The World of Amateur Pool

Almost everyone has heard of Jeanette Lee, the Black Widow, currently ranked third in the US for the WPBA (Womens Professional Billiards Association)... The woman who "met pool" for the first time at 18 years old and went pro by 21 years old. She's amazing...

But not many people are familiar with the world of Amateur pool... I play regularly in the APA (Amateur Pool-Players Association), so this post will be geared around that. The APA is the nations largest amateur pool league. It is a handicapped league, so all levels can play.

If you want to play in the APA you'll need to join an existing team, or start a new team. The rankings go from 2 (lowest skill level) to 7 (highest skill level).

If it's your first day in the league and you're a guy, you'll start as a 4. If it's your first day in the league and you're a girl, you'll start as a 3. From there, you will go up and down in rank based on their handicapped system. The handicap is based on wins and the number of innings it takes you to win them (which I'll talk about later).

When you are put up in a match against an opponent, you're team will watch and keep score. You start by doing a "lag". Each of you shoot a ball from behind the line to the opposite rail. Which ever ball bounces off the rail and returns closest to the rail you shot from wins the break. From there, when player A (the person who breaks) finishes a turn, player B shoots. When player B finishes their turn, that is the end of one inning. Innings and Defensive shots are both tallied. They do this because a defensive shot is essentially an opponent "giving up" their turn... and thus an inning. So if you win in 5 innings - but you had 2 safeties - you actually won in 3 innings.

The handicaps in 8-ball are set to require certain skill levels to win a certain number of games against another skill level. So if a 2 plays a 7, the 7 has to win 7 games to win the match, the 2 only needs to win 2 to win the match. In 9-ball, the handicap requires a certain number of points... each ball is one point, with the 9-ball accounting for 2 points. A 2 has to get 19 points to win a match, where as a 7 has to get 75 points to win a match.

A team (with 8 maximum players) will play 5 members each league night. The summation of the 5 players skill levels cannot be more than 23. This prevents a team from playing five 7's in a night.

The rules for the APA are somewhat different than the typical rules you have in a bar...
Some common fouls that result in Ball-in-hand (your opponent gets to put the cue ball ANYWHERE on the table):
-You don't hit your ball first
-After hitting your ball - any ball must be pocketed, or touch a rail (this prevents someone from simply touching a
ball to play a safety)
-You scratch (cue ball goes in a pocket or off the table)
The only time your opponent has to put the cue ball "behind the line" is if there is a foul on the break.
If the 8-ball is made on the break - that's an automatic win. If the cue ball goes in with it - that's an automatic loss.

If your team is in the top 3 of the bar you play in, you'll go to Tri-Cup (a weekend tournament against the top 3 of other bars). If you are the top 4 in this, you move on to Cities (another weekend tournament) where you play all the top 4 of other tri-cups. If you win this, you're team will be paid for a trip to Las Vegas for the teams national championships.

Aside from team play, there are also Singles qualifiers (individual) and Jack and Jill Qualifiers (boy-girl teams of 2) that can also take you on a free trip to Vegas!!

Playing in the APA is a lot of fun, and has consumed a lot of my time in the last year. I've been on one free trip to Vegas and can't wait for many more!!!

In addition to all the APA stuff, there are also non-APA local pool tournaments. Pretty much any pool hall on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday holds a local tournament. They are usually $5-$25 to join and you can win $50 to $500. If you aren't in the APA, they will watch you play for a little bit and rank you.

Pool has become a huge passion for me, and hopefully (if you're interested in pool), this sparks some passion in you as well!!!!

Till next time!!!