A brightly lit billiard table stands out against the crowd, portrayed in shades of dark brown. Two men catch the eye. Clearly they are not playing billiards. They have something to discuss. The place is De Vereeniging, a club on Warmoesstraat. Under the auspices of an ‘Académie de Billard’, this was the setting for a series of public billiard tournaments between so-called “professeurs” in 1906 and 1907. Punters were invited to gamble on the results. Possibly the scene is a payment to those who had won a bet on one of these games. The striking contrasts and the thickly applied paint is characteristic of Monnickendam’s style. The bright lights, the smoke-filled room, the deep red of the curtains and the floor give this nocturnal scene a powerful tangible quality.