8 ball handicap system

[InsertCleverNameHere]

I used to play in an in house 8ball league that I believe was very well ironed out.

5 players play(8 person teams)

Every ball pocketed is worth a point. 8 ball is worth 3.

Avg players totals after 3 weeks. If a player avgs 5.2 and his teammates are 5.8, 6.4, 6.7, 8.4 for example then they would play in that order vs the other team. Weakest on weakest, strongest on strongest etc etc.

5
6
6
7
8
32 total team A example

5
7
7
8
8
35 total team B example

Team A gets a spot of 3 points per round.

Each round is worth 2 points(played 3 rounds). And 2 points for total score.

It really is quite a good system. Played in that league for many years.

 

[straightline]

I offer some Early 8. Basically, weaker player can shoot the 8 after a shortened run.

 

[gregcantrall]

Way back about 86 I watched two players match up at the Reno Sands tournament. The spot playing 8 ball, asked and granted was, remove one ball at any time. At 50 a rack it was a quick $50 lesson for the spot granting player.
The spot granting player broke and ran to his key ball and had a perfect shape to get to the 8 ball. His opponent slid to the table and removed the key ball leaving him kicking at the 8 ball. "One ball at any time!" Was the spot
After considerable objecting and grousing the $50 lesson was complete.

 

[gregcantrall]

20 some years ago in a Tri Cities Kennewick 8 ball tournament, an experimental handicap was tried. The goal was to discourage a stronger player from winning every week. It was a small field and 12 to 16 would be the average turn out.
The first rule implemented was that a player couldn't take first place 2 weeks in a row. Could still play the second week with second place money still available.
Well second still showed a small profit and back to first available after the one week. That wasn't enough to satisfy the weak field so A blanket ball spot was applied to the winner of the last tournament. A 1 week winner allowed all opponents to remove one "of their" balls immediately after the break. In the event of a repeat the next week removal of two balls was granted. Don't recall if I ever got a three peat that would have been remove 3. Shrug.
The weaker players did get the chance to learn. The removal of trouble balls while preserving blockers provided basic 8 ball lessons.

 

[Rickhem]

There was a league called ball in hand. Your handicap determined the number of times you could take ball in hand each rack. Everyone played a race to 4. A handicap of 3 meant you got ball in hand 3 times each rack. A 4 vs 5 meant 4 ball in hands vs 5 ball in hand.
This is the reverse of other leagues. The higher your number the weaker you are.

if a pro or open level played you got an extra b in h. no b in h for 8 ball. you needed to think about that key ball. There was a 6 on my team. He just had to play his first shot to get a second shot. After that he had ball in hand for the rest of the rack. He would always want to start with the key ball. I couldnt explain the idea of the key ball.

I remember reading about a league that used this system. I think it was United Billiard League.
There was quite a bit about it on these boards.
Seemed like a pretty interesting system.

 

[garczar]

Short rack 8 ball is about 100 times better than regular 8 ball. If you must play 8 ball, play that.

Still, switching to 9 ball is the best idea, imo. The games are way faster. More exciting. You can easily handicap it with ball spots. It’s luckier too (more fun). If those games still take too long, play 6 ball instead of 9. And keep all balls wild. Let the players ride the money ball!

short rack 8b is a great game esp. for a local bar/tavern tourn. games go quik.

 

[Cornerman]

Looking for a league handicap system that will shorten the time it takes to play a match. I was thinking of a ball cancelation handicap where the weaker player got to drop some of their balls after the break. And to make things fair the other player would get to pick. The problem we are having is when weaker players are facing off they can take 20-30 mins to finish a game. That makes the night real long. This isn't part of a bigger sanctioned league, and only in house so we are only limited by our imaginations.

Better player will make things faster alright. You’ve got 8-ball backwards.

 

[APA Operator]

One thing that will make the lower-rated players play faster is to allow someone else on the team to shout out short instructions at any time during their match. Stuff like "Shoot the 3-Ball" or "Shoot soft". Much of their time at the table is spent trying to pick a ball or decide how to shoot it.

If you're calculating the handicaps, though, this may skew the results if the amount of help they receive isn't recorded somehow.