Why the heck does APA use 7' tables at all higher level tourns?

TheNewSharkster

TheNewSharkster

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I came up with two reason-

1. Speed of play
2. Space

I know you can fit more 7' tables in a room than say 9' tables. I also think the games probably go a bit faster.

It really sucks though because almost every APA league I can think of plays on either 8' or 9' tables. They really need to get some consistency. When I have seen the tables and cities and vegas they almost look like toy tables.

For being the largest league I am surprised they don't go out and get some real tables.

While I am complaining if I recall they cost $1 to play on. WTF!

Ok my rant is done.
 
Good question!

I always thought that because much of the teams (at least in my area) are bar room teams. And most bars opt for the smaller size because A) they're coin operated, and B) space.

But I never really thought to ask. If anyone knows the answer, it'd be cool to find out.
 
SpiderWebComm said:
So the apa can collect coinage from the event.
Click to expand...

Any time I've had to play on a bar table in APA the ball collectors were opened so you didn't have to pay to play.

One APA league I played in had bars in the league with only 9 footers and some bars had only 7' bar tables. I always hated having to go play on the bar boxes....especially if they had a bar box cue ball because they're heavier than a normal cue ball.
 
I'm not a league player so I'm just guessing, but I'm thinking that in spite of the personal experiences of any one individual, it is likely that from an organization-wide standpoint a large majority of league play is on bar boxes.

Perhaps the reasoning is that it is more fair to give any advantage there may be for a 9' player playing on a 7' table than to put the 7' players at a disadvantage to have to play the bigger 9' table in a major event.
 
The APA is huge. They need many, many places to have teams play. They play on whatever tables the venue has. Poolrooms still have more nines than 8's or 7's. Bars have 7's and there are a hell of a lot more APA teams playing in bars than in poolrooms. I believe that is why their big events are on 7's. Johnnyt
 
Johnnyt said:
The APA is huge. They need many, many places to have teams play. They play on whatever tables the venue has. Poolrooms still have more nines than 8's or 7's. Bars have 7's and there are a hell of a lot more APA teams playing in bars than in poolrooms. I believe that is why their big events are on 7's. Johnnyt
Click to expand...

Very Good explainantion, I would also suspect that 95% + of all APA Leagues play on 3 1/2 x 7 tables. Here in Washington, this especially holds true, however, I do have 7 APA teams that play out of my Pool room.
 
Johnnyt said:
The APA is huge. They need many, many places to have teams play. They play on whatever tables the venue has. Poolrooms still have more nines than 8's or 7's. Bars have 7's and there are a hell of a lot more APA teams playing in bars than in poolrooms. I believe that is why their big events are on 7's. Johnnyt
Click to expand...



I suppose I need to think out of the box a little. Around here most bar boxes are 8'.
 
manwon said:
Very Good explainantion, I would also suspect that 95% + of all APA Leagues play on 3 1/2 x 7 tables. Here in Washington, this especially holds true, however, I do have 7 APA teams that play out of my Pool room.
Click to expand...


I play APA over on the eastside of seattle and most places that have APA that I have been have mostly 8' coin op tables.
 
TheNewSharkster said:
I suppose I need to think out of the box a little. Around here most bar boxes are 8'.
Click to expand...

Ya get to play on what the bar/pool hall has. I've played on places that had both bar tables and 9 footers and we always played on the 9 footers.

I'm actually kinda lucky. The place I play at has enough teams where we don't have to go to any other bars, so I not only know where I'm playing, but I also know what size table I'm going to be on.

The other league I played in I had to travel all over the damn place. I don't mind driving 10-20 minutes to some, but when I had to drive 45 minutes to others it was irritating. Granted those teams had to come all the way out to us to be in the league much more than I did.
 
Around 75% of our league systems play weekly on a Bar-Box, it just makes sense.........SPF=randyg
 
I cannot think of one place in my area that has a 7 foot table. Coin ops are 8 and pool halls all have 9s. It is my understanding that many areas in the country have 7 footers and almost no 8 foot coin ops.

The APA has nearly 250 tables at those events. There is a contractor that brings them in sets them up and keeps two people on staff to sevice the tables at all times. I am sure there is some deal on the coin drop.
 
The APA makes more money with 7' tables and non-players can make a few balls on the small tables and it keeps their interest up in playing and paying the dues. You can put a lot more bar boxes in the space where you are having a tournament than the larger tables. The APA is more about the lower level players because there are a lot more of them than the better more skilled players.
 
TheNewSharkster said:
I came up with two reason-

1. Speed of play
2. Space

I know you can fit more 7' tables in a room than say 9' tables. I also think the games probably go a bit faster.

It really sucks though because almost every APA league I can think of plays on either 8' or 9' tables. They really need to get some consistency. When I have seen the tables and cities and vegas they almost look like toy tables.

For being the largest league I am surprised they don't go out and get some real tables.

While I am complaining if I recall they cost $1 to play on. WTF!

Ok my rant is done.
Click to expand...

The official APA answer: to be fair to those who never get to play on bigger tables.
 
Because they don't make 3X6's.

It's for space and cash. Because they are faster. Most teams play on the barbox.
 
There is a very, very simple reason for the barbox. Smaller tables mean more congestion. An easier transition for most folks playing in bars. And they allow lesser skilled players to play with better players. Which, aside from sandbagging, is the whole reason why the APA exists. After going to Vegas last year, believe me. You don't get to the finals just because you have an SL 7. You need SL3's with character. Tons and tons of character. Yes, some luck. But more character. The team that put us out (we were 17th nationwide) got 3rd. And every last one of them had enough character to last a lifetime. I'll never forget Catherine, Ervin and the rest of her merry men, and hope to meet them again someday.
tim
 
Bigkahuna said:
I cannot think of one place in my area that has a 7 foot table. Coin ops are 8 and pool halls all have 9s. It is my understanding that many areas in the country have 7 footers and almost no 8 foot coin ops.

[...]
Click to expand...

Southern Maine and some of the Pacific Northwest seem to be the places with 8 foot coin op tables. Most places the coin operated tables in bars are 7 foot.

In a lot of these bars the 7-foot tables have slow cloth and the cue balls are heavy. The people that use them are a totally different crowd from the people that use "real" pool equipment.

But there is a growing trend toward 7-foot tables in billiard parlors. Many of these have no coin mechanism, have simonis cloth, and use red circle cueballs. In other words these are just a shrunken version of a good 9-foot table. Where this happens many of the "players" switch back and forth between 9 foot tables (where they might play 9-ball, one pocket, or straight pool) and 7-foot tables (where they might play 9-ball or 8-ball).

These tables really represent a paradigm shift from "bar tables," and I prefer not to call them bar tables or bar boxes.

At a high level (players who scare the ghost on a 9-foot table), 9-ball on a 7 foot table is not a good game. But you don't have to go down much in speed before 9-ball on a 7-foot table becomes a very good game. For the player who runs an occasional two or three-pack on a 9-foot table and who has run 50-75 balls in straight pool, 9-ball on the 7 foot table is a great game. And it's a great game for players below this speed, which includes almost everybody.

A lot of the negativity toward 7-foot tables that you get on this site comes from the old associations. I firmly believe that if many of the players on this site spent a month in a place where players spend time on the 7-foot tables, they would start to see them differently.

They are not a threat to 9-foot tables. On the contrary, they are a key to bringing more people into the game and getting more people appreciating the game on 9-foot tables.

The tables Diamond brings to the BCA nationals in Vegas have 4.5 inch pockets. These tables are fun. The vast majority of the skills carry over from one size table to the next.
 
crawfish said:
Because they don't make 3X6's.

It's for space and cash. Because they are faster. Most teams play on the barbox.
Click to expand...

They use to have 3'x6' tables in NY. It was the original bar box. Johnnyt
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top