Dallas Billiard Pros
A Serious Billiards Background
The most expensive pool table one of us has installed was sold for over $40,000. It was sold out of what was then Bowling and Billiards in Richardson. Hand crafted and carved for AMF as part of their Renaissance series, quite elaborate and very elegant. The table was sold to a Doctor in Plano who said he’d bought it for his grandkids. Can you believe that!? Anyway, you can imagine the house it went in....
The oldest pool table we’ve seen pre-dated the Civil War. I was told it shipped over from France in the early 1800's. This was a two-inch thick, four-piece slate, true billiards table (No pockets). The owner of the table told me he'd once been offered $50,000.00 for it! His wife wouldn't sell... The table was hers, and apparently had passed down in her family for generations. I thought that was pretty amazing! To keep and pass down your grand-father’s watch is one thing, but to keep and pass down a pool table, that's a little different.
I can't begin to describe all of the interesting pool tables we've worked on. I helped install the pool table on which Earl Strickland shot eleven 9-ball racks in a row to win a million dollars. He didn’t miss once! We’ve assembled an old antique pool table which the owner told me once belonged in an old saloon bar, and it was rumored the table had been played on by Jesse James and his gang.
My name is Marc Orman, one of the owners and operator of Dallas Billiard Pros. When I was 19 years old I took a job as a helper/apprentice at Bowling & Billiards Supply in Richardson Tx. That was 1994. There I was trained by four different billiard mechanics with over 40 years of combined experience. After about a year, I became a mechanic myself. Four and a half years later was the Head Mechanic, at what had by then become Billiards and Barstools. I had trained countless helpers and worked on well over 1,000 pool tables. It was, and still is a great company, now Billiard Factory. They have stores all over the metroplex; including Lewisville, Frisco and Richardson. Anything you’d need for your game-room you can find it there.
After Billiards and Barstools I went to work at Metro Games, a gaming coming. There I received a lot of experience in bar pool tables, the coin operated kind. Also video games, crane machines, pin-ball machines and pretty much anything that takes quarters or dollar bills. Steve Adams was the manager there. You may know him. He seems to know everyone. Steve bought the company in 2013 and moved up to O.K City, now Metro Amusements.
Since Metro Games, starting in 2004, I went to work at Universal Billiards, which then was a small operation out of College street in Carrollton. After a year at Universal, we moved to its current location in Farmers Branch and in three years had grown 300%. Universal Billiards had become the second largest retail billiard store in DFW, after Billiard Factory. I had become the Head Mechanic / Service Manager. I looked after the schedule, delivery crews and managed the warehouse on a day to day basis. Daniel McIntire, the owner of Universal Billiards, must be one of the most unique, eccentric, and certainly most interesting people I've known. I highly recommend Universal Billiards (Frisco, Farmers Branch) if you're looking to purchase anything for your game room. Anyone on his staff is great and will be very helpful.
After 4.5 years, it was time to part from Universal and go out on our own. So, Jeff Brashears and I started Dallas Billiard Pros in 2009. We do about twenty service jobs a week, we’re available through-out the week, weekends, and some evenings. We also still do jobs for the large retail billiard stores. We also deliver quite a few internet sold tables, and will often buy and sell pre-owned pool tables.
Jeff moved to Arkansas in 2014 to be closer to his aging grandparents. He has started Arkansas Billiard Pros, and is doing very well. Look him up if you’re in Arkansas near Clarksville. I recently began to work with Byungwhoon Kang, a head mechanic in his own right. I met Bk (or Mike he sometimes goes by) at Universal around 2006. Byung is one of the best guys I’ve worked with, along with one of the most capable and responsible people I’ve known. He has to be also, one of the nicest guys I’ve ever known.
To close, this is my Billiard Resume; I tried to keep it short, but I'll put it up against any other billiard mechanic's in the DFW Metroplex.... Jeff and Byung will just have to write their own. There are a lot of knuckle-heads out there claiming they can install pool tables! Most are inexperienced helpers who think they know enough to do it themselves, they don’t. Beware of companies that think so little of themselves they do work way too cheap. Be careful...you get what you pay for, my father always said. Hire someone who knows what they are doing! We love working on pool tables! If you hire Dallas Billiard Pros to move or service yours, I can promise, you'll get the best mechanics in DFW.
Marc Orman
marc@dallasbilliardpros.com