A new type of Pool Players Club ?

J

JoeW

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
How about some serious opinions on the following idea. It will take a minute to explain.

An online pool club would be a place for players to meet each other and invite someone to their home to play a pool match. Here are some suggested rules for membership.
1. Must own a pool table an be at least 25 (30?) years old.
2. Must submit a letter of application with address, employment status and a photo.
3. Application would be verified by telephone with your employer and a photocopy of your driver’s license.
4. If accepted a unique ID would be emailed.
5. Players would establish their own handicap using something like ten racks of 9-Ball.
6. Players would have an online name and self description such as JoeW, APA handicap= 6, Players handicap = 7. Table is 9’ Gold Crown, playing 8, 9, straight, and one pocket. Usually play Thursdays and weekends 6Pm – 2AM. Drinks acceptable. Bring pop, six pack, wine, or similar. Does not gamble. (or may play handicapped race to 7 for $10.00). Location Rogers, OH
7. Players could select from a list people they might want to play and then email each other. If a match is set up they could jointly email the online club with their unique ID. The club would then respond that this is a registered player with a copy of the photo for id.

I think such a club should be restricted to those who own a table. There is a type of commitment to the game with table ownership and we are sure of the we “know where you live” before you invite someone to your home.

If a club did not require table ownership then two players could meet at a mutually agreed upon hall.

Would it work and would some of the people here be interested.

I have no hidden agenda in mind. If the thing “exploded” it might require some sort of minimal annual service fee or online ads to pay for a web site. Until there were 1,000 or so members it could be run for free.

I think there are lots of people with tables and this would create a type of pool club for those who don’t spend a lot of time gambling or in halls. Might even give some people a reason to travel to another city.

The idea probably needs to be fleshed out more and all suggestions are welcome. If there is sufficient interest I may build the initial web site with others who are interested.

Usually I have some credibility when building these types of things. I am Ph.D. level psychologist and a retired full professor of Criminal Justice from Youngstown State University.
 
weak spots

I no longer own a table so I am not involved regardless but obvious weak points in your plan are the amount of personal information you want and your intention to contact an employer. Simply making people register hugely reduces traffic at a website. My guess is that you will have literally a handful of people interested. I would drop the age limit too, it isn't really relevant.

Good luck with this but my bet is that it isn't going to fly without serious tweaking. A simple registry of people who want to get together to play pool without all of the added baggage would probably work better. Let people fill out as much of a form as they want to and let interested parties contact each other. If they become satisfied that they want to get together they will. I do like the idea of establishing a ranking although that is purely on the honor system and would require including specifics of the table shot on.

Hu
 
Thanks ShootingArts. An online registry might be the way to go. I like the idea that people could post as much or as little info as they desire. People could invite others as they choose.

Perhaps such a registry could be located right here at AZbilliards? Is that possible?

I would include age because such a registry should be restricted to adults. A registry entry might look some thing like:

Name:
Photo:
Age: (21 minimum)
Email:
General Location:
Table description:
APA handicap (7’ table) =
Players handicap (9’ table) =
Usually plays at: (Home, hall)
Preferred games:
Preferred Days:
Preferred Times:
Gambles (“no” or conditions)

A players handicap is based on a specific table and the average of ten games of Olympic 9-Ball.
1. Rack the balls and break.
2. Begin with ball in hand
3. Your score for the game is the number of balls made before you miss.
4. 9 on a combination is just another ball.
5. handicap = sum of ten game scores / 10

The highest handicap is a 90 / 10 = 9.

Handicap is written as 6 on a 9’ table or 6/9

Handicaps are rough estimates and should be revised by the player whenever the skill level appears to change.

In a handicapped match subtract one handicap from the other and this is the number of games the weaker player is given:
In a race to 7 a 6 handicap versus a 9 handicap would be given three games. The race would be 4 to 7.

Another way to handicap is by percentages 6/9 = 67% or 2/3 thus the "6" has to win 2/3rds of the games to win a match.
 
Last edited:
Just an FYI, there are a lot of billiard group get-togethers that are happening now thanks to www.meetup.com. There's many pool/billiard groups in many different cities. You could probably start a meetup.com group for AZB'ers. Check it out.
 
Hmmmmmm....interesting idea. I thought, however, that such an organization already existed......it's called AZBilliards.com. Check it out.

On a serious note, it is EASY to use AZB for such a purpose. In addition, get togethers like our DCC AZB room offer a chance to get to know more serious players, and increase the chances of finding friendly and serious competition locally.

AZB'ers visiting Betmore's Basement so far:

Grady Mathews
Danny DiLiberto
Jeanette Lee
sjm
WallyinCincy
zeeder
sandianakid
elvicash
eales
Steev
JCIN
ragbug (or was it cubswin...help me Tracy)
IronDon55
mthornto

P.S. - apologies to those I've forgotten
 
NJHustler I looked at Meetup.com signed on and found that most are casual players. Of course a more serious club could be formed. Seems the expectation is that groups of people meet at various locations on this type of forum. A meetup for individual matches might not be acceptable. Not sure but they seem to have all of the software that might allow for a players matches meetup.

For now I will wait to see what happens here and perhaps try meetup.com if there is little interest on azbilliards where there are lots of “serious” players.
 
Willie, what is "DCC AZB" ? I have not seen a way to set up matches here. Could you be more specific please. I have no need to re-invent the wheel.
 
JoeW said:
Willie, what is "DCC AZB" ? I have not seen a way to set up matches here. Could you be more specific please. I have no need to re-invent the wheel.
Click to expand...
Derby City Classic AZ room..
We.. by we I mean they..... had a private room at the DCC this past year..which I wasnt able to attend b/c of the whole Germany thing... However I will be there next year..if they will have me!!!
 
This sounds kind of neat .. I am making my move back home in a few months so I wont have a table for a while, but sooner or later I will make the purchase..in the meantime I will rely on making my contacts through the forum here
 
JoeW said:
Willie, what is "DCC AZB" ? I have not seen a way to set up matches here. Could you be more specific please. I have no need to re-invent the wheel.
Click to expand...

JW,
The past 2 years, Greg Sullivan has assisted us in setting up a private room (with table) for our members to use. It is an area where AZB members could meet, play, and socialize with some of the pro's. You can search on the Derby City Classic sub-forum and find a wealth of information on our DCC activities.

The reason I like the AZB room is that it strips away the anonymity associated with most internet sites. It is difficult to be rude and obnoxious on the internet when you know you may meet the members in person. It promotes civility on the forum; and the true pool fanatics are really starting to know each other.

If you are interested in having more competition; just post a thread calling out the people in your area. All of the get-togethers I have had with AZB'ers have been accomplished this way.

An interesting note is that of all of the AZB'ers who have visited Betmore's Basement (many of them I met for the first time when they visited) have been good sportsmen, fun playing companions, and students of the game. Good luck.
 
Too restrictive. Employment info etc? That's over the top. How about a blood test and a DNA sample to boot? :/

The basic idea is interesting, though.
 
Willie, yes indeed it looks the level of civility is paramount. Certainly liked that grudge match with photos!

Seriously though, I very much agree with you that the use of real names has a way of making one think before posting.

Looks like a neat bunch in the DCC room. I nearly went this year but figured that if I couldn’t come in the money … Course that means I never will go if that is my criteria. I am sure I will be there next year – no silly family obligations.
 
ScottW. Those heavy handed restrictions are about inviting people into one’s home where there are women and children who do not play pool. The intent is to “know” the other person that you are inviting. The idea here is to set up something like a country club for “respectable” players.

I think there are many reasonably serious players who only play at home and who might like some reasonable competition if they had assurances that the person coming to their home can be trusted within reason.

Of course I could be way off base here and that is why I started the thread. It seems to me that it is easy to “get a game” by just going to a hall. However, some people have no need to pay table time and prefer not to hang out in pool halls yet they are good players.

So the thread is to see if there is any interest -- that's all. The whole thing is nothing but a rough draft as you can see by my second post which showed another alternative.
 
sounds great

This post looks like a great framework. I don't know where to host it. Mike might host it here or you may already have the small amount of space needed to host a registry as part of your ISP membership. It cost me about $120 a year for the domain name and server space to host a moderately busy bulletin board. It was overkill for my forum but the most convenient size. Obviously you would do fine with the smallest package which was a little small for me.

A small yearly bone might persuade Mike to host it and set you up as a moderator for the registry forum only.

Hu



JoeW said:
Thanks ShootingArts. An online registry might be the way to go. I like the idea that people could post as much or as little info as they desire. People could invite others as they choose.

Perhaps such a registry could be located right here at AZbilliards? Is that possible?

I would include age because such a registry should be restricted to adults. A registry entry might look some thing like:

Name:
Photo:
Age: (21 minimum)
Email:
General Location:
Table description:
APA handicap (7’ table) =
Players handicap (9’ table) =
Usually plays at: (Home, hall)
Preferred games:
Preferred Days:
Preferred Times:
Gambles (“no” or conditions)

A players handicap is based on a specific table and the average of ten games of Olympic 9-Ball.
1. Rack the balls and break.
2. Begin with ball in hand
3. Your score for the game is the number of balls made before you miss.
4. 9 on a combination is just another ball.
5. handicap = sum of ten game scores / 10

The highest handicap is a 90 / 10 = 9.

Handicap is written as 6 on a 9’ table or 6/9

Handicaps are rough estimates and should be revised by the player whenever the skill level appears to change.

In a handicapped match subtract one handicap from the other and this is the number of games the weaker player is given:
In a race to 7 a 6 handicap versus a 9 handicap would be given three games. The race would be 4 to 7.

Another way to handicap is by percentages 6/9 = 67% or 2/3 thus the "6" has to win 2/3rds of the games to win a match.
Click to expand...
 
Like I said before, I like the basic idea. It's the restrictive bits I didn't care for. And re-reading your post, where you list your credentials at the bottom, I can see where those restrictive bits came from. :D

If I were to do such a thing, I'd leave a lot of "who comes to my house" up to the guy with the house. Let's say "Jim" and "Bob" are two people who live near each other and both sign up for this dealio. They don't know each other. Let's say Bob sends Jim a note saying he'd like to come over to Jim's house. Jim could say "Let's meet at (nearby pool hall) for an afternoon first". They meet, hit it off, and then later on, Jim invites Bob over to his house.

(Puts on web-developer hat)

You could also build a reputation system into the thing. Revisit the above scenario, but at the end, Jim could go onto the group site and give Bob a "thumbs-up", which would be attributed to Jim. Let's say "Mike" gets on the system, also living in the same area. Bob hits up Mike to come over. Mike checks out Bob's profile, sees a thumbs-up from Jim. Mike can then query Jim on what he thought of Bob and why he gave him good rep. Mike then can decide whether to invite Bob over, arrange for a meet at a nearby hall, or simply refuse Bob's visit request.

Also, why limit it to people who have a table in their house? There's probably plenty of folks out there who are stand-up folks who, for any number of reasons, don't have a table of their own.

There's all sorts of things you could do to protect folks without being too invasive with regards to the people you're TRYING to protect. :)
 
ScottW it looks like you and Shootingarts basically agree that the second alternative is the better way to go. I am OK with that as it allows for more people. Perhaps the first place to look is right here on AZ billiards. I'll give it a few days and then contact the admin to see if a sticky can be made fromthe main menu, perhaps by state. I looked for a way to contact the site admin but did not see anything. Does anyone know how to do this? Thanks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top