my opinion of tap lague...so far

L

lorider

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I just finished my first session of tap league and thought I would give my opinion of how it went.

First off...i did not play many matches, due to various reasons I was only able to show up 5 times.

Pros...

Call pocket .... Being a bar banger most of my life I much prefer this over slop . Surprising coming from an apa defender on here huh ? :grin-square:

Shorter races which means we get through earlier than we ever do in apa....plus ...on our team at least we dint have anyone that runs up 30 inning matches .:grin:

Cons....

Disappointed our league does not show up on the national website when you pull up ...locate a league. It seems after a few months in operation our league would be in the system.

That leads to another disappointment. Unless you are a member of facebook you cant look up your schedule or stats at the local level.

Another disappointment.... How the heck can I look up my stats on the national website if we are apparently not even in the system yet ?

Undecided on so far...

Handicaps. It seems like some are under rated and some over rated. Not really an issue with me because I know its going to take a session or 2 for every one to get established.

Some reflecting on how I fared in my matches.

Surprised I finished the session 5-0 in 9 ball.

Went into tonight 3-1 in 8 ball and was hoping to finish the session 4-1. Was not to be as I ran into one of the strongest 8 ball players I have ever seen....in any league I have played...apa...Napa and bcapl. Dont know where this guy come from but I was happy to win 1 rack the way he was shooting.

Looking forward to next session and hope things get worked out to where I can view my stats as easy as I can in apa without resorting to facebook .

Oh yea...starting usapl next week.

2 nights a week apa...1 night of tap and 1 of usapl. Once I get a session of usapl in I will give a review of all 3 and see if any of them can take away the crown from Napa as my favorite league. Wish it was still available here.
 
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So I'm like you and I am currently in my first ever TAP league. It's an interesting league where there are in general much stronger players. There are multiple APA 7's who are TAP 5's. I think the league is much more competitive because in general the races are shorter for the corresponding APA handicaps. The TAP 7's are racing to 5 but anything below that and it's a race to 3 or 4. Shorter races tend to have higher variance which leads to a more competitive league.

Currently, I shoot in APA, BCA, and TAP and I'm the most consistent in APA and the most variable is BCA. BCA you essentially play just 1 game against five different opppnents every league night. Crazy high variance due to playing just 1 game. APA tends to have the longer race to 5 games depending on match ups and TAP has overall shorter races.
 
I've been playing TAP now going into my 5th session. I really enjoy it & am playing nation qualifiers this week for Vegas. There is currently only 8-ball in my area as TAP is still fairly new around here (southeastern Mass) but it seems to be growing with every session.
 
I played in TAP a few sessions since it was a lot closer to me than the USAPL league I usually play in. It was OK, I did not really run across anyone that was too low for their handicap. The biggest issue for me was the same thing you would find with most leagues, playing in various places that have bad equipment. The USAPL in my area had a league that played out of a single pool hall and had a few travel leagues but they were in good places with at least decent equipment, if not good.

TAP played in one place that had 2-4 tables that were not bad and the others were on uneven bar tables with crappy balls. Not fun for me, and the only time I would lose is on that crappy equipment.

Bad equipment is the #1 reason I would chose to stop playing in a league. I don't even mind if there are jerks and cheaters and nits in the league since it makes it more enjoyable to beat them and most are rooting for you to beat them. But one thing I will not put up with is having to fight the equipment. When I play a safe I don't expect the cueball to roll off 3 inches and go into a pocket instead of hitting the ball LOL
 
Response to your post

Let me help you out on some of your cons if I can. I will contact your league op who is very new and still learning the system. I will let the corp. office to know to update the site. They are in the process of revamping it and to relaunch it very soon so this might be the problem. As for not seeing your stats, you can go to the TAP site at tapleague.com and click on this link on the right side. Enter your league name in and search your division.

https://www.poolnetstatistics.com/TAP/displayStandings.do?methodID=selectStandings

If you still can't get in you can always call me...814-525-0687. I will be more then glad to help you or get on Poolnet and contact the hot line message center. It is open from 9 to 5 EST 5 days a week.

Sam Rullo
TAP Sales Director
 
I played TAP for quite a while, even won our state TAP MVP tournament. ..2005

Don't know what it's like now but back then TAP was kind of a disaster.
The scorekeeping was qrueling, the score card wasn't big enough to score all the misses when a couple of twos were going at it... especially on big table nine ball.
The league operators all went rogue, and our LO wasn't even sending our score sheets to the main office.
Handicaps never changed
Those stupid title holder team tournaments were just a creative way for the people "in the know" to split up the loot
 
Sam at TAP said:
Let me help you out on some of your cons if I can. I will contact your league op who is very new and still learning the system. I will let the corp. office to know to update the site. They are in the process of revamping it and to relaunch it very soon so this might be the problem. As for not seeing your stats, you can go to the TAP site at tapleague.com and click on this link on the right side. Enter your league name in and search your division.

https://www.poolnetstatistics.com/TAP/displayStandings.do?methodID=selectStandings

If you still can't get in you can always call me...814-525-0687. I will be more then glad to help you or get on Poolnet and contact the hot line message center. It is open from 9 to 5 EST 5 days a week.

Sam Rullo
TAP Sales Director
Click to expand...



Hey Sam your not from Johnstown are you? For some reason your name rings a bell and I see the 814 number. If so I'm buddies with Jason Beam, Jeff Conahan, and some others from that group. Also is there a TAP league around Raleigh NC?

Thanks,
Mike Keilman
 
cuesblues said:
I played TAP for quite a while, even won our state TAP MVP tournament. ..2005

Don't know what it's like now but back then TAP was kind of a disaster.
The scorekeeping was qrueling, the score card wasn't big enough to score all the misses when a couple of twos were going at it... especially on big table nine ball.
The league operators all went rogue, and our LO wasn't even sending our score sheets to the main office.
Handicaps never changed
Those stupid title holder team tournaments were just a creative way for the people "in the know" to split up the loot
Click to expand...

Scoring misses vs safes was a bit of a pain, many players elected to "call" impossible shots to lower their handicap. I had none of that, if you are trying to call a ball past another ball and the cueball ends up on the opposite side of the table or hooked from an open shot, you played a safe.

The score issues seems an issue with your area LOs, seems like they were scum.

I remember the first time I started TAP in my area, even though I knew how I played and so did most of the players in the league, I had to play an even race to 3 to establish my initial ranking. I happened to play pretty well and ended up with an almost perfect match, which for a B+ player in a race to 3 is not that hard. After they submitted my score, I ended up being the highest ranked player in the state LOL. I guess even though the handicapping goes to 7, there is a hidden score also where you can be a 7.5, 7.65 or whatever. I was about 7.6 or something which made me higher than every other 7 in the area, of which there were very few anyway. A few weeks of being a 7 I dropped to a 6.

I don't know much about the background organization that runs TAP or how they handle things, but the LO in my area grew the league to about double the teams in a few years and I have not heard any complaints about it. Many players have stayed in the league also which shows that it's not bad.
 
We're on our 3rd re-birth of TAP in my area. First 2 folded and the new guy who started his only does 8 ball. He's suppose to start a 9 ball league soon. If he does. I'll give it a try again. I like the scoring and it is soooo much faster than APA. I get done in about 2/3rd's the time.

Hopefully our TAP here will last this time around.
 
hang-the-9 said:
Scoring misses vs safes was a bit of a pain, many players elected to "call" impossible shots to lower their handicap. I had none of that, if you are trying to call a ball past another ball and the cueball ends up on the opposite side of the table or hooked from an open shot, you played a safe.

The score issues seems an issue with your area LOs, seems like they were scum.

I remember the first time I started TAP in my area, even though I knew how I played and so did most of the players in the league, I had to play an even race to 3 to establish my initial ranking. I happened to play pretty well and ended up with an almost perfect match, which for a B+ player in a race to 3 is not that hard. After they submitted my score, I ended up being the highest ranked player in the state LOL. I guess even though the handicapping goes to 7, there is a hidden score also where you can be a 7.5, 7.65 or whatever. I was about 7.6 or something which made me higher than every other 7 in the area, of which there were very few anyway. A few weeks of being a 7 I dropped to a 6.

I don't know much about the background organization that runs TAP or how they handle things, but the LO in my area grew the league to about double the teams in a few years and I have not heard any complaints about it. Many players have stayed in the league also which shows that it's not bad.
Click to expand...


I have nothing against the tap league, it has the potential to be successful in certain areas.
The league operators weren't "scum" they were pool player's with the combination to the safe.
Just dug this out of storage, it's a little dusty.
The tournament was in 05 for the 04 MVP winners.


IMG_20170906_085501.jpg
 
LHP5 said:
So I'm like you and I am currently in my first ever TAP league. It's an interesting league where there are in general much stronger players. There are multiple APA 7's who are TAP 5's. I think the league is much more competitive because in general the races are shorter for the corresponding APA handicaps. The TAP 7's are racing to 5 but anything below that and it's a race to 3 or 4. Shorter races tend to have higher variance which leads to a more competitive league.

Currently, I shoot in APA, BCA, and TAP and I'm the most consistent in APA and the most variable is BCA. BCA you essentially play just 1 game against five different opppnents every league night. Crazy high variance due to playing just 1 game. APA tends to have the longer race to 5 games depending on match ups and TAP has overall shorter races.
Click to expand...

Tap races to 5 in 8 ball are the same as apa for s/l 7's . Its the shorter races for lower skill levels that really speed things up , imo.

While I would have to agree that overall tap is more competitive than apa I think its due to the added pressure of shorter races and the lack of lower level players..speaking of apa 4's and lower.

Tap, just as Napa did seem to draw some pretty stout players who do not play apa however those players are in the minority. Just as Napa did here ..a lot of apa players play both leagues. Our team is one of only 2 I have seen that is made up entirely of apa players. The other teams have a mixture of non apa and spa players and one or 2 is made up entirely of non apa players I believe although some of those play money league also.

Oh yea..another surprise was finding out last night that our team was in first place going into the last night of the session. Imagine that...a team of all apa players taking first place in our first session of tap....well depending on. How every one finished last night. Regardless...pretty good finish considering there are some pretty stout non apa players on some of the teams we faced. Maybe the team is glad I did not show up more than I did lol.

Looking forward to.next session which starts next week.
 
FRDennis said:
I've been playing TAP now going into my 5th session. I really enjoy it & am playing nation qualifiers this week for Vegas. There is currently only 8-ball in my area as TAP is still fairly new around here (southeastern Mass) but it seems to be growing with every session.
Click to expand...

Hope ours grows and does not fold like Napa did here a few years ago. I like apa but I do enjoy playing different leagues also. A change of pace if you will although I dont forsee ever quitting apa.
 
Sam at TAP said:
Let me help you out on some of your cons if I can. I will contact your league op who is very new and still learning the system. I will let the corp. office to know to update the site. They are in the process of revamping it and to relaunch it very soon so this might be the problem. As for not seeing your stats, you can go to the TAP site at tapleague.com and click on this link on the right side. Enter your league name in and search your division.

https://www.poolnetstatistics.com/TAP/displayStandings.do?methodID=selectStandings

If you still can't get in you can always call me...814-525-0687. I will be more then glad to help you or get on Poolnet and contact the hot line message center. It is open from 9 to 5 EST 5 days a week.

Sam Rullo
TAP Sales Director
Click to expand...

What does the TAP stand for?
 
Sam at TAP said:
Let me help you out on some of your cons if I can. I will contact your league op who is very new and still learning the system. I will let the corp. office to know to update the site. They are in the process of revamping it and to relaunch it very soon so this might be the problem. As for not seeing your stats, you can go to the TAP site at tapleague.com and click on this link on the right side. Enter your league name in and search your division.

https://www.poolnetstatistics.com/TAP/displayStandings.do?methodID=selectStandings

If you still can't get in you can always call me...814-525-0687. I will be more then glad to help you or get on Poolnet and contact the hot line message center. It is open from 9 to 5 EST 5 days a week.

Sam Rullo
TAP Sales Director
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Sam.

I have known the new tap lo here for years . Heckuva nice guy and a pretty strong player to boot.

Please dont take my issues too serious as I realize as with any new venture there will be growing pains ....not only for my lo but for myself also.

My stats in tap may be just as easy for me to obtain as apa's are ....i just did not know how to obtain them without going to facebook ...which I dont use for plenty of reasons lol.
 
cuesblues said:
I played TAP for quite a while, even won our state TAP MVP tournament. ..2005

Don't know what it's like now but back then TAP was kind of a disaster.
The scorekeeping was qrueling, the score card wasn't big enough to score all the misses when a couple of twos were going at it... especially on big table nine ball.
The league operators all went rogue, and our LO wasn't even sending our score sheets to the main office.
Handicaps never changed
Those stupid title holder team tournaments were just a creative way for the people "in the know" to split up the loot
Click to expand...

Uhh...wow. Dont know what to say to this.
 
hang-the-9 said:
I played in TAP a few sessions since it was a lot closer to me than the USAPL league I usually play in. It was OK, I did not really run across anyone that was too low for their handicap. The biggest issue for me was the same thing you would find with most leagues, playing in various places that have bad equipment. The USAPL in my area had a league that played out of a single pool hall and had a few travel leagues but they were in good places with at least decent equipment, if not good.

TAP played in one place that had 2-4 tables that were not bad and the others were on uneven bar tables with crappy balls. Not fun for me, and the only time I would lose is on that crappy equipment.

Bad equipment is the #1 reason I would chose to stop playing in a league. I don't even mind if there are jerks and cheaters and nits in the league since it makes it more enjoyable to beat them and most are rooting for you to beat them. But one thing I will not put up with is having to fight the equipment. When I play a safe I don't expect the cueball to roll off 3 inches and go into a pocket instead of hitting the ball LOL
Click to expand...


You and I discussed the topic of unkempt tables in an earlier thread. I see that topic still grates you. Yea I guess its best you stay off those kind of tables to keep your blood pressure down. J/k :thumbup: Hope you are doing ok.
 
Coop1701 said:
We're on our 3rd re-birth of TAP in my area. First 2 folded and the new guy who started his only does 8 ball. He's suppose to start a 9 ball league soon. If he does. I'll give it a try again. I like the scoring and it is soooo much faster than APA. I get done in about 2/3rd's the time.

Hopefully our TAP here will last this time around.
Click to expand...

Give it a whirl and let us know how you do in that league thread. Speaking of.....guilty of not posting some results in it myself.:eek:
 
Hey Lorider...you can always install TAP the Ap...if you have a smart phone...it works great and has the most comprehensive stats section I have ever seen, only thing that bugs me about it is even in the nine ball section it says 9's on the breaks are 8's on the break. Either way, if you know your player number which you can get from poolnetstatistics.com find your team and then your player number will be to the left of your name, it doesn't change from session to session.

You can search by date, so if you remember the session dates, or just want to see how you fared over the last month, the app and poolnetstatistics.com can both perform those functions, but the app is neater and cleaner presentation of the information...

Happy Shooting, hope that helps.
 
Yea Im from the area

mjkeil62 said:
Hey Sam your not from Johnstown are you? For some reason your name rings a bell and I see the 814 number. If so I'm buddies with Jason Beam, Jeff Conahan, and some others from that group. Also is there a TAP league around Raleigh NC?

Thanks,
Mike Keilman
Click to expand...

Yea Mike, Im originally from Hollsopple but now live just outside of Shanksville, Pa. I know all the guys you mentioned and been running TAP leagues here for 20+ years now. I also helped start the old Johnstown pool league as well. Maybe I know you from the old MT Pocket days in the old Richland Mall. I won a ton of tournaments there back in the early to mid 90's. Its funny as I was posting this, Jason called me about times for this weekends events and I asked him about you. Also, we just got a guy in your area that plans on going gangbusters in North Carolina. His name is Calvin Preston. His number is 919-912-8675 and you can Facebook him at Coastal Carolina TAP. He started up in the Charlotte area and plans on expanding this Fall in your area.
 
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