My report from Vegas

[cluelesscuer]

There are definite rule changes in terms of qualifying for Vegas that the APA could change to prevent sandbagging.

If you have the right set of rules...where you can't go to Vegas if your team is not playing at its best the whole year (not just for one session and not just some of the team's players) you wouldn't have sandbagging.

But the rule changes I am thinking of, would also, end up cutting into the APA's profit.

 

[justadub]

You are right dub. It seems to be the modes operandi of some people on here . Maybe some genuinlly believe I was complaining and if so I apologize.

I was simply trying to report how I and my teammates fared and what I saw in a matter of fact way.

Anyone has the right to "complain" about something not being done properly or correctly. Still, there is a difference between complaining about a particular issue or instance, and making broad statements putting any particular event or organization down.

 

[Banks]

I believe you are right, the APA is awful for pool. It's good for the average Joe to say, ya I'm a pool player, and I'm going to Vegas to play pool. That impresses someone.

The amount of nittiness that goes on as well as the tattletails who run up to the promoters and say watch this person, telling the referee that a 2 banked 4 shots, who cares, you're in a league where you know that at the local level sandbagging is done, and on the Vegas level you're seeing the best actors that SAG can give cards to.

Lol, you have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[lorider]

just got home from vegas. what a nightmare trip. i know most people have heard of murphys law.... well i got a big dose of it today.

back story 1st. i bought a 4x8 case specifically for this trip to carry both breakers and players for my gf and i.instead of taking our regular 2 cases. it fit diagonally inside a suitcase bought specificaly for this purpose and we fit most of our clothes around it and used a medium sized duffle bag as a carry on for the rest of our stuff.the trip to vegas was uneventfull , direct from memphis to vegas.

now we get ready to leave vegas. my gf bought a chit load of souveniers in vegas, hoover dam and the grand canyon while we were here. i tell her we need to buy another duffle bag if not a small suitcase for all the extra stuff.

she says it all will fit in the suitcase and duffle bag and i can carry on the cue case. i said you know we called memphis airport before we left and they said no cases on the plane. she says we saw 3 people carry on cases when we left memphis and when we got to vegas we saw other people getting off planes with cases. i said yea we did, but just because they brought them to vegas on a plane dont mean they leavin vegas carrying cases on a plane.

well you know women.... they aint never wrong.

check out is 11 and our plane leaves at 1;30. we got everything packed and go to dennys for breakfast at dennys. we sittin there talking to a couple thats also here for apa and my gf phone rings. its the airline saying our flight is delayed 2 hours. we supposed to have a 1 hour layover in salt lake. well i tell her that aint gonna work because we will miss our flight outa salt lake. the other couple happens to mention that their friends had the same thing happen to them the day before and were stuck at the salt lake terminal overnight. i tell her to get on the phone and straighten it out.

well they give us a flight to dallas with a 1 hour layover to memphis, problem is it leaves in less than an hour.we haul ass to the hotel ,grab our stuff and head out. no cab anywhere, a shuttle bus sitting rhere and ask if we going to the airport. i said yea and i gotta get there now .and will ride if she dont make any other stops. she says she going
straight there. we get to the airport and i throw her a 20 for hauling ass there and we run inside. the woman at the counter tells us we are 2 minutes too late. 2 friggin minutes.

well my gf gets on the phone again and we get a flight leavin in an hour an a half with an hour an half layover in atlanta.. well we grab that .i gotta hand it to travelocity for workin with us and getting us outa the quicker than our original flight.

now after all that drama is squared away it gets real interesting. .we go to check in and our suitcase is 6 pounds overweight. i pull it off the scale and grab 6 pair of jeans outa it and put the suitcase back on the scale. the guy says i can put some back in. i leave the suitcase on the scale and lay 2 pair of jeans on it. he says add some more. i lay another pair on it. he says add some more. i add 1 more pair and he says ok. that leaves me 2 pair to put in the carry on duffle bag. 2 pair of jeans weigh 6 pounds ? man i think their scale is fvcked up.

now the woman looks at my cue case hanging over my shoulder and says you cant carry that on. . i look over at my gf and i am so wanting to yell at the top of my lungs " I FVCKIN TOLD YOU SO " instead i give her that now what look. she says i guess we got to put in in baggage with the suitcase. i said HUH ?. she says we have 20 minutes to board the plane , we dont have any other choice. well she was right about one thing, we had no time. no time to box the case up, no time to get a duffle bag like i recommended for all the chit she bought and put the cue case back in the suitcase.

well with trepidation i handed him the cue case to put in baggage with visions floating in my my head of recieving a mangled up case with cues missing when we got to memphis.

when we take our seats on the plane i look at her and say you do realize that if i had brought my regular cue like i started to that there was no way in hell i would be on this plane with my case in baggage not boxed up. she looks at me and said if you had brought that cue i would not have recommended doing it this way.well that made me feel a lil better.

well after all that we get to memphis only a half hour than our original flight.

i rush to baggage claims and wait. in a lil bit out pops our suitcase. so im waitin for my cue case.... and waitin still waitin...finally a big plastic box pops out with my cue case in it. i grab it and wait....whats that? the stand that hold the case up is laying in the bottom of the box. i grab it out and look at both the case and the stand. the damn thing is broken. well shit.

i open the cue case and look. well all 4 cues are still in there. i take them all out and look them over. they all look great. cant say the same for the case.

a small tear on the top of the lid. several scratches and scuff marks.... and a tear in the vinyl by where the stand was attached about the size of a piece of m&m candy.

my gf said she was going to file a claim with the airline for my damaged case. i told her it came out in better shape than i thought it would. im just happy all the cues came out unscathed.

hopefully she will listen to me next time but i would not bet on it.

 

[lfigueroa]

just got home from vegas. what a nightmare trip. i know most people have heard of murphys law.... well i got a big dose of it today.

back story 1st. i bought a 4x8 case specifically for this trip to carry both breakers and players for my gf and i.instead of taking our regular 2 cases. it fit diagonally inside a suitcase bought specificaly for this purpose and we fit most of our clothes around it and used a medium sized duffle bag as a carry on for the rest of our stuff.the trip to vegas was uneventfull , direct from memphis to vegas.

now we get ready to leave vegas. my gf bought a chit load of souveniers in vegas, hoover dam and the grand canyon while we were here. i tell her we need to buy another duffle bag if not a small suitcase for all the extra stuff.

she says it all will fit in the suitcase and duffle bag and i can carry on the cue case. i said you know we called memphis airport before we left and they said no cases on the plane. she says we saw 3 people carry on cases when we left memphis and when we got to vegas we saw other people getting off planes with cases. i said yea we did, but just because they brought them to vegas on a plane dont mean they leavin vegas carrying cases on a plane.

well you know women.... they aint never wrong.

check out is 11 and our plane leaves at 1;30. we got everything packed and go to dennys for breakfast at dennys. we sittin there talking to a couple thats also here for apa and my gf phone rings. its the airline saying our flight is delayed 2 hours. we supposed to have a 1 hour layover in salt lake. well i tell her that aint gonna work because we will miss our flight outa salt lake. the other couple happens to mention that their friends had the same thing happen to them the day before and were stuck at the salt lake terminal overnight. i tell her to get on the phone and straighten it out.

well they give us a flight to dallas with a 1 hour layover to memphis, problem is it leaves in less than an hour.we haul ass to the hotel ,grab our stuff and head out. no cab anywhere, a shuttle bus sitting rhere and ask if we going to the airport. i said yea and i gotta get there now .and will ride if she dont make any other stops. she says she going
straight there. we get to the airport and i throw her a 20 for hauling ass there and we run inside. the woman at the counter tells us we are 2 minutes too late. 2 friggin minutes.

well my gf gets on the phone again and we get a flight leavin in an hour an a half with an hour an half layover in atlanta.. well we grab that .i gotta hand it to travelocity for workin with us and getting us outa the quicker than our original flight.

now after all that drama is squared away it gets real interesting. .we go to check in and our suitcase is 6 pounds overweight. i pull it off the scale and grab 6 pair of jeans outa it and put the suitcase back on the scale. the guy says i can put some back in. i leave the suitcase on the scale and lay 2 pair of jeans on it. he says add some more. i lay another pair on it. he says add some more. i add 1 more pair and he says ok. that leaves me 2 pair to put in the carry on duffle bag. 2 pair of jeans weigh 6 pounds ? man i think their scale is fvcked up.

now the woman looks at my cue case hanging over my shoulder and says you cant carry that on. . i look over at my gf and i am so wanting to yell at the top of my lungs " I FVCKIN TOLD YOU SO " instead i give her that now what look. she says i guess we got to put in in baggage with the suitcase. i said HUH ?. she says we have 20 minutes to board the plane , we dont have any other choice. well she was right about one thing, we had no time. no time to box the case up, no time to get a duffle bag like i recommended for all the chit she bought and put the cue case back in the suitcase.

well with trepidation i handed him the cue case to put in baggage with visions floating in my my head of recieving a mangled up case with cues missing when we got to memphis.

when we take our seats on the plane i look at her and say you do realize that if i had brought my regular cue like i started to that there was no way in hell i would be on this plane with my case in baggage not boxed up. she looks at me and said if you had brought that cue i would not have recommended doing it this way.well that made me feel a lil better.

well after all that we get to memphis only a half hour than our original flight.

i rush to baggage claims and wait. in a lil bit out pops our suitcase. so im waitin for my cue case.... and waitin still waitin...finally a big plastic box pops out with my cue case in it. i grab it and wait....whats that? the stand that hold the case up is laying in the bottom of the box. i grab it out and look at both the case and the stand. the damn thing is broken. well shit.

i open the cue case and look. well all 4 cues are still in there. i take them all out and look them over. they all look great. cant say the same for the case.

a small tear on the top of the lid. several scratches and scuff marks.... and a tear in the vinyl by where the stand was attached about the size of a piece of m&m candy.

my gf said she was going to file a claim with the airline for my damaged case. i told her it came out in better shape than i thought it would. im just happy all the cues came out unscathed.

hopefully she will listen to me next time but i would not bet on it.

Great reporting. Thanks for the write up. And you're right -- you're lucky the cues made it OK.

Lou Figueroa

 

[CreeDo]

Sounds like a rough time. Hope the touristy stuff was fun because it sounds like everything pool-related was just stressful.

For the next 10 years whenever you get into a disagreement...
you have to resist the urge to say to your girl "remember how you said we didn't need another bag
for that flight outta vegas?"

 

[lorider]

Great reporting. Thanks for the write up. And you're right -- you're lucky the cues made it OK.

Lou Figueroa

my gf is the lucky one. if i had taken my daily player i would not have been on any flight out until my cue was safley secured.

not only is my main player a fairly high dollar custom, it has a lot of sentimintal value because i purchased it from a friend who is now deceased.

 

[lorider]

Sounds like a rough time. Hope the touristy stuff was fun because it sounds like everything pool-related was just stressful.

For the next 10 years whenever you get into a disagreement...
you have to resist the urge to say to your girl "remember how you said we didn't need another bag
for that flight outta vegas?"

actually the whole trip was a very rewarding experience. i also look at my self and my teamates in a new light and learned a few things about human nature and how people react under pressure.

take me for example. more than once i have put pressure on myself and come unglued on the pool table and when encountering personal problems. not this trip. i played better than i ever have in my life. i played so well i am sure some people watching me would say i was the biggest sandbagger they ever saw.

my gf supprised me keeping a level head during the tourny and playing better than i expected her to. during league she always got upset when i called time out. not once during the tournament did that happen , in fact she seemed to welcome it. before the tourny started i stressed to her to play defense whenever she felt in trouble, she supprised me by doing it several times, something she never does in league.

she was darn near in tears during our problems getting a flight out. i think that was the reason i agreed to just let the case go in baggage. her mental state was more important that that case. she has a bad knee and hip and was a real trroper during all the walking we had to do and never complained although i saw her grimace in pain more than once. i am real proud of her.

the other girl was a 2 and played qwell enough to be raised to a 3 after her 2nd match.

the 2 guys who are both 4's were highly dissapointing. they both made some of the stupidest mistakes i ever saw in my life. i cant tell you how many times they gave bih by attempting stupid stuff my 2 would never attempt.

the hoover damn was a great experience but i gotta say the grand canyon was the most awe inspiring sight i could ever imagine seeing. pictures dont do that place justice.

 

[lfigueroa]

Well lets get off the subject of sandbagging and more about my trip.

Cues on a plane,,,, while I was waiting to board the plane in Memphis a guy comes up carrying his case. I said how the hell they let you through with that? He says he has never had a problem taking his case on a plane. I also ran into other people here in Vegas that had carried cues on the plane with them.

I had bought a 4x8 case specifically for this trip to carry both mine and my gf's cues. Big mistake.. That sucker got heavy walking from the back of the riv to the back of circus circus. I guess cues on a plane depends on where you board at. Another case of a government program where one hand does not know what the other one is doing.

Speaking of cues.

I decided not to bring my high dollar custom I play with every day at league. For all the various obvious reasons.

Instead I brought a cheap import sneaky Pete that weighs 22oz. My reg player is 19 oz. I played some of my best pool ever with that cheap stick. Guess there is some truth it's the Indian not the arrow

I think it's just the personnel at different airports. St. Louis is tough and you have no chance, but I know a lot of folks get on with them from other locales. Now whether they get away with it on the return leg is a different story.

Lou Figueroa