A Little About the APA

Mo left a comment for me about the APA and I thought I would talk a little about my history with it in this post.

I've been a member since 1995 if memory serves me well. I always enjoyed playing pool in my younger years in the 'burbs of Chicago but I was never any good at the game. My friends gave me a nickname during this time. Johnny "No Depth Perception" was what I was called because I could not make a lengthy shot if my life depended on it. Some would say that is still the case but whatever.

I started playing in the APA as a way to meet people when I moved down South, seeing that I didn't know a soul down here. At first it was an excuse to go out, drink beer, have fun and chase skirts but I noticed that some teams were very serious about playing the game. I wanted to be on that kind of team because to me the object of playing a game is to win.

So I bounced around on a few teams playing 3 times a week and finally landed on a good team in 2001. I was a Skill Level 3 (SL3), which at the time was the lowest level a man could be. Every team needs all skill levels because the APA will only allow a team to play 23 SL team points in any match to avoid one team from loading up a bunch of 7's and killing everyone.

Our team was in the toughest division and we managed to win it and advance to City. We felt really good about our chances but you never know what can happen. To win in City you need a little luck to fall your way but it comes down to how well your lower SL's play. Your 5's and 6's will probably win 50% of their matches so if 3's and 4's stand on their heads and shoot lights out you're golden. That's what happened to us that year. I went 3-0 and our 4 did the same. Las Vegas didn't go so well. We were out after 3 matches but that left more time to play the pit games. I didn't play Hold 'Em at this point and had never heard of the game, but was invited to play by the sharks at Circus Circus. "Welcome to my parlor" said the spiders to this fly. I smiled and respectfully declined.

After that team fell apart I decided to captain my own team and find some like minded friends who wanted to get back to Vegas. It took two years to get there. My team won the same division as we did in 2001 and went undefeated in City's. We ended up tied for 65th place out of 839 teams. We also split an extra $1500 between us for that effort but that's nothing compared to the 25k 1st place. In that time I went from a SL3 to a SL5 and I'm currently at a SL4. If I play totally focused I am extremely hard to beat given my experience in the league and could easily be a 5 . In fact some opponents complain about how I play better than my rank. That's fine with me. I'll stay a 4 as long as I can. It's what my team needs and that's what matters. I'm in City's this year on a team I don't captain and I plan on our team winning again.

I hope some of you found this interesting. Mo, I'll respond on how to hit a power draw in the comments.
Until next time good luck on the felt and may the good cards hit your hand.....