APA screwed our very own sleinen out of a national championship

DelawareDogs

The Double Deuce…
Silver Member
As far as the handicapping situation, according to my LO, the best way to prevent sandbagging is to mark safeties, or any shot that the shooter didn't make a good faith effort to pocket the ball.

Yep, there's a way to manipulate that system, too. According to your LO, he probably doesn't make that much money, either.....:thumbup:

Good faith according to who, the opponent?

All those APA players buying cues and cases, chalk and equipment are in a different part of the market.

If the APA went away tomorrow, I could draw some estimations on what would happen to the market. I might want to save that for an APA argument thread, which it seems like this may be where it all started anyway.
 

DelawareDogs

The Double Deuce…
Silver Member
I doubt that there’s anything anyone could say that would change your mind.
Wouldn’t you agree that making any attempt would be a waste of time.

If you're implying my mind can't be changed, you're absolutely wrong.

If you're implying that I'm not wrong that the APA championships in Vegas won't be oozing with sandbaggers next year, well you already know the answer to that question, I would gather.

Can my mind be changed about what I (and many others) think the APA is doing for pool? Maybe, yeah.
 

Ghosst

Broom Handle Mafia
Silver Member
I wasn't there.
I didn't see it.
I know Sean.

But this is the internet, so it's all his fault and he's wrong. :D
 

Buster8001

Did you say shrubberies?
Silver Member
I don't care what anyone says. Having 5 players on the same team move up one, or several, skill level(s) over the course of the entire tournament denotes cheating. period. No one, other than top flight players, is that consistent over the course of several days, playing day & night. Doesn't happen. I've been to Vegas, I'm undefeated there, had another player under review, and we were never raised or DQ'd.
 

alstl

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I'm an idiot as I prove frequently on this website but my useless opinion is this.

In his facebook post he said "I am not an APA ranked 9 ball player at all" and was on the 8 ball team but went to Vegas with the 9 ball team. Did they use his 8 ball rating for 9 ball or did they just pull a 9 ball rating out of their asterisk and assign it to him? Perhaps they assigned the wrong handicap to begin with?

The other thing is a team would have to have a couple players playing above their handicap to win a big handicapped tournament wouldn't they?

The APA handicap system is genius from the standpoint of the guys at the top of the pyramid because it gives low level players a chance but it is a formula disaster at the national level. I beat a guy in an in-house league once and after he match he asked me if I wanted to join his APA team as the "hidden" player. I politely declined. "But we go to Vegas every year". If I play my best I'm useless to the team because my handicap is too high.

I'd say our buddy got hosed by going to a 9 ball championship with an 8 ball rating but no 9 ball rating and by being a good player in a league designed for bangers. If the APA pisses off the bangers they stand to lose a lot more than if they piss off good players.
 

sixpack

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I'm an idiot as I prove frequently on this website but my useless opinion is this.

In his facebook post he said "I am not an APA ranked 9 ball player at all" and was on the 8 ball team but went to Vegas with the 9 ball team. Did they use his 8 ball rating for 9 ball or did they just pull a 9 ball rating out of their asterisk and assign it to him? Perhaps they assigned the wrong handicap to begin with?

The other thing is a team would have to have a couple players playing above their handicap to win a big handicapped tournament wouldn't they?

The APA handicap system is genius from the standpoint of the guys at the top of the pyramid because it gives low level players a chance but it is a formula disaster at the national level. I beat a guy in an in-house league once and after he match he asked me if I wanted to join his APA team as the "hidden" player. I politely declined. "But we go to Vegas every year". If I play my best I'm useless to the team because my handicap is too high.

I'd say our buddy got hosed by going to a 9 ball championship with an 8 ball rating but no 9 ball rating and by being a good player in a league designed for bangers. If the APA pisses off the bangers they stand to lose a lot more than if they piss off good players.

Sean didn’t play on the team. He didn’t play in Vegas other than 8-ball minis. His teammates from his 8-ball team that went to play 9b pitched in and paid for him to come along as a spectator/cheerleader.
 
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Eric.

Club a member
Silver Member
I'm an idiot as I prove frequently on this website but my useless opinion is this.

In his facebook post he said "I am not an APA ranked 9 ball player at all" and was on the 8 ball team but went to Vegas with the 9 ball team. Did they use his 8 ball rating for 9 ball or did they just pull a 9 ball rating out of their asterisk and assign it to him? Perhaps they assigned the wrong handicap to begin with?

The other thing is a team would have to have a couple players playing above their handicap to win a big handicapped tournament wouldn't they?

The APA handicap system is genius from the standpoint of the guys at the top of the pyramid because it gives low level players a chance but it is a formula disaster at the national level. I beat a guy in an in-house league once and after he match he asked me if I wanted to join his APA team as the "hidden" player. I politely declined. "But we go to Vegas every year". If I play my best I'm useless to the team because my handicap is too high.

I'd say our buddy got hosed by going to a 9 ball championship with an 8 ball rating but no 9 ball rating and by being a good player in a league designed for bangers. If the APA pisses off the bangers they stand to lose a lot more than if they piss off good players.

Not trying to single you out but...

-Sean Leinen did not play or have any affiliation with the DQ'd team (otehr than being friends)

-Sean only has an 8 ball rating (SL6) but that has no bearing on this because he was not in the 9 Ball event

-Sean was not screwed, hosed or even squirted on

*Edit- Oops, Sixpack beat me to this post


Eric >to clarify
 

sixpack

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Not trying to single you out but...

-Sean Leinen did not play or have any affiliation with the DQ'd team (otehr than being friends)

-Sean only has an 8 ball rating (SL6) but that has no bearing on this because he was not in the 9 Ball event

-Sean was not screwed, hosed or even squirted on

*Edit- Oops, Sixpack beat me to this post


Eric >to clarify

I did it first but you did it better! :)
 

Celophanewrap

Call me Grace
Silver Member
If you're implying my mind can't be changed, you're absolutely wrong.

If you're implying that I'm not wrong that the APA championships in Vegas won't be oozing with sandbaggers next year, well you already know the answer to that question, I would gather.

Can my mind be changed about what I (and many others) think the APA is doing for pool? Maybe, yeah.

I’ll take a wild guess that you’re not playing in the APA. The Las Vegas event may be
oozing with people and teams that talk about sandbaggers, sandbagging, and scamming
the system in general, but my thought is that there are actually very few APA players that
would be able to manipulate the system effectively and those that could are already rated
high enough that sandbagging wouldn’t matter and would be pointless.
Is the APA doing anything for pool? I guess it depends on your perspective. I think it does
quite a bit for the game and the American game would be far less without the benefit of
the APA, you on the other hand don’t see what I see. We have different perspectives.
I believe you think of it as a money suck, a cheap “Walmart” imitation of a classic game
played by gentlemen and kings, I see it as an avenue for me to be able to do something
I enjoy. See, I believe I have the skill to play in the BCA, or Valley, or NAPA, or any of
those other leagues, but I fall far short of the mentality that many of those players have.
Reason being is that it’s my experience that when you apply the element of money to
any game, to include pool, the asshole quotient goes up by 100 fold, I dont do well in that
situation, I’d rather just play.
On the APA’s effectiveness you and I will just have to disagree. I’ve always said the APA
ain’t for everyone, I don’t think it’s for you
 
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DelawareDogs

The Double Deuce…
Silver Member
I’ll take a wild guess that you’re not playing in the APA. The Las Vegas event may be
oozing with people and teams that talk about sandbaggers, sandbagging, and scamming
the system in general, but my thought is that there are actually very few APA players that
would be able to manipulate the system effectively and those that could are already rated
high enough that sandbagging wouldn’t matter and would be pointless.
Is the APA doing anything for pool? I guess it depends on your perspective. I think it does
quite a bit for the game and the American game would be far less without the benefit of
the APA, you on the other hand don’t see what I see. We have different perspectives.
I believe you think of it as a money suck, a cheap “Walmart” imitation of a classic game
played by gentlemen and kings, I see it as an avenue for me to be able to do something
I enjoy. See, I believe I have the skill to play in the BCA, or Valley, or NAPA, or any of
those other leagues, but I fall far short of the mentality that many of those players have.
Reason being is that it’s my experience that when you apply the element of money to
any game, to include pool, the asshole quotient goes up by 100 fold, I dont do well in that
situation, I’d rather just play.
On the APA’s effectiveness you and I will just have to disagree. I’ve always said the APA
ain’t for everyone, I don’t think it’s for you

Yeah, you're probably right about that; It ain't for me.
A little back story, I played APA for years. With friends, and sometimes just joined a team and made even more friends. In the end, I saw my own game going drastically down. I could have used that $10 for more table time. Instead, I tried to dedicate it to the one day a week - where I'd wait 40 minutes to play one game. Try to help on the time-outs and explain how a safety might work best, only to see it butchered.
I'd be pushed out by my captain up against a SL-2. Mercilessly watching someone piddle putz a few stripes.... around a barbox... and yes with a Revo shaft in a JB case.
I spent all that time.... wondering..... is this what pool is now??

Alstl had it pegged when he mentioned who the APA would pander to - the banger or the better player.

As far as sandbagging goes - you said it yourself "Some teams go there and are consciously subverting the skill level system"
 

DecentShot

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Yeah, you're probably right about that; It ain't for me.
A little back story, I played APA for years. With friends, and sometimes just joined a team and made even more friends. In the end, I saw my own game going drastically down. I could have used that $10 for more table time. Instead, I tried to dedicate it to the one day a week - where I'd wait 40 minutes to play one game. Try to help on the time-outs and explain how a safety might work best, only to see it butchered.
I'd be pushed out by my captain up against a SL-2. Mercilessly watching someone piddle putz a few stripes.... around a barbox... and yes with a Revo shaft in a JB case.
I spent all that time.... wondering..... is this what pool is now??

Alstl had it pegged when he mentioned who the APA would pander to - the banger or the better player.

As far as sandbagging goes - you said it yourself "Some teams go there and are consciously subverting the skill level system"

It all seems very simple to me. When you join the team? Psss hey, keep your innings up. When you get to Vegas? You can forget about that inning stuff, we are here to win. I think there should be definitive guidelines. A six shouldn't be able to do this, this, that or this..Etc.. that way it would become a contest of who can stay in their chosen lane. Like I'm a "super" 7 and Maybe I want to try to be a 4. Fine..but you run more than 8 points in a row (9 ball) and youll be a 5. etc...I think this is essentially what Vegas teams do. Some of them just get a little greedy or aren't as good as covering up the innings when you are actually trying to win as quickly as possible.
 

WillyCornbread

Break and One
Silver Member
I’ll take a wild guess that you’re not playing in the APA. The Las Vegas event may be
oozing with people and teams that talk about sandbaggers, sandbagging, and scamming
the system in general, but my thought is that there are actually very few APA players that
would be able to manipulate the system effectively and those that could are already rated
high enough that sandbagging wouldn’t matter and would be pointless.
Is the APA doing anything for pool? I guess it depends on your perspective. I think it does
quite a bit for the game and the American game would be far less without the benefit of
the APA, you on the other hand don’t see what I see. We have different perspectives.
I believe you think of it as a money suck, a cheap “Walmart” imitation of a classic game
played by gentlemen and kings, I see it as an avenue for me to be able to do something
I enjoy. See, I believe I have the skill to play in the BCA, or Valley, or NAPA, or any of
those other leagues, but I fall far short of the mentality that many of those players have.
Reason being is that it’s my experience that when you apply the element of money to
any game, to include pool, the asshole quotient goes up by 100 fold, I dont do well in that
situation, I’d rather just play.
On the APA’s effectiveness you and I will just have to disagree. I’ve always said the APA
ain’t for everyone, I don’t think it’s for you

Even given the situation, I'd agree. We didn't see anything aggregious. A few suspect things here or there but that could always be rising to the occasion.

Take this with a grain of salt of course, my team was disqualified for sandbagging..
 

trob

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Well I guess he didn’t know about this rule.. you got caught.. own it and move on lol



<facepalm> Ok, let's take this in pieces, since what I thought to be (and others commenting on it agreed) was a very lucid post:

1. Both the 8-ball and 9-ball teams out of the same bar won Regionals and qualified for Vegas.
2. Many of the players are common/shared, meaning they play on both teams.

Are you with me so far?

3. Because we couldn't send both teams to Vegas as that would've incurred a two-week stay for those common/shared players, the captain (also a common player for both teams) had to make the difficult decision to send only the 9-ball team.
4. While this serves the common/shared players just fine, it alienates two players who only play on the 8-ball team. I was one of those players.
5. All members of the 8-ball team therefore received the cash equivalent of winning the Regionals. The common/shared players then chose - out of the goodness of their heart - to pool their winnings together and pay for my and that other player's trip to Vegas.

Still with me?

6. "Honorary member" was not to imply that we played, coached, or otherwise entered the playing arena at any time during match play. It was just an expression to mean a spectator wearing a team shirt.

If you read my post carefully, you would've seen where I am only an 8-ball player; I don't even have a 9-ball skill level established because I don't play 9-ball in APA. It would've been impossible to field me or use me in any team activities.

My captain has been doing this league a long time. He knows the rulebook.

-Sean
 

Jaden

"no buds chill"
Silver Member
That's actually not true...

Based on the cited APA rule, it appears to be true that APA does not have to justify its decision.

But as for the “You and I both know that isn’t the truth” comment (which was posted in response to a post reading “What more is there to say? They ‘played too good’ by some arbitrary APA standards, and the APA powers-that-be booted them out of the tournament”), it isn’t holding up too well. The APA’s own rule says that its determinations regarding true playing ability as compared to participating skill level are “necessarily subjective” and can be made in its absolute discretion (i.e., can be arbitrary), and it says that if it decides there is a difference between true playing ability and participating skill level, it can disqualify a player (i.e., boot them out). Sure seems like truth to me.

Just like no one can sign away or agree to not have recourse to negligence, there could be a lot more legality involved that just a disclaimer by the APA that they reserve the right to disqialify anyone they deem to be playing above their ability.

Jaden
 

jtaylor996

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I've had an itch to play in a league. But after this thread... I want nothing to do with any handicapping BS. I'm not in it for social, I just want to play a bunch of damn pool.

Sounds like the APA is the opposite of that.

Maybe I'll just enter some local tournaments or something.
 

derekdisco

We woulda won state!
Silver Member
When this happens, I thought that they let the team keep the last money they earned in the round before the dq. So you guys got to keep 3rd/4th place money right?
 

ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
Gold Member
Silver Member
league

I've had an itch to play in a league. But after this thread... I want nothing to do with any handicapping BS. I'm not in it for social, I just want to play a bunch of damn pool.

Sounds like the APA is the opposite of that.

Maybe I'll just enter some local tournaments or something.


When I first came back to pool I thought league might be a nice way to meet a few people, have some structure to make sure I focused well, maybe even meet a likely looking female of the fairer sex. Of course I wanted to play pool.

When I watched league I learned that everything but pool was their focus plus there has to be a rule somewhere that each league player must keep at least three cigarettes lit at all times! A little smoking is no big deal but the area looked like a pea soup fog bank rolling in off the sound. The poor smoke eaters overhead were making horrible gasping and wheezing noises, first time I heard of machines being able to get COPD!

The smoking was ridiculous, the air was as sticky as stepping into a small bathroom back when the ladies would use a couple cans of hair spray on their bee hive hairdos. I think each player shot one or two games of pool in four to six hours, hard to make out faces in the fog.

I had called somebody that was organizing leagues to play out of a bar before I saw a league night. I was ever so glad I had not pulled the trigger and committed myself!

Hu
 

newcuer

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
A bit of digression...but one of the things I hate about the APA is the players who are 4 and belows for years on end. They will be in the APA for 10 plus years and still be a 3. And....

They love their popularity as being a '3'. They love that teams always will want a '3' especially a 3 who will never go up nor has any interest in doing so.

They love the compliments of you are a great '3'. To me, really weird (like being called the tallest midget).
 
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