Player rating question

[poohkiller]

Hello everyone,

I would like to ask something that has to be really well known for most of you but until now I did not manage to find out how it really works. Before I would ask what I have to let me say one more thing about it: here in my country, Hungary, certain changes / reforms are being done by the Hungarian Pool Billiards Association in terms of player ratings and qualifyings.

My question is: I have seen in many posts that I am Level Y in 9-ball, Level X in 8-ball and for some reason I remember the letters APA (American Pool Association?) too - like APA Level 4 or something like that. I would like to know that is it some kind of a player rating system - I believe it is. And if it is, what are the factors that are considered and how is your Level defined - won matches / entered tournaments or events, time since one's been playing, etc. Who is the higher level / better player, a Level 4 or a Level 3?

Is there a seperate tournament for each level or is there some passing through between them and perhaps the higher level player gives some advantage to the lower level opponent?

I am sorry for all these questions but I would really like to help the changes in my country and help develop a system that is as good and fair as yours.

Thank you all even if you have only read my long questions and boring thread and any answers / help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bsmutz]

The American Poolplayer's Association (APA) is the largest amateur pool league in the U.S. Rankings for 8-ball are 2-7 and 9-ball is 2-9. When you first start as an unranked player, you start as a 2 for a woman and as a 3 for a man. There are handicaps awarded for lesser skilled players. In 8-ball for example, someone who is a 2 would only have to win 2 games against a 7 who would have to win 5 games. In 9-ball, each ball you make counts as one point except for the 9 which is 2 points. To figure out your ranking, the league uses some software that takes into account how many safeties you played, games won, and how many innings it took you to win the game. All of these things are recorded by both teams on separate scorecards. The league takes into account any discrepancies between the two scorecards. This really only applies to safeties played as the scorecards should agree on number of innings and games won. That's it in quick terms.
You can probably find out more on their website at www.poolplayers.com.

One of the main drawbacks with the APA system for most people is the handicap cap and the small range. If you are playing a match of 8-ball (5 individual matches/people playing from your team), all of the handicap levels that play in that match have to total 23 or less. This means that if all of the people on your team get better, you have to break up your team because the total handicaps are too high. As you can figure out, your average player has to be around 4-5. Also, a 7 in 8-ball can be anywhere from a good player to a pro caliber player. There are a large range of skill levels in the group of players that are ranked 7s. This means that you can regularly get your butt spanked by someone that on paper should be a good match for you. Hope this helps with your endeavors.

 

[fish on]

Go to poolplayers.com and all that (APA) american poolplayers association info will be there for you!
site map on right side of home page is awesome
Hey I have some of that Hungarian in me!
If you need more info on PM me here!

 

[Bob Jewett]

... I am sorry for all these questions but I would really like to help the changes in my country and help develop a system that is as good and fair as yours. ...

I think you will be better off implementing a system like the Chess Federation. The problem with the APA system is that it counts such things as innings per game and safeties in calculating a player's ranking. This is good in that it is possible to compare players who play in widely-separated regions, but it is bad in that it allows players to manipulate their ratings by which specific shots they take.

I urge you to implement a system that is based solely on wins and losses in official competitions.

 

[poohkiller]

Thank you all for your replies you have been a great help! I will translate what you wrote and tell it to my endeavors - also, I will urge that won / lose mathes based system, that sounds very reasonable to me.

Thank you once again,