how are ya'll doing in league ?

We just finished up our first season playing APA 9 ball. We've been playing 8 ball for a few years, but this is the first 9 ball session. Have to say, it's frustrating to watch opposing players just smash the hell out of the balls and slop them in. So much so that a couple lower handicaps on the team are doing that as well, usually against those that do it themselves. There's one bar that has a 6½ foot valley with big pockets, and it plays fast. Both short rails are too low so the balls hop off the rails. Lagging is fun, cause you can't avoid that jump off the rail. Less than ideal, but aside from those quirks, it's a pretty decent little bar. Trying to play strategic and shoot some safetys when appropriate, but leave a portion of a ball exposed, or a reasonably close kick shot, and they just blast away at it. Aside from the cue scratching, there's really no penalty for constantly smashing, and I've lost to lower handicap players that use it as their main strategy. I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with an opponent doing that.
That said, we did get pulled as the wildcard and won the playoff match to qualify for Tri-Cup later this month. So we qualified for both 8 and 9 ball after the summer session. Kinda happy about that.
 
Summer league is over..., thank god. No more lefty suffering.

I didn't manage to reach my handicap goal this off season, but still an improvement over my first year playing southpaw.

Regular league starts next week and I get to enjoy beating on all those who took advantage of my weakened state of play. Looking very forward to it. :devilish:
 
My very 1st time playing CPA regular league is over, summer session. The same guy beat me twice. 1st match just didn't play well. 2nd match went hill hill and we both played solid. He just got to 5 before me.

My goal was to give out as many donuts (zero's) as possible to my opponents. Managed to give out 7 out of 11 matches. 2 of them didn't record cause i lost the lag.

Not happy with my overall score. Shouldn't really lose a match in this league but shit happens. Still got the MVP.
 

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Sonovabitch! Played an 8-ball APA match tonight, SL6/SL6, 5-5 race. This player and I have played before in BCA 14.1; I lost by two balls in that match. So much fun.

Tonight we had so much fun again. I went out to a 2-0 lead, then he won 3 racks, Then I won two, on the hill. He won one, hill-hill, 4-4. In the penultimate rack, I played a poorly executed safety; instead of getting safe, I hit too hard and gave him a clear shot on his last ball. That was a "gimme" for him. Darn.

So, we're hill-hill. We played down to the following layout. I'm on solids. We played cat-and-mouse safeties, and intentional fouls so we would tie each other up. Here's how it ended up.

I finally decided to "go for it". He tied up the 8-ball, purposely fouling and gave me BIH. I chose the CB position as depicted in the diagram. If I may say so myself, I did an absolutely masterful job of sinking the 4, moving the 8 and the 9 out of the way. I shot the 2, but didn't get a clear shot at the 5 and had to take the 1 up table to the bottom right corner. It was freaking *perfect*. I ended up with the CB just about where the 4 was, and set up to shoot the 5, where the dotted-line CB is (at this point the 8 was no longer in the way). I put a *touch* of right on the CB so I'd come to the long rail to make the 7. Recall that I had moved the 9 out of the way, and all I had to do was sink the 5 and come near the third diamond to make the 7, then follow for the 8. Easy-peasy.

But, here's the dilemma. The 8 and 9 were out of the way. The CB was where the dotted-line CB is. All that's left is the 5, the 7, the 8, and the 9. See the shot on the 5 from the dotted-line CB. I put a *touch* of right on the CB so I'd get on the long rail for the 7.

And of course, despite the severe angle coming off the 5, the g-damned side pocket sucked in the CB, pocket speed. It was perfect. Touch the long rail, be dead straight on the 7, stun-run it a few inches, and be on the 8, win the match. But no, the CB slowly but surely, with barely enough room at the angle coming off the short rail, dumped in the upper side pocket. BIH for opponent, easy 9-8 runout. *#$#@#$#$!~!!!!!!!"

Oh, well. At least I shot really well. So now I owe this opponent TWO matches to make up for the 2-ball loss in 14.1, and his hill-hill match. Grrr.

Truthfully, it was really fun.

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Ended up in 3 leagues after returning from China in July: APA 8-Ball, APA Double Jeopardy, and a local bar league. I'm trying to transition from APA to USAPL/BCAPL, but the timing seemingly hasn't worked out and I get sucked back into another APA league.

For APA I'm a 5/5, so far I'm 7/11 in 8-ball across 2 leagues and 4/7 in 9-ball. For 8-ball I started off 0-3 then have won 7 out of 8 - including 3 straight "rackless" (4-0) matches this past week and half. The loss was an SL-6 going 5-0 on me two weeks ago. For 9-ball I started off 4-0 with 80% of the possible points, but have now dropped 3 straight.

The 3 straight rackless haven't really been that dominating, but I have managed to have 3 straight opponents that get pretty easily rattled if they get down a rack or two and started pressing a bit too hard - leading to some easy outs/BIH opportunities that I shouldn't have had. Out of the 12 straight racks I've won, I was gifted probably 5 of them.

Either way, the APA drama is starting to set in. My 8-ball only league can probably handle me moving up to an SL-6 in 8-ball, but my double jeopardy team will lose some flexibility - we would end up 7/6/6/5/5/5/3/3 as a roster in 8-ball. The captain of my double jeopardy congratulated me last night when I went rackless on another SL-5 and then had a panic attack when I told him that was my 3rd straight rackless 8-ball match.
 
My Summer Session was a tale of two disciplines, alright.... In 8-ball, I was 8 out of 10 (and should have been 9, grrrr), good for 5th place. Best I've done in a very long time.

In 9-ball, I was 1 out of 6... tied for 84th place. Yuck.

Its super frustrating to be so inconsistent.
 
I just realized i now have exactly 100 matches in APA (currently an SL-5/5). I think I have 7 matches in the system from 2007 but the rest are from 2021 to now.

Overall: 62 wins, 38 losses

8-ball: 33 wins, 20 losses
9-ball: 29 wins, 18 losses

I’m my head I’m counting how many racks I’ve choked away, but I appear to be doing it less than my opponents.
 
Justaneng said:
Ended up in 3 leagues after returning from China in July: APA 8-Ball, APA Double Jeopardy, and a local bar league. I'm trying to transition from APA to USAPL/BCAPL, but the timing seemingly hasn't worked out and I get sucked back into another APA league.

For APA I'm a 5/5, so far I'm 7/11 in 8-ball across 2 leagues and 4/7 in 9-ball. For 8-ball I started off 0-3 then have won 7 out of 8 - including 3 straight "rackless" (4-0) matches this past week and half. The loss was an SL-6 going 5-0 on me two weeks ago. For 9-ball I started off 4-0 with 80% of the possible points, but have now dropped 3 straight.

The 3 straight rackless haven't really been that dominating, but I have managed to have 3 straight opponents that get pretty easily rattled if they get down a rack or two and started pressing a bit too hard - leading to some easy outs/BIH opportunities that I shouldn't have had. Out of the 12 straight racks I've won, I was gifted probably 5 of them.

Either way, the APA drama is starting to set in. My 8-ball only league can probably handle me moving up to an SL-6 in 8-ball, but my double jeopardy team will lose some flexibility - we would end up 7/6/6/5/5/5/3/3 as a roster in 8-ball. The captain of my double jeopardy congratulated me last night when I went rackless on another SL-5 and then had a panic attack when I told him that was my 3rd straight rackless 8-ball match.
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Once you finally transition from APA to USAPL/BCAPL you'll be very happy that you did. The level/quality of competition and play is significantly different, especially at your level and as you continue to improve...
 
Justaneng said:
I just realized i now have exactly 100 matches in APA (currently an SL-5/5). I think I have 7 matches in the system from 2007 but the rest are from 2021 to now.

Overall: 62 wins, 38 losses

8-ball: 33 wins, 20 losses
9-ball: 29 wins, 18 losses

I’m my head I’m counting how many racks I’ve choked away, but I appear to be doing it less than my opponents.
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That is why you are a 5 and not a 6 or a 7 LOL
Everyone would be a pro if they did not make mistakes, the lower the level, the more mistakes are expected.

I play a lot of players that are in your handicap range, and they all get upset when they mess up a run out. In my head I am thinking "well if you did not do that, you would be a higher ranking but you are not, so not sure what the issue is, that is the expected result." It's just a fact of the skill level, nothing really bad. When you stop "chocking" you will become a 6 or a 7, till then it's just normal. I often mess up at break and run chances on simple errors, but if I did not I would be a 650 and not a 555 Fargo, so what I do is normal since I am a 555.
 
Underpants Gnomes.

My Tuesday night APA team is captained by an SL-4 who does a pretty decent job, but is hindered by what I will now call the “underpants gnome” philosophy of shooting 8-ball. (Google South Park Underpants Gnomes if you don’t get the reference).

Basically:
Step 1: Knock your 4 easy balls in and ignore your problems
Step 2: ????
Step 3: Profit

Last night he called time out on me when I was going down on the 4 ball (a 20degree or so cut in the short direction on a rail ball that was halfway between the 3rd Diamond and the side pocket on the long rail). He wanted me to take a few easier shots first. And then by force of sheer magic have a better look on the 4 ball then I already had.

My opponent was on the 8 ball and I had no good way to lock him up, he was going to have a good look at the 8 the second I missed the 4-ball, no matter if I shot it first or last.

I ended up winning that rack but losing the match (fine since handicap wise since I was on a 12 rack winning street).

I also think the “underpants gnome” technique has merit at very low levels of pool, but, once someone can run a half-dozen balls or so becomes useless.
 
Justaneng said:
Underpants Gnomes.

My Tuesday night APA team is captained by an SL-4 who does a pretty decent job, but is hindered by what I will now call the “underpants gnome” philosophy of shooting 8-ball. (Google South Park Underpants Gnomes if you don’t get the reference).

Basically:
Step 1: Knock your 4 easy balls in and ignore your problems
Step 2: ????
Step 3: Profit

Last night he called time out on me when I was going down on the 4 ball (a 20degree or so cut in the short direction on a rail ball that was halfway between the 3rd Diamond and the side pocket on the long rail). He wanted me to take a few easier shots first. And then by force of sheer magic have a better look on the 4 ball then I already had.

My opponent was on the 8 ball and I had no good way to lock him up, he was going to have a good look at the 8 the second I missed the 4-ball, no matter if I shot it first or last.

I ended up winning that rack but losing the match (fine since handicap wise since I was on a 12 rack winning street).

I also think the “underpants gnome” technique has merit at very low levels of pool, but, once someone can run a half-dozen balls or so becomes useless.
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The only time the "shoot all the easy shots" idea works is in APA 9 ball where every ball is a point and the 9 does not matter much. A bit like that show "Who's Line is it Anyway" LOL. Except being "the point's don't matter" it's "who makes the 9 does not matter" because you can win just by making balls here and there without actually winning a single game by making the 9. That may be where the whole thing comes from where players shoot in a simple shot without planning for any future position. They made their point with that ball, now onto the next ball, wherever it may be. In 8 ball where you need to make the 8 to win, the beginning and middle of the game is pretty much wasted on the weaker players, all the winning is done at the final couple of balls were whoever gets the easiest shot on the last two or the last ball is the winner. The players just are not good enough to run more than 1,2,3 balls at a time so it's just bunting them back and forth till one of them gets lucky. When higher level players play, the whole rack is important. I have said that a few times to some players, that for anyone not a good C level they may as well just play with like 7 balls on the table, 3 of each suit and the 8, will be just as effective without all the wasted time missing for 20 minutes.
 
I find that for our lower handicap players, the hardest thing is to get them to think about their next shot with ball-in-hand. They constantly shoot a ball in the opposite direction of where the next ball is, because that is the closer pocket. And even setting up a shot with a slight cut angle to move the cue back up table results in them missing the shot and getting pissed about having their shot changed. There really are a lot of people in the APA leagues that are not there for the pool, and are not interested in improving. Best to match those types up against each other and just watch.
 
Rickhem said:
I find that for our lower handicap players, the hardest thing is to get them to think about their next shot with ball-in-hand. They constantly shoot a ball in the opposite direction of where the next ball is, because that is the closer pocket. And even setting up a shot with a slight cut angle to move the cue back up table results in them missing the shot and getting pissed about having their shot changed. There really are a lot of people in the APA leagues that are not there for the pool, and are not interested in improving. Best to match those types up against each other and just watch.
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Across my 2 APA teams we have a mixed bag of SL-3’s and 4’s. I think they’re all there for pool, but most don’t realize what learning actually is in pool. It doesn’t help that the mid-senior ranks in APA are filled with “advanced” bar bangers who get by on pure shot making, but are still generally lacking in knowledge.

The most Uncoachable for us is an SL-4 who’s a pure rhythm shooter. He whistles along with the house music, takes about 5 seconds per shot, and can’t be disturbed. He’s a good potter for an SL-4 but plays really poor patterns that eventually bite him if he plays anyone good.

We also have an SL-3 that’s learning all he can, but isn’t all that coordinated so he’s struggling to put together runs.

We also have a few underpants gnomes I talked about earlier.
 
Justaneng said:
Across my 2 APA teams we have a mixed bag of SL-3’s and 4’s. I think they’re all there for pool, but most don’t realize what learning actually is in pool. It doesn’t help that the mid-senior ranks in APA are filled with “advanced” bar bangers who get by on pure shot making, but are still generally lacking in knowledge.

The most Uncoachable for us is an SL-4 who’s a pure rhythm shooter. He whistles along with the house music, takes about 5 seconds per shot, and can’t be disturbed. He’s a good potter for an SL-4 but plays really poor patterns that eventually bite him if he plays anyone good.

We also have an SL-3 that’s learning all he can, but isn’t all that coordinated so he’s struggling to put together runs.

We also have a few underpants gnomes I talked about earlier.
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Along those same thoughts...I think most players in our APA league aren't opposed to learning. They just aren't motivated to improve, per se. They are out to have some competitive fun with friends, maybe a drink or two, and if they learn how to do something specific that they didn't know before that helps, cool.

The problem is that there isn't really time to show folks stuff that they might want to learn, on a busy league night. If you have practice tables available, they are going to be busy. Plus, you really need to kind of be paying attention to your teams matches, too.

I know that when I coach one of our players on a shot, if it's something they didn't know, they often say how cool that was, and thank me. Odds are they may remember that in the future.
 
played in my first singles regional tournament. didnt do terrible but dogged a winning shot to get to the final. fair enough

what was interesting was first guy i played recently went to a 7
me being a 6, 4-5 race
i go rackless on him and he only had one game he came close to winning. next time i play him, 4-1 hes just crying the whole time how could i be a 6 and all this . well even if i was a 7 he still had no shot to beat me even with an even race. he was from a smaller town so im guessing the talent pool is much more shallow than in houston.

ive been beating the 7s in my league often now. one of em 3 straight times
one whos a 630 fargo i got 4-2, then last time we played i was up 3-1 and just failed to finish from there. 3-1 but again but playing these tough guys on diamonds for the past yr i guess has really upped my game.
 
Can't lose in 8-ball, can't buy a roll in 9-ball.

Now 11-5 across 2 teams in 8-ball (including 8-straight wins in one league) and 4 overall rackless wins. Meanwhile, I come into this week on a 6-match losing streak in 9-ball, including 3 matches by 1-ball. I'm shooting about the same in both (relative to my own meager standards of course).
This week I was gifted a win in 8-ball hill/hill when my opponent sunk an early 8 with an open table when I had 2 clusters left to "do something" with. Meanwhile in 9-ball I had the cue ball get kicked in twice on my breaks.....
 
Couldn't be better, my last league pool was 20yrs ago. The petty-nitty arguing ruined it for me. Played off-on for 20yrs but at some point it stopped being fun.
 
dquarasr said:
Sonovabitch! Played an 8-ball APA match tonight, SL6/SL6, 5-5 race. This player and I have played before in BCA 14.1; I lost by two balls in that match. So much fun.

Tonight we had so much fun again. I went out to a 2-0 lead, then he won 3 racks, Then I won two, on the hill. He won one, hill-hill, 4-4. In the penultimate rack, I played a poorly executed safety; instead of getting safe, I hit too hard and gave him a clear shot on his last ball. That was a "gimme" for him. Darn.

So, we're hill-hill. We played down to the following layout. I'm on solids. We played cat-and-mouse safeties, and intentional fouls so we would tie each other up. Here's how it ended up.

I finally decided to "go for it". He tied up the 8-ball, purposely fouling and gave me BIH. I chose the CB position as depicted in the diagram. If I may say so myself, I did an absolutely masterful job of sinking the 4, moving the 8 and the 9 out of the way. I shot the 2, but didn't get a clear shot at the 5 and had to take the 1 up table to the bottom right corner. It was freaking *perfect*. I ended up with the CB just about where the 4 was, and set up to shoot the 5, where the dotted-line CB is (at this point the 8 was no longer in the way). I put a *touch* of right on the CB so I'd come to the long rail to make the 7. Recall that I had moved the 9 out of the way, and all I had to do was sink the 5 and come near the third diamond to make the 7, then follow for the 8. Easy-peasy.

But, here's the dilemma. The 8 and 9 were out of the way. The CB was where the dotted-line CB is. All that's left is the 5, the 7, the 8, and the 9. See the shot on the 5 from the dotted-line CB. I put a *touch* of right on the CB so I'd get on the long rail for the 7.

And of course, despite the severe angle coming off the 5, the g-damned side pocket sucked in the CB, pocket speed. It was perfect. Touch the long rail, be dead straight on the 7, stun-run it a few inches, and be on the 8, win the match. But no, the CB slowly but surely, with barely enough room at the angle coming off the short rail, dumped in the upper side pocket. BIH for opponent, easy 9-8 runout. *#$#@#$#$!~!!!!!!!"

Oh, well. At least I shot really well. So now I owe this opponent TWO matches to make up for the 2-ball loss in 14.1, and his hill-hill match. Grrr.

Truthfully, it was really fun.

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Interesting spot. While you did get a bit unlucky that your 'touch' of right sent you in the side from that angle, you have only yourself to blame. You have to KNOW what a roll and stun will do and build your position game around those natural paths. i.e. picture the natural and then augment that angle with spin as needed. Here, just top with no right keeps the side pocket out of play and the touch of right has the slight benefit of reaching the long rail closer to the 7 with the major downside of a scratch. Pretty bad risk reward spot. You can still get to the long rail past the side pocket if that is the angle you really want by rolling it but as long as you have a shallow angle on the 7, you're fine. KISS position ftw.
 
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