Looking for an active night out with friends? Some gentle exercise? A fun afternoon with your son? If pool’s your game, Jakarta is now the place to be. ‘Arenas’ are popping up left, right and center, adding pizzazz to almost every major location you can think of. Jakarta 24 did the rounds for you and discovered a pool hall catering to every taste in almost every neighborhood! Here’s some of them…

The Matrix, a ten-table room below Cinema 21 at the Grand Wijaya Complex so new the flower boards outside had barely began to wilt. When you’re stuck in the traffic loop around Blok A again, the Matrix may be a solution.

Comfortable and elegant, the room was filled with ironed shirts; music by Celine Dion and friendly staff headhunted from behind the counter of a Menteng chemist. Beatable, in other words—very beatable. Another example of how pool has found the middle of the road. This is the kind of place you could take your kids to.

Nonetheless, Matrix’s perfection is of a kind that highlights some important missing details, like the flat cue tips, the mechanical rests that were too light and the absence of talcum powder for our sweaty bule hands. We could be wrong, of course, but our overriding impression was that of an investment done by someone with a good sense of timing but little relationship to the game. Like this, the Matrix may succeed at introducing a whole new generation to the delights of Barry Manilow but breeding champions it will probably not.

Garuda Billiard, on the other hand, probably already has. These two gritty floors above Pasar Cipete on Jl. Fatmawati are among the oldest south of Blok M. Ravaged by fire in 98, it reopened two years ago, but the place looks as frayed as it always did. Not an ironed shirt in sight. This is no entertainment plaza but two flights up from the putrid market stench—how most pool was played in Jakarta until not all that long ago.

Faded icons from every decade watch from walls as we play: Charles Bronson in his prime; Madonna looking like a virgin; Brad Pitt as if he’s just taken it. Elton John (faded also) was vaguely discernable through the din of all 56 Thunderbird tables being played. Not bad for a Tuesday evening. The cloth was a little dusty but the cues were good, the cushions true and that refreshingly curt waitress would probably whup our asses any day. For a potentially pleasant exchange with how most of Jakarta actually is Garuda welcomes real people.

Traffic had eased and so we ventured to Kemang Raya. Someone had told us about this new place opposite Barbados. Actually, Seven has been open for a year. How does one keep up, these days?

Compared to both Garuda and Matrix this was a different kettle of fish—caviar sounds more like it. The warm gleaming teak of twelve full-size O’Riley’s beckoned in a relaxing set up that reeked of feng shui. The ubiquitous girly hiphop signaled the target audience. Yes, this is about more than pool. Seven has ladies nights, happy hours, a house DJ and (sometimes unplugged) live music. But by the time we walked in things were winding down and the staff were practicing trick shots. The kitchen was still open though, and produced some fine salads and a spaghetti bol in under ten. We looked for cracks papered over but found none. If you can bare the bubbly bounce of Byoncé, you should have a good game of pool at Seven, and then some.

Another night, and for another round we went further north. Bengkel in the CBD at Sudirman, has become the heart of Jakarta pool scene, or so everybody kept telling us. Sure, it offers a sports bar, a café and a karaoke, as well, but pool is the name of the game here.

Home turf of a number of champions, this 118-table monster of a place also includes two snooker tables, one carom table and loads of phat-beat hiphop remixes outlining the woes of life as ‘a muddafokkin VIP’. If you can handle being a small grain in a big bag, and if you can find yourself a straight cue, Bengkel is a rite of passage – and shows exactly why we’re doing pool this month.

Like so many others, Jet Set blatantly caters for young middle and upper class professionals. This entertainment concept – a combination of restaurant, lounge, bar, live music and pool – is located on the 9th floor of the Menara Jamsostek at Gatot Subroto. It reminded us of Seven, only a lot more edgy – maybe the combination of neon with the sterile blue cloth of the 15 made in Taiwan tables had something to do with it. Jet Set, one of the venues where Efren Reyes showed his chops recently, also has a popular celebrity night every Wednesday.

Finally there was Afterhour and it looked like we may have left the best till last. Located in Sarinah’s, Afterhour has been a trendsetter ever since it opened two and a half years ago. Combining the menu of next door’s Chili’s restaurant with a great bar, splashy cocktails and twenty well-maintained Murrey tables, this two-floor venue has spawned many imitations – though contrary to some of those, there’s no doubt as to what this place is about – pool. It crosses barriers of sex, class and race – to see 7 Indonesians playing a game of pool is not unusual – at places like Afterhour they may well be all female.

They also have a snooker table on the first floor, which is exactly where we started playing. This 10-table room was sedate, a little serious even. When we went upstairs, however, we were overwhelmed. It was rocking! And it was packed, too! At 11pm on a Monday evening!

Wednesday night is ladies night, and they can challenge Angel, the national woman’s champion. Beating her wins you a bottle of scotch. Afterhour is one slick enterprise and it’s doing well, thank you very much.