Pool

[shorebird]

Lost playing APA tonight. Was shooting a 4 and it was a 3 to 4 race. I lost the first two, came back and won the next three, only to have a run in front of me and while lining a shot up, got too close to the cue and bumped it. It moved about a 16 of an inch.

farg.

[Tomahawk]

I usually shoot straight 8 at the bar, and have never played in a league. Are these league rules?:

Ball in hand for scratch
Ball in hand if shooter doesn't hit his ball first
Ball in hand if either cue ball or shooter's ball doesn't hit the rail
Slop counts as long as shooter hits his ball first and knocks one of his in

[Sgt PSN]

Yes
Yes
Not APA or BCA rules, but I have played in a league that had that rule.
Yes, in APA.  I forget if that's a rule in BCA or not.  I don't think so. 

Most leagues also require you to "mark" the pocket you plan on shooting the 8-ball into, meaning you have to place an object (other than chalk) next to the pocket you are going for.  But even then, APA doesn't require you to call the route the ball will take (ie: off a rail), just as long as it gets there. 

[Tomahawk]

So which is better: APA or BCA?

When you play to win 200 bones at a table, do you use league rules?

I think I'd prefer straight 8 but can understand why you'd need to use ball in hand to speed up game play in leagues.

[Sgt PSN]

When money is on the table I absolutely will not play APA rules.  Typically, you go by whatever the house rules are for pool.  However, there's nothing saying that the 2 of you can't agree on your own rules.  Most house rules are fairly simple:

Scratch = Cue ball anywhere behind the break line. 
Call your shot along with the route the ball is going to take to get there (ie: bank, kiss off another ball, etc).
You cannot lead a combination shot with the other player's ball, however you can use their ball in the middle of a multi-ball combination as long as you start by contacting your ball first. 
8 ball is/isn't neutral (It's close to 50/50).

But the bottom line is that if you're playing for money, then only do it if you are comfortable with and have a solid understanding of the rules in place.  If you don't know much about APA or BCA rules, then either get a book and read up on them or simply don't play.   

[shorebird]

Any BCA league I've played in doesn't count slop. The ball ramaines off the table but you lose your shot.

[Tomahawk]

APA league just finished. Slop counts which sucks...much rather have to call the pocket.

Out of 16 matches, I won 9 which isn't bad for a rookie I guess. Hopefully my handicap goes up next session...feel like a woman playing as a 3

[Seabiscuit36]

just bought a pool table, got an american heritage 9 foot table for 1k, used.  Not bad i dont think. 

[Tomahawk]

That's hell of a great deal. I'm assuming it's slate

What I love about 8 or 9 foot tables is when you play on them then go to a bar and play on their 7 foot tables, you farging dominate

[Seabiscuit36]

its a 3 piece slate table.  Bitch to move, but its a really sharp looking table.  We found some folks who were downsizing and selling their house, and they wanted to unload it. 

[Sgt PSN]

I've got a 3 slate table as well.  It was my grandfather's and now it's sitting in my mom's house waiting for me to retire.  This one has the ball return on it instead bag pockets, so there's a rail system underneath that runs from each pocket to the bin on the front of the table....making it even bitchier to move since you have to take the rails apart and then line them back up properly with the pockets. 

My mom repainted it about 15 years ago.  It looks good but I really wish she would have kept the original finish even though it was showing it's age.  Table's gotta be at least 50 years old. 

[Diomedes]

Your mom has your Willies and your pool table?

What else are you making her store for you?

[Sgt PSN]

APA league just finished. Slop counts which sucks...much rather have to call the pocket.

Out of 16 matches, I won 9 which isn't bad for a rookie I guess. Hopefully my handicap goes up next session...feel like a woman playing as a 3

If you're above .500, you're doing ok.  I'm guessing that since you went through a 16 match season and are still handicapped as a 3, you aren't very good (or you play against people who make lots of luck slop shots), so I doubt your handicap will change to start the next session.  W/L has pretty much no impact on your handicap, it's all about the number of innings it takes you to win a game.  A few years ago I won 9 consecutive matches and dropped from a 6 to a 5 because I wasn't shooting particularly well and took a lot of innings to win my games.  I also had a 4 match losing streak where I shot very well but was matched up against other strong players and my handicap went from 5 to 6 because the individual games I was winning were 2 innings or less.  Crazy system. 

[Sgt PSN]

Your mom has your Willies and your pool table?

What else are you making her store for you?

Pretty much everything.

When I visited her for xmas, I raided the turkey coop that she converted into a storage shed for her kids and pulled out 3 boxes of old slot car sets, cleaned them up and checked to see if they still worked....which they did. 

Also pulled out my old HO train set but it's in pretty bad shape (had a basement fire as a kid and the soot never got cleaned off).  Didn't get to work on that at all because it's going to take me a month to clean everything and try it out, so I shoved it back in the turkey coop.

She's also got a few boxes of GI Joe, Transformers and Star Wars toys along with some odds and ends of mine.  It's really not that much though....maybe 10 boxes total that are about the same size boxes that you get packs of printer paper in. 

Her garage on the other hand looks like a thrift store........everything that I don't want or my sister or anyone else that she knows goes in there and it's like a permanent garage sale.   

[Tomahawk]

I'm between not very good and decent. Bias makes me believe that every single motherfarger I played called at least two safeties