take a while to judge the angles correctly. However to practice your cue stroke, applying side-spin and backspin etc, a 6 foot snooker table is still better than nothing.