When I moved away from the Bay Area in No. Calif about 8 years ago to the country outside of Sacramento, I looked for a BCA bar league in the area and couldn't find anything local. I had played for a few years in the Bay Area and enjoyed the trip to the Riviera in Las Vegas each May. I layed off pool for a few years and then started playing again on the big tables at Hard Times in Sacramento & still keep it up a couple times a week. While I was looking at the BCA website to check the results / brackets of the tournament in Reno, I saw there was a BCA league going again out of a little town less than 30 miles from me. I contacted the league operator & he told me they will start up again after the big BCA Tournament in May in Las Vegas, but they get together every Monday at the league bars for a little 8 ball tournament. I put one of my Chuck Starkey cues in an old It's George soft case and went to the tournament last night. The first thing I noticed when I got there was two old 4 x 8 Valley's in very good shape. While being introduced around I started checking out the equipment the players were using. I noticed a two or three high end cases and then started checking out these guys cues. Out of 12 players in the tournament, 4 or 5 were using Predator's, one had an old Schoen, one had an old Palmer (I think) and three or four of them had OB-1 shafts. Not what I was expecting in a little beer bar in the Sierra Foothills. Turns out these guys can play some too. I got knocked in the losers bracket in the 3rd round, got lucky and ended up winning the tournament from the losers side, bought a round for the house and had a great time. I forgot how much fun it is to play in a nice friendly little bar until I showed up there last night. John Henderson