What is a typical league night like?

Brizzle said:

How much time do you get on the green for your matches vs how much time you watch others shoot?

I realize that this can vary on game type and location.

Im interested in a 9 ball league.

Just looking for rough estimate on time and experience.

I never did like league play in my younger days. I never did like to watch others shoot unless it was my opponent even then i didnt like that either.

I really want to improve my competitive play. I shot in my first local tournment last month and did not do as good as i hope for. I was really nervous and under estimated others skill level. In order to be competitive if i cant beat the ghost more than %50 of the time i dont have a shot at winning. The guys i was playing it was basically who ever missed first and sometimes got out of line than the other person run the rack out.
Not interested in trying to gamble straight up with some one.

I have a table at home. Just get bored running drills and practice.

Click to expand...

I'm not even going to attempt to describe a typical league night for me. It can vary so broadly from league-to-league and/or hall-to-hall (or bar-to-bar).

Go join a 9-ball league....any 9-ball league. You'll get a feel in a few weeks if league play is something you may want to do on a regular basis.

Relax, have a drink or two (or a couple of Cokes if you don't drink), and meet new friends. It's cheap and you only have to commit to one session at a time.

Maniac

Brizzle said:

How much time do you get on the green for your matches vs how much time you watch others shoot?

I realize that this can vary on game type and location.

Im interested in a 9 ball league.

Just looking for rough estimate on time and experience.

I never did like league play in my younger days. I never did like to watch others shoot unless it was my opponent even then i didnt like that either.

I really want to improve my competitive play. I shot in my first local tournment last month and did not do as good as i hope for. I was really nervous and under estimated others skill level. In order to be competitive if i cant beat the ghost more than %50 of the time i dont have a shot at winning. The guys i was playing it was basically who ever missed first and sometimes got out of line than the other person run the rack out.
Not interested in trying to gamble straight up with some one.

I have a table at home. Just get bored running drills and practice.

Click to expand...

You might prefer finding trying to find some weekly 9-ball tournaments, handicapped or non-handicapped, in you area, as opposed to a league. Generally in leagues you'll spend most of the time watching other matches, and you likely won't play more than one or two matches all night. Our players that show up for our weekly handicapped 9-ball double elimination event would never be interested in league play. They want to shoot all night, even after they get eliminated, which is fine as long as we have open tables.

Some players just enjoy the team and social thing, and others who are more competitive just want to get down to business and grind out playing matches all night. You can't beat a double elimination event where you get knocked in the one-loss bracket early, then manage to get in stroke and string a bunch of wins together and virtually spend the entire night playing matches working your way throught the loser's bracket, as opposed to going deep in the winner's bracket, where you won't play nearly as many matches and have longer waits between matches the further you advance.

Brizzle said:

How much time do you get on the green for your matches vs how much time you watch others shoot?

I realize that this can vary on game type and location.

Im interested in a 9 ball league.

Just looking for rough estimate on time and experience.

I never did like league play in my younger days. I never did like to watch others shoot unless it was my opponent even then i didnt like that either.

I really want to improve my competitive play. I shot in my first local tournment last month and did not do as good as i hope for. I was really nervous and under estimated others skill level. In order to be competitive if i cant beat the ghost more than %50 of the time i dont have a shot at winning. The guys i was playing it was basically who ever missed first and sometimes got out of line than the other person run the rack out.
Not interested in trying to gamble straight up with some one.

I have a table at home. Just get bored running drills and practice.

Click to expand...

Not in a 9 ball league, but a typical league night for me goes something like this.:

Arrive at bar at 6pm. Play a few games with the guys on my team to warm up. 7pm matches start. Keep score until I play...IF I play ( I am team captain). Around 10pm, match ends and gambling starts... usually either scotch doubles 8 ball race to 5 at 20-50 bucks a man, or 9 or 10 ball race to 5 with whatever spot I can get

1am ‐get in truck and drive home, dreading how early my alarm will go off for work on Tuesday...

Drama. Always some drama. You beat someone and he starts complaining that you are rated too low and his rating is too high.
Sand bagging. It drives me crazy.

I played vnea league.
Pretty competitive. Play just one game
Each ball is a point, and scoring points is what its about
Teams are given handicaps, a few points based on difference in averages

I always hovered around 6.5 not great
But you can and will run into players much better than yourself
Only 8ball though

I’ve only played APA 9 ball, but have played APA, TAP, and BCA 8 ball. Honestly, it’s not that bad. Sort of a lot of waiting in APA but it depends on how many tables the LO allows teams to run at a time. Both APA and TAP 8 ball leagues ran two tables per team so we’d start at 7:00-7:30 and be done by like 10:00pm. BCA had an odd format where you’d play 1 game with each person on the other 5 man team and had two tables at a time as well. So you were essentially always playing.

APA 9 ball was a bit rough as there was only 1 table per team and we amateurs have a harder time running 9 ball than 8 ball apparently. So wait time between matches was rough. I always ended up playing near the end of the 23 limit and league night could start at 7:00 but end up finishing past midnight at times, but normally would end up probably around 11:00pm.

These leagues were always in pool halls though with like 12 9ft tables. Not sure if the table size made the 9 ball league harder for most members, but I imagine that might be why 8 ball went faster and 9 ball comparatively slower. Never ran into much trouble that other members here in AZ talk about. I guess the leagues I’ve been in had more courteous people, but we did have some sore losers but nothing too extreme. Everyone wants to win and they were in general good leagues with maybe above average skill level. APA and TAP 8 ball had like 10-12 teams while the APA 9 ball league had only like 6 teams.

Only worse

Like watching the View
Jack

Show up 30 min early and hit some balls.

5 min before game time one guy is going
to be late and one guy can't pay this week
so your going to have to cover him.

Opposing team captain is a guy short too
so your going to need to play a make up
on Wednesday.

After waiting for a guy to "go out to his car"
and another to take a #2 you finally get going.

After the 80#'s of luggage is unpacked, some
terrible play, trivial rules arguments, and
complaints of sandbagging, your up.

Its 11pm by now and the opposition has
decided to put their worst and slowest
player against you. Yes!!!!

You deal with it and win only to realize there are
some score discrepancies and you must argue
with their captain because he cant count without
his scandals on.

Get in your truck about 12:30am, curse the guy who
talked you into playing this nonsense, and dread
your early alarm.

You may also get lucky and meet some cool people.
Good luck!!

Leagues (any leagues) are more about people and less about pool. If you only want to play pool and that's all you're paying for, play tournaments. In a single-elimination tournament, the average on the night is two matches played. Double elimination is twice that. In a league it's one match or four or five games, depending on format. I'm assuming equal opportunity for practice in all formats.

If your primary goal is to improve, the fastest way to do that is to match up and play for money. Unfortunately, it's also the most expensive way.

My suggestion is to give each a try and see what you prefer. There's no sense in anyone doing something they don't like, but you don't know if you like it until you try it.

Best league format I’ve seen is, 5 man teams, round robin, two tables, no handicap. Takes two hours, no *****ing, no drama, good competition.

Brizzle said:

How much time do you get on the green for your matches vs how much time you watch others shoot?

I realize that this can vary on game type and location.

Im interested in a 9 ball league.

Just looking for rough estimate on time and experience.

I never did like league play in my younger days. I never did like to watch others shoot unless it was my opponent even then i didnt like that either.

I really want to improve my competitive play. I shot in my first local tournment last month and did not do as good as i hope for. I was really nervous and under estimated others skill level. In order to be competitive if i cant beat the ghost more than %50 of the time i dont have a shot at winning. The guys i was playing it was basically who ever missed first and sometimes got out of line than the other person run the rack out.
Not interested in trying to gamble straight up with some one.

I have a table at home. Just get bored running drills and practice.

Click to expand...

Best thing to do is to find out the average time the league ends in your area and show up about 30 minutes early. The winners for the night are usually happy. Walk up to them and tell them they played great and you would like to hit some with them. Tell them you heard a saying that the best way to get better is to gamble with players that are better than you and you want to get better. Works every time. lol

Jimmorrison said:

Best league format I’ve seen is, 5 man teams, round robin, two tables, no handicap. Takes two hours, no *****ing, no drama, good competition.

Click to expand...

That format has also been my favorite too, so far.

Maniac

If you consider yourself a higher skill level, I would join the APA Masters league. Its the most enjoyable in my opinion as it's simply a race to 7 games playing both 8b and 9b with no handicaps. Very competitive and very enjoyable with little drama.

Maniac was pretty much spot on with his post and so was the guy who mentioned apa masters which is my favorite format. I believe masters is not as popular as handicapped formats because most people are scared to play heads up without a handicap. They cant fall back on the sandbagger excuse when they lose.:wink:

I did not start playing league until my early 50's and now have over 2,000 matches total in bcapl....tap....usapl...napa....various money leagues and have 1.700 matches in apa alone so i think i am qualified to give an opinion here .:smile:

You get out of it what you put in it is the best answer i can give you.

As stated ...time depends on several factors......here it is usually 4 hours from start to finish for our apa 5 man matches.

On sitting around most of the night to just play one match. I play double jeapordy so i am pretty much guaranteed to play both 8 and 9 ball that night in effect playing 2 matches vs 1 that night. I also keep score for a while that night which helps pass the time. Also when not playing or keeping score i mingle with other players on other teams and also whatch some gambling matches usually going on .

Sometimes i just sit and watch what other players do in certain situations because as efren once said....he learned some things by watching lower level players. I also watch players to see if they really are whatever level the scoresheet says they are. I have on occasion given feedback to my lo when i see obvious signs that some one is better than their handicap. Let me reiterate....obvious signs. I am well aware of people having both good and bad nights.

Drama.....thankfully i have not encountered much but it seemed money leagues had more than its share compared to other leagues i have played. To be expected when money is involved i guess. Also dont forget we are talking about pool players here....notorious for blaming everything but themselves when they lose.

And i cant say enough about masters. Real pool in a non handicapped match vs better players ....no coaching and pushouts and jump cues allowed. 3 man teams....matches go pretty fast unless it get to a lot of safties so you are usually out of there pretty quick. Oh yea....simple score keeping . just mark win or loss in the box for each rack. No keeping count of innings ..balls made ....safties etc. Whats not to like about that ?

Brizzle said:

How much time do you get on the green for your matches vs how much time you watch others shoot?

I realize that this can vary on game type and location.

Im interested in a 9 ball league.

Just looking for rough estimate on time and experience.

I never did like league play in my younger days. I never did like to watch others shoot unless it was my opponent even then i didnt like that either.

I really want to improve my competitive play. I shot in my first local tournment last month and did not do as good as i hope for. I was really nervous and under estimated others skill level. In order to be competitive if i cant beat the ghost more than %50 of the time i dont have a shot at winning. The guys i was playing it was basically who ever missed first and sometimes got out of line than the other person run the rack out.
Not interested in trying to gamble straight up with some one.

I have a table at home. Just get bored running drills and practice.

Click to expand...

IMO, if you want to get better, keep entering those tournaments where if you miss you lose. And keep hanging around the rooms that those particular players hang in when not in that tournament you mentioned. That means those are the top players in your area. Watch them, and copy them.

In leagues, most of the players are bangers or D level. And, as others mentioned, you sit on your ass most of the time.

Honestly it was 5 or 6 years ago I tried a local 8 ball league. What I found was the women who ran it was totally disorganized, it was run with not much effort on her part, the venues she used had horrible equiptment. After two weeks, and being move 3 times in the second nite. I said thank but no thanks.

Returned to local Bar Tournment that were better organized, and the nightly money posts cover expenses even for a third place win.

Most people who play in league do it for fun, as the only one making money is the league operator. Some leagues even do trophies at end of season. Trophies are for collecting dust, nothing else. Need no more stuff to collect dust.

You will meet mostly nice regular people,make new good friends,and run into some cheater sandbaggers who think a trip to vegas is the pinnacle of pool.Apa is a great league if you are a weaker player. Have some fun And match up with some fairly even matches. I’ve been on some teams that have been an absolute fun time and I’ve been on some that totally sucked, way too serious, and I’m a guy that likes to win.As a whole of all the time I’ve played I’d say the handicaps are mostly fair but you have to be mentally prepared to run into people who are way under handicapped and are just playing a scammer game. if you can handle that and a few late nights it’s not that bad. The best thing you can do is get on a team all of your friends and then it’s a fun night out for cheap otherwise it sucks to me.When I got up to sl7 I moved on.It seemed like in our league the 6s and 7s typically play late or last and a lot of times the other team will just drop their two on you and it’s a lot of waiting for a pretty crappy match even though you get to steamroll somebody who can’t play pool.I work early and I need to show up rested and ready to work hard so the late nights just were unacceptable. I can’t get home at one in the morning.