I was only asking to get an idea of whom I'd be playing. Don't want to let a team down. Now I sort of know what to expect from a 4... So in 8 ball if I'm playing a 7 I'm pretty much going for the run nearly every time ( I'm assuming those guys can jump and kick ). If I'm playing a 2 I'll prob keep my soldiers on the table and take care of my problem balls to get ready for a run... I'm not one of those guys who believes in playing the table. I think knowing your opponnent's weaknesses/strengths helps.
APA is a strange animal with winner break format and ANY SLOP GOES, so you can be the best in the league and lose to a novice on a single mistake, because of the handicap system. That is, if you're a 6 facing a 3, you have to win 6, they have to win 2 to win the match. Your W/L percentage is not based on games won, but
matches, you can run out 90% of your racks and have a losing record if your captain puts you up against low-ranked players and they squeak out two racks somehow.
Mind you, also you'll likely be playing on bar boxes often enough, and no guarantee that they're in good shape. 2s, 3s, and some 4s can be bad enough players that dog shots that smash up the pattern you were hoping for, it's not uncommon to have a low-rank APA player repeatedly screw you over on a small little slow table with horrible rails.
2s are so bad they probably shouldn't play pool at all. They're probably 50/50 on any shot over 3 feet and have almost no concept of position. It takes a *lot* of losses to drop down to a 2.
A lot of new players end up as 3s for a few seasons. Ball bangers and below usually, or very susceptible to nervous jitters. Will dog shots, usually cannot go more than one rail for position if they even think of position.
By default they start you at a 4... Most 4s are weak pattern players, expect 4-5 ball runs at the very most from them before they lose position and hook themselves. They also will about 5% of the time miss hangers.
5s are wildcards they can be aggressive shooters who get lucky on small tables, or they can be really good strategists who just don't have a dependable stroke and consistent speed control yet. At that level you actually see some semblance of competent safety play, but they usually aren't skilled enough to make their safety without giving you one to play back at them. They break and run less than 10% of the time, and have a hard time breaking up problem clusters without risking hooking themselves some other way. If they're smart at all, they'll play a safety at you to try to get you to foul so they can solve their clusters with ball in hand.
6s also can include a wide range of play styles, some are really good strokers who just haven't broken through the mental level to be a serious contender, others have some experience but try too hard to show how much they can spin the ball and screw themselves over here and there. Others are old-timers who never really worked on the game before they got set in their ways who have just peaked. Break and run maybe 15-20% of the time.
7+ Anything 7 or over who is still playing APA is your local dive bar hero who could probably make an amateur tournament worth his time except he probably doesn't practice enough or doesn't have the personality to handle losing. Most importantly if you're a 6-7, you had better handle boredom and/or drinking very well, because you'll usually play at the very end of the night after sitting around for 4-5 hours watching players hack away at balls, and you'll probably have to throw several drinks back to handle all of that. Note also that as 7 or above you will likely be the best on your team by far so having a practice buddy is not usually in the cards, because of the skill cap (you can only put up a limited number of high-rank players in APA on any one night)
Basically against a 2 or a 3 you try the runout every time, you shouldn't count on them reliably hitting back-cuts, most combos, or cutting balls down a rail. Against 5 or 6 you can probably start clearing the rack and trust they won't be able to get out of a well-played safety if you're unable to solve your problem balls for the runout. Against a 7, if you don't think you stand a good chance of solving your problem cluster, play the safety while you still have a lot of soldiers on the table because the winner break format and the fact you're probably playing a race to 5 could punish you if you leave them an opening, although with any luck they'll have been drinking enough by then that they won't string multiple racks together.
