Rules

- National rules can be easily be looked up at rules.poolplayers.com. By-laws can downloaded at mokanapa.com or viewed from your Member Services app.

- The By-Laws WILL be changing in the next month. Playoff and tri-annual structure is being standardized across the nation. Compared to last year, more teams will qualify for tri-annuals. I will be heavily revising the rest of the by-laws. If you want something changed, now is the time to bring it up.

- The Replay rule is meant to prevent forfeits. It is not meant to allow you to circumvent the 23 rule. This is easily done by accident. Read the rule thoroughly and understand it.

- Slow play. There is a small percentage of teams and/or players who play slower than normal. There is NO RULE against how long it takes to shoot. There are GUIDELINES. However, should it become excessive, there is the possibility of a sportsmanship violation. Remember, just because you don’t have to get up at 5am for work, doesn’t mean your opponent doesn’t need to do so. The goal is to be done by 11pm on weeknights.

- In the past, I have said “if both players agree” a lot. However, if forced to make a decision as league operator, I will go by the rules. For example, mark your pockets. Don’t just call it.

- If you are at Side Pockets and playing on Diamonds, you MUST mark it as such in the app. Failure to do so will now result in the loss of bonus point(s). More on this in the tournament section below.

- Although the by-laws state makeup matches must be completed within 2 weeks, I have let that slide way too often. It has now cost me a team. Therefore, the rule will be strictly enforced. If not made up, BOTH teams will receive zero points. Tables are not always available on your night of play, so it may be necessary to play on another day, at another time, or in another location. Plan it out the original night of play. Do not wait.

- For purposes of adding new teams or players mid-session, I may add at any point. However, those teams are subject to all the eligibility rules for playoffs and higher level tournaments. Teams will only be eligible for playoffs if they pay for the weeks not played.

- Mark safeties. Do not tell me a player or team is sandbagging if your team is not marking safeties. Watch the videos on YouTube for more info.

- The rules state once play has started, it should be continuous. For those of you playing on other teams in other leagues the same night, if you are not available to play, your match will be forfeited. For double jeopardy teams where a player is playing in one format and needed to play in the other, if possible, put up the player and then skip that match to start the next. If it is the fifth match, and a player needs to play both formats, then one format must wait for the other. The player may attempt to play both formats at the same time per their choosing, but are not required to do so.

Tournaments

- Tri-cups will now be known as “Tri-annuals.” This is due to nationals standardizing names. There is no such thing as cities, LTC, or even World Pool Qualifier. They are “World Qualifiers”.

- Only two teams were disqualified at Vegas this past year. Both were due to skill levels not being correct as they, or their league operator did not appropriately mark table size. Mark when playing on the Diamonds at Side Pockets! Not doing so will result in loss of bonus points.

- Scorekeeper for tri-annuals will be in test mode for some areas after Spring. They should then be ready for everyone’s use for Summer 2025. Hopefully, we can test it out.

- Showdown series (Masters, 8-Ball and 9-Ball Doubles, Jack and Jill, Ladies, and Wheelchair) will now be held in May alongside the Poolplayer’s Championship. 8-Ball and 9-Ball teams and Captain’s teams will be held in August. Mainly for space.

- Because of the above change, every league operator now has the opportunity to request a room block at the Westgate and/or Stratosphere. We can request up to 3 rooms per team attending. I have three 8-ball and two 9-ball that go, so that’s 15 rooms possible.

Money

- Singles boards will be increasing in price. Previously, a board of 8 people would be $20 each, for a total of $160. The new price will be $25 each for a total of $200. At times, I may subsidize that, especially if I can get more participation.

- I will be increasing the team league fees from $40 to $50. The last price increase was in 2019, and as we all know, prices everywhere have increased. This is two additional dollars per player. However, please recall this is a TEAM fee. Players just break it down for their own benefit. What will this get you? Tri-annual winnings will increase from $480 to $1000 per team. World qualified team’s travel assistance will increase from $5000 to $8000. Showdown series travel assistance will increase from $625 to $1000 per player.

- New players must pay before they play. If a player does not pay for membership before playing, then per by-laws that player will receive no points, and the team will lose bonus points.

- In double jeopardy divisions, the 8-ball and 9-ball teams are considered separate. Each may have a credit or a past due. While I try to allocate the money evenly, you may still notice a past due or credit for one versus the other. If you owe $8 on 8-ball, please also check 9-ball to see if it is owed there.

- The app currently does not let a team pay online once I have entered scores. I have petitioned nationals to change this, and they are finally starting to concede. But it will take time to change the app to allow this. Until then, if I enter your scores before paying, then there is a payment link through Stripe which I can supply.

- Over the past year, there has been an average of 15 or so teams that are not paying on time each week. I have not taken away bonus points. However, that will now change. If payment is not made the ORIGINAL night of play (including makeup matches!) then bonus points will be lost.

- Also, I have been letting teams with a past due play in playoffs and tournaments. No more. In order to enforce the by-laws, if your team is past due, you can no longer play in playoffs or higher level tournaments.

Other

- I stopped taking away bonus points mainly when everyone started using the app. By-laws state points are given for a completely filled out score sheet. The app negated this need. So I started ignoring past due teams as well. I have been contacting teams at the end of each week to “remind” them that they need to pay. I will no longer be reminding. Past due teams will lose bonus points, are in danger of not being allowed to play in playoffs and tournaments, and also in danger of being dropped from the division entirely. I will be renaming the captain to “PAST DUE” to make this more visible.

- Please take care of your envelopes. Teams are either not putting them in the box, or throwing them away. Which means making new envelopes. There are a majority of teams who pay through the app, and thus never put money in the envelopes, but I still use them to put patches in, as well as help the host location staff know which two teams are playing each week.