American Rotation - Who plays?

I plan to start playing this year. It seems like there's quite a bit of potential/upside for very little downside. It is very flexible as you said.

I'm playing in Denver. I really like the game and format for the most part. Everyone gets their chances and the rolls don't play as big a part, as they do in say 9 ball. One small thing that I don't like is you can't play 2 way shots, since you have to call safe or a pocket. That's also part of the beauty, is that you can pass the shot back at any time if your opponent calls a pocket and gets safe. I think the game has forced me to play a little more conservative style, than say 9ball. It's really easy to play safe especially early in the rack and watching your opponent get a ton of points off a missed bank for example, is tough to swallow.

I'm about halfway through my matches and am reminded how much my break sucks, every other break......I'm not used to breaking 15 balls on a big table, since I rarely play 8ball on the big track. Another thing is getting used to playing by points. It's difficult to forget about the points sometimes and just play the game, especially if you sell out by missing an easy shot or safe.

I really like playing in a non-handicap format, even though I'm near the bottom of the totem pole. We have 1 pro level player (Marc Vidal) and a few short stops, so the competition is fierce, compared to other leagues in our area. It's fun to learn a new game and play against stiff competition. All in all, I really like what the game has to offer.

I like it, but it is sometimes difficult to arrange matches. I first thought that the flexibility was a good thing, but not having a designated time means that our group will have to squeeze all the remaining 20 matches into the next 2 weeks.

I really recommend that the first thing to do is send everyone in the group each other's Name, Email, Phone. Using Facebook as a medium for all communication just doesn't seem to work.

What I don't like about the game is that it seems really hard to make up a deficit to a strong player if you make a couple early mistakes and your opponent cleans up those racks (and doesn't make mistakes in his). So, you just spend the next 1.5-2 hours chasing…

In most of my matches, I'm ending up losing them, but the score count is pretty close. Not sure if I like weighing win/loss records over total ball differential, but I guess that is probably the best way. I'd probably rank higher than most in my group for ball differential, but next to last for win/loss count.

Not sure if I'll do it again. It's just a little too passive for me, and seems like not a lot of excitement and energy (with our group at least). Maybe it's just that our region has nightmare traffic and with everyone commuting it's really hard to meet up and do matches. It would be a lot easier if the group all lived very close to a poolroom.

In my case, it's a minimum 2.5 hours for me to get to the poolroom (1.5 hours to commute to my car from work; 1 hour+ to commute from parking area to poolroom). I must say it really sucks to make that commute only to arrive and find out that your opponent canceled at the last minute, sometime during my commute.

I'm playing my first session here in Dallas, I think it's the 3rd overall session for our local league. I've heard pros and cons from my friends that have played the past couple of sessions, but I like it so far. I've played 4 matches and it really combines offense and defensive strategy nicely. And like someone said above, the rolls seem to play a smaller role compared to the traditional league format where you may only play a few games.

I have played a few sessions and continue to really enjoy it. It forces players to improve defense and kicking to play well. My personal preference is to play three games to 40 or 60 instead of one game to 140. I prefer to get to the END GAME sooner.