Playing APA 9-ball for the first time tonight

N

NeZ

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Last session I joined an APA 8 ball league. It was my first time in a league. I enjoyed it quite a bit and my team was a good fit. Because we were in a small division every team made it to the playoffs. We won our first playoff match-up and our second went all the way to the final game. We lost but still had fun.

We signed up for the new session. I just got an email from my team captain saying that the league operator called her and asked if we could switch to playing 9 ball instead of 8 ball.

I've never played APA 9 ball before. I read the rules today and they seem pretty close to BCA with the exception of not having push-outs.

I'm a little concerned about the scoring aspect. It seems that'll change the game quite a bit and make actually making the 9 ball a lot less important.

Does any one have any strategy tips for APA 9 ball? Should I be playing differently than normal 9 ball?
 
NeZ said:
Does any one have any strategy tips for APA 9 ball? Should I be playing differently than normal 9 ball?
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APA 9 ball is all based on a points system. It doesn't matter if you ever make a 9 ball or not. The object of the game is to pocket balls.

Pocket as many balls as you can. When you don't have a shot, play a safe. Don't worry about making the 9 ball at all. If you do, it is two points, which is good, but, if your opponent makes all of the other balls, you will lose 2-8.
 
Yep what he said. ^^^ :D

If you can run out, run out. If you can pocket the nine early as opposed to playing a safe, and you're comfortable enough with your break that you think you can break and sink something and keep shooting, do it. Otherwise, think safety. Leave your opponent as few (if any) chances to pocket a ball.

The main idea with APA 9-ball is for you to make your points requirement before the other player does - winning games by sinking the nine means nothing other than getting the break. The more points the losing player needs at the end of the match, the more points the winner (and his team) will get out of the match (there's two different point systems going - one for the match itself, and one for the matches as a whole - completely different). The match points as a whole go from 12-8 (where the losing player only needed a few balls) to 20-0 (where the losing player hardly got any balls down). Five matches a night means a total of 100 points to be had between the two teams.

Good luck!
 
Play like you would normal 9-ball (going for the 9 when it's hanging even if you have a runout) because if you have a mind for pool you're going to grow out of APA. You don't want to develop bad habits like leaving the easy 9 to run the rest of the rack first... at least that's my opinion.
 
Hierovision said:
Play like you would normal 9-ball (going for the 9 when it's hanging even if you have a runout) because if you have a mind for pool you're going to grow out of APA. You don't want to develop bad habits like leaving the easy 9 to run the rest of the rack first... at least that's my opinion.
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Using this strategy, you can lose a lot of matches in the APA.

I don't want to encourage forming bad habits, but you have to think about APA 9 ball as a totally different game and you have to play to win that game, not normal 9 ball.
 
NeZ said:
Last session I joined an APA 8 ball league. It was my first time in a league. I enjoyed it quite a bit and my team was a good fit. Because we were in a small division every team made it to the playoffs. We won our first playoff match-up and our second went all the way to the final game. We lost but still had fun.

We signed up for the new session. I just got an email from my team captain saying that the league operator called her and asked if we could switch to playing 9 ball instead of 8 ball.

I've never played APA 9 ball before. I read the rules today and they seem pretty close to BCA with the exception of not having push-outs.

I'm a little concerned about the scoring aspect. It seems that'll change the game quite a bit and make actually making the 9 ball a lot less important.

Does any one have any strategy tips for APA 9 ball? Should I be playing differently than normal 9 ball?
Click to expand...
GO BACK TO BCA 9 BALL AS QUICK AS YOU CAN BEFORE YOUR GAME GETS RUINED. APA 9 BALL IS A GAME ONLY APA PLAYS. BCA AND THE REST OF THE WORLD PLAY REAL 9 BALL.

LJMOSS
 
APA 9 ball is designed to encourage people to learn to run-out in 9-ball. The problem with the other 9 ball is that it encourages players to cheese the 9 (slop the 9 in). Most people aren't at a level where they can runout in 9 ball consistently. Since in 9 ball you don't have to even call the pocket, so alotta luck can come into play in that game. As a result, when making the 9 is all that matters, cheese players unfortunately actually win and beat alot of more skilled players. Since APA 9 ball puts less focus on the 9 ball, it is no longer a big reward to cheese the 9. Instead, you're better off learning true strategies for learning how to make balls, defense and control the table.
 
It's pool by numbers just like regular 9 ball, but scored more like straight pool with the 9 being 2pts and the next break. Not really 9 ball at all, but a hybrid game.

McCue Banger McCue
 
ljmoss said:
GO BACK TO BCA 9 BALL AS QUICK AS YOU CAN BEFORE YOUR GAME GETS RUINED. APA 9 BALL IS A GAME ONLY APA PLAYS. BCA AND THE REST OF THE WORLD PLAY REAL 9 BALL.
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How can playing a different game, requiring you to make more balls than your opponent, ruin your normal 9 ball game? :confused:

I guess you would recommend that a straight pool player never play 9 ball, 8 ball or one pocket. :confused:

APA 9 ball is just a different game, with a different objective. It will not ruin anyone's game.
 
NeZ said:
Last session I joined an APA 8 ball league. It was my first time in a league. I enjoyed it quite a bit and my team was a good fit. Because we were in a small division every team made it to the playoffs. We won our first playoff match-up and our second went all the way to the final game. We lost but still had fun.

We signed up for the new session. I just got an email from my team captain saying that the league operator called her and asked if we could switch to playing 9 ball instead of 8 ball.

I've never played APA 9 ball before. I read the rules today and they seem pretty close to BCA with the exception of not having push-outs.

I'm a little concerned about the scoring aspect. It seems that'll change the game quite a bit and make actually making the 9 ball a lot less important.

Does any one have any strategy tips for APA 9 ball? Should I be playing differently than normal 9 ball?
Click to expand...

The best advice imo is to NEVER give up ball in hand!
Especially to the lower skill levels.

Steve
 
ScottW said:
So NeZ, how'd you do?
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Unfortunately, I lost. I got the break for the last rack, I needed 5 points and my opponent needed 1. I broke and sunk two on the break and had a nice, medium difficulty shot on the 1 ball. I was feeling pretty good because the table was fairly open and I only needed to sink three more to win. I jawed the 1 and left it hanging in the pocket. D'oh! Easy make for my opponent to win the match. Ouch!

I haven't played much 9-ball since I started playing 8-ball league several months ago. I was a little rusty but wasn't too upset with my performance.

I'm still on the fence about if I'll like this format better than 8-ball. We're doing a two week trial run and then all the teams in the division will vote on if we'll move back to 8-ball or stick with 9-ball.
 
NeZ said:
Unfortunately, I lost. I got the break for the last rack, I needed 5 points and my opponent needed 1. I broke and sunk two on the break and had a nice, medium difficulty shot on the 1 ball. I was feeling pretty good because the table was fairly open and I only needed to sink three more to win. I jawed the 1 and left it hanging in the pocket. D'oh! Easy make for my opponent to win the match. Ouch!

I haven't played much 9-ball since I started playing 8-ball league several months ago. I was a little rusty but wasn't too upset with my performance.

I'm still on the fence about if I'll like this format better than 8-ball. We're doing a two week trial run and then all the teams in the division will vote on if we'll move back to 8-ball or stick with 9-ball.
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Well good work for ur first nite.
My first nite did not do well, however as the session progressed i did my first 9 break and run.... however i never got my pin! :(
 
NeZ, you may have lost your first match but you BARELY lost it. That's not so bad. APA 9-ball is a strange beast that takes a little getting used to.

Did they start you out with your 8-ball handicap? If so, what is it? I'm curious. :)
 
ScottW said:
NeZ, you may have lost your first match but you BARELY lost it. That's not so bad. APA 9-ball is a strange beast that takes a little getting used to.

Did they start you out with your 8-ball handicap? If so, what is it? I'm curious. :)
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They did start me out at my 8-ball handicap. I'm a 3 right now but people that I've played think it's a little low.

My first session was the fall session of 2006 so I haven't had many matches. I lost my first 4 or 5 matches in a row since I wasn't used to competition and my SL went way down.

I've been winning quite a bit since then but they still haven't raised my level. I don't mind being a 3 though. We have a couple weaker players on our team so this way I can go up against the higher ranked players and have a fairly good shot at winning.
 
I am into my second session of APA 9-ball and third session of APA 8-ball. It is my opinion based on personal experience and threads/posts that I've read on this forum, that there is a fair amount of sandbagging going on in APA leagues. The point system the APA uses in their 9-ball matches IMO makes it a little riskier for one to sandbag. I mean, if a player tanks a shot on purpose to get more innings in, he is in jeopardy of giving up a lot of points by giving up the table. Because the game is NOT won by sinking the 9-ball, you must earn your win through the accumulation of MADE shots. This is bad news for sandbaggers.
FWIW, I went 8-3 in my first session of 9-ball and was somewhere in the vicinity of .500 in my first session of 8-ball. I attribute this to the fact that the players skill levels may be a little more on the accurate side in 9-ball. I dunno, I could be wrong, but this is what I believe.

Maniac
 
I've played APA 9 ball and the only thing I didnt like about it, was the fact that you cant push out after the break.

Now on the plus side, if your a mid level player SL 4-7 , it makes you work on your CB control on the break more.

And I think the sandbagging level in APA 9 ball is less, because if you constantly sandbag it's actually hurting your teams chances of getting into the playoffs, and getting a chance to goto vegas.

Plus I like how every ball is a point and each ball matters on your way to winning the match. And if someone does slop in the 9ball early, it can sometimes backfire, because if they break and dont make anything the table is turned back over to thier opponent. Where in the previous rack they might have run out, but instead opted for the easy 2 points, instead of 10 points.
 
NeZ said:
Last session I joined an APA 8 ball league. It was my first time in a league. I enjoyed it quite a bit and my team was a good fit. Because we were in a small division every team made it to the playoffs. We won our first playoff match-up and our second went all the way to the final game. We lost but still had fun.

We signed up for the new session. I just got an email from my team captain saying that the league operator called her and asked if we could switch to playing 9 ball instead of 8 ball.

I've never played APA 9 ball before. I read the rules today and they seem pretty close to BCA with the exception of not having push-outs.

I'm a little concerned about the scoring aspect. It seems that'll change the game quite a bit and make actually making the 9 ball a lot less important.

Does any one have any strategy tips for APA 9 ball? Should I be playing differently than normal 9 ball?
Click to expand...

I love APA 9-ball. It's handicapping system is the most logical I've seen, you're playing for points and you got to different point totals depending upon handicap. Sandbaggers screw it up, but that is inevitable.
What I love most about APA 9-ball is that even if you don't win your individual match you still will generally get some team points based upon your performance. That is the way a team sport should be, all members of the team should have a way to contribute without having to hit a homerun or score a goal. APA 9-ball IMO, may be the only true team form of pool.
 
Because of all the facts mentioned above, APA 9 ball gives a lower handicap person a better chance of beating a higher handicap.

A 6 against a 3/4 in 8 ball.....the 6 will win almost all the time unless he beats himself. As we all know a 3/4 can sometimes get in a groove and run 4 or 5 balls in a row but all that matters is who makes the 8.

A 6 against a 3/4 in APA 9........this is much different. The point spread is so much that if a 3/4 gets in a couple of good runs, they have a very good chance of beating that 6, as the ONLY thing that matters is points (making balls).
 
Jeff said:
Because of all the facts mentioned above, APA 9 ball gives a lower handicap person a better chance of beating a higher handicap.

A 6 against a 3/4 in 8 ball.....the 6 will win almost all the time unless he beats himself. As we all know a 3/4 can sometimes get in a groove and run 4 or 5 balls in a row but all that matters is who makes the 8.

A 6 against a 3/4 in APA 9........this is much different. The point spread is so much that if a 3/4 gets in a couple of good runs, they have a very good chance of beating that 6, as the ONLY thing that matters is points (making balls).
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That, combined with how often a 3/4 handicap is likely to slop a ball in, and yes, you're quite correct. :P

Last session, I moved my 8-ball team from one location to another, where they do the "double jeapordy" thing - 8 and 9 ball the same night. Two teams play on two tables, running 8-ball matches on one table, 9-ball the other. Nice thing is EVERYONE can play - 8 team members, 10 matches total.

Anyhow - early in the session, a team dropped out. A few weeks in, the LO put another team in that old team's spot to take up the bye spot. The teams that had already gotten the bye were told, when time comes around in the schedule to play the new team, it'd be for double points, as the bye points received earlier were being taken away.

Our time comes to play this team - and they're all mid-to-low handicaps. Figured, we can whoop up on'em. We did ok on'em in 8-ball - but 9-ball, pretty much EVERY one of them slopped in at least a half dozen balls each, not only getting those points but sometimes continuing to shoot. We went 41-59 on this team for the night - and then that weak showing was doubled, points-wise. :(
 
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