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Thread: Doing the ABT against my better judgement...

  1. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stormed1 View Post
    The idea behind the bonus pins is to get people coming back. If they fail to cash week after week they get tired of spending the money and quit coming However once you cash the bonus pins go away and it starts all over
    I bowled in about 5 or 6 ABT tournaments back in the early 80's.

    Not enough to earn bonus pins, but when I won one of them, I was re-rated to 0 pin handicap.

    I knew enough to take that money and run.

  2. #12
    Bowling God Aslan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stormed1 View Post
    The idea behind the bonus pins is to get people coming back. If they fail to cash week after week they get tired of spending the money and quit coming However once you cash the bonus pins go away and it starts all over
    Right. I see the point of it. It just makes it ripe for "issues".

    I thought that my entering with a < 199 that I'd be in a different division than the 200+ bowlers...but I guess they only do that at the National tournaments. And I'm not sure if the 200 is the "book" book average...or if it's the re-rated average. I just have a feeling that every event there's gonna be a guy that averages 215 and is getting an extra 10 pins of handicap...meaning I essentially have to not just bowl above my average...and not just bowl above my inflated current average...but I gotta bowl better than I pretty much ever have...ever.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mike White View Post
    It's the reverse of the Soon Henry handicapping system.......Soon Henry... all the other mice are getting full.
    That's funny. But the fatal flaw is...even the mice that get the cheese once...are still gonna be hungry if they don't win every time. So lets say you won that tournament...then don't cash a few times...now you're back to getting bonus pins.

    Quote Originally Posted by StormBowler13 View Post
    Funny you mention Asians. Ours aren't ran by asians, but they are won by them quite often. The 20k handicap event a couple month again was.
    I'm trying not to be racist or generalize...it's just that some people (regardless of race) seem to think that if there's a way to cheat...then it's not really stealing. I used to argue this ALL THE TIME when I played paintball. One of the biggest problem with paintball is people can modify the equipment to shot "hot"; which is shoot at a higher feet per second than the limits of the rules. The other big problem is "wiping"...where a person gets hit and wipes it off before being called out. Most people despise this behavior....but there are some that believe "if you aren't cheating, you aren't trying."

    And we see the same thing in bowling with sandbagging. People just feel that the rules don't apply to them and have no regard for other people...no sense of fair play...and it's just infuriating.
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  3. #13
    High Roller got_a_300's Avatar
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    They tried to have the ABT tournaments around here back in the late 80's but
    everyone around here seen what ABT meant (Another Baggers Tournament)
    after the first one so they didn't have much of a chance to have any more after
    that.

    If I remember correctly the second one they tried to have at our center only 2
    or 3 people showed up for it and they were from out of town all of our bowers
    said no way so that ended that.
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    Right handed, ex-cranker now a power tweener approx. 350 - 400 RPM's PAP 4 1/2" over 1" up high league sanctioned game 300 high league sanctioned series 788
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  4. #14
    Bowling God Aslan's Avatar
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    Just to be positive...

    ...I think it IS possible to have a positive experience with the ABT. The format does sort of even things out over time. The problem is, the cost. Even if you don't get in any brackets or sidepots or anything like that...it's usually $100 entry. $60 + $40 for what they call "Megapot". One strategy could be to just get in for $60...until your average is down and you have bonus pins and are bowling really well...then start getting in the Megapot. That would allow you to participate in 25 tournaments before needing to win to break even. If you do the megapot each time, you need to win after 15 tournaments to break even.

    I wish they would do away with the "Megapot" format. I think you pay your entry and if you win, you get the first prize. You shouldn't have to decided how much you want to win before the tournament. If a person thinks they have a better chance on a given day...that's what brackets and sidepots are for.

    And rather than keep raising the average for participation, it's my opinion that all USBC sanctioned leagues should have to put down the USBC Red pattern. No more THS nonsense. If they want to put down a THS for their non-sanctioned cr*p...that's fine. But if we can go back to having patterns that are at least GENERALLY similar house to house...then maybe we won't see all these bowlers with 200-225 averages that can't seem to break 185 at the USBC Open.

    And yes, I realize putting down the same pattern won't be identical. There will still be differences due to oiling machine, lane-to-lane differences, environmental differences, and center to center differences.

    And yes, I realize everyone will complain and whine and cry like tiny little babies. But I'm tired of the USBC claiming they have to do things to make the sport more popular...but they ruin the sport in the process. They allow crazy strong equipment. They allow wrist braces. They allow houses to put down whatever oil pattern they want. And they even attempt to change the scoring to make spare shooting less important. And all that does is build up the egos of amateur bowlers to the point that they 'think' they are practically pros...and when they test that against pros...they get humiliated and say "*#$& it!!" Then they spend their time sandbagging and trying to cheat the system...because that's a lot easier than ACTUALLY working towards being a pro-level bowler. Sad.

  5. #15

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    I haven't watched an ABT tournament in person in ages. I do remember many bowlers who qualified high on the board would bowl a couple of more squads and do poorly so their overall average for the weekend wasn't too much higher than what they started with so they wouldn't lose much handicap unless they won the tournament. Even if they did poorly on Sunday, the money collected would cover the extra entries.

    Coloradosports.tv on YouTube carries the finals of the Denver Branch of the ABT every week. On the videos I've seen, the handicaps seem to be accurate to the bowler's skill level. However one video I watched of an ABT "National Tournament" at The South Point (I believe) was filled with bowlers who seemed to have way too much handicap for their skill level.

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