Recent content by John Biddle

I too run a straight pool league, we're currently in season 24. I publish a schedule (by week) at the beginning of the season and each player will arrange to play their scheduled opponent, preferably during the scheduled week but we allow playing in advance (if you know you'll be on vacation or...

Maybe as a tournament or even a running challenge Thinking more about this, I don't think you could ever get enough players to make this doable as a league. But as a weekly/monthly tournament it could work. Players would have no commitment to play more than once, so many might give it a shot on...

Another idea for how it might work I'd never heard of this before but find it somewhat intriguing (I voted Yes). My idea for how it might go would be a variation on how some trick shot tournaments work. Each player would get a turn at picking a set of drills (perhaps 5) for the weekly...

Congratulations John Schmidt I add my congratulations to John Schmidt on his record breaking 626 ball run. Great skill, great effort, great accomplishment.

Congratulations Congrats, that's an amazing number for straight pool. The most I've gotten is 24. Keep up the great work, you're obviously doing something right.

@Seth C I like your system but was especially concerned about the time for lots of matches with the same player. By now it would probably work pretty well for the relatively few new players I get each season. But, they tend to be 8 or 9 ball players and usually have an APA or other handicap...

Sounds like you trust your subjective estimates of player ability much more than the ones based on the adjustment formulas. I get that, most people do. One possibility is to limit the amount that a hcp can rise or fall because of one match. I make it fairly large for the 1st 6 matches in the...

An all offense "test" along with everyone playing a common known opponent seems like an excellent way to get good starting handicaps, but would take a lot of time. Many of our players were new to the game but not new to pool. We made our initial estimates for hcp based on their skill in other...

@SethC: Re the Pat Fleming video/advice. I don't believe the right or left english is intended to affect the cueball path to the rack, but how it will come off the 1st rail.

Straight Pool Handicapping I don't claim to have the BEST way to handicap straight pool but I do have a way that has worked well for my 14.1 league. We're about to start our 13th season on Monday, so it's had a bit of exposure to the real world and I think it has done well. Everyone has a...

Thanks Bob. Seems like they would want to address this next time any changes are made.

As I read the WPA rules for 9 Ball, at least 4 object balls must be driven to one or more rails for the break to be legal. My question is what to do if that does not happen. I can't find anything about this in the rules There are specific penalties for break fouls in 14.1 (4.3 b) and in 8 Ball...

Lone Wolf Leagues is starting the 10th season of their straight pool league at Corner Pocket in Largo FL. It starts Monday, August 21. Singles based, not teams Everyone gets a schedule and a contact sheet with names, phone #s and emails Schedule your match whenever it's convenient for you &...

This is EXACTLY the problem that FargoRate was intended to solve. Ratings don't mean the same thing from place to place, even within the same rating system. With FargoRate, if it works as advertised and based on the write-ups it just might, because everyone is tied to everyone else in the...

FargoRate is logarithmic. In comparing 2 players, for every 100 point difference in their ratings, the expected ratio of games won relative to the weaker player doubles. Equally rated players play even (oddly enough). For a 100 point difference, whether 300-200 or 800-700, the stronger player...