how are ya'll doing in league ?

Watched my son lose in 9 ball last night, hung up a 9, scratched on the 7, hung up a 9.
Total balls made for the person that won was 6, not even a full rack. 9 Ball is tough hehe.

He then played the same person in 8 ball and won every rack. It's a different game when you need to make balls to win instead of the opponent handing you a win with an easy shot on one ball.

I actually prefer to play 8 ball lately and this is one of the reasons why. As a mediocre player I expect to mess up in a rack, and it is often towards the end. I'd rather my opponent not be handed a win, you often can't tell who the better player is in 9 ball due to the fact only one ball counts. I could lose to someone 4-1 but they made a total of 5 shots.

what would you guys do? I have three options and can only do one.

Monday nights : in house 9 ball league in a very tough pool hall. lots of really good players.

thrusday nights : in house 9 ball league in another good pool hall but the crowd is a mix of low level players and mid level players

Wednesday night : bca rules league that alternates weekly formats between 8, 9 and 10 ball. place is ok but I do not know much of the players who go there.

I'm a D level player and have not played in almost 4 months due to classes, but I went to get back into playing again.

When does the new season open up ? Will that day be the same in Oklahoma..?

Positively Ralf said:

what would you guys do? I have three options and can only do one.

Monday nights : in house 9 ball league in a very tough pool hall. lots of really good players.

thrusday nights : in house 9 ball league in another good pool hall but the crowd is a mix of low level players and mid level players

Wednesday night : bca rules league that alternates weekly formats between 8, 9 and 10 ball. place is ok but I do not know much of the players who go there.

I'm a D level player and have not played in almost 4 months due to classes, but I went to get back into playing again.

Click to expand...

Now that you have no class (pun intended ), if it were me and I was a D player, I would play in the Thursday night league. There will be enough mid-level players to make you work harder on your game, but enough low level players that you can scrape out a win every now and then.

Learning from better players is educational, but it is no fun losing week in and week out.

Maniac

Positively Ralf said:

what would you guys do? I have three options and can only do one.

Monday nights : in house 9 ball league in a very tough pool hall. lots of really good players.

thrusday nights : in house 9 ball league in another good pool hall but the crowd is a mix of low level players and mid level players

Wednesday night : bca rules league that alternates weekly formats between 8, 9 and 10 ball. place is ok but I do not know much of the players who go there.

I'm a D level player and have not played in almost 4 months due to classes, but I went to get back into playing again.

Click to expand...

For a D, I would go to the place with lower and mid players, unless you are OK with losing a lot and the good players are willing to teach you. Either way, just doing league is not very good, if you are looking to improve, you need to play on your own to practice things and work with better players for a few hours a week to get better.

ceebee said:

When does the new season open up ? Will that day be the same in Oklahoma..?

Click to expand...

Not necessarily. We are already in week 6 of our league play (Arlington, Texas APA), but I've seen here on the forum that some APA leagues in other states/areas are only into the first week or so.

Maniac

hang-the-9 said:

For a D, I would go to the place with lower and mid players, unless you are OK with losing a lot and the good players are willing to teach you. Either way, just doing league is not very good, if you are looking to improve, you need to play on your own to practice things and work with better players for a few hours a week to get better.

Click to expand...

Yeah, but the most improvement I made in my game was when I started playing in non-handicapped tournaments.

Maniac (still needs improvement)

Positively Ralf said:

what would you guys do? I have three options and can only do one.

Monday nights : in house 9 ball league in a very tough pool hall. lots of really good players.

thrusday nights : in house 9 ball league in another good pool hall but the crowd is a mix of low level players and mid level players

Wednesday night : bca rules league that alternates weekly formats between 8, 9 and 10 ball. place is ok but I do not know much of the players who go there.

I'm a D level player and have not played in almost 4 months due to classes, but I went to get back into playing again.

Click to expand...

I'm with everyone else, start with the Thursday league....

Had a fun time tonight. Won my match (only played 8 ball) against a 4, 4 games to 0. I have been shooting lights out lately so I decided to stick around and gamble a little bit...3 bucks a rack for like 3 hours. Was playing a guy that shoots really solid...ended up leaving with some of his...so win right?!

After that decided to take on the 9 ball ghost...went well, 7-4 win. Took bih only on 3 of the 7...trying to start doing the pro version more often.

Anyway, I am on a pretty good run last 8 or 9 league weeks...only 1 gooseegg on the scorecards and I am fairly sure that was mostly the equipment.

Oh yeah, team we played was in first place and we beat them 4-1 in both 8 and 9 ball...GO TEAM

I feel like it has been forever since I posted. Who knows what I missed, but it isn't like it matters.

Looks like most everyone has been playing some pretty good pool around here. A lot more "winners" than "losers" lately, which is great to see. Hopefully some of you guys will be able to break through in Cities/Vegas next time.

I have been sick for a week with a ridiculous sinus infection. I missed league on Sunday, but heard that our team captain pulled her typical crap and made terrible matchups, costing us all 5 matches and probably putting us in last place. It is a shame she has such an ego and won't listen to everyone else.

My Tuesday 8-ball match I was happy to see I dropped to a SL7 after 3 weeks of losing as an SL8. I still felt like complete crap from my cold, but was stir crazy and had to get out of the house. I had to play the bar owner's son that I had seen a few times, and had heard was really good. He's a SL6. I was a little worried about the match up. I lost the lag, he made a few balls, and then I was able to win in 2 turns. Next game was about the same, I think I made a ball on the break but missed my first shot. He made a few, then I got out after that. 3rd game was a little closer but I could tell he was getting frustrated a little. 4th game was a little defensive and a little sloppy, so it took a little longer, but I got him. 5th game was smooth and I got the win 5-0.
I was thrilled with how I played. Other than game 4 being a bit messy, I shot well, only missed about one shot a game, and usually it was a "smart miss" that left my ball where I wanted it and made it tough on him.

I hadn’t played a league match in quite some time. In fact, out of 18 weeks, I have officially played 6 leading into this week.

I ended up playing 9-ball, 9-4 race. Yeah, their best player on paper might have ducked me, but he did leave early, so maybe he had a pressing engagement.

I resolved to have a good time no matter what, which always helps. I dogged two balls, one was a hanging 9. But for the most part, I played some inspirational 9-ball, the type that the whole bar feels they need to tell you about it. That included my opponent, who commended my play at every passing. Nice guy. He was fun to play against.


I didn’t have any break and runs, which is odd in that I made a ball on all but one break, and squat the cueball on at least half my breaks. But I only saw the one-ball twice, and both times, the rack was no Cosmo. I did have a legit Golden 9 on the last break. It was corralled in the side pocket after getting bumped out of the rack area.

I had a few of those locked-up-in-jail safeties that always get the big oohs and aahs, as well as an Efren-esque one that took a few seconds to finalize, where the whole house got to watch that final ball motion, leaving whitey buried with no lanes.

The one dogged 9-ball blew an “easy shut-out,” but I’ll celebrate the wins:

Broke excellently
Position play was text book
Shot making was.. well I made just about everything I swung at
Safety play was in control

On to the next...

Freddie <~~~ bottling it

lorider said:

I have to admit I did learn a thing or 2 just sitting there watching them run out from every where on me but I figured it would be cheaper for me to sit at home and watch the same thing on you tube.

Click to expand...

Do what you must, but there are things that you can only learn in seeing it live:

Speed of stroke
Paths and angles
Amount of English
Foot position
Eye patterns
Stroke speed, tempo, movement

Freddie <~~~ reality in person

I had 9-ball on Sunday. We only had 5 players, so we were limited on matchups. As a team we ended up losing 2-3, which sucks.
I'm a SL6 and played an SL8 that I hadn't seen before. I watched him a little in warmup and he was stroking the ball well. I am still battling my sinus infection, and was struggling, but had a few good runs in practice.

The first 3 games he spanks me! I missed every shot I had a chance at, and played TERRIBLE. Fourth game I finally start making a few, he misses on the 8 (might have given me BiH, I don't remember) and I got out. Fifth game started rocky, but he missed and let me a shot that I couldn't see a good safety, had been playing terrible anyway, and decided to go for the 85° cut shot down the rail. I nailed it. Since speed control is a little tough on those, I end up with about an 80° cut, not on the rail, but the ball had to travel a good 2 ft after contact. Nailed it. Again, cue ball control got the best of me and I'm left with a 7 ft shot, as close to 90° as possible, and middle of the short rail. I feather it right down the rail into the corner. I've now hit 3 incredibly tough shots and probably only made 3 easy shots the entire match. I'm stuck with another nasty cut, but this time I see a safety I can manage, so we trade safeties a few times and I get out. Match is 2-3 him. I snapped the 9 into the top left corner on the break, along with 2 balls in the top right corner. We're all tied up. He makes a comment about giving me 3 straight games, and I don't even acknowledge him, because I know he is trying to play mind games. I win the next game to go up 4-3 (on the hill). He gets game 8 after I dogged a few shots. Hill-hill, and he is running pretty good. He wins a quick safety battle but misses the 9-ball. Cue is near the bottom left corner, about a diamond out in line with the top right corner. 9-ball is just left of center diamond and 2" from the end rail. I cut it in, but happen to be at that perfect angle where without English the damn cue ball comes right back at me and dead center into the corner pocket. I'm beat.

I had all but given up when I was down 0-3, but was able to bear down and fight for it. I definitely did not deserve to win the match, but was glad I battled back and made it interesting. Hopefully I do better tonight at 8-ball (and can kick this stupid sinus infection soon.)

Team did great last night 4-1 in 8 ball, 4-1 in 9 ball. I won both my matches as well...5-0 in 8 ball, 6-0 in 9 ball.

Had a rack and run, a break and run and a rackless...good night for stats I suppose. What's more important is that I feel I am shooting the best 8/9 ball I ever have going into titleholders next Friday. Will of course be moving from the brunswick super 8's to 7 ft valleys for the tournament, but will have no excuses and high confidence going in!

Should be fun anyway, and that is what it is all about!

ok, I am a sl6, amd was playing a strong 5...so 46-38 race. He gets all the rolls, and pool
gods were smiling on him to the point where he was up 33-28. That meant he only needed 5 balls to my 18.

I didn’t give up...AND WON! 46-35 my way. Pretty proud today.

Ended up playing both 8 and 9 last night... our 9-ball night is Thursday, and the team we are playing this week is mostly gonna be out of town due to the holiday, so they asked to play last night, our regular 8-ball night. Very busy. And of course, both of my teams were a bit short handed too, so I ended up playing both matches.

Played tough SL6's in both matches. The guy I played in 8-ball has been a 7 before, and is one of my favorite people in our league, a real class guy. Since my 6 wasn't gonna be there, when they threw him I decided that I'd play. He didn't play as well as he usually does, so I had more opportunities than I expected. Problem was that I didn't capitalize on them. I had two games where I should have won, I had easy 2 or 3 ball outs that i simply didn't execute. Very, very frustrating. Lost 5-1, should have been 5-3.

The 9-ball match was similar, tho it ended up closer than it felt like during the match, ended 46-33.

Both teams won tho. Some solace in that.

I realize that I will likely always be a 5 now. I don't execute the simple run outs consistently. I'll make tough shots, and then donkey the easier ones. Frustrating.