I played for several years now, in two different states.
You experience will vary depending on the league operator and how involved/interested he is.
It will also vary depending on your team... you must click with most of your teammates.
But generally, it's a good and fun experience.
At least 97% of sandbagging crying happens because of the following:
• Players don't understand how statistics work. They see a bad player make a hard shot and
think "he can make that tough shot all day! He should be higher ranked!"
They pay too much attention to flukes. They don't look at the player's long-run statistics,
they only pay attention to the last 3 balls they saw him shoot.
• The loser is salty and looking for an excuse, they claim the other guy should be higher ranked
when really the losing player just had a shitty night. In almost every case, they had plenty of chances
(like 20+) to change the outcome of the match and they blew them all.
• The loser is a low level player who doesn't know enough about pool to rate someone accurately.
They see an APA6 run 7 balls and they think he could play Johnny Archer even.
"Holy shit! This guy is a pro! He should be a 9! He's been sandbagging all along!"
• Some players are those "conspiracy theory" types who are desperate to look smart and in-the-know.
They like to act like they see all the hidden machinery going on behind the scenes,
they want you to think they are very wise and perceptive and everyone else is just too blind to see it.
"Yeah, he missed that 4 and the cue ball just 'happened' to tuck right in behind that 6 ball.
Just like that so-called 'roll' he got last rack. Yeah, he's a 4. Pffft."
• Sometimes a bad player has a good day.
Some other thoughts:
If you care too much about winning, you will be unhappy.
Care about winning an individual match? You may lose due to a tough handicap, a silly technicality, or blatant sharking.
Care about winning your regional event? You may lose due to short races, possibly on iffy barboxes, and yes...
due to playing some underranked guy who suddenly plays like a beast.
Care about getting to Vegas? The payout sucks, you'll probably lose money travelling there, and the equipment blows.
And you need to get lucky to get there anyway, no matter how good your team plays there are still rolls in pool.
You have to treat these as a social night that happens to cost about 10 bucks. Which is a bargain.
Especially if there's a practice table available.
And I also think he found it weird that someone could play well and only play one night of league a week....
