Inside Chicago’s Pool Hall Underground: Dylan Taylor-Lehman on ‘Going Rackless’ and the Road to the APA World Championships

Chicago has always been a city of corners—dimly lit bars, backroom card games, late-night diners, and, tucked between them, the pool halls where generations of hustlers, dreamers, and die-hard competitors sharpen their craft. In Going Rackless, writer Dylan Taylor-Lehman dives headfirst into one of the city’s most enduring subcultures: the fiercely loyal, endlessly competitive world of Chicago amateur billiards.

Every week, Chicagoans file into their neighborhood halls—places humming with neon, clacking cue balls, and the kind of unfiltered conversations you can only have at 11:30 on a Tuesday night. They show up not just to play, but to chase something bigger: a shot at the APA World Pool Championships in Las Vegas, the holy grail of amateur cue sports.

Taylor-Lehman embeds himself in this ecosystem, joining a cast of characters as colorful as the chalk on their cues. Some glide around the table like they’ve been doing it since childhood; others lean on deep strategy, the unspoken rules, and the psychological warfare that defines tight league play. Everyone has a code. Everyone has an opinion. And everyone wants Vegas.

He follows four standout teams clawing their way through Chicago’s APA divisions—balancing family, work, and the absolute obsession required to make a run at the world’s largest amateur pool tournament. Along the way, he captures something bigger than a sports story: a portrait of Chicago itself, told through the people who claim their spot under the lights and let the game reveal who they are.

What emerges is an electric, deeply human look at why this game still matters. It’s precision and pressure, but also community—players holding each other accountable, talking life between racks, trading stories from decades in smoke-filled rooms. Taylor-Lehman drills into the heart of it: what it means to chase a dream built on inches, angles, and the patience to keep showing up.

Whether the balls drop or hang on the lip, Going Rackless reminds us of something simple: in Chicago pool, the real win isn’t always the trophy in Vegas—it’s the people you meet trying to get there.

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