I agree with you. They made a half assed attempt when they made the Master's league. The no handicap in that has led to teams that have the strongest 3 players in a given region teaming up. Which makes the weaker teams very unlikely to win a big event. There are only so many high caliber players around. I would really like to see an increase in the team handicap at the APA level which has the 23 handicap.
That's why there is a master's division. Try it if there's one in your area. I guarantee you'll like it!
We just started one here in Central Chicago. It's great.
I played on them recently at a 10 ball tournament here in South Dakota. I felt like they played pretty well but did take some adjusting. Banks and kicks were a little interesting but played well.
Then what you described in the Master's division will happen on the five Man team. What should they raise the maximum handicap limit to? The higher you raise it, the more teams will become stacked.
Then you also have a team that plays on diamond 9 footers and when they come to nationals they always get complaints that they are sandbaggers because they play way above their skill level on a valley. What you say makes 0 sense. Your telling me a tight pocket table and a valley is no different.
But even a Vega is better then walking... ESPECIALLY in the rain!!!🌧🌨
And the tables in Vegas for APA, were Vega's in a scrapyard piled on top of each other
I doubt that they will because it's about catering to the lower handicaps which I understand as is their bread and butter.
They do a masters format but don't get enough teams for a league so you can usually go to Vegas to play in the masters either given a spot or win a tournament with 3 or 4 teams. My problem is that I don't necessarily want to be the best player on the team and other good players don't want to take the time to get qualified. I have no interest in going out to Vegas for masters unless I can compete with a solid team.
Yet the 9's average 17-3 or 16-4 when playing anyone other than a 9. And you think they should spot LESS? The only reason they don't spot more is because it would lengthen the matches. Lesser rated, but sporty, players can go up, too. Besides, if you have someone on your team who is likely to win a lot of matches with big scores, doesn't it make sense in some way that you should have to put someone on your team who is likely to lose a lot of matches? Isn't that what a handicap system is supposed to do? Handicap you?
Mostly Valley tables where I live still. Luckily, we do have a couple of private rooms with Diamonds, and the bulk of my action is on those. The Valleys can be fun with their big pockets, but also not fun when the rails are low and bouncy and the cloth is crap and the tables are not very level. I've fixed them in a few bars around here, but not many of the bar owners really care about pool or how nice their tables are.
The primary room we play in here has ten 9' Diamonds (and one 7'er for the casual crowd, and something for the APA and TAP players to use before they go to Nationals). Most of the places I've played here in our part of the world still uses 9'ers, tho not many with Diamonds. Lots of Brunswicks still around here.