BCA nationals, Vegas, May, how competitive?

Rocket354

Rocket354

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
So we've got a team together for the BCA national 8ball open championship here in Vegas in May. I'm curious about a few things, though.

About how many teams usually play?

My team will be comprised of five players, an A-, a B+ and three B- players. (I'm ranking based on the criteria listed on about page 411 of Phil Capelle's Play Your Best Pool.) Are we gonna be one and done? Might we win a match or two? Have a chance at making the money?

We're definitely playing no matter what, but I guess I'm envisioning we'll go and lose just about every game as all our opponents will be break-and-run-like-it's-their-job players and that will be that.
 
Jude Rosenstock

Jude Rosenstock

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Rocket354 said:
So we've got a team together for the BCA national 8ball open championship here in Vegas in May. I'm curious about a few things, though.

About how many teams usually play?

My team will be comprised of five players, an A-, a B+ and three B- players. (I'm ranking based on the criteria listed on about page 411 of Phil Capelle's Play Your Best Pool.) Are we gonna be one and done? Might we win a match or two? Have a chance at making the money?

We're definitely playing no matter what, but I guess I'm envisioning we'll go and lose just about every game as all our opponents will be break-and-run-like-it's-their-job players and that will be that.
Click to expand...


That appears to be a pretty solid team and yeah, you should definitely set your sights on going a few rounds deep in the money. There should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 teams and frankly, some of the teams are AWESOME and some are a bunch of C's and D's. I've competedin Open Team twice now finishing 7th in 2003 and 17th last year. I'll be there again this May with high hopes.
 
kobyp

kobyp

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I'll be there.

And I'm definitely not anywhere near an A player. ( is there an F? lol)

Maybe I can meet up with some of you.
 
W

Williebetmore

Member, .25% Club
Silver Member
Jude Rosenstock said:
That appears to be a pretty solid team and yeah, you should definitely set your sights on going a few rounds deep in the money. There should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 teams and frankly, some of the teams are AWESOME and some are a bunch of C's and D's. I've competedin Open Team twice now finishing 7th in 2003 and 17th last year. I'll be there again this May with high hopes.
Click to expand...

Jude,
Good work.

There are some local players interested in putting together a strong team for 2009 (to start league play this Fall; with plans to play in Vegas in 2009). What are the requirements/limitations for an Open team - we can NOT find this info on the BCA league website.

Our thought was to have a Grandmaster or Master player, and then fill out the team with the strongest non-Master players we can find.

Can we have a BCA Grandmaster player and still compete in the Open division?

The other players are very strong, but are not listed as Master players on the website.

Would a Valley Master player count as a Master player in the BCA tournament?

Are former professional players excluded (they are not on even on the Master list even)? If not, would they count as a Master player?

Thanks.
 
Jude Rosenstock

Jude Rosenstock

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Williebetmore said:
Jude,
Good work.

There are some local players interested in putting together a strong team for 2009 (to start league play this Fall; with plans to play in Vegas in 2009). What are the requirements/limitations for an Open team - we can NOT find this info on the BCA league website.

Our thought was to have a Grandmaster or Master player, and then fill out the team with the strongest non-Master players we can find.

Can we have a BCA Grandmaster player?

The other players are very strong, but are not listed as Master players on the website.

Would a Valley Master player count as a Master player?

Thanks.
Click to expand...


You are allowed one Master/Grand-Master player. All members of your team must have played at least 8 league matches in the same league season. Throughout the course of every match in the tournamnet, at all times, there must be three original members competing. I'll put it this way:

Your team is named The Yankees. Three members of the Yankees decide to go to Vegas and decide to add three other members from the league to fill-out the team. In every match you play in Vegas, ALL THREE Yankees MUST PLAY in every round even though you have six players. If you had four Yankees and two non-Yankees, then rotation does not matter since you will have three Yankees playing at all times by default.

Regarding Valley definitions, I do not know how the BCA will view them so I would not want to fathom a guess. The BCA maintains a list of Masters & Grand Masters. I believe that list is completely in-house meaning they do not recognize other organizations. However, you don't want to be surprised so you might want to ask.
 
S

satman

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Hey Willie

Williebetmore said:
Jude,
Good work.

There are some local players interested in putting together a strong team for 2009 (to start league play this Fall; with plans to play in Vegas in 2009). What are the requirements/limitations for an Open team - we can NOT find this info on the BCA league website.

Our thought was to have a Grandmaster or Master player, and then fill out the team with the strongest non-Master players we can find.

Can we have a BCA Grandmaster player and still compete in the Open division?

The other players are very strong, but are not listed as Master players on the website.

Would a Valley Master player count as a Master player in the BCA tournament?

Are former professional players excluded (they are not on even on the Master list even)? If not, would they count as a Master player?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

The Masters list is posted on playbca.com. Thats what we did for this year. Decided to go to the BCA, so we picked up Tony Blankenship. He's our only Master player.

Rocket, as for the quality of your players, with so many teams there, it all depends on the draw. But if that ranking of your teams ability is even close, you may do better than you think. There are teams that come out as a vacation, just to say, we played in Vegas. And some teams who just figure they have a shot to cash. My team has been playing in VNEA every year for the 13 or 14 years. We just figured we'd try something different this year. Good luck to you, you'll have fun.
 
ne14tennis

ne14tennis

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
It all depends

I've been out to Vegas 4 or 5 times.

It all depends on the luck of the draw.....seriously

One year we met up with a team from MO first round.

It was 8-0 for them before we knew what time it was.

We ended up losing the match 13-10

Then we played the rest of that day and all day Friday on the one loss side.

Friday night, which would have been our 6th or 7th match (I forget) we played a team that I swear to god, you had to wonder how they ever won a single match....let alone make it that far into the tournament.

As previous posts have stated, some are there to play pool, some go just to say they played in Vegas and some go just to say they were in Vegas.

Make sure your team goes to play.

If you want to read something totally funny but pretty much true go to this link and read the two stories about Vegas. It will give you an insight on what to expect and maybe give you some perspective on the whole Vegas Nationals thing.

http://www.carlopool.com/teams.htm
 
jimmy-leggs

jimmy-leggs

A GREAT DAY
Silver Member
Judes is exactly right about the player ability.We have been there for the last 7 years and its all luck of the draw who you play.But you know what...........Who cares ,Your in vegas.:D :D :D
 
klockdoc

klockdoc

ughhhhhhhhhh
Silver Member
If your ratings are correct for your players, you appear to have a very strong/solid team to play in this event. You will meet some teams that have very good players on their team. Just don't be intimidated. Enjoy yourself and play well.

Here is an example; I just looked up James Waldon (Oklahoma). He is not on any of the Masters or Grand Masters lists. Therefore if he went out and played, he could be on a team that already has a Masters player listed on it. You will run across some teams like this. Hopefully, it will not be until the latter part of the tournament.

There will also be some teams that have players that WERE Masters (borderline), but, have not CASHED in the last two years, so they were put back on Open status.

I would suggest that you play in the Singles event also. It used to be that if you won 2 matches that you would win your money back. Then you could go further to try to win extra money to help pay for the trip.

They used to advance anyone that ended up in the final 64 players to the Masters for the next year. Not sure if that has been decreased to a lower number or increased to a higher umber than 64. (I know there was talk of going higher than this to try to increase the Masters side).


We came in 9th last year. Two of our players placed high enough in the Singles to advance to the Masters list for this year. We had to break up our team and get new players for this year.

Good luck out there. Have fun and enjoy yourself. If this is your first time, you are in for a treat.
 
eastcoast_chris

eastcoast_chris

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
ne14tennis said:
If you want to read something totally funny but pretty much true go to this link and read the two stories about Vegas. It will give you an insight on what to expect and maybe give you some perspective on the whole Vegas Nationals thing.

http://www.carlopool.com/teams.htm
Click to expand...

Just read the "First Vegas" story on that link.... the best line is;

"One teammate dropped his cue, twice. Another ordered a beer at noon and didn?t stop drinking for 3 days.
Another?s voice changed. Another thought it would be a good time to change his stroke to something he saw in a movie. Another started talking to the balls in baby talk."

and from the other Vegas story;

"Mikey is blasted and sitting with his face in a sand ashtray claiming to be on a beach in Maui."

:D

Chris... (looking forward to Vegas this year)
 
Q

qbilder

slower than snails
Silver Member
I went last year & my team drew up a very tough team from Texas who beat us pretty easily. In the loser side we drew up another tough team who beat us pretty easy. Granted, my team wasn't a great team, and the players who I thought would win did win but it wasn't enough to be competitive.

I see weak teams get good draws & play a long time. I see strong teams get unlucky & draw stronger teams immediately & lose out fast. It's a tourney.

I'll be there again this year with my new team. They are much stronger. We have 3 B+/A players mixed with three C+/B players. We won't win, but if the draw is good we will get to play enough to enjoy the tourney. Three of our guys are capable of running out regularly, but the other three are not runout players or even capable of running except for occasionally. This is the type of team I see a lot of out there.
 
C

champ2107

Banned
There are couple really strong teams going to the Canadian 8 ball championship this week that will also be going to vegas as well, that I play against. The one team that won the vegas championship and a even stronger team. They are pretty much as strong as u can have a team with out pro's on it. I let u know how they did at the canadian championships, I think it starts today or 2marrow.
 
Jude Rosenstock

Jude Rosenstock

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
klockdoc said:
If your ratings are correct for your players, you appear to have a very strong/solid team to play in this event. You will meet some teams that have very good players on their team. Just don't be intimidated. Enjoy yourself and play well.

Here is an example; I just looked up James Waldon (Oklahoma). He is not on any of the Masters or Grand Masters lists. Therefore if he went out and played, he could be on a team that already has a Masters player listed on it. You will run across some teams like this. Hopefully, it will not be until the latter part of the tournament.

There will also be some teams that have players that WERE Masters (borderline), but, have not CASHED in the last two years, so they were put back on Open status.

I would suggest that you play in the Singles event also. It used to be that if you won 2 matches that you would win your money back. Then you could go further to try to win extra money to help pay for the trip.

They used to advance anyone that ended up in the final 64 players to the Masters for the next year. Not sure if that has been decreased to a lower number or increased to a higher umber than 64. (I know there was talk of going higher than this to try to increase the Masters side).


We came in 9th last year. Two of our players placed high enough in the Singles to advance to the Masters list for this year. We had to break up our team and get new players for this year.

Good luck out there. Have fun and enjoy yourself. If this is your first time, you are in for a treat.
Click to expand...


Wow, do you realize there's a chance our teams played? WE MIGHT'VE PLAYED AGAINST EACHOTHER! LOLOLOLOLOLOL
 
kobyp

kobyp

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Jude Rosenstock said:
Wow, do you realize there's a chance our teams played? WE MIGHT'VE PLAYED AGAINST EACHOTHER! LOLOLOLOLOLOL
Click to expand...

You might have been the guy he was calling asshole in his head...lol...:D
 
BRKNRUN

BRKNRUN

Showin some A$$
Silver Member
As already said...It is luck of the draw...I would have to bet that you will at least cash in the event with that team...(but it is not guaranteed if you get the wrong draw)

There will be teams ranging from

I hope all our guys actually show up to play our match???

To

Well...Frankly...All shortstop level or better...
 
Jude Rosenstock

Jude Rosenstock

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
kobyp said:
You might have been the guy he was calling asshole in his head...lol...:D
Click to expand...
0

Yeah, I have to admit, not many of my opponents are streaking across the table to hug me after a game.
 
frankncali

frankncali

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I am going and will be playing int he team event.

I have to say that after reading this thread I am a bit surprised by the comments.
I always was under the impression that the teams were much stronger (mostly A players). However after rethinking 700 teams I see how thats
not likely.

Our team has 6 players and no one is below a B player. 2-3 might dabble in the low A player range from time to time. Its bar table 8 ball and we can all play that. If it were big tables I think our team would be weaker.
Hopefully we will do well and everyone will play well.

I also hope that some AZer meet up sometime during the week. In the past I have been guilty of not introdcuing myself to some "internet
pals".
My birthday is the 14th so I am going to have a few beers that day for sure.

Good luck to everyone going

frankncali
 
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