APA Lag Question

Mike Templeton

Mike Templeton

Confidence........
Silver Member
I just started playing APA 9-ball last night, and the following situation occurred:

A player from the other team hit the side rail on his lag. Of course, he was closer, so he says he won the lag. All tournaments I have ever played had rules that if you hit the side rail, you lose the lag. I looked in the APA rulebook, but the only mention is when the lagged balls touch, that the players re-lag.

What is the APA rule on the lag? Is the lag legal if the player's lag attempt touches the side rail?

Thanks,
Mike
 
You have to go to the "Definitions" portion of the book.

LAG: Method used to start a match. Players simultaneously shoot a ball from behind the head string, banking it off the foot rail and back to the head of the table. Striking the side rails or any pocket results in a loss of the lag. The closest ball to the head rail wins. It is permissible to strike the head rail. If the lagged balls make contact with each other, lag over.
 
Same for 8B fwiw.

Side rails are not in play.

Put the rule book on the back of the john...you will be glad you did.
 
Thunderball said:
Same for 8B fwiw.

Side rails are not in play.

Put the rule book on the back of the john...you will be glad you did.
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Wow, I don't think you need to specify which game you're playing. A lag is a lag is a lag. You could be lagging to see who gets to take out the garbage and the side rails are still going to result in an automatic loss.
 
Wow, I don't think you need to specify which game you're playing. A lag is a lag is a lag.
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Well,he did say he was new lol.
Just lending a hand.....and in this instance the john/rule book stuff is great advice no?
 
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Thunderball said:
Well,he did say he was new lol.
Just lending a hand.....and in this instance the jonh/rule book stuff is great advice.
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Very true but what I said was funny so I couldn't help it.
 
Jude Rosenstock said:
Wow, I don't think you need to specify which game you're playing. A lag is a lag is a lag. You could be lagging to see who gets to take out the garbage and the side rails are still going to result in an automatic loss.
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Normally, yeah, but this was an APA question, and they have separate rule books for 8-ball and 9-ball. Granted, the lag/side rail rule is the same, but it is listed separately in each ruleset.
 
ScottW said:
Normally, yeah, but this was an APA question, and they have separate rule books for 8-ball and 9-ball. Granted, the lag/side rail rule is the same, but it is listed separately in each ruleset.
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So if I said, "I didn't hit a rail after contact and didn't pocket anything. What's the call?", you would immediately ask me which game I was playing?
 
We always re-lagged when a ball hit the side rail or went in a pocket............had bad you have to be to hit the side rail tho lol
 
Mike, click on the APA site as posted above and print the rules. Read them and know them.

I recently had an incident where I broke but miscued and hit the side of the rack and 4 balls did touch the rails. Our oppenet's team cap't. called a foul. My team cap't went along with the "foul" and gave BIH (ball in hand). I am fairly new myself and didn't give it another thought. The next day I did think about it and looked up the rule. Guess what! this is NOT a foul. It is re-rack and re-break by the breaker, me. The next day I spoke to my team cap't and he again told me this was a foul and stated that he should know b/c he is a APA rep.

Sooooooo - know your rules. You can't depend on others and in this case a team cap't and APA rep. for the answers.
 
Dawgie said:
Mike, click on the APA site as posted above and print the rules. Read them and know them.

I recently had an incident where I broke but miscued and hit the side of the rack and 4 balls did touch the rails. Our oppenet's team cap't. called a foul. My team cap't went along with the "foul" and gave BIH (ball in hand). I am fairly new myself and didn't give it another thought. The next day I did think about it and looked up the rule. Guess what! this is NOT a foul. It is re-rack and re-break by the breaker, me. The next day I spoke to my team cap't and he again told me this was a foul and stated that he should know b/c he is a APA rep.

Sooooooo - know your rules. You can't depend on others and in this case a team cap't and APA rep. for the answers.
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yeah always have a copy of the rule book around. Especially for the APA - it always amazes me how many urban legend/myth rules float around out there.

I constantly hear people saying you can't use money to mark your pocket either when someone uses a wallet or when discussing "proper" markers in general. Fact of the matter is you can use anything *including* chalk, the rule book only says "To properly mark the pocket, a coaster or some other
reasonable marker (to avoid confusion, we do not recommend marking the
pocket with chalk) must be placed next to the pocket the 8-ball is intended to enter." Be sure to read this years rule book as it was changed from the prior one that said chalk couldn't be used.

APA rules are always confusing for no good reason. The rule should not say "some other reasonable marker". Anything that does not interfere with the path of the cue should be allowed. Putting in "some other reasonable marker" just means that eventually someone will argue with you about whether or not your marker is reasonable - people always find something to argue about in the rules...

This is another big failing of the APA - they should simply adopt the world standardized rules and have a list of exceptions (like ball in hand behind the line after the break would be an exception, you have to stick with whatever group goes down on the break would be another). There are more vagueries and inconsistancies in the APA rules than the world standardized ones.
 
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