Explaining BCA Rules to a Banger

here we go with another thread where " serious " players look down there nose at people who play in bars with " bar rules. one of these threads pops up every time a " serious " player goes out to a bar and tries to convert a bar rule player to league rules.

granted ...some of these people deserve your obvious disdain for them. but the same could be said for all the asshats you meet that play by bca rules also.

having played strictly in bars for 30 odd years before joining bcapl in my early 50's i can see both sides of the coin.

i dont have a problem playing by any rules...as long as we both agree what the rules are.

kinda funny serious players go to a bar and push their rules on a bar player..... you never see a bar player walk into a pool hall...where serious players gather... and push their rules on you.

some people ..... like me dont mind learning other rules. but you cant go around beating a guy over the head or belittle him into playing the way you do.

i used to think defense was " chicken pool " as i have heard it called. now after playing league for several years i learned " when in rome " do as the romans do.

now i have people complaining about how long my matches are some times.

here are a couple of examples.

a few months ago in my napa league i played 1st match. i was a 52...now i am up to a 60. it was a 7-4 or 6-4 race...not sure which. we were using 2 tables. the other 4 matches were held on the other table and were finished before my match was.

i played a chit load of safes and won 4-3. dont know how many innings or safes since we dont keep track of them.

today i played in my apa 8 ball ltc. i am a 5 and faced a 6. i won 4-2 in 32 innings. i played 17 safes and my opponent played 6. the match lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes.

there was not much slow play on my part. quite a bit of slow play on my opponents part between trying to figure out how to get out of my safes and all the time outs he took. it did not bother me about the time he took. actually i was a lil amused. i am a firm believer in " think long ...think wrong "
 
I play by there rules.. If they're a banger I'm going to kick there teeth in no matter what rules we play by so what does it matter.
 
When one ventures into the rarified world of rural bowling alley bars, the appropriate game would be bar rules 8 ball.
 
I like the irony of the title of this thread.

I have played in a couple different BCA leagues. No one seemed to have trouble with the rules. 80% of the players were "bangers"

JC
 
trob said:
I play by there rules.. If they're a banger I'm going to kick there teeth in no matter what rules we play by so what does it matter.
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That's it in a nutshell.... and the few times you are gonna run across a good shooter who has been hanging and playing at that bar for the last 20 years.,.. he prolly would have beat you with BCA rules too, so it don't really matter......
 
Bar rules been around a lot longer than BCA rules.
You think bar rules are bad, here,s a BCA rule I can't quite grasp. You can call a safe and pocket one of your group and it dosn't count, it's now your opponents turn. I can see where you would have explaining that BCA rule in a bar.

Dale
 
the chicken said:
Where the heck do you play in Jackson ?
Go to the the bowling alley (Gold Country Lanes) near the junction of Hwy 104 and 49. They have a web site, so you can google it.

Any decent tables in the area ? They have two 4x8 Peter Vitallie and two smaller coin operated tables.
All the tables are in good condition.

I shoot every day, in the the early afternoon. So, come on down...

I am currently at my home in the Gold Country, less than 40 miles away.
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Ah, the internet. I will tell you something interesting. When you play in a certain place and express a willingness to gamble you can get a target on your back.

You have told us where you play, in a previous posts shown us your cues so you can be identified. You may find that is someone comes in and seems to happen to ask you to play, you may be in trouble even if you are a good player.

Players in the pool room business learn this pretty quickly if they are gamblers. Almost anytime someone comes around they don't know looking to play, you are probably in trouble. Pool room owners often can become suckers as they keep jumping up and gambling with strangers. You may discover you are the "Tuna" as you like to describe them.
 
Jdale said:
Bar rules been around a lot longer than BCA rules.
You think bar rules are bad, here,s a BCA rule I can't quite grasp. You can call a safe and pocket one of your group and it dosn't count, it's now your opponents turn. I can see where you would have explaining that BCA rule in a bar.

Dale
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Heh heh, just call the side and shoot it in the corner. Works for BCA and Straight Eight (the only Real Bar Banger Rules!:wink:). No explanation required.
 
Jdale said:
Bar rules been around a lot longer than BCA rules.
You think bar rules are bad, here,s a BCA rule I can't quite grasp. You can call a safe and pocket one of your group and it dosn't count, it's now your opponents turn. I can see where you would have explaining that BCA rule in a bar.

Dale
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If you can't grasp that rule I would advise you to stay away from 10 ball where the opponent could make you shoot again if this happened. Try teaching that to a "straight 8" player. The vast majority of BCA 10 ball players although they know the rule, don't grasp the logic behind it and why the game would suffer without it.

JC
 
macguy said:
Ah, the internet. I will tell you something interesting. When you play in a certain place and express a willingness to gamble you can get a target on your back.

You have told us where you play, in a previous posts shown us your cues so you can be identified. You may find that is someone comes in and seems to happen to ask you to play, you may be in trouble even if you are a good player.

Players in the pool room business learn this pretty quickly if they are gamblers. Almost anytime someone comes around they don't know looking to play, you are probably in trouble. Pool room owners often can become suckers as they keep jumping up and gambling with strangers. You may discover you are the "Tuna" as you like to describe them.
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For the record, I don't gamble. Tuna's, however, are always on the menu (and, you don't even need to bait the hook).

Play Safe.
 
I will play just about any rules except the "no safeties, you must make an honest attempt to make a ball". The problem I see with many bar rules are they're subjective which leads to arguments which can lead to altercations. If I'm asked what rules I want to play by, I try to keep it simple. 8 on the break wins, must hit your ob first, must take a ball to the rail, bih anywhere on all fouls, call your pocket, shooters choice after the break.
 
the chicken said:
For the record, I don't gamble. Tuna's, however, are always on the menu (and, you don't even need to bait the hook).

Play Safe.
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When someone reefers to someone as a "Tuna, Sucker, Fish"" it is usually someone to be exploited as in "Gambling".
What is your reason to disrespect other players just because they for what ever reason do not play as well as you or know the rules? Showing respect for other player is very important. You want to be an ambassador for the game, not what is wrong with it.

I used to see it in the pool room all the time. beginning players would come in and you can see from the start they are uncomfortable. For some they might as well be sneaking in the back door of a strip joint they are so uncomfortable.

They are afraid of looking dumb as they try to select a cue from the wall rack and rack the balls. A lot of people don't know much about the game and I think to a degree it may keep some people out of the pool room because of that fear of looking foolish in front of a girl friend or even strangers.

I have seen players wandering around looking for a rack or rack the balls at the wrong end of the table. Then some idiot guy working behind the desk yell at them about what they are doing is wrong making everybody look over at them like they are idiots. I have a feeling you would be laughing at them and may not be one to go over kindly offer a little help.

Even the title of this thread is offensive the use of the word "Banger". Because someone doesn't study the rules like you do, so what? You feel the need insult them and make fun of them? Now to boot we discover you are a fun player and act like that? Not that you have to gamble to take the game serious but to argue over rules when you guys are just playing for some enjoyment just makes no sense.

Sure they will learn the rules, in fact they probably do know most of the general rules that are fairly universal. But suppose they don't, so what, stop trying to spoil their enjoyment of the game with your petty quirks. I suggest you play by yourself if all this annoys you so much.

Maybe I am wrong and maybe they should be driven from the room for not knowing the rules never to return. I am sorry to say, it is not hard to drive a new player from a room with just one bad or uncomfortable experience. Maybe I see this more from a room owners standpoint, I hope I haven't taken your small issue too serious. If I have I am sorry. I am not saying you are one, but arrogant players in the room have always been kind of a pet peeve.
 
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nobcitypool said:
I will play just about any rules except the "no safeties, you must make an honest attempt to make a ball". The problem I see with many bar rules are they're subjective which leads to arguments which can lead to altercations. If I'm asked what rules I want to play by, I try to keep it simple. 8 on the break wins, must hit your ob first, must take a ball to the rail, bih anywhere on all fouls, call your pocket, shooters choice after the break.
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I play by any rule they want to play by. I used to play a lot in the south in the late 60's and 70's and it seemed like they were making the rules up as they went along. I used to play in a lot of black pool rooms and they often played by rules I never heard of. They also played games I never heard of. Try playing some '8 ball in Georgia" it's a game not a place. They had to teach me that game so we could play.
 
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Jdale said:
Bar rules been around a lot longer than BCA rules.
You think bar rules are bad, here,s a BCA rule I can't quite grasp. You can call a safe and pocket one of your group and it dosn't count, it's now your opponents turn. I can see where you would have explaining that BCA rule in a bar.

Dale
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What's to grasp about it? lol it's better then giving your opponent ball in hand. I can think of a half dozen reasons off the top of my head why I may do this to further my position in a game of 8 ball.
 
nobcitypool said:
I will play just about any rules except the "no safeties, you must make an honest attempt to make a ball". The problem I see with many bar rules are they're subjective which leads to arguments which can lead to altercations. If I'm asked what rules I want to play by, I try to keep it simple. 8 on the break wins, must hit your ob first, must take a ball to the rail, bih anywhere on all fouls, call your pocket, shooters choice after the break.
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I'll play that..I'm sure I can play a safe and my opponent will think I actually tried lol
 
Should stated was refering to eight ball rules which is the game of choise in most bars.

Dale
 
lorider said:
here we go with another thread where " serious " players look down there nose at people who play in bars with " bar rules. one of these threads pops up every time a " serious " player goes out to a bar and tries to convert a bar rule player to league rules.
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There's a reason for the snobbery - bar rules suck. With BCA/World pool rules, there's a common reference that people can look up when there's a question. With bar rules it's just "that's how we play here," after they spring some nonsense on you in the middle of a game. And experts actually debate and amend the BCA/World rules to try to make them logical and consistent.

It's not just two equal but different sets of rules. It's rules vs. "rules."
 
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