how are ya'll doing in league ?

Chili Palmer

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Spot on with my team.

Yep, that guy that picked up the CB has called maybe 1 timeout since he's been on my team. He's a 5 and just does his own thing. He doesn't talk much so don't know if he wants to get better. He's a buddy of my co-captain so I just let him deal with him.

We did have another pretty serious sharking thing happen last night, think I'm going to the LO with this one. Haven't decided. Some chick who has apparently started multiple teams with the old APA operators just came back. Typical bar fly. She was sitting next to me so I could help her score a match and about every 20-30 minutes she'd go get a double shot of whatever. 2 hours later when it's her turn to shoot she's plastered and starts sitting in the chair next to me again. I noticed funny shit early on (her getting up and walking around the table) but just wanted to go home so left it alone, well when she had 2 balls to go and our girl had 3 and was shooting a long shot this chick got up and walked to the other side of the table - right in view of my teammate while shooting - and starts wiggling around like the former crack addict she is. I was taking a drink so I couldn't say anything, so I put my glass down and clapped then yelled. She didn't look and didn't say a word so I got up and told her she can't do that. She just smirked and walked away. Of course our girl missed and the other team won.

That literally might be the straw that broke my back, I'm done dealing with drunks. First, it's usually the drunk ones that shark and second, we were there EASILY 30 minutes later then needed because this chick would go to the bathroom, or go get a drink. Maybe I'll just pull a Chili Palmer and call her out on the FB group.
 

justadub

Rattling corners nightly
Silver Member
Played 8-ball last night, finally broke my losing streak. I'd been playing rather poorly for a month or more, both 8 and 9, and had been pretty down on my game. The last match I played prior, I stripped it back to basics, and stopped trying to be too cute, and had better results - even tho I didn't win, I was competitive. (As compared to the prior 3-4 weeks where I was getting smoked.)

So last night, our team puts me up, and the opposing teams SL7 comes up to play me. (I'm SL5) He and I have played a few times before, primarily when he was a SL6, and we always have good matches. So I wasn't unhappy that he was gonna play me, and I got an extra game compared to the last time he and I had played.

He got out ahead of me, and I'm saying to myself "here we go again". But I hung in there, and managed to pull it out on the hill-hill game. On the last game, he clearly mis-hit a shot that left me a long shot at the 8. As I told him, I didn't deserve the win, but I took it. Very surprised. Even if I hadn't won the match, I played better than I had been playing recently, so there was some encouragement regardless.
 

lorider

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Played 8-ball last night, finally broke my losing streak. I'd been playing rather poorly for a month or more, both 8 and 9, and had been pretty down on my game. The last match I played prior, I stripped it back to basics, and stopped trying to be too cute, and had better results - even tho I didn't win, I was competitive. (As compared to the prior 3-4 weeks where I was getting smoked.)

So last night, our team puts me up, and the opposing teams SL7 comes up to play me. (I'm SL5) He and I have played a few times before, primarily when he was a SL6, and we always have good matches. So I wasn't unhappy that he was gonna play me, and I got an extra game compared to the last time he and I had played.

He got out ahead of me, and I'm saying to myself "here we go again". But I hung in there, and managed to pull it out on the hill-hill game. On the last game, he clearly mis-hit a shot that left me a long shot at the 8. As I told him, I didn't deserve the win, but I took it. Very surprised. Even if I hadn't won the match, I played better than I had been playing recently, so there was some encouragement regardless.

Nice ahooting dub.

As for me ? Its the same old routine...loss 9 ball and win 8 ball agajnst the same opponents.

I had to play twice last night due to only having 4 players there.

First match i lose 9 ball to a 4. Dont know the score but it was real lopsided . then i played a 6 in 9 ball. I started out ahead from the get go....until around the 6 th rack where i broke and made a ball but was hooked on the one. He got bih and ran the table. I lost 46-45. Needing only one point. Sigh.

So i played the same 4 in 8 ball . i won 4-1 in a 4-3 race. When i sunk the winning 8 he grabbed his cue and scattered all his balls on the table. It was obvious he didnt like losing. I guess he thought he was going to do to me in 8 ball what he did in 9. I have never seen him act like that before though.

So i played the same guy who is a 6 in 9 ball and we are both 5's in 8 ball. I won 4-2.

Oh yea...i quit team number 3. It was just too much hassle trying to play on 2 teams on sundays. So i am down to just two teams . friday night and sunday night. I love fdiday nights cause i dont work on saturdays so i dont care how late we are that night.
 

Maniac

2manyQ's
Silver Member
I love fdiday nights cause i dont work on saturdays so i dont care how late we are that night.
Yeah, it's nice being able to sleep-in the next day after laying awake all night thinking about that easy ball we missed that lost us the match, eh?

Been there....done that.

Maniac (not lately though)
 

Chili Palmer

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
What's the deal with the apa score keeper app, can anyone use it?

That question can go two ways - do you mean is it actually working and can people access it or can anyone outside of APA use it.

Yes and No, respectively. I just looked and it works :) (Yes, I know that wasn't your primary goal for asking, just having a little fun :))

But no, it cannot be used outside of APA.

I'm curious why you asked though?
 

Texas Carom Club

9ball did to billiards what hiphop did to america
Silver Member
Well I'm in apa, and someone left our pack of paperwork at the home bar Monday and it crossed my mind, there's an app for scorekeeping, let's use it,

When I downloaded it yesterday, just says not available for use in my area or isn't live,

So does this mean it can be used when it's "live"?
 

Chili Palmer

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Well I'm in apa, and someone left our pack of paperwork at the home bar Monday and it crossed my mind, there's an app for scorekeeping, let's use it,

When I downloaded it yesterday, just says not available for use in my area or isn't live,

So does this mean it can be used when it's "live"?
I would assume that means your LO is not setup to use it. Our LO is young and techy so our area was a beta test area. I would reach out to your league operator to see if they know when it will be available in your area. The fact you still have packets tells me it's definitely not available in your area.

A few thoughts:

1) Be glad you didn't beta test it. In the very beginning it was horribly slow, it's still slow but not so bad. If you think about it, APA has thousands of 9B matches (as far as I know it's only available for 9B, I haven't played APA 8B in a couple of years) at roughly the same time all around the country so it gets some lag and when that happens it's not like erasing a pencil mark, you have to hit "go back to so and so's turn" and make the adjustment. Those fixes stops the game, we once had a match on hold for 45 minutes! More detail below.

2) It's a totally different way of thinking when scoring. When the match starts the screen will have all 9 balls displayed, when the balls are broken you tap the balls they made and tap dead balls twice (if applicable) and it X's them out. When you tap the 9B and the game is over it restarts.

3) The regular stuff is now a PITA. Patches are dropped off at one location and your captain has to pick them up. Not sure if that's the case everywhere though. Here in my area we have two cities 10 miles apart so we have 2 pickup locations, neither of which I'm ever at (until recently actually). You pay through the app which means your teammates pay you cash and you pay the $40. Not an issue for most but I've heard grumblings about why do I have to pay, etc. You could also have your teammates pay you electronically and then pay the LO with the same payment method outside of the app - you don't HAVE to pay in the app, you can submit your matches when done without paying.

4) The REAL PITA is when things go wrong so I STRONGLY recommend you check scores at the end of each game. We've had people not do that and found out they screwed up in the first game and now they're on game 7 or 8. I finally said f it and when that happens I simply make any adjustments I can in the current game to get the scores to match and call it good. I don't care if innings don't match, I don't care if one says this person made the 5 and that person made 5 too, I'm not spending 15-30 minutes holding up a match. I've done that on multiple occasions and have never heard a thing so I'll just keep on doing it.

5) Once you get used to it it's not bad. No more packets to worry about, no more sitting there with the other captain at the end of night calculating crap, signing stuff, etc. When done you hit submit and go home.

In the end - it's easier than paper but it has it's drawbacks.

Let me know if you have any other questions.
 

Texas Carom Club

9ball did to billiards what hiphop did to america
Silver Member
You had me at l.o., he's got a reputation

Reached out to apa and they verified not available in my area
 

justadub

Rattling corners nightly
Silver Member
Well I'm in apa, and someone left our pack of paperwork at the home bar Monday and it crossed my mind, there's an app for scorekeeping, let's use it,

When I downloaded it yesterday, just says not available for use in my area or isn't live,

So does this mean it can be used when it's "live"?

We went live with the scorekeeping app last year. It is great...with the standard caveat "when it works". For us, its worked reasonably well. Unfortunately, a week or so ago, it went off the rails. So we're trying to get people to print their scoresheets and bring them with them, "just in case" it happens in the future.

I agree with pretty much everything Chili mentioned above. As Chili points out, once you get used to it, you don't wanna go back to paper. It is much easier.

I am a Div Rep, so the patches get mailed to me, and then I get to distribute them. Yay me.
 

Chili Palmer

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
You had me at l.o., he's got a reputation

Reached out to apa and they verified not available in my area

LOL, yep, I dealt with that in Omaha. One day I was so pissed at him I threw a wad of cash (registration fees or something, don't remember) at him. It was about $300 and it was 5's and 10's, it was a lot of bills. He finally said something about the league money (he was raking us) and I pulled the money out of my pocket and said then here's your f'n money, you can have it all. Bills were flying through the air, people's mouths dropped, and I just walked out of the bar and never looked back.

Yeah, been there done that.
 

lorider

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Chili pretty much nailed it . we started out with 9 ball and then added 8 ball later on. For some reason we quit using the apps about a month ago. Dont know why and didn't ask. I guess it was just a test phase.

So about a week ago i had a girl text me and ask if i would be her partner in a scotch doubles charity tournament for saint jude. I said why not .
So we are both 5's and the handicap limit is 12 so i knew there were going to be a bunch of 7/5 teams in it and figured we didnt have a chance of winning it but hey....its for charity and she said she loves playing scotch doubles and i felt kind of honored whe asked me when she probably could have gotten a 7.

Sure enough we faced a 7/5 combo in the first round . we both failed to play to our potential with her even missing with bih once. But we managed to make shots when it really counted and won hill-hill.

Second round we facdd another 7/5 team. We lost hill-hill due to my failure to leave her good on the 8 ball amd they ran out for the win.

Third round we faced another 7/5 team and i was kind of dreading this match because this is arguably the best 7 in town. Well surprise surprise we won this match .

So i was thinking we were facing all the tough teams so far....there were several teams that were like us and disnt have any 7's on it.

Next round we faced a 6/5 and i quickly found out we were going to be in for a helluva tough match as they both started to play a chit load of safes. So i told my partner to gst ready for a lot of ball in hands cause i knew a thing or 2 about safes. I once played 25 safes in a match against a tough 7 and pulled off a win so i told her it was going to be a long match. We managed to win this one hill-hill.

So we wind up playing the lo and his partner. Really not sure of his partners handicap but the lo is a 7. We lost hill- hill . my partner ran out of steam and was slumped over in her chair several times during the match. She was obviously wore out and it showed in her shot selection and several misssd shots that were not that hard. I had gotten a second wind so to speak and was really pumped up trying to beat the lo but my partner missed an easy 8 when we were on the hill. Told her not to say she was sorry when she said it because if we both resorted to saying sorry when missing a makeable ball i am sure i would have been using that word a lot more than her over the weekend. She bust out laughing and said thanks and hugged me . Still proud of how she played and i was honestly surprised we made it as far as we did .

I actually enjoyed playing in this tournament more than i expected to when i agreed to be her team mate. But i have to admit it wore me out also ....really felt it when i got im the truck headed home. I text her sayung my feet were killimg me and she said hers were also lol..
 

justadub

Rattling corners nightly
Silver Member
Got smoked this past Thursday...lost 17-3. Played a very strong SL6, a guy that places highly in local tourneys outside of league. Lots of people complain about him only being SL6...im not complaining, but be was playing way above that in the first half of our match. In the second half, he came back to earth a little, but he was still shooting great.

I didn't break once. Stuff happens.
 

Chili Palmer

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Got smoked this past Thursday...lost 17-3. Played a very strong SL6, a guy that places highly in local tourneys outside of league. Lots of people complain about him only being SL6...im not complaining, but be was playing way above that in the first half of our match. In the second half, he came back to earth a little, but he was still shooting great.

I didn't break once. Stuff happens.

LMAO, you to, 'eh! I had my second match in this challenge league we started and I've been running ragged because it's way bigger then we thought and I've had zero time to practice and I was tired. I played this guy two years ago when I was close to my peak and he was just finding a new level of play and he was tough then. Since then my playing/practicing time has gone way down and his has only gone up. I knew it was going to be tough. I was competitive up until 4-4 and then he got in gear and steamrolled me. I only had a couple of decent chances after that. If I could've taken those opportunities I probably still would've lost but it would've been much closer. He got the next 9 games and took it 13-4. He had 4 b&r's in the 9 games. He's a pretty good size guy (tall & husky) and it honestly reminded me of The Hustler because he was running through those racks and I enjoyed watching it. He plays fast and loose but is extremely technical when needed, I told him he was a pleasure watching when he's in the zone and looking forward to meeting him down the road. I'll have my hands full, that's for sure.

And for the FargoRate folks and because I'm a numbers guy. He's a 589 and I'm a 616. So it would be a pretty good race if we were both in the zone, and I told him that before the match, but with me playing around 550 and him playing better then his rating (he was playing better than 600 for sure), the numbers are close. That should've been a 13-8/9 loss for me (at 550 level I feel I'm playing at) but I missed a couple of opportunities. So either I'm playing much lower then 550 right now or that match would be one of the outlier stats in Fargo. Thoughts?
 

Texas Carom Club

9ball did to billiards what hiphop did to america
Silver Member
Half of my losses this sesh are from one bar, it's the tables, I can't get any luck on bar tables this whole yr, bad rolls all over the place, when I'm so used to our home room tables, that are fast and standard equipment
, Only lost 4, the two from the bar are just horseshit dumb luck,

Only lost to 2 other guys , one playing much better than me, the other was my first time back in competitive pool and he dug down and came back,

Tonight I'm asking to play another player that's not much better than me, not by a mile but will be a very good tester of a match
 

SSDiver2112

2b || !2b t^ ?
Much better week! Hope I'm out of my resent slump. Monday I did ok, but Tuesday really went well. Played at a new location because the other team lost their bar sponsor. Don't know the real story of why, but it appears the bar had to close. The new location was a polar opposite of their original bar. It was nice and roomy with two decent bar boxes, good food and drinks and fewer meth heads (just joking, not really). Best of all for me is it is non smoking, because wow their old place was small and very cloudy. I'm glad the team found a good home. They are a great bunch and always fun and challenging to play.

I managed to pull off a hat trick for the cherry on top, with the last game being against their captain. I did not have high hopes going into that last game against him because he is definitely more experienced than I. I must admit he seemed a bit off his game, and I was really on, so I managed to pull off the win. Very satisfying evening.

Wednesday our bar's other team (that I am not on) had a buy so since it was St. Patty's day they held a mock tournament with them against anyone else in the bar. We made up a team and had a most excellent night. Lots of pool, friends and laughs.
 

Chili Palmer

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Half of my losses this sesh are from one bar, it's the tables, I can't get any luck on bar tables this whole yr, bad rolls all over the place, when I'm so used to our home room tables, that are fast and standard equipment
, Only lost 4, the two from the bar are just horseshit dumb luck,

Only lost to 2 other guys , one playing much better than me, the other was my first time back in competitive pool and he dug down and came back,

Tonight I'm asking to play another player that's not much better than me, not by a mile but will be a very good tester of a match

Kind of league related: we started a league here in Boise about a month ago and we're trying to help the lower skill level players get better. The funny thing is, all the good players here in town are stuck on the Diamond tables thinking they're the best (which I won't get into here) so they get grumpy when they have to go play somewhere else. Well, isn't it best to play on as many different pieces of equipment you can to get better? Continually play the fast, straight, tables that bank consistently and what do you learn? You learn how to play on THAT table. I'm not saying that's you, I'm just saying if the bar boxes are kicking your butt then go play on them more ;)

My league experience last night ties right into that and SSDiver2112's post below.

Much better week! Hope I'm out of my resent slump. Monday I did ok, but Tuesday really went well. Played at a new location because the other team lost their bar sponsor. Don't know the real story of why, but it appears the bar had to close. The new location was a polar opposite of their original bar. It was nice and roomy with two decent bar boxes, good food and drinks and fewer meth heads (just joking, not really). Best of all for me is it is non smoking, because wow their old place was small and very cloudy. I'm glad the team found a good home. They are a great bunch and always fun and challenging to play.

I managed to pull off a hat trick for the cherry on top, with the last game being against their captain. I did not have high hopes going into that last game against him because he is definitely more experienced than I. I must admit he seemed a bit off his game, and I was really on, so I managed to pull off the win. Very satisfying evening.

Wednesday our bar's other team (that I am not on) had a buy so since it was St. Patty's day they held a mock tournament with them against anyone else in the bar. We made up a team and had a most excellent night. Lots of pool, friends and laughs.

The team we played last night is at a new bar because the owners of the their previous bar up and closed, retired after 42 years. Didn't say shit to anyone, it was the only bar in Boise that allowed kids (they were also a restaurant), and they had 3 APA teams and I believe 1 BCA team playing out of there - poof - gone. Owners were pricks so nobody was surprised but it put a dent in our juniors stuff for sure.

Anyways, so they had to find a new bar and they pick this random place I've never heard of and we show up early to this absolute dive and decided to go get food and just wait until closer to 7 to go in (it was 6'sh). We go in, meet up with the other team (good guys, known them for a few years) and my team starts showing up and in the end it was good night. Owner of the bar is a good guy, the regulars were all having a good time. Point being - don't judge a book by it's cover.

I usually play late because it's usually a mad-house trying to find scorers, etc. in the beginning so I like to just score and watch pool and play my matches later when I'm in "pool mode". Their captain is a 6 and is the only one on their team that has a chance to beat me and in the second match he through himself up so I grabbed my stick and went to the table. Everyone was talking about how slow the tables were and when I went to break I realized I had my shooting cue in hand and didn't even have a break stick. So I grabbed the first stick on the wall with the flattest tip I could find (I prefer a flat tip for my break cue) and pulled it off the wall, turned around and broke without even chalking or looking at the stick, it took about 10 seconds to grab that stick and bam - 9 on the snap ;) He pulled up the 10 and re-racked and then I broke and ran. Once in a while I find a table that I love to play on - this was one of those nights. I had the 9OS and 2 B&R's but should've had 4 B&R's (rattled a 3B but made the 5, 6, and 7 on the break and should've been out, and then I missed a 7 with the 8 and 9 sitting in front of pockets). I ran over him like the last guy I played ran over me, it felt good.

The funny part is they only had 3 players so had to sub 2 and we choose. Early on the lady on their team (current 4, was a 5 before covid) said something about she'll probably have to double play and I said probably. Turns out she was on fire as much as I was and ran over our guy in the first match. Their third player is a lower level player (2 or 3) and played one of our 3's and we lost but it was close. Clearly, I played the two people that sucked that night so their female player had to sit ;) We put my son up against the guy I played and he beat him but it was close. On the way home my son, out of the blue, goes "Man, we gave that guy a family sandwich" LMAO.

We squeaked out a 52-48 win (our first guy got demolished so my match pretty much zeroed that out and we won 2 of the other 3 matches).

Good times.
 

SSDiver2112

2b || !2b t^ ?
Kind of league related: we started a league here in Boise about a month ago and we're trying to help the lower skill level players get better. The funny thing is, all the good players here in town are stuck on the Diamond tables thinking they're the best (which I won't get into here) so they get grumpy when they have to go play somewhere else. Well, isn't it best to play on as many different pieces of equipment you can to get better? Continually play the fast, straight, tables that bank consistently and what do you learn? You learn how to play on THAT table. I'm not saying that's you, I'm just saying if the bar boxes are kicking your butt then go play on them more ;)

That is what I love about my Tuesday league. We rotate weekly between the bars, so one day we are in a small location with a single bar box, then a restaurant/bar, then a poolroom bar with ten 9 foot tables, etc. I love the variety and being forced to adapt to such a variety of table conditions. Instead of shooting like a robot, because I am used to all the nuances of a familiar table, I have to pay a bit more attention to what I am doing. Plus this league does not have levels or handicapping so the challenge is high since you play one win or lose game.

Chili, you also reminded me that when we walked into the new bar there was a Girl Scout with her mom selling cookies at one of the tables. Odd at first, but at least we had a snack for later.
 

Texas Carom Club

9ball did to billiards what hiphop did to america
Silver Member
with crappy bar tables being the minority of tables we play on......
i hate crappy bar tables, its the cue ball, you cant move it for anything! that cheap dirty thing with the surface of a dirt road, gah


im in the crowd thatll play on anything any time, im just having a hard time this yr with those tables, playing on them much less than in the past



sandbagging is for real the more i play the more i see and hear, they dont try to hide it. Its very lame to me and defeats the purpose of why i want to play the league, but i love the apa format, bca and vnea one game matches, i just cant get into that anymore.
 

Chili Palmer

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
That is what I love about my Tuesday league. We rotate weekly between the bars, so one day we are in a small location with a single bar box, then a restaurant/bar, then a poolroom bar with ten 9 foot tables, etc. I love the variety and being forced to adapt to such a variety of table conditions. Instead of shooting like a robot, because I am used to all the nuances of a familiar table, I have to pay a bit more attention to what I am doing. Plus this league does not have levels or handicapping so the challenge is high since you play one win or lose game.

Chili, you also reminded me that when we walked into the new bar there was a Girl Scout with her mom selling cookies at one of the tables. Odd at first, but at least we had a snack for later.

Yep, want to have a one-sided game then play on one table or at one location only. I've seen it a million times.

One of the bars we played at back in Omaha was in the north end of town. Windows were covered with black paper, door had no windows, sign outside only had the name of the place, if you didn't know it was a bar you couldn't tell by looking at it. Walk in and it's clear we'd be in the wrong part of town on any other night but, once again, we had a blast. Ironically, one year we moved to a new fancy bar closer to where we all lived and were kicked out within 3 months. Owner wasn't a fan of pool, the food sucked, and the "regulars" were a bunch of a-hole's, and that's where I cracked the butt plate on my Huebler. Never stepped in the place again. You get to see them all on a travelling league!

And awesome on the cookies, a quick google search in the parking lot told me they had chips and popcorn, also one of the reasons we didn't go in right away.
 
Top