Area 8-Ball teams try to pocket invite to Las Vegas

Rick Brown is looking forward to tonight and Saturday, when hundreds of area billiards players will be huddled over 23 tables in the A.C. Brase Arena Building.

The players probably are looking forward to Sunday, when about 15 hours of competitive pool-playing will come to an end, and four teams will have earned berths to Las Vegas.

The annual American Poolplayers Association local team championship for 8-Ball begins at 7 tonight and concludes with a final session at 2 p.m. Sunday. Brown is the director for the APA region, which includes Southeast Missouri as well as Northeast Arkansas and Southern Illinois.

Admission is free; concessions will be provided by the Cape Girardeau American Legion and St. Mary's.

"When you walk in, and it's just packed, and people are hooting and hollering here and there when someone makes a good shot, it's great fun to sit here and watch it transpire," Brown said Thursday afternoon from the stage overlooking the arena floor.

Exactly 100 teams will compete in four brackets for the berths to the national tournament, a $1-million event scheduled for August in Las Vegas. The airfare and hotel accomodations for the winning teams will be covered.

Eighteen teams from Cape Girardeau will be in one bracket; the other 82 teams were randomly inserted into the other brackets. Teams had to win a local league in the fall, winter or summer sessions of APA league play to qualify for this weekend's event.

Teams are comprised of eight players with five players in the lineup for each match. Each player carries a skill rating from 2 to 7 and the five-player lineup cannot exceed a 23 rating. In the matches, teams select lineups and play for points. If a player with a 2 rating is matched up against a player with a 7 rating, the first player to win the number of games for his own rating wins the point. In the tournament, the first team to three points wins the match and advances.

"It's a strategy game," said Brown, in his 16th year organizing the event.

Indeed, players can only consult with a team captain during one timeout or between games. Shots must be executed within 45 seconds, and matches are on a 3 1/2-hour time limit.

"Pool has gotten a bad rap but it's not like that anymore with the league play and all the rules we have," said Matt Bass, Brown's son-in-law and a co-organizer along with his wife, Brandi Bass.

The APA's 9-Ball local team championship is scheduled for next weekend at the Billiards Center.