Nobody needs to question anyone's pool credentials on this site. You have your opinion and RJ has his and neither is wrong. Pool is just fine if you're betting it up or playing for pride or funsies or anywhere in between.
Tony Chohan Interview - "APA takes in 26mm, pays out 1mm"
- Thread starter behindthe9ball
- Start date
Nobody needs to question anyone's pool credentials on this site. You have your opinion and RJ has his and neither is wrong. Pool is just fine if you're betting it up or playing for pride or funsies or anywhere in between.
The general mentallity is that if I improve I will be "punished" by being raised and have to work harder..I like that you can put a family team together or bring a total noob into a league and not hurt yourself too much but there is a don't get moved up theme I see a lot of.The other thing that bothers me is when a 6 or 7 gets put up and they just dump a 2 on them.I don't have much fun beating a 2 that can't get out of a paper bag and it doesn't look too fun for them either.
We had two apa teams a while back and the main man told me that cheating or sand bagging doesnt exist anymore. His sales pitch was great until I asked him what % of all the money that he takes in gets returned to the players in tourneys. He wouldnt answer the question and said its not a money league, but if its my money I have a right to know. We didnt last long and some of the players went to other teams and had to pay the yearly fee again.
Its not for me.
Its not for me.
Well, at lease someone understood the "point"
The "folks like Lou" meant the folks that think you need to gamble to play your best, which is false for many, many folks. Who play the same in league, for money, or at home against the ghost. They grind to the end, and many don't really even understand the term "taking a flyer" as it just does not compute in their heads 
My old man, before he passed a few years ago, would play cards (a phenom at Pinochle) and pool the same way. Oh, he'd play Pinochle for everything in your pocket, he was that good....
But, he'd play the same for nothing when playing with friends and family. He didn't know any other way to play, and it was the right way. In pool, growing up, he would safety the ever living crap out of me, time and time again.
But, I learned defense wins championships. Thus, my safety game is the strongest part of my game. I wish it were pocketing balls, but playing dad, I had to hide as much as possible, and thus got stronger in that area
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I'm an ok player. There's a guy at the local pool hall who gives me the 7-out regularly, which is too much. I can't play him even, and I like winning his money. Why would I want to play better? Why wouldn't I just continue to play just well enough to keep the 7-out?
What incentive is there for me to get better and lose that weight?
Gambling and leagues are different, but certainly not completely different. The guy at my pool hall will eventually want to change the weight, if I'm winning regularly. Similarly, if your team is winning regularly in league, your operator should be asking why and making appropriate adjustments. There's your incentive to improve. It's not supposed to be easy.
Good. F*cking. Luck.
This is exactly what I was going to say. If the handicaps are perfect, and set to make the odds 50/50, then team caps aren't needed as a team of nothing but 2's has the same odds to win as a team of nothing but 7's.
Where it does matter is if the odds are set to give the advantage to the better player instead of them being 50/50, or if you just want to make sure that each team has mixed levels of players so that the crappier players always have somebody on their team that they can learn from, or if you want to make it to where teams have to break apart at a certain point and hopefully recruit new players into the league to be able to keep playing, etc.
That's a good point, never thought about it that way.
Heck, there was HC doubles 9 ball tourney a few months back. The max for team was 13. But some folks showed up with lower than 13, most folks, including myself, made damn sure we were right at 13. Why bring a 4 when I can bring a 5 ?? Given one game to a team with 12 didn't seem like much, and 9b you need someone that can move the cb around the table at least a little bit.
Well, the team that won was a total HC of 9. They only had to win one game against everyone. They stayed on winners side the whole nite. And the "3" that was laying was pretty fuggin weak, but they won it
But, if you missed or rattled a ball when you got down to the 7 or 8, you can easily lose one. It was no gimme for this HC 9 team, but they only got to win one of them