Los Angeles Pool League

Fall Season Playoff Changes

Dear Members, The LAPL board has voted on a few items that will directly affect the Fall 2024 Playoffs.

First and foremost, we have decided to delay the start of the playoffs by one week due to the unprecedented threat from the fires in the Los Angeles area over the past 5 days.  For everyone's safety we feel the delay is in the best interest of the league and most importantly the members. We hope all of you and your families are safe in this tragic event. The league calendar and playoff brackets have been updated to reflect these changes.  

There are 9 teams in the league, and only 8 will qualify for the playoffs. We are requiring teams to commit to possible Thursday play, or they will not be allowed to participate in the playoffs. Please let us know as soon as possible, so we can put a team into the bracket that can participate without forfeiting out on the loser's side of the bracket.  

The board has decided to eliminate any participation requirements for the Hi-Lo, Individuals and Women's tournaments as we have done in all previous non-WCC seasons. Meaning if you are on a roster and played a game you are welcome to participate in our post season tournaments.

Let us know if you have any questions or if we can help you in any way. Please stay safe.

LAPL Board
Steve, Jon, Al and Bryan

Playoff Bracket

Fall Season and Playoffs

Fellow Los Angeles Pool League Members,

As we enjoy our Winter break, I wanted to wish each of you a safe and enjoyable holiday season. Our 10th and final week of regular season play is on January 7th.  Play offs for the top 8 teams will begin the following Tuesday night. Playoffs will be on Tuesday and Thursday nights. The play off bracket will be posted online with the locations of play after our 10th week.

Captains, if your team cannot play on Thursday nights, and does not want to be included in the playoffs, please notify the Board on the last night of play by writing a note on your score sheet for the statistician so that we do not include you in the bracket.

The top 2 teams in play offs will receive trophies at our Fall 2024 Award’s Party in March.

Our last fundraiser of the season is on Sunday January 12th, Sudden Death (5 and Out) is at the Eagle LA  12 noon registration.  Charlie and Hunter, the owners of the Eagle LA donated $300 in recognition of our 50th anniversary so let's have a big turn out and show our sponsor we appreciate their generosity.

There is no West Coast Challenge at the end of this season, but we will be having our Hi-Lo Tournament on Sunday, January 26th at Jerry’s. $15 registration starts at 12 noon. There is no late registration. You must physically be there.  The 1st Place team will receive a trophy at our Fall 2024 Award’s Party in March.

For all our new members this season, come out and use this as well as the February 8th tournaments as a dry run for next seasons qualifiers to the West Coast Challenge in Long Beach. 

Our Open Individuals and Women’s is on Saturday, February 8th at Jerry’s. $15 registration.  Individuals' registration begins at 11am and Women’s is at 1pm.  There is no late registration. You must physically be there.  The top 8 Individuals and Top 4 Women will also receive trophies at our Fall 2024 Award’s Party in March.

WELCOME TO THE BOARD!!!! This season there are only 4 board members doing the job that 7 should be.  At least 2 of those 4 board members have expressed a desire not to be on the board after over a decade of service to the league.  The league needs members to step up and volunteer if it's going to survive.  Without new board members we may not have a league in the very near future.

If you have the skills and the right temperament we need you on the board. 

If you are interested in serving on our Board of Governors, please write your name on the scoresheet when we return in January for week 10 or any time during the first week of playoffs.  You can also reply to this email that you are interested or to request more information.  

If we have the same number of nominees as positions open, there will be no balloting and the Board has the authority to fill those positions.  These are volunteer positions and one-year terms which begin at the Spring 2025 Members Meeting. 

Please consider helping us to keep this League around for another 50 years!!!!

And finally, to celebrate our 50th anniversary, we are selling souvenir T-shirts with a commemorative logo.  The logo was designed by Jose Torres and the shirts are being produced by Tod Davenport.  There is a flyer available with sizes, colors and logo placement options. E-mail me for a flyer. I hope every active member will donate $20 for a shirt they can wear to promote and support our league.

MERRY XMAS!!!
HAPPY HANNUKAH!!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Shoot well. Play Fair. Have fun.

Steve Duckman
LAPL President

Playoff Bracket

50th Anniversary Tournament Results

Results are in for our 50TH Anniversary Tournaments which were held this past weekend at Jerry's Billiards in Pasadena. These tournaments were handicapped according to the Fargo ranking of the players. This meant that the higher ranked players had to win more games than a lower ranked player, thus creating a "level playing field" for all those competing.  

Our Scotch Doubles event was held Saturday, December 7th and 26 players represented 13 teams.  This was an exciting event and the results were as follows: 

1st Place:   Chris Taganas & Baj Khatao (1,136)

2nd Place:  Lori Perry & Frankie Galvez (809)

3rd Place:  Fabian Martinez & Eduardo LOBO Rangel (1,121)

4th Place:  Matthew Bradbury & Brenden Quigley (976)

These winning teams played great with lots of strategy and communication amongst the partners.  We want to congratulate Chris and Baj for a great first place win.  We also call out the exceptional effort made by team Lori and Frankie taking second and team Matthew and Brenden taking fourth especially because they were ranked in the middle of the pact behind higher ranked teams.  This means that they had to play exceptional pool.  Congratulations to Fabian and Lobo on their third place finish.  

Our Singles event was held on Sunday, December 8th and 41 players competed for seven top spots.   This tournament brought in a range of player levels with the top Fargo ranked player Juan Cajina at 627 and the lowest ranked Fargo player being Tod Davenport at 309.  In fact, there were 18 players ranked above 500; 12 players ranked in the 400s; and 11 players ranked in the 300s.  The winners were as follows:  

1st Place:  Roberto Valenzuela (562)

2nd Place:  DJ Kinne (567)

3rd Place:  RHINO Lay (619)

4th Place:  Yuri Cortes (475)

5th Place:  Lori Perry (411)

6th Place:  Ray Cruz (619)

7th Place:  Jesse CRASH Palomares (501)

Prize money and trophies were provided to those that placed.  Great Job Roberto, Baj and Rhino our top three spots.  

We want to call out the exceptional efforts of Lori Perry who with Partner Frankie Galvez, took second in the Scotch Doubles and fifth in the Singles was quite an accomplishment.  

The tournaments ran smoothly and it was a great day of sportsmanship and competition.  Los Angeles Pool League brass came out to play including Vern Addison, top women's player from the 1980s, 1990s and her nephew Michael.  Pat Bingham also a long time LAPL player also came out to visit.  

We are especially thankful to players who came from Lake Forest, Long Beach, Simi Valley and Palm Springs to play in the singles event.  

Tod Davenport designed and produced our 50th anniversary T-Shirts and Steve Duckman, LAPL President choose the trophies for both tournaments.  Thank you to Jose Torres, Lori Perry, Steve Duckman, Tod Davenport and Jon Bourgault for helping organize the event.  We appreciate the support of Jerry's Billiards and its owner Frank for supporting our league.  Finally, we appreciate Natalie and Elio of Jerry's who were a great help during the event and are always helpful to our league and our members.



Al Ballesteros