how are ya'll doing in league ?

Oh wish I could say great, but I lost. Even though I lost I don't feel bad.
Playing in my local 14.1 league I was giving the a lot. The race was (me) 135 vs (him) 70, the game went well with a few costly mistakes surly leading to the outcome. As we get to the end of the match, I did well covering my spot but made a crucial error but misjudging what the race was too, and for some reason though that he was going to 75 or 85, something like that, but my mind said to check the paper, lo and behold he's going to 70 and needs 2. I muster up all the strength that i had and begin to shoot lights out needing the whole rack to win. With adrenaline running high I over run position on a shot by a bit, make it, but the position took me straight into the path of the ball that I had planned on going around, took an intentional (best option at the time, other confirmed) I played a strong safe after a back and forth battle but came up a quarter of an inch short of the rail which put me on 3 fouls, end result I lose.

stutz said:

What good will Diamonds do us in our home room

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Improved pocketing ability and improved speed control.

KoolKat9Lives said:

Hey lolrrider

Serious Q (and for anyone else). What's the strategy for how you make a lineup?

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I try to match up, best vs best, etc. Close to that, if I can. This is supposed to be fun, and I still wanna win. Well, I like my players chances against someone their skill level, lets see who plays better.

I especially don't like putting my lower level players up against the other teams big guys, at least no more than I have to. I don't think they will enjoy it whatsoever, which goes back to my initial point, having fun. (I know some lower level players enjoy the challenge, I did when I was a 3. One of my 3's wont have a issue with it, the other 3 and our 2 will get too nervous. Most 2's/3's around here will not enjoy it. Just not their makeup.)

I realize that I'm probably in the minority. This past weekend at Tri Cup, our opponents threw off, kinda took me by surprise. I set it up for my 6 to play their 6, and they threw off. Just never occurred to me that they would do that. Lesson for me. That strategy didn't really directly affect the outcome, as we reversed the throw on the next match and both matches ended up 2-1, one for us and one for them. I think if they had matched even up, we win, tho, so I suppose it worked for them, after all.

We had 8 ball and 9 ball Cash Cup this last weekend, and despite having a really good evenly balanced team that has a lot of fun we seem to have trouble performing in tournaments as we lost our first match both days. Tournaments are such a different experience and environment than are actual league nights I think it throws us off. Personally, I played fairly good. I ran a 2 pack in 8 ball but lost to a lady who was an excellent shooter who is in her first session of play and has already moved up one skill level. In 9 ball I played well and won my match, but as I'm the captain of the team starting next session I want to try to figure out a way to make us a little tougher mentally and not as nervous come tournament time. Not sure how to do that at the moment.

DAVE_M said:

Improved pocketing ability and improved speed control.

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I love the Diamonds, and I understand the principle of helping with center pocket aiming, but I know the owner of the establishment I play out of won't buy them.

stutz said:

I love the Diamonds, and I understand the principle of helping with center pocket aiming, but I know the owner of the establishment I play out of won't buy them.

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Well you asked what good would they do lol

We'll, my L.O. For APA blew the pooch again. I mentioned earlier how we (my Monday night 8-ball team) missed out on play in the first week because a team bowed out and no one told us. Well, we were scheduled for tonight to have a bye originally. Now, you'd think that with the odd team no longer around, that'd even things out and no need for a bye. So how the hell do we still have a bye? Why didn't the LO fix the schedule?!? So the first two weeks of the shorter summer session, no play. I qualified for top gun last time, hoped to do it again, but now it's gonna be really extra difficult.

stutz said:

I love the Diamonds, and I understand the principle of helping with center pocket aiming, but I know the owner of the establishment I play out of won't buy them.

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Speed control and pocketing do improve by playing on Diamonds, but thats not the main thing they do for league players (since this is a league thread). The dirty little secret that people either do not realize, or dont say out loud, is that they keep your individual handicaps down, per player, by anywhere from .5-1.5 skill levels (on leagues that factor in makes/misses or Innings, like TAP and especially APA). The tighter they are, the more they keep them down. This is a HUGE advantage to teams that play on a Diamond!
Using the APA as the easiest example, instead of fielding a lineup up to 25, your lineup can be more like 28-32 in actual skill level. Its literally like legal sandbagging...

A good example is a buddy of mine. He is an APA 9 in 9-ball in another league a county over, but an APA 7 in 9-ball in our local league.. The only difference is the Diamond tables we play on at my place, as opposed to the Dynamo tables there..

When we go to TAP Nationals, a lot of teams there play on Diamonds at their home locations, and TAP Nationals has Diamonds there for us to compete on. But there are always a handful of teams that you can just easily see, that they are WAY over-handicapped, and out of their league. When you ask them, almost EVERY SINGLE time, those teams dont play on Diamonds at home. They have 6's and 7's that honestly shouldnt be anything more than 4's or 5's in TAP (on a Diamond).. I always end up feeling bad for these teams, because its usually their first trip there, and they get blown the hell out of the water..

Our local TAP league has Diamonds in every location except for two places. Those two places ALWAYS finish in the last two spots.. At the last league meeting, the one team was complaining about all the other teams and their (low) handicaps, and their team finishes in next to last place all the time and they have a 7, and two 6's. I had to try and expain to him that it was because of their tables, and how easy they played, which is why they were over handicapped for our league. He said he never even thought of that, but it made sense...

The only thing you DO have to worry about though, is if your regional tournament are played on a non Diamond table, you have to really watch for red flags (jump to a nice early lead, then soft break em :thumbup..

Back in the swing of things again.... Beat our opponents 12-0 tonight

I won again, 15 in a row now (counting playoffs and tri cups), sure seems silly.

Fun stuff

Won in 9-ball for the second straight week, against another 1. 25-9, team points 14-6.

We played away on a 7 foot Dynamo, which played to my strengths. Lost the lag, but broke every game after that, only came up dry once. Every other break was 2 or more balls.

forwarded from other thread -

PINKLADY said:

ok, so it's 5amEST. WHAT A FRICKEN DAY!!!!

let me tell yáll this, about Scott Lee:

we like him.
i had him listed as my sub tonight for 8B League (due to my "tendonitis" - has NOTHING to do with him being our team's "ringer"....), and i had him approved from here, till Sunday, as my "älternate" w/ the LO, and -

for 2hrs prior to Start Time, Scott Lee was "workin' it". he spent at least 30mins w/ some long-haired, bandana newbie on his game/shots. well....

Captain's Picks - this newbie team (whom NONE of us knew & vice versa!) - paired THEM. and yáll need to know, that, while Scott could have come in under ME, as a 2, and finished him in 2 minutes flat - SCOTT INSISTED THAT HE BE RANKED A 10. race to 2/6.

there isn't a 10 rank, so far as we know.


i told Scott, that "you'd better fricken WIN".
i told the newbie, that "ïf you beat Scott Lee, i'll buy you a beer".

we bought him a beer anyway. (shut out.)
everyone was watching this "10" & talking about it for hours.
there isn't a 10 rank, so far as we know!

and then Scott proceeded to work with this newbie for another hour, on his game, after.

Class.
and Respect.
to Scott Lee tonight.
.

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lorider said:

i am just curious how some of you guys are playing and hoe some people respond without this going to another league bashing thread. feel free to respond no matter what league.

i was playing 5 times a week and cut out fri night scotch doubles double jeapordy last session. i just finished up in house bcapl points based money league and also dropping it too.

it seemed like i was just getting wore out playing so much and working 5 days a week also.

i play sunday night apa double jeapordy, tue night apa 8 ball travel and sat napa. i am captain of the sunday night and sat napa teams.

i started out slow on sun night 9 ball losing my 1st 3.. winning 1 .. losing 1 and then winning my last 6 in a row. i have really come on strong lately beating a 7 by a score of 17-3 and 2 5's both by a score of 18-2. my co-captain asked me to sit out last sun night 9 ball because he is afraid of me going up to a 6 in playoffs lol. with him just being raised to a 9 and us just losing our 1 who quit he is afraid of us not making the 23 limit.

sun night 8 ball i have not been doing too good. record of 4-6 so far with me winning last sun night against another tough 5 by a score of 4-3. i was on the verge of losing until he rattled the pocket on his last ball with me on the 8 which i made with no problem.

last night on my travel team i faced a 5 ...winning 4-2 in 10 innings with 1 break and run. i have not played 8 ball that good in a while.

well i look forward to my sat napa league where i will probably gat my ass kicked like i normally do. a lot of real good players in that league... what wins i have gotten did not come easy.

i would love to hear how some of you guys are doing.

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Been playing average, but was on a losing streak. I play about 5 nites a week mostly in TAP and one APA.

If you ever feel like you get burnt out... it happens. I find that getting to know the league's operations and other LO's from other states helps you get over the burnt out feeling.

I've had great opportunities in assisting running tournaments, titleholder events and such that it kept my mind off of losing.

Just a thought.

Went to my APA 9-ball match last night.
I wasn't in the greatest mood to deal with idiots, so they put me up first so I could peace out after.
The other team threw up their SL4. (9-ball SL4 is the equivalent of a SL-3/4 in 8-ball).

I win the toss, break the first rack and start shooting, somehow I managed to shoot the 3 ball off the table. I put the ball on the spot and since APA is cueball fouls only, the cueball stayed. He came up to me with his captain and asked me if it was spotted or a deadball. I politely told them that it was spotted, it was what I was instructed to do at the City Cup tournament last weekend and I have a rulebook if everyone wants to look for it. I made it clear that I was not positive on the ruling and they were more than welcome to read the rules. They declined. He played a bad safe and I ran out.

I broke the next rack dry and he started running out (remember he's a SL4...), then he played bad shape on the 9 and rattled it. I made the nine and broke the next rack. He started moaning and groaning that he should be running racks on me. I told him, in a joking manner, an SL4 shouldn't be running any racks. That's when he started his BS. As I went to put coins in the slot for him to rack, he said "Oh, you're making up more rules now?" I very politely told him, "Look, I offered you my rulebook and you declin..." He cut me off and said "Shut up, rack the balls" with a serious look on his face and pointed at the slot. Then he started complaining to his teammates and captain. I just went back to my chair and never said a word. He must have been fired up, because he broke the next few racks, making 3-4 balls each break. I lost my match 31-19 to a SL4.

I decided, although it's silly, to fill out the complaint form and handicap review form after the match. The biggest annoyance was not that I lost, it was his attitude. If there is any reason I would quit playing in leagues, it's that.

My team started the new session with a clean sweep on Monday night.

We just finished our league session and my team took 1st in 8 ball and 2nd in 9 ball:thumbup:

My team has taken 1st or 2nd in our league for the last 6 years, only a couple 2nd place finishes.

DAVE_M said:

Went to my APA 9-ball match last night.
I wasn't in the greatest mood to deal with idiots, so they put me up first so I could peace out after.
The other team threw up their SL4. (9-ball SL4 is the equivalent of a SL-3/4 in 8-ball).

I win the toss, break the first rack and start shooting, somehow I managed to shoot the 3 ball off the table. I put the ball on the spot and since APA is cueball fouls only, the cueball stayed. He came up to me with his captain and asked me if it was spotted or a deadball. I politely told them that it was spotted, it was what I was instructed to do at the City Cup tournament last weekend and I have a rulebook if everyone wants to look for it. I made it clear that I was not positive on the ruling and they were more than welcome to read the rules. They declined. He played a bad safe and I ran out.

I broke the next rack dry and he started running out (remember he's a SL4...), then he played bad shape on the 9 and rattled it. I made the nine and broke the next rack. He started moaning and groaning that he should be running racks on me. I told him, in a joking manner, an SL4 shouldn't be running any racks. That's when he started his BS. As I went to put coins in the slot for him to rack, he said "Oh, you're making up more rules now?" I very politely told him, "Look, I offered you my rulebook and you declin..." He cut me off and said "Shut up, rack the balls" with a serious look on his face and pointed at the slot. Then he started complaining to his teammates and captain. I just went back to my chair and never said a word. He must have been fired up, because he broke the next few racks, making 3-4 balls each break. I lost my match 31-19 to a SL4.

I decided, although it's silly, to fill out the complaint form and handicap review form after the match. The biggest annoyance was not that I lost, it was his attitude. If there is any reason I would quit playing in leagues, it's that.

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League drama annoys the shit out of me. It's a f^&* pool league for crying out loud. Nothing funnier than a 4 talking about running racks vs a higher handicapped player. Well tough guy, man up and play as a higher level player than and quit your *****ing. We have masters (think they call it tricup) this weekend to play for the trip to Vegas. Our 8 ball team is decent, but will be one of the long shots going into the weekend. Who knows though, maybe we will get lucky. Stay tuned!

DAVE_M said:

Went to my APA 9-ball match last night.
I wasn't in the greatest mood to deal with idiots, so they put me up first so I could peace out after.
The other team threw up their SL4. (9-ball SL4 is the equivalent of a SL-3/4 in 8-ball).

I win the toss, break the first rack and start shooting, somehow I managed to shoot the 3 ball off the table. I put the ball on the spot and since APA is cueball fouls only, the cueball stayed. He came up to me with his captain and asked me if it was spotted or a deadball. I politely told them that it was spotted, it was what I was instructed to do at the City Cup tournament last weekend and I have a rulebook if everyone wants to look for it. I made it clear that I was not positive on the ruling and they were more than welcome to read the rules. They declined. He played a bad safe and I ran out.

I broke the next rack dry and he started running out (remember he's a SL4...), then he played bad shape on the 9 and rattled it. I made the nine and broke the next rack. He started moaning and groaning that he should be running racks on me. I told him, in a joking manner, an SL4 shouldn't be running any racks. That's when he started his BS. As I went to put coins in the slot for him to rack, he said "Oh, you're making up more rules now?" I very politely told him, "Look, I offered you my rulebook and you declin..." He cut me off and said "Shut up, rack the balls" with a serious look on his face and pointed at the slot. Then he started complaining to his teammates and captain. I just went back to my chair and never said a word. He must have been fired up, because he broke the next few racks, making 3-4 balls each break. I lost my match 31-19 to a SL4.

I decided, although it's silly, to fill out the complaint form and handicap review form after the match. The biggest annoyance was not that I lost, it was his attitude. If there is any reason I would quit playing in leagues, it's that.

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That just plain sucks. Shitty attitude and way under handicapped, what a combo. You handled it better than I would have...

(BTW, without checking my rulebook, I'm pretty sure the 3 should have been dead. Play the cue ball where it lay, since it was a legal hit. At least I think that's the rule, we had to look it up a while ago...)