Nope...anyone that knows me knows I would NEVER do anything to jeapordize my integrity. I'd rather see a guy run a set out on me than slug rack him nad get to the table.
APA sandbagging?
- Thread starter dundeewizard
- Start date
Nope...anyone that knows me knows I would NEVER do anything to jeapordize my integrity. I'd rather see a guy run a set out on me than slug rack him nad get to the table.
Although I would never condone giving someone a loose rack and I always make sure to rack as tight as possible, in the end it IS your responsibility to check the rack even if you trust the character of your opponent.
.....Nice!
I met my team members last night we played at a local tounry 5 dollar buy in house matches half the pot, actually nice little tourny. They are definitely sandbagging, not by much but they are all a skill level lower than they should be. This is the first opportunity I have had to play a few hours with these people. Based on that I am pretty sure I will be a 6 or 7. Now however they have said this is awesome I will be a 4 for while but inevitbaly will get moved up but can hide out as a 5 for as long as I want. I tested the water with well I just want to play the best players and be a 7 (I want that patch
) the response I got was thats ok but I will never get to play as this will make their total team numbers too high. Their advice was to play in the league and staying low way outweights the benefits of playing true as its impossible to get to Vegas that way. There are plenty of weeklt tournaments to play your best and against good players. HMM?
Two things with that statement, first, what you think is "real good" is actually not. No offence, but I just see that too often. If you play in one room that does not have good players or in bars and such that also don't have good players, anyone that can run 3-4 balls can seem like a good player.
Second, if he is good (as in a B or higher) then he is sandbagging. I've run into a player that is pretty much equal to me that was a 5 in 9 ball, he really should have been at least a 7 or 8 if not a 9.
The 5 I referred to after seeing him more he is B player. Should be 6,7 but is stalling at a 5. His goal is to win nationals in the 5 bracket. 15 grand in prizes.
I know plenty of non-pro players who can run out 2 out of 3 racks of 8 ball with ball in hand, especially on a bar table. You can be a B+ and do that. Maybe not daily or every single time, but most days.
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Actually, funny story.
A friend of mine was playing a pro in a weekly tournament, he played very well and won the first game then broke and ran 2 to get to the hill. The pro slug racked him.
Because he did, he left a 3-9 combo which my friend nailed for the win.
A lose rack does not mean you'll win LOL
That is great , serves him right.
APA nationals or regionals I will see you all there who are playing
APA is notorious for having teams come to the Nationals and dominate with players on their roster rated 4 & 5 that play like 9's......racks get run out more often by your opponent on your first miss. Racks your opponent controls at the table suddenly are not run out in one inning. Nope.....instead they run 4-5 balls and hook you........may even do that more than once if the match was 8 ball.....this way they get to end the game in 2-3-4 innings and they protect their handicaps.
Teams from some regions play APA on 9" tables and then when they get to Las Vegas, they compete on 7' tables where they perform like demons..........I mean, there's really little comparison with the difficulty of becoming rated a 7 or 8 in APA league played on a 9' table versus being ranked that on 7' tables. I'm not knocking 7' tables but truth is the pockets are bigger and the rails are shorter.........it's just easier in contrast to a 9' table. It's equivalent to a high school baseball player playing games on a little league field. The bases and the fences are shorter.......it doesn't mean the player will get on base at every at bat or that every hit will be an extra bases hit or a home run. Nope, that same player will still occasionally ground out, fly out and strike out. But.....when the season is over......when the stats are tallied......that 17 yrs. old HS Baseball Player would probably bat over .500, have a slugging average of 1400-1500 and hit home runs over the fences that shattered lots of car windows in the parking lot.
Why? Because it's just easier to accomplish that type of performance when the field dimensions become that much smaller.......same thing applies to 7' tables and 9' tables.......if you play your regular APA sessions on say 9' Diamond tables and you come to Las Vegas APA Nationals and compete on 7' tables.............Well, you get the picture.......and then have these same players manipulate their APA ratings to keep them in the mid-range. Sadly, it's probably worse in pool than in amateur golf........handicaps are manipulated in golf and the same applies in pool........some scumbags will try to cheat at everything and anything in life............APA is riddled with teams that cheat..........in Fresno, CA, the local APA chapter is basically dead..............it went from having over 100 teams to less than a dozen in a year and a half.....yup....18 mths is all it took........teams bailed left and right and new local leagues started.........Fresno Team Billiards is the most popular..........it went from 4 teams to over 80 teams in less than 6 months........100% payback of all weekly tournament fees is returned to the winning teams each session via final rankings and the playoff system.......three (3) sessions per year.
People love this as an alternative to APA and the winning teams average $600 - $1000 more per player than if they were still competing in APA......the difference in winnings pays for a lot of Las Vegas vacations.......there's one guy that was on 5 teams and all 5 made the playoffs and 3 of his teams won it......he pocketed several thousands of hard cash versus maybe a grand and a few cheap trophies he'd have won playing APA. In the central valley region of California, the local APA is dead because of the aforementioned good reasons......if you stay with APA, then you accept that handicap manipulation is a major part of the APA system..........your own teammates will induce you to sandbag from time to time, especially if your have an early lock for the playoffs. Then about 5-6 weeks before your session ends, the number of innings per game start to increase and a few matches get lost, etc......it's just the way it is nowadays.
Teams from some regions play APA on 9" tables and then when they get to Las Vegas, they compete on 7' tables where they perform like demons..........I mean, there's really little comparison with the difficulty of becoming rated a 7 or 8 in APA league played on a 9' table versus being ranked that on 7' tables. I'm not knocking 7' tables but truth is the pockets are bigger and the rails are shorter.........it's just easier in contrast to a 9' table. It's equivalent to a high school baseball player playing games on a little league field. The bases and the fences are shorter.......it doesn't mean the player will get on base at every at bat or that every hit will be an extra bases hit or a home run. Nope, that same player will still occasionally ground out, fly out and strike out. But.....when the season is over......when the stats are tallied......that 17 yrs. old HS Baseball Player would probably bat over .500, have a slugging average of 1400-1500 and hit home runs over the fences that shattered lots of car windows in the parking lot.
Why? Because it's just easier to accomplish that type of performance when the field dimensions become that much smaller.......same thing applies to 7' tables and 9' tables.......if you play your regular APA sessions on say 9' Diamond tables and you come to Las Vegas APA Nationals and compete on 7' tables.............Well, you get the picture.......and then have these same players manipulate their APA ratings to keep them in the mid-range. Sadly, it's probably worse in pool than in amateur golf........handicaps are manipulated in golf and the same applies in pool........some scumbags will try to cheat at everything and anything in life............APA is riddled with teams that cheat..........in Fresno, CA, the local APA chapter is basically dead..............it went from having over 100 teams to less than a dozen in a year and a half.....yup....18 mths is all it took........teams bailed left and right and new local leagues started.........Fresno Team Billiards is the most popular..........it went from 4 teams to over 80 teams in less than 6 months........100% payback of all weekly tournament fees is returned to the winning teams each session via final rankings and the playoff system.......three (3) sessions per year.
People love this as an alternative to APA and the winning teams average $600 - $1000 more per player than if they were still competing in APA......the difference in winnings pays for a lot of Las Vegas vacations.......there's one guy that was on 5 teams and all 5 made the playoffs and 3 of his teams won it......he pocketed several thousands of hard cash versus maybe a grand and a few cheap trophies he'd have won playing APA. In the central valley region of California, the local APA is dead because of the aforementioned good reasons......if you stay with APA, then you accept that handicap manipulation is a major part of the APA system..........your own teammates will induce you to sandbag from time to time, especially if your have an early lock for the playoffs. Then about 5-6 weeks before your session ends, the number of innings per game start to increase and a few matches get lost, etc......it's just the way it is nowadays.
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Banks
Banned
Good think I don't play in the low bracket in Vegas, sounds like I would've gotten run over. I also don't see much difference in the big/small table players at the APA-amature level. I'm a Valley table player primarily, but have no problems with big table players. The tend to shoot a little straighter, but many don't have the CB control and other things more important for barbox play. Table size is also taken into account on the score sheets.
That local league thing sounds like a pretty good setup.
Much truth to this. I've only made it to Vegas a couple of times but both times we were very successful and I think a lot had to do with the fact that we play on 9's year round. Hell, my high run in 9 ball(3) was out there against a 7. Beat him 46-2 and you would have thought I just stabbed his dad the way they reacted. Fact is, those tables just play easier than the ones we are used to.
It is but I don't know how they do it.
That all? Care to elaborate?
Banks
Banned
He's psychic. You heard it from the source!
Are more than half of your misses accidental?
Can opponents run out from your safeties once in a while?
Do you have a low percentage of 8-ball breaks?
Do you order colorful drinks?
Is your strong player a 5 that says they can play better?
All of those could be indicators that you are a 4.
As long as your scale tops off with A as a max you might be right. Maybe... No I'm reconsidering. I don't believe it. 2/3 is a small sample so of course it can be done. But what it's really saying is you'd get out 66% of the time. It's a lot harder than people would like to give it credit for. And again, you can keep using the barbox excuse, but in 8 ball the runout percentage is more than likely going to be higher on a 9fter. Especially by the strong players.
Banks
Banned
I wouldn't call myself strong, but I'm going to be running out more often on the small table, especially with BIH. I'll also add that you'll have a lot more people that can beat the ghost in a race to 2 in any game than you will in a race to 10. I'm also primarily a barbox player.