At a Casino in Vegas? will we be surprised?
Just got home from Vegas APA
- Thread starter easy-e
- Start date
It’s apa masters. There are no limits.
Believe me, I know sandbagging. We've had players get banned for that, and deservedly so.
Not these guys. I play with them all the time.
They have been to Vegas before, a few members won a 3 man tournament in Indiana last year, one of their members won the APA Woman's teams tournament in 2021 (my wife was on that team). So no, they don't hold back. I get that if more than 3 players go up you should be scrutinized, but it's not like they were barely winning all year and just showed up and started kicking ass. Tons and tons of matches and scores already in the system showing their abilities. I think the big issue is we play on diamonds with tight pockets, a lot of people that play out there do not. The pockets out there are buckets.
My friend lost to Gary Abood in the semis of the 9 ball singles. Gary has a Fargo rate higher than two people who have played on the Mosconi Cup team in the last few years (Chris Reinhold and Jeremy Jones), how and why he is playing in an amateur league is beyond me.
I don't know much about the APA, so someone please help me out here. The way I understand it is that each team has three members that have to play regular APA, and they can add one additional player who only has to play masters. I was given that fourth spot on my team after their original choice was DQ'd from participating. His fargo was higher than Gary's, but he works a regular full-time job. Other great players there (from the rumor mill) were allowed to play because they have real jobs. No clue how it really works, but it seems very subjective as far as who plays and who can't.
You don't have to play regular APA to play on a master's team in my experience. Can have 4 that only play masters.
I'm not sure that the amateur rule applies to masters, could be wrong on that. I think masters should be open.
I know a lot of players practice a lot more when they know they have qualified and put more time into it. Which means they are going to get better. It does suck to go out there and be dq.
There were 373 teams to be exact, so nice job! My team also finished 17-32, they upped the payouts for all divisions except masters, so we got shafted to some degree. $400 for going that far is a pretty poor payout, but it's always a fun event.
I was surprised to see how many of the stronger teams were knocked out earlier than expected this year, but there also seemed to be more players north of 700 this time around.
You need to enter the line for the minis 15 to 20 minutes before the next time comes up. Generally the higher skill level minis don't sell out as quickly, and it's a fun way to make a few extra bucks and get some practice in. The diamond tables were a very welcomed addition this year! They play so much better than the Vally's in the past.
Defending champs weren’t there. At least not all of them. Maybe a couple players from last years winners. But good job on the finish. We got beat early by a team from Richmond. Nate Childress and Larry Kresell put a hurting on us
The defending champs (2 years in a row) are called Whiteout and they finished 5-8 place this year. They were defeated by Boom in that round.
Well BJ Ussery wasn’t there that I knew of. Still a great team without him though
I know the master's division does not use handicaps, but I would have thought since it's still in the APA league they would not allow pro level players in.
I think you know this is an incredible stretch. You know you are qualified so you practice really hard and from that you play better and go up a level.
OR
You play below your level all season for chump change, to go to Vegas and wow look how much better I play now?
It's the same team they had last year, Ussery was 2 years ago. I've heard that he's no longer allowed to play in this event, not sure how accurate that is but I can believe it when all of the comments on YouTube from that match kept calling him a pro. It seems they have a cap of 740-750 fargo for this event now, although they won't directly come out and say it (my personal assumption).
Seems like a similar situation as Abrin Schaad. A fargo of 750 should easily be able to dominate the rest of the field here assuming their break is working well.
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I might be mistaken but I thought BJ was with them last year. He didn’t have to play in the finals as they won 2-0
Just checked and yes I am wrong. BJ wasn’t with them last year. My mistake
I asked Brian White where BJ was and he told me they finally said he was too professional to play. Although I believe Brian has a higher fargo (but I'm too lazy to look it up).