Good morning! This is going to be a long read, but please take the time to read it if you have any interest in what the APA calls the “Showdown Series” – 8-Ball Doubles, 9-Ball Doubles, Jack & Jill Doubles, Ladies Team, Masters and Team Captains Team.

I’ve been hearing some comments from time to time that make me realize there are some misconceptions floating around, so hopefully I can address them in this post. I’ll do my best to cover everything as clearly and succinctly as possible. I plan to use this post as the script of a video in the near future for those of you who don’t like to read, but I have bedhead and don’t feel so great right now… so now isn’t the time to be on video.

As most of you know, I have the ability to run divisions based on the Showdown Series formats listed above. By agreement with the APA, we get one (1) guaranteed slot in the Showdown Series national event in Vegas when we have a division based on that format. Running a division is the ONLY way I can get a guaranteed slot. We do NOT get a guaranteed slot every year for Ladies Team, for example, because we do not have a Ladies Team division (fun fact – there was a year recently that we didn’t have a Ladies slot – we were “wait listed” and luckily got a slot that someone else abandoned).

Outside of the guaranteed divisional slots, every slot we get is awarded on a lottery-type basis that’s weighted by several factors – some priority is given to the League Operators who submit the requests sooner than later… and I know this may surprise you, but I have a very good track record of being one of the first League Operators to submit these requests as soon as the submission window opens. I usually CAN be on time for things like this when it really matters.

Anyway, we’ve been pretty lucky overall getting “extra” slots for some or all of these events. I think that’s a good thing and frankly I’ve made it one of my priorities to be aggressive about getting these extra slots for a number of reasons: the Vegas experience is pretty awesome, I know many/most of you like going to Vegas, we’re fortunate to live within driving distance to Vegas… so we can get there relatively cheaply (compared to people on the East Coast) and I’m doing the best I can to offer everyone the most variety possible. Some of you seem to have the impression that we will always get these extra slots. I want to make it clear that they are NOT guaranteed. I don’t HAVE to be aggressive about getting extra slots… we could just stick to the guaranteed slots based on divisions we run and leave it at that. If that was the case, only the people playing in the respective divisions would have a shot of going to Vegas – there would be no “Straight to Vegas” tournaments (as I’ve been calling them).

While we’re on the subject of Straight to Vegas tournaments, this definitely seems to be an area where misconceptions exist. I’ve heard comments like “you don’t get anything for playing in the Doubles divisions” – that is incorrect – you get a guaranteed shot at participating in that event in Vegas – and if you win that right to go to Vegas, all of the entry fees and travel money comes out of the money you pay throughout the year. Not ALL of the money you pay comes back… but a significant portion does. It varies some based on division size, but Doubles teams from divisions have been getting somewhere in the $2,000 ballpark for travel money.

Straight to Vegas slots are a different story. Travel is mostly based on the proceeds or “buy-in” from the tournament itself (and 100% of the money taken in at the tournament *is* returned to the winners for travel). It CANNOT be funded by Player’s Fund money due to rules *I* have to follow. Those of you who have gone to Vegas may have noticed that I often slip in a little bit ($100 or $200) to help out if the tournament wasn’t very big… but that’s a small enough amount that it won’t ruffle the feathers at the National Office.

So hopefully you can see that Divisional Showdown Series slots and Straight to Vegas slots are two completely different things. Divisional slots are guaranteed, Straight to Vegas slots are not. Divisional slots have built-in funding for travel, Straight to Vegas slots are only funded by the tournament buy-in. This is why they need to be kept separate. I’ve had people playing in the divisions complain about the Straight to Vegas tournaments… thinking that only people playing in divisions should have access to them… but since the slots aren’t guaranteed, I can’t guarantee them to the divisions. And would it really be a good thing to only get half the travel money on a Divisional slot on years that we happened to get an extra slot?

There are more details to put out on the Showdown Series subject regarding upcoming changes in the next year… but I’ve babbled enough for now and half of you are probably asleep and will wake up with numb legs because you were reading this on the toilet, so I’ll discuss the changes at another time in the near future. Peace.