how are ya'll doing in league ?

Well fellas it was excruciating not being able to share with you my match last thursday in 9 ball playoffs due to the site being down.

It was a heckuva night for me. My new 9 ball break was working amazingly well that night. My level of focus was through the roof. I slowed my game down a lil. Not too slow....just deliberate and methodical going from shot to shot.

So how did I do ? I won 38-25 vs an 8 for an 18-2 win . That was the best I have played since way back she I skunked another 5 at nationals by 38-4.

After the match was over my opponent called me a sandbagger and said that if I was not raised before cities he was quitting apa. Now this was coming from a guy who I have been pretty friendly with and calls me and asks me to play for him every time there is a money team tournament held. He is also the guy who I mentioned before that was ragging me about having the worst 9 ball break on my team a few weeks ago.

After he calmed down some I told him I been raised a half dozen times over the last year or so and probly would be raised again and even if i had been a 6 this night he would have still lost bad. He said I was a completely different player than he had ever seen from me before. Just goes to show you what a good break....plenty of rest that day ...and having your head on right will do for you.

We have faced each other many times over the years and I would say its about 50/50 between us but I have never given him a beat down like this before.

What's that old country song ? I am not as good as i once was but I am as good once as I ever was . :grin:

Sunday night was the beginning of our new session .. It started of great with me winning 8 ball 4-3 vs a 6. I played the same guy 9 ball where he is a 7. I won 15-5. After of fact my whole team was on fire that night and we won 9 ball 82-18 .

Monday night usapl was exactly the opposite.. I lost both 8 and 9 ball pretty bad to a guy who I usually run over. My break sucked also...scratched twice a dry broke once. Being all upset about having only 3 of us there mighta had somethin to do with it.

8 ball tri cups started last night. I won 4-0 vs another 5. One of my 3's had a 2-0 shut out and a 4 won 3-1 My other 4 got his liver shot out by a 3 by 2-0 for their only win. That girl shot amazing and I don't think I would have liked the out come if I had played her the way she was shooting. We won . 8-3 in 4 matches.

What a wild day at tri cups yesterday . None of our rounds went the full 5 matches and had several upsets on both sides but in the end we wound up qualifying for ltc's .

On paper we were the underdogs with a line up of 5...4..4..3..3. One of my 4's was raised to a 5 after the first round on Thursday night and we had a bye Friday night.

First round yesterday we lost the first 2 matches hill-hill. Won the 3 rd match hill-hill. Since our match was running behind the lo has us starting the 4th match on another table while we are still in the 3rd match. I follow my weak 3 over there so I can observe and give her time outs in her march against a 4. She loses the first rack and I am called to start the 5th match. She gets shut out 4-0 while I am up 2-0 vs another 5 but the match is called because they won on points.

So we in the losers bracket now.

Next round we win in 4 matches .

Now we in the finals facing a team that has ...7...5..5.5..3..2..2.

I won the toss and elected to throw first and threw my good 3. They countered with a 5 and I thought ...oh shit !. Well when the match was over my 3 won 2-2 for a 2-0 score.

Next match they threw a 5. I countered with my newly raised 5. We won 4-0 for a 3-0 score. It was obvious the 5 they threw the first match was their better 5..

3rd match is my throw and we are up 5-0. I am expecting them to throw their 7 so I decide to dump my weak 3. They counter with their 4 who is darn good. She had beaten a good 4 that plays on one of my other teams by 3-0 twice in this tournament. Well my 3 wins 2-2 for a score of 2-1 giving us a 7-1 win in 3 matches.

I gotta give my team a big thumbs up .especially my 2-3's. They pulled threw with a lotta coaching from me. Especially my weak 3 who I have mentioned on here a lotta times hates time outs called.

I never give time outs during regular session but when it gets serious I am like one of those football coaches on the side lines that really gets I to the game and has to keep being pulled back off the field lol..

One time my weak 3 said...do we need to put a leash on you ? Lol.

I can't describe how proud I am of my team. Only 5 of us and this was the first tri cup ever for 3 of them. My weak 3 has been with me forever but I gotta say this is the first time she was ever receptive to mw calling time outs.. I guess when she saw how willing the other players took them and the results our team was getting she saw the light lol.

On to 9 ball tri cups next weekend with my other team and hope this team that played this weekend qualifies for 9 ball in the best of the rest tournament

jokrswylde said:

The train keeps rolling this week. After having won spring session by 15 points, we opened the the summer session ;last night with a 10-5 win over a good team. Team dynamics have changed a bit, One of my players is getting deployed to the sandbox, so I am bringing in two very strong 3's to round out our team. Our ranks will be 7, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3. I wouldn't hesitate to put our 3's up against anyone 5 or below.

Now I just hope the team chemistry stays the same.

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Good luck with the new session..we just started our also. Neither of my teams have a player higher than a 5. Not saying this is the case all the time but I dont want a player higher than a 5.

Most 7's and above are prima donnas ...pain in the ass to deal with and dont even think about asking one of them to help keep score.

Good 3's are like gold. I have 3-3's and one is pretty strong. He beat a 5 in 8 ball by 2-2. In the tri cup finals we faced a team with 7..5..5..5..4..3..2. My team consisted of 5..5..4..3..3. We won 7-1 in 3 matches. Its all about matching up and utilizing every available time out when needed.

I had a 3 skunk a new player last week in 9 ball. Actually the whole team was on fire for the first match of the new session. We won 82-18.

Mkindsv said:

Gave in, team captain was in the hospital and the other players wanted me to play. Kinda glad I did, I won both of my matches, Nine ball against a 5, 5-1, 8 ball against a 4, 4-1. Maybe one of the best runout 9 ball matches I have ever played (have won by bigger margins before, but got out every single time with 6 or more balls on the table.) Only 2 or 3 weeks left in the session so I will finish it out and see where the chips fall, hopefully I can get on a team that will show up every week at the start of next session...otherwise I will be sitting on the sidelines until titleholders in June or July.

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I see you decided to give tap another try. As for me...i decided to drop usapl.

I really hate to but it was just too hard on me playing back to back nights. It was either drop Sunday apa double jeapordy or Monday usapl.

A couple reasons I chose to keep apa although I really love usapl.

1. Same problem as you. No one showing up.

2. I have been captain of my Sunday apa team for 7 years....of course its not the same original players I started with. Plus we just won 8 ball tri cups and would like to stay and see how we do in Ltc's

hang-the-9 said:

Sunday and Monday should not be considered back to back nights, one is a weekend, other is a weekday, they are totally separate and it starts over on Monday. Now Mon-Tue, maybe. Wed - Th, sure. Fri-Sat, nope, Mon - Sunday also nope. Hope that helps :smile:

I may be biased though, if someone gave me a choice between having to play on the APA league or quit playing pool, it would be a tough decision to make LOL There are few things that I don't like more than APA rules and a good number of players and captains in the league. Most I met are after winning with playing the sandbagging game vs playing their best. USAPL, BCA and TAP, I met a much smaller number of players that are cheating. Seems everyone in the APA picks their rating and tries to stay at that rating. Silliness and caused by the rules of so many points per team.

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This is the routine I go through on Sundays and Mondays.

45 minute drive to pool hall. Get through between 10:30 and 11:00 on Sunday night. Usually get home by 11:30 and depending on how my matches' went I get to bed around 12:00.. Od I had a bad march it takes mw a while to get to sleep because I keep going over in my head what mistakes I made.

Get up at 6:00 to go to work. My job gets labor intensive some times.. Jack hammering concrete...hauling it off in a wheelbarrow.. Hanging 10-20 foot sections of pipe that weigh 40-80 pounds 12 feet off the floor ...working off a step ladder. Some days may be easy such as running an excavator.

Drive and hour to get home. Have a couple hours to unwind then a 45 minute drive to the pool hall. Hopefully get through by 12:00 and get home before 1:00. Hopefully get to sleep by 1:30. I have been wore out by Tuesday morning and she I got up I said fvck it I am going back to bed and took the day off.

I have taken off on Tuesdays 2 weeks in a row because I was just so wore out by that morning. I have a pretty cool boss and he dont say much when I take off like that ...unless we are on a non where he really needs me...like running the excavator because I am the only one that can operate it..

Then on top of that I have masters once a month on Sundays before regular league starts and that makes for a really long day.

Now I used to go like that all the time with no problem but now that I am 63 I have to face the fact I have to recharge my batteries more often than I use to.

Our 9 ball tri cups started tonight and I just got home and walked in the door at 1;00 am. This is exactly why I don't play much defense during regular season but come playoffs or higher I will play a boat load of safes if the situation warrants it.

I faced another 5 that is pretty much my equal except for a couple of things.

He has been a 6 like me but probly not as many times as I have. Shoots as good as me and probly has a lil better cue ball control than me. His break is a whole lot better than mine but I kick better and play better defense which I relied on a lot tonight.

I was up 31-18 when he made his first 9 ..on an 8-9 slop combo. Then he puts a break and run on me making it me 31 ..him 28. I managed to pull off the win with a 38-33 win. I didn't ask how many innings it went or how many safes I played but I think its safe to say I made more defensive shots than offensive shots during this match. I was told the match went an hour and 45 minutes. No slow play...just a boatload of safes bt me and quite a few by him.

I hate matched that last that long but I am going to win any way I can when it's time to get serious such as playoffs or higher... Legally of course . :grin-square: