SL 6s & 7s: Why do you play APA?

I like playing in the APA because I enjoy it. I thing that a person only get out whatever they put into something. Rather than fight the system people need to learn to work with the system. It's very easy to complain about something, it's harder but more rewarding to master the system and help the league grow. If you want to play league pool there's no better one around that offers as much as the APA does.

Black Cat :cool:
 
  • Like
Reactions: JDB
For me the APA was a way back into pool. I had slowed or quit playing for roughly 5-6 years. A new APA league was starting and some friends were
getting a team together. I joined and started back playing.

I think you get out of anything (APA included) what you want. For me I get to to shoot some pool with some friends and have a few beers. The competition part isnt that important. Actually the Teams success matters more to me than my own. Being a 7 most players dont play as well so I cant put my stock into winning. However, helping players get better and helping the team win has a bit of a satisfying quality.

I don't sandbag and really don't understand those that do sandbag. If I won that way I would feel that I cheated everyone else and didn't deserve the win.

The APA isnt perfect and no league system is. Just play and look at how you played and help the others.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JDB
A breath of fresh air!

I get SO tired of all the anti-APA threads on here. It sure is refreshing to see a POSITIVE thread about APA play! Props to all you guys, who play because you love to play. You're out there for the right reasons! Play your best, and have fun doing it! :D

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
 
WHY I PLAY - or maybe why I don't?

Well, I posted a while back about me being a SL6 on a high handicap team, that does not get to play much, and that hurts my game, because that is the only night I can get away from the family and work. A very capable 6, but just had work stress, and no time to play, since my wife and I both work - My wife works nights, and I work days - so that our 4 year old son is always with one of us when he isn't at school or summer camp. Therefore, I only get one night out, since my wife plays on a Tuesday 9 ball APA team, and I play on a 8 ball Wed. night team. But, I bit the bullet, and play when I can, and try to not let it cause me any anger - IT IS WHAT IT IS!!! I am playing restricted for the same team this session, and just showing up when they actually need me, and playing elsewhere when they don't, so I can get my game back to par. It is helping, because I am playing much better than I have the last 6 months. ANd it isn't hurting my APA team - getting more players to play, and I will just make my 4 needed matches for playoff qualification.

But here is the the bonus. My wife is a SL3, and they needed her and her handicap for the regional this weekend, that our team had earned. Since one of us needed to stay home with our son - since staying in the hotel with him would not have been fun for anybody, and just chillin around the house sounded good to me - other than just sitting and watching the matches. My work has had me going on training to different areas of the country for a couple weeks this year, and therefore I felt my wife needed the vacation, BY HERSELF!!! SO I stayed home, and cheered her and the team on from our house. She had fun, and really liked the experience that she has deserved - she was able to have fun, and not play second fiddle to me at a pool tourney.

I said - GOOD FOR HER!!!!

But here is the BONUS!!!

The team WON - And we are VEGAS BOUND!!!!

It is her first time, and my second - SO THAT IS WHY I LIKE THE APA!!!!!

Michael
 
I'm locked in as at least a seven in both eight and nineball from APA higher level tournament wins in Vegas and love being a seven in eightball because I can play defense anytime and never worry about going up. I usually control my nineball skill level by always playing the best player on the other team and still trying to win but when I beat eights and nines it is usually a 12=8 win so I keep the team numbers manageable. It is hard in APA nineball to get a nine qualified without several threes or twos on the team, and I don't ever see any ones in our division. I really enjoy the competition of playing the best players on each team we play and it is very few times that they throw off a low ranked player on me because I play good safeties and work the ball in hand runouts.--Leonard
 
Go Tulane...Wow! What a great husband and dad you are. Please give my best regards to your wife, and her team, for their upcoming APA National appearance.
Pool CAN go hand in hand, with a good life and a good marriage!:D Rep to you Sir!

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
 
poolcuemaster said:
I'm locked in as at least a seven in both eight and nineball from APA higher level tournament wins in Vegas and love being a seven in eightball because I can play defense anytime and never worry about going up. I usually control my nineball skill level by always playing the best player on the other team and still trying to win but when I beat eights and nines it is usually a 12=8 win so I keep the team numbers manageable. It is hard in APA nineball to get a nine qualified without several threes or twos on the team, and I don't ever see any ones in our division. I really enjoy the competition of playing the best players on each team we play and it is very few times that they throw off a low ranked player on me because I play good safeties and work the ball in hand runouts.--Leonard
Click to expand...


This is what I dont understand. You dont play safes for show its to win!

You shouldnt be playing worrying about the handicap..... play thinking about winning. If you did this the handicapping issues go away.

If your team doesnt like it then move on to another team. Who the hell wants to join something only to worry about how they win or join to lose.
 
That's exactly why I play BCA . . .

quedup said:
I was an 8 when I stopped playing in the APA. I became the sudo coach and mentor to a group of non players that just wanted to get drunk and stoned. I lent them books that they spilled beer on and cues that they dropped and dinged. Then of course they would expect me to stay until 1 am to tell them how and what to shoot at. There were times that I would sit from 7pm until 12:30 am to play my match, which would be over in 30 minutes and cost me $11.00.. Of course there was plenty of sandbagging as the most experienced players knew exactly what they would need to keep there rank from going up which is a big problem for most teams, the 23 rule makes it very difficult on the better players and there teams.
It just became a real drag and stopped being fun for me, this was just my feelings and the reason I stopped playing in the APA. I know many enjoy the APA and I did for a while also.
JMO,
Dan
Click to expand...

APA was fun . . . but the drawbacks are real.

At least in BCA, particularly 8 ball, your up and playing throughout the evening . . . it sucks just sitting on your ass all night in APA - and then maybe you'll play - maybe you won't. The 23 thing needs to be re-thought . . .
 
I don't understand your post

frankncali said:
This is what I dont understand. You dont play safes for show its to win!

You shouldnt be playing worrying about the handicap..... play thinking about winning. If you did this the handicapping issues go away.

If your team doesnt like it then move on to another team. Who the hell wants to join something only to worry about how they win or join to lose.
Click to expand...


I didn't say I play to lose by playing safeties I just know that even very goods players can be forced into giving me ball in hand with regularity, and I have had a few eightballs kicked in to beat me but if I can't see a runout I'm playing safe till I can runout.--Leonard

There is no higher handicap in eightball in my APA franchise so i play to win every match and I wrote in my first post that I can never go back to a six.
 
Last edited:
DeepBanks said:
. . . it sucks just sitting on your ass all night in APA - and then maybe you'll play - maybe you won't.
Click to expand...

I think you are missing the point here. APA is not about "I", it is about the team. If you are on a team, you aren't sitting on your ass all night, you are with your friends, having a beer or two, and encouraging and supporting your teammates.
 
Thank you!!!

Scott Lee said:
Go Tulane...Wow! What a great husband and dad you are. Please give my best regards to your wife, and her team, for their upcoming APA National appearance.
Pool CAN go hand in hand, with a good life and a good marriage!:D Rep to you Sir!

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Click to expand...
It was all her and the team - probably did better without the pressure of me being there, and she could play her game. She is a SL3, and she plays me a lot, so she has learned how to beat higher handicaps, since many people do not play with the same concentration against a lower level female player. A common fault with people that do not understand the SPOT, and the importance of playing your game no matter who you play. Every money player knows this goden rule. But just ask the 3 - SL6's she beat at regionals this weekend what they did wrong.:D
Well, now she is a SL4, and I probably have no chance with the handicaps playing at VEGAS, but I will enjoy the vacation, and I am proud of her most of all.
I guess it is the mini-tourneys and cue sales for me in VEGAS!!!!

Thanks for the good words,

Michael
 
poolcuemaster said:
I didn't say I play to lose by playing safeties I just know that even very goods players can be forced into giving me ball in hand with regularity, and I have had a few eightballs kicked in to beat me but if I can't see a runout I'm playing safe till I can runout.--Leonard

There is no higher handicap in eightball in my APA franchise so i play to win every match and I wrote in my first post that I can never go back to a six.
Click to expand...

My point was that you were playing differently than what you knew/thought was right to win due to the fact that safes are counted.

I have had a few different teams with some more successful than others. One went to nationals with correct ratings and we never sandbagged. I have always maintained that if the ratings go to high then I will simply quit and let them stay together. I have always encouraged them to play as hard as possible and to not worry about SL. Worry about winning and playing better.

Good luck in your matches. Just curious but how do you do in the 8ball matches and 9ball matches. I would guess that your a very strong 7 in nineball.
 
Because it's cheap and gets me a a couple good hours in on 9 foot tables by myself before matches start. (bar opens at 4:30) and they open the tables for the league players before league starts, I usually get about 2 hours of solo practice before someone wants to bother me.
 
my main reason for hating leagues is i guess skewed by several bad experiences.

every league that ever wanted me wanted me for sandbagging purposes. I look like the type of guy who would never be mistaken for a player. I can also hide my stroke extremely well, something that is known to a lot of people by now unfourtunatly :)

its a waste of time for me, when i could spend the few hours that is spent during a league night playing in a tourney, or getting in some action. 20~40 dollar sets is a lot more interesting than hanging around a bunch of drunk bangers all day. hell, 10 dollar sets are more interesting.

i think the APA is geared more twards casual players who would just as much drink and have fun with friends then play serious pool. im sure there are a few ppl in the APA who focus on the game and are in it to practice and get better, but honestly those guys are hindered by the fact that they only get to play on a barbox. altho there are guys that just love pool. they don't matter what kind of place they have to play in, on what kind of junk tables, as long as they get to play pool.

all in all, i wouldn't be caught dead in a league unless there were several hot girls on the team :D
 
ioCross said:
all in all, i wouldn't be caught dead in a league unless there were several hot girls on the team :D
Click to expand...

I can see the logic in this statement ;) !!!

Maniac
 
Troublemaker said:
The APA League I play in has trouble attracting and keeping higher level players. I hear a lot of the better players say there's not that much in it for them. The competition is too weak or they don't like the handicap system, etc...

I'd really like to hear from some 6s & 7s who enjoy playing in APA as to why? Why did you start playing APA in the first place.

We've all heard the complaints on here before, so please, I'd really like to only hear from people who enjoy APA.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I enjoy playing in the APA. I'm a sl7 in 8ball. I started out because some people I knew from work were starting a team and I told them I knew how to play and they asked me to join. I knew how to play but I wasn't a 7. I started as a 4 and went down to a 3. That was in 2003. I had a passion for the game and never stopped practicing. I became a 7 a few years later and have never dropped down from that.

The competition around here is good. The league I play in has about 15 teams and there is at least one 7 on each team. Some teams have two 7's.
 
Troublemaker said:
The APA League I play in has trouble attracting and keeping higher level players. I hear a lot of the better players say there's not that much in it for them. The competition is too weak or they don't like the handicap system, etc...

I'd really like to hear from some 6s & 7s who enjoy playing in APA as to why? Why did you start playing APA in the first place.

We've all heard the complaints on here before, so please, I'd really like to only hear from people who enjoy APA.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I started playing APA in 2004 when I was recruited into a team. Within one session, I went up to a SL7 and has been there since. As a team, our main goal is always to win citywide and proceed onto Vegas. I've always recruited players that were serious about the game and shared the same common goals when it came to pool and APA. I didnt want a bunch of drunkers that only cared about getting boozed up.

After 4 years of trying, we finally made it to Vegas this year. At that one moment when we won citywide, I felt all the frustrations with the APA, the sandbagging etc just went out of the door.

Apart from that, I enjoy the camaraderie of my team and I enjoy playing pool. I have a great collection of guys and gals, old and young and we all get along great. As long as the frustrations with the APA does not overcome the joys of it, then I will continue to play.
 
A few reasons I guess. APA is very popular where I live so it's easy to find a pool hall nearby that has the league. People I've met in the league are mostly good folks. At this stage in my life, I'm not super competitive with pool anymore so it can be fun and not ultra-serious. I don't like playing on weekends much esp. when weather is nice so tournaments are pretty much out of the question.
 
Once I got a job where I had to be up at 5 AM, I had to quit the APA, even though I thorougly enjoyed it.

I have been thinking about going to play in the Masters division, but I had to be honest as I told everyone that I DO NOT want to go to Vegas. Been there - done that - one time.

Vegas is not a vacation these days. You may have to play just before mid-night, in the middle of the night, and then at 7 the next morning. For the APA and Vegas, this is too much of a zoo, and it just isn't worth it to play against so many sandbaggers.

So, if I can find a Masters team that will just take the money and not go Vegas, I am all in.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top