Break-Time: pool tables around campus and what they mean to students

Vape smoke wafts under the dim cone lights as two old men rotate the pool table, trading shots and cursing.  

As bluegrass music wails down the hall, people push back against the walls around the table, holding their drinks close to their chests. Some girls tap shoulders to get through to the smoking patio — one of the men shakes his head impatiently as they pass before bending over the table to shoot. 

In the corner, a few young Ohio State students, Tyler Burkett and Jake Edwards, are watching every shot. Because of their current workload, it’s the first time they’ve gotten to play pool in days — an extreme irregularity. 

But even in the midst of their busy schedules, some Ohio State students are not spending their nights around library desks. Instead, these students are finding community, competition and inner calm over pool tables.  

Burkett, a fifth-year in computer science, has been playing pool since he was 13. He spends much of his week at the pool table, which he said introduced him to many new friends. 

“If I have time I might play eight hours straight,” Burkett said. “Almost everyone I know, independent of high school, is from [playing] pool.” 

Edwards, a fifth-year in finance, fulfills his need for competition through pool, playing with Burkett every Tuesday night at Dicks Den, and every Wednesday in a pool league hosted at Suzi-Cue Pool Hall, located at 1950 N. 4th St. 

“I think competition for me is part of living a fulfilled life,” Edwards said. “I like testing myself against other people, it’s relaxing for me.” 

Playing pool four to six days a week, Edwards completes his schoolwork a few days early and schedules work around playing pool to have time set aside for the game. Like Burkett, Edwards also found community in the pool scene. 

“It’s not going out in the sense that I’m trying to have fun or trying to drink, it’s like I’m going out to refresh myself,” Edwards said. “This is my spot, this is where I feel I belong.” 

The duo had come to Dick’s Den that Tuesday after warming up at Suzi-Cue, which offers free pool on Tuesday and Thursday nights for any Ohio State student who presents their BuckID. League nights are also free for league members, who also receive a free “practice” night, according to Edwards. 

Also at Suzi-Cue that Tuesday was the vice president of the Ohio State Billiards Club, Evan Siegel. 

Siegel, a third-year in communications and Korean, had come straight from his Korean literature class to Suzi-Cue on Tuesday to enjoy the free student pool night. As he assembled his cue stick, a nicely made British model designed for snooker rather than 8-ball, he said what pool means to him.

“I had a lot of time, and pool took my mind off a lot of things,” said Siegel. “Pool takes the cake amongst all other games I’ve ever played. I feel like I genuinely get smarter as I play. The different spins you put on the ball, the different angles.” 

Compared to the other physical competitive activities Siegal’s played in the past, among them high school football, he noted how pool allows all different types of physicalities to equally compete. 

“In pool, it doesn’t matter how short you are, how big you are or [how] small you are,” Siegel said. 

Siegel said his decision to join the billiards club in 2024 coincided with him beginning to take the game of pool more seriously. 

“What kept me from starting to play seriously was that I didn’t think that I was that good,” Siegel said. “But at the end of the day, nothing’s going to change if you don’t change it, if you don’t even start.” 

With Siegel that day at Suzi-Cue was Min Shi, the club’s treasurer and current international graduate student in mathematics.

“Some of the most incredible players in the club are international students,” Siegel said as he watched Shi play, who went on to win.

The Ohio State billiards club, which has about 25 members according to Siegel, meets every Monday to practice and play at the free pool tables offered by the RPAC.  

Among the fellow club members at Suzi-Cue on Tuesday, Siegel was playing with 26-year-old ex-Ohio State student Willis Young, who spoke about how he sees pool’s place in American culture. 

“People like to think baseball is the American pastime,” Young said. “I think pool is the American pastime. People wait on baseball games, but pool always happens. When you’re at the bar and you have a couple of drinks in you, pool always happens.”