APA vs In-House League

Allen Brown

Allen Brown

Pool Whale
Silver Member
First off let me say that I'm not starting this to bash any APA people or any other league.
I was asked to join an In-house league today and was wondering what some advantages and disadvantages were about this type of league. From my understanding they use the same ratings or close to APA. It costs $5.00 each night you would play, which would be on a Monday night. It is 9-ball and that's my preferred game.

Now to the APA side. I have been asked to be on two different APA teams in the past week and I don't know anything about APA. These teams are both 8-ball and on Thursday nights. I don't know any of the costs associated with this or anything about it.

I was just wondering which one would be more beneficial to my game and the others that would be on my team. I've never played in any league and when I go to the hall I mainly shoot by myself because its hard to get a game without putting up money and I don't do that anymore. If it matters at all I was told I would be ranked as a 7 in the In-House league, but I thought the guy was being generous.

Thanks for any and all input on this.
 
Allen Brown said:
First off let me say that I'm not starting this to bash any APA people or any other league.
I was asked to join an In-house league today and was wondering what some advantages and disadvantages were about this type of league. From my understanding they use the same ratings or close to APA. It costs $5.00 each night you would play, which would be on a Monday night. It is 9-ball and that's my preferred game.

Now to the APA side. I have been asked to be on two different APA teams in the past week and I don't know anything about APA. These teams are both 8-ball and on Thursday nights. I don't know any of the costs associated with this or anything about it.

I was just wondering which one would be more beneficial to my game and the others that would be on my team. I've never played in any league and when I go to the hall I mainly shoot by myself because its hard to get a game without putting up money and I don't do that anymore. If it matters at all I was told I would be ranked as a 7 in the In-House league, but I thought the guy was being generous.

Thanks for any and all input on this.
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For APA, you'll need to put down $25, I think, for the yearly dues and then it's probably the standard $7/match. You most likely won't see much of that back, but you'll be provided with some statistics and things that you can track on their website, along with seeing the other players in your area(usually).

The in-house sounds more like your thing. It's relatively inexpensive, a 9b league and you'll be playing in a pool hall it sounds like. APA can also require you to be involved with things on weekends when there are special playoffs, though it can also provide you with an opportunity to play in Vegas through teams or singles.

Are the in-house ratings based mostly on what they'd expect out of APA rankings?
 
I've posted my thoughts on this in other threads but I've got an update because I've bounced around recently. My first league experience was APA 8ball a few years ago. Three or four times that seasons there was some minor drama, and I read on here that drama and APA seem to go together. Then I joined an in-house league for a year. I enjoyed that a lot because everyone knew each other and we played in the same place every week, a bar we liked. Eventually the casual players dropped out and us remaining die-hards formed a 9ball APA team last fall. In the full season I never saw any drama. Maybe APA 9ball players are more laid back then 8ball players? Who knows. This season I'm playing on both a 8ball/9ball Double Jeopardy team and also on an APA masters team.

Overall I'm fine with both. You might get to play more different people in APA compared to a small in-house league. But the in-house league might pay back all or most of the money as prizes. APA does not, except for Las Vegas, which is a long shot.
 
Are the in-house ratings based mostly on what they'd expect out of APA rankings?[/QUOTE]

I assumed they were, but you know what happens when you do that. I was told I would start out as a 5 and go up from there if I did well the first night I played. It might just go up to 6 in rankings, but Im not 100% sure. I was also told that our team would only play two 6's per night so it might just go to a 6.

One team dropped out of the in house and they are forming another team. I also think you play 4 matches per night. There are 10 teams in-house and they have a tournament at the end of the session.
 
For my in-house league there were 4-5 of us (out of 20) that were experienced in APA and could estimate ratings. But the league operator had the official word on moving someone up or down. And guess, what? The league operator was captain of a team. In the APA people always complain about their rating. There is a formula they use but it's not fully public and there is supposedly wiggle room for the league operator to make judgement calls. That's enough to cause controversy. An in-house league might have a very clear formula, or it may be totally up to the LO's discretion.

This brings up a practical point about APA that can be annoying. The Rule of 23. The skill levels of the 5 players that play on a given night must add up to 23 or less. A lot of us on my team in the fall were raised a level, so only one of the three top players could play on a given night. Our solution was to play Double Jeopardy for this spring's season. With DJ, each night your team plays 5 8ball matches and 5 9ball matches. So I might play 9ball and and another high rating guy might play 8ball, and we still don't bump into the Rule of 23.
 
ctyhntr said:
What are your goals and what are you expect to get out from each league?
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I just want to become a better player and if possible help others that are on my team. I might just try a league for the experience because I just love the game.
 
I think that you really need to ask people that you know who play in these leagues. That's the only way to be able to decide, other than simply trying both to find out.

They both could be well run, and they both could have issues.

Good luck
 
justadub said:
I think that you really need to ask people that you know who play in these leagues. That's the only way to be able to decide, other than simply trying both to find out.

They both could be well run, and they both could have issues.

Good luck
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Thats one big problem. Ive never played with anyone with either of the leagues because I dont know any of them. Both of the leagues would be new teams starting up so I wouldnt know any of my team mates.

I think I will ask the guy with the In-House if all of us could get together one night this week and play some. This way I will be able to tell if I even want to play with these guys or not.
 
It all comes down to the people running the leagues. As a previous poster mentioned, your best bet is to check with current players in both leagues and see how happy they are with how things are run.
 
Jeff Rosen said:
Why the big decision? If you have both Mondays and Thursdays free why not join both?
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I don't have any days free. I work 7 days a week 12 hours a day. I've made up my mind though that I'm going to set apart a time so I can get out and play. It has to be one or the other, because I get up at 1a.m. to go to work. The matches don't end until 9p.m. or so.
 
My suggestion is to talk to both the director who runs the in-house league, and the APA team captains who invited you to join to get the rest of the details. APA is a nationwide franchised league system, and despite a level of standardization, it appears people's experiences vary widely. Don't forget to ask the APA captains for the contact info of the league rep, and league operator.

Why not participate in both leagues, and soak up the experience? Join the APA league this season, and then try the in-house league next season.

Allen Brown said:
I just want to become a better player and if possible help others that are on my team. I might just try a league for the experience because I just love the game.
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ctyhntr said:
My suggestion is to talk to both the director who runs the in-house league, and the APA team captains who invited you to join to get the rest of the details. APA is a nationwide franchised league system, and despite a level of standardization, it appears people's experiences vary widely. Don't forget to ask the APA captains for the contact info of the league rep, and league operator.

Why not participate in both leagues, and soak up the experience? Join the APA league this season, and then try the in-house league next season.
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Thanks for this response. This seems like it will be useful info about both of these leagues. I'll definitely be looking into this.
 
as others have said your experience will depend on how well the league is ran and how well the team gells together. plus what you are looking to get out of your pool playing time.

depending on those factors your experience may differ from mine.

in my experience based on playing 2 different money leagues plus apa and napa. money leagues are more drama filled.

in money leagues all most players care about is the pot of gold at the end of the session. rules be damned, sportsmanship be damned. its all about the money.

more drama about rule interpretations, more drama whether a foul occured or not, and more sandbagging. add to that the pressure of not letting your teamates down and costing them money.

i would face guys sun night in apa and they were cordial as could be. i face them tue or thur night in money league and they were complete assholes. not every one is that way but i encountered enough of them for me to quit both money leagues.
 
In our area , we are not close to any big citys , so we have a local league 15 teams in 6 different pubs . It speads between 2 different counties . It is to be a Fun league . No Handicap , straight up 8 ball . Defence or hiding the cue ball is frowned on . Just call pocket , no ball in hand . One team with a few APA or BCA players , that loved to hide the cue ball , and won the championship 75% of the time in the last 18 yrs , was not invited back a couple yrs ago . Now that team has a bunch of very good players that have found out its O.K. to win with out hiding the cue ball . Last year my team won the championship , 1st time in 20 yrs anyone won , except for 2 other teams . This year we have at least 5 teams that can win the championship , lots more fun this way . $2.00 per night , and that's all spent on trophies , and a Prime rib dinner at the end of the yr . Last year we had $1600. left over , so this year we are having a bigger party at the end of the yr . doubled the trophy budget , getting embroyderd shirts made for the top 4 teams . And trophys for the top 4 teams , top male and female player all sponcers get a thank you trophy , most table runs most 8 ball on the breaks . Over 100 players and at least 25% play with Baxter cues , at a discount of course . Sorry this is so long , but I am proud of the way our league works . I have played both APA and BCA , probably never again . Jim
 
I started playing on a new In-House team on Monday night. I really enjoyed the experience and the way things were ran. Its all new to me, but it was well worth me joining. All of the people on our team seem like a great group....laid back and super easy going with no drama attached.

We play four players on our team a night and each player plays 2 games against each opponent from the other team...for a total of 8 games played per night. I'm still trying to figure out all of the details. Each game a player on the team wins is a point. I started out as a 5 on the ranking chart, but I was told I would be going up since I won 7/8 games that I played. The highest ranking is a 8 on the scale.

I really think this was a good decision to play on the In-House League. Oh and by the way, our teams name is No Hope....because our team was just thrown together from scratch and really quick-like. Thanks to everyone that gave an opinion about this and shoot 'em straight.
 
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