Providence/Boston area $1000 added One Pocket Tournament - Saturday November 6th

[NH Steve]

Any handicapping system is likely to have wide interpretation from the players, especially when guys think that they're handicapped at a higher level than they'd like.

The A-B-C system is no different. It was used for simplicity's sake. Here locally we added an AA level simply to prevent a genuine touring pro from coming in to steal first place. Most of the players were B's and C's, with a few A's. We've only had a couple of AA's (Nick Vita, Cliff Joyner), and they didn't do very well.

The A category was intended for top area players. By "area" we meant a large region, or several states. So an A player is one who is in the top echelon of players over a wide geographical area, not just one room, or one city. Jerry Brock and Gary Abood were both A's. Mike Surber was an A in our first event.

The better players in any given locale's room might be B's, whereas the average players would be C's.

Doc

Doc, by your guidelines, it sounds like we were all overrated, lol. One problem we had here is that since New England is not a hot spot for One Pocket, many of the players don't have that much experience with the game, so even though we know kind of where they stand for 9-ball, etc., it was a little harder to judge their One Pocket. You don't want to rate these guys too low, because they sure do have lots of firepower, and also, you never quite know just what they truly do or don't know about the game until it comes down to the cash, really -- and some of them catch on awfully fast anyway.

 

[NH Steve]

I figured Joe Tucker would be AA.

Joe finished 4th as an A player. He sure has the potential to be higher rated, but he hasn't focused the kind of attention on One Pocket that he has on other games. Maybe this will begin to change now!