Opinions of being a 7 in APA

Rich R. said:
I commend your captain for not asking you to sandbag. Not all captains are as honest. Play your best and you will always be able to hold your head high.
BTW, I have been playing in the APA for a few years and I am currently a 6 and I hope to be a 7 someday. Like you, I am fortunate, in that my team captain has never once asked me to sandbag or dump a match.
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That's one of the biggest drawbacks to the APA - the sandbagging. Ugh.

Just a few months ago, I overheard two guys that I know - I think both are 7s in 8-ball, one might be a 6 though - discussing amongst themselves the stupendous sandbagging 9-ball team they had put together for the next session. They were basically patting each other on the back for their cleverness. I was tempted to get in touch with the LO about it, but thought that it really wasn't any of my business - but I've lost all respect for these guys.
 
We have an SL7 on my APA team (wanna chime in, axejunkie?) who barely ever plays because of the 23 rule. Our reasoning is usually that we want to win at least 3 out of 5 matches every week, and if we put our 7 up, that means we have to put up two of our weakest players in order to stay under the handicap limit. So we often end up playing 5-5-5-5-3 (yeah, we have 4 fives) since we have strong fives who are always likely to win, instead of 7-5-5-3-2, since only three of those players are likely to win. If we had a strong 4, then 7-5-5-4-2 would be good, or if we had two strong 3s, then 7-5-5-3-3 would be good, but we don't have that.

-Andrew
 
Andrew Manning said:
We have an SL7 on my APA team (wanna chime in, axejunkie?) who barely ever plays because of the 23 rule. Our reasoning is usually that we want to win at least 3 out of 5 matches every week, and if we put our 7 up, that means we have to put up two of our weakest players in order to stay under the handicap limit. So we often end up playing 5-5-5-5-3 (yeah, we have 4 fives) since we have strong fives who are always likely to win, instead of 7-5-5-3-2, since only three of those players are likely to win. If we had a strong 4, then 7-5-5-4-2 would be good, or if we had two strong 3s, then 7-5-5-3-3 would be good, but we don't have that.

-Andrew
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Nice lineup, but SLs change, and your strong SL5s can go to six quick.

We had, one week, where four players moved up or down.
 
Gregg said:
Nice lineup, but SLs change, and your strong SL5s can go to six quick.

We had, one week, where four players moved up or down.
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Yes indeed, we know that. Our team has been hurt by handicaps increasing in the past, and it probably won't be long until it hapens again.

-Andrew
 
I'm going to make you look prophetic Andrew. I bet your skill level has gone up from last week. I was holding off chiming in due to my recent slump.

Oh well, I'll mosey (sp?) on over to the For Sale section and see if a $2,500 Southwest will make me a better player:cool:

Can't wait til it gets knocked over by one of the waitresses...
 
Some crazy stuff

I'm a 7 in eight ball and a 5 in nine ball. My coach plays me in the first match and in the last nineball match. He has this crazy system. Play when I'm sober and I will win, play me two hours later when I'm drunk and I will lose. God I love the APA;)
 
I think that when it comes to playing 8 ball on a bar box, there is little or no difference between a 6 and a 7. For the most part, the 7s are just guys that don't want to sandbag their way down to a 6. I'm a 6 and I'll never let myself be a 7. If my team is up 4 nothing or we are already qualified, sure! I'll lose! I don't mind. Being a 7 puts your team at a disadvantage as it limits who you can play for the rest of the night.
 
pharaoh68 said:
I think that when it comes to playing 8 ball on a bar box, there is little or no difference between a 6 and a 7. For the most part, the 7s are just guys that don't want to sandbag their way down to a 6. I'm a 6 and I'll never let myself be a 7. If my team is up 4 nothing or we are already qualified, sure! I'll lose! I don't mind. Being a 7 puts your team at a disadvantage as it limits who you can play for the rest of the night.
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How satisfying is a win, when you know you have deliberately cheated the system just to keep your handicap lower than it should actually be?
Enquiring minds want to know...
Steve
 
pooltchr said:
How satisfying is a win, when you know you have deliberately cheated the system just to keep your handicap lower than it should actually be?
Enquiring minds want to know...
Steve
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Adam Smith, said people are driven by greed.
 
pharaoh68 said:
I think that when it comes to playing 8 ball on a bar box, there is little or no difference between a 6 and a 7. .
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Not in my area. In my area, the 7's (when we all used to play APA) are clearly better than the 6's. I think we had one guy that was a tweener, but not more than one.

OTOH, a weak 7 vs. a strong 6 might be something else.

Fred
 
Gregg said:
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Now, if you want to talk 9 ball...We had a SL9 on our team, and let me tell you, he would make on average it seemed five or six balls each time he would walk up to the table, and still lose by a big split to a strong SL5 who needed half his points. Also, anything can happen off the break on a bar table with no push out.
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Yup. And when going to a different bar, it may take a game or two or more to get the table down so that you can take advantage of your skill. By then, it may be too late.

Fred
 
Depends on the strength of the league, but I have been on several teams when we had very strong 7 (8 ball) and 9 (9 ball) SL players. In Frederick and Hagerstown, the 7/9 players are definitely better than pretty much any SL6. I some of the other surrounding area, the SL 7 players don't seem quite as strong. I think that is because they don't have as many high level players around so they don't feel as challenged. When I went to Vegas from All Star for a couple of times, we could not play our 7 in 8 ball nor our 9 in 9 ball. Our numbers would not let them play, because other players had gone up and we could not field 23. However, their coaching ability helped us tremendously. Also, they certainly got us there. K.N., our S/L 9 had to beat an S/L 8 by 40 balls for us to get to Vegas. It wasn't even close. When I asked him how he could focus and play so well against another strong player, he said "he wasn't all that strong an 8"........the true high level players are just that.
 
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