LOCAL BY-LAWS

TREASURE COAST TAP LEAGUE BY-LAWS (as of 10/07/2023):

TREASURE COAST TAP WEEKLY DUES AND TAP ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP

The TAP Pool League’s Annual Membership is $20.00. For NEW player members, you will need to fill out an application online at our website www.treasurecoasttap.com, or ask us for a paper application and pay the fee in cash. Your Annual Membership MUST BE paid in full prior to being added to a team roster for play. The date your information is added into the TAP Membership database will be your anniversary date.

For existing TAP players, your membership MUST BE paid in full to be able to participate in the league and any of its events. Renewals can be paid in cash with the weekly dues envelopes available on league night at the your place of play, or you can renew online at our website. Your annual dues must be paid by the 15th of the month PRIOR to your anniversary date!

Weekly dues for regular league play are due that night. This is the team captain’s responsibility to see to it that the team’s dues are paid. The fee is $10 per player that plays, $50 for the team per format. This can be paid in the envelope as cash, online at our website, or by Zelle directly to us.

We DO NOT want individuals to pay us directly... the team must pay in full. It is too hard to manage individual payments. If a team wants to pay for the full session in advance, we’re okay with that. Only annual membership fees can be paid directly to the league operators.

Teams that have past-due payments MUST PAY their past due balance before playing their next scheduled match or the team will lose bonus points. If a team has past due payments of 2 weeks, that team will not be allowed to play their next match until dues are paid in full. This could result in a team forfeit and potential suspension of players and / or team from the league.

CAPTAIN’S RESONSIBILITIES

SCORING ON THE APP

TAP Leagues uses the Scorekeeper App to score weekly and tournament matches and to submit your score sheets. BOTH teams are to keep score, NO EXCEPTIONS. If for some reason the app is not working, blank score sheets and envelopes will be provided. Be sure you confirm which teams are home/away. The schedule will show which teams are home/away... the HOME team is ALWAYS listed FIRST on the schedule. Also, the envelope that is marked “H” indicates the home team.

For makeup matches: set it up as if it was the week you were originally supposed to play.
** About Score keeping – IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to keep score ACCURATELY as this will GREATLY affect one’s handicap. Be mindful of whomever is keeping score that they are PAYING ATTENTION. If not sure about a shot, ask the player if it was an attempted shot or a defensive shot. Please ask all your players to be respectful and mindful when someone is keeping score. To the player who is racking, please tell the score keepers how many balls are left on the table between games. Scoring will affect your handicaps a lot. All inputs should be the same for both teams scoring: completions, made on break, left on table, and dead balls. Remember the score sheet and accurate scorekeeping is the vehicle that determines your handicap and therefore is extremely important that they are entered accurately.

If matches are split, submit the scoresheet as is. Split matches are still to be kept by BOTH teams. Remember, if you do not have access to another scorekeeping device, there are blank scoresheets that are available at all venues of play. Also, write on the envelope “SPLIT MATCHES.”

RACKLESS PATCHES

To receive a “Rackless” patch, it requires one to win the lag and all their games of their match with their same skill level or higher and must be noted on the envelope. This is only in effect until the app gets updated to run rackless query.

FORFEITS
In the App, select the player that is present, for the opposing team/player, select Forfeit.

POSTS and TEXTS

We will occasionally reach out to the team captains by text to let them know about tournament dates and other team events or situations. PLEASE respond!

Also, our website is an informational tool. League schedules will be posted on the “Schedule” page, tournament information will be posted on this page as well, pay attention to this. Schedules will also be posted at hosting locations next to the box where you will drop the envelopes for payment.

We will do our best to continuously update our website with other information. News, photos, player “shout outs”, etc. will be posted on the “Gallery” page of the website.

WEEKLY PLAY & MATCHES

Each session consists of 16 weeks of play. There will be 3 sessions per TAP year... SUMMER, FALL, and WINTER. The FINAL two weeks of the session are “Positioning” weeks, where the 1st place team will play 2ndplace, 3rd will play the 4th place, and so on. The standings may adjust, and this format will be played again in the final week of the session. Players MUST HAVE 4 qualified matches with their respective teams in that division before positioning weeks begin for that player to be eligible in the positioning weeks, and a total of 6 in any given session to qualify with that divisional team for post-session events (Titleholder and National Qualifier).

We will do our best to schedule properly around holidays and the TAP Nationals Events.

Divisions MUST have a minimum of 4 teams to qualify as a division. Some divisions are “in-house” (played in only one location), while others may require travel between locations. For traveling divisions, teams will play at least half of their matches at their home location. Divisions with an odd number of teams will have a BYE... and there is NO guarantee that your team will play 50% of your matches at your home location (if in a traveling division).

The maximum number of players on a roster is 8. Five (5) players from your roster will play each week and the TOTAL handicap MUST BE equal to or less than 25. Each week there are a total of 5 points available for a team to win... a win gives the team 1 point, and losses are 0. There are NO points awarded for sweeps or double hill matches. The team with the highest point total at the end of the session in their division will be declared the winner of that division and earn automatic spots in that session’s Titleholder Tournament and the National Qualifier Tournament.

Teams with a BYE in the session will earn 3 (out of 5) points for that week.

ROSTER CHANGES

If a team needs to make a change to their roster, PLEASE notify us in advance of your next scheduled match so we can add this player properly into the system so this will be reflected in the scoring app at the time your match starts. Making changes early will make it easier for everyone!

Also, it is the team captain’s responsibility to notify the opposing team captain of these changes PRIOR to starting the league night matches. The opposing team captain has the right to refuse allowing a change to the roster AFTER the first match for the night has begun.

** If the player is a NEW player to TAP, he or she must be put up on the blind in the first or second match.

Roster changes WILL NOT be permitted after Week 9 of the session (providing there are NO BYEs for the team in those final 6 weeks). Remember... players need 6 qualifying matches to be qualified for the team in post-session events. Doubling up a player WILL NOT count as 2 qualified matches!

TEAMS WHO ARE SHORT A PLAYER

If your team is short player(s) for the night, BEFORE BEGINNING the match, ask the opposing team captain if you can play one of your players twice, A YES OR NO answer must be established before starting. Opposing team has the choice of who plays twice. Only one player can play twice. Whomever plays twice will only get credit for one match played, but the team will get credit for both matches played. If both teams don’t have a fifth player, then the captains choose their own player who plays twice. Players need to stay or decide who is going to play twice BEFORE BEGINNING OF PLAY. If all players leave, then the opposing team can take the forfeit because the opposing team has no choices to choose from.

** Opposing team captain MUST allow a team short player(s) to play someone twice in the FIRST 4 weeks of the session. After Week 4, the above rule applies.

Also, if the opposing team is going to let you play someone twice and it’s agreed upon and your 5th player walk’s in late, the opposing team says whether the player can play or not.

If your team has four players but opposing captain won’t let you play someone twice, THEN AND ONLY THEN can you use the burnout strategy. This is not a rule but a strategy within the rules. It is only necessary and used when a team is short a player. The strategy is to put up one of your player’s that are not present in order to burn out one of the opponent’s players. You may also wait for them to put up a player that your team does not want to play and burn that player. Example: Team A puts up a 6, and team B puts up a player that is not present for the match. This results in a forfeit (win) for that match for Team A. Regardless of whether a player is present or not, the team must always adhere to the “25 rule”. Both teams have 5 minutes to put up their players in between matches.

** Teams are NOT permitted to play a player twice in Positioning Weeks. If you are short a player(s), use the Burn-Out strategy and the opposing team will be awarded a forfeit.

THE 25 RULE

Remember: The 25 Rule is ALWAYS in effect. In rare instances, if the either team reaches over the 25 Rule when the player is declared, the match is forfeited once the break is struck and the match point is awarded to the opposing team. However, if the match happens to start and was determined later that the 25 rule has been broken, the match is to to be played out. The winner of the match will be appointed to the respective team.

Makeup matches
If your team is not able to play a scheduled match, the opposing team must be notified at least 24 hours in advance... If not, the opposing team has the option of taking a forfeit (3-0). All makeup matches must be agreed upon by both teams and obtained approval by league licensees, Micah “Doc” Daugherty (954) 655-9698 or Alley Peters (954) 548-8805, before they are considered official. All make-up matches should be completed within two (2) weeks of the date of the scheduled match. Also, all make-up matches must be made up by the beginning of the 12th week. “Double Points” matches are NOT ALLOWED. BOTH teams are to keep score for BOTH matches. No splitting of matches. If you don’t have enough players, remember one player can play twice, if agreed on before the beginning of the night. You CANNOT play 2 this week, 3 the next, etc. All matches need to be played on the night they were scheduled unless approved by one of us.

VENUE / LOCATION OF PLAY
If your team, the opposing team, or both teams decide to play at a different venue/location, one of us must approve and must be notified 1 week in advance.

TWO PLAYERS WITH THE SAME FIRST NAME
If you have two players with the same first name, you must state their last name or the opposing team can change their player.

Two (2) 7's
If your team has two (2) members who are of Skill Level of 7, only 1 of the two 7's can play in any given match. This rule applies to both Weekly Play and Any Tournament Play.

LAGGING
All players MUST lag to see who breaks. No flipping coins or anything of the kind to determine who wins the lag.

MARKING THE "MONEY BALL" (8, 9, OR 10-BALL)

We encourage ALL teams / players to MARK THE POCKET on all 8-ball and 9-ball games. Failure to do so will be a loss of game if the other player calls it out. ABSOLUTELY NO EXCEPTIONS.

DECLARING SHOTS AND DEFENSE

When playing a safety, please be sure to verbally declare the safety shot to the scorekeepers PRIOR to the shot. TAP Pool League is a "call shot" league; therefore, all players should be calling a pocket or defense on every shot.

NOTE: In TAP, you can make your assigned ball and call safe. DEFENSE must be called prior to shooting the ball, and this must be clear to your opponent. If you shoot your ball in the pocket and are hooked, but didn’t call defense, it’s TOO LATE! You must continue to shoot.

NOTE: In 9-ball, you cannot call safe and make the ball. If your next assigned ball is pocketed on a defensive shot, you must continue to shoot.

Defensive shots: If you don’t call a pocket when shooting, it will be considered a defense.

This is to avoid confusion or misrepresentation for the scorekeepers.

JUMPING

Jumping (whether legitimate or not, such as “Scooping”) is prohibited to any players that are a skill level less than 4. This is to prevent unintentional damage to the pool table.

RESPECTING TIME
Please remember that the 45-second shot clock is always in effect and time outs are limited to 1 minute MAX. Please adhere to these guidelines so that your matches are not running late into the evening. If teams are running late, i.e. 10:30 -11:00 then the final two (2) matches may ONLY be split.

FOUR-SECOND RULE
If a ball hangs in a pocket for longer than four (4) seconds then drops; the ball must be brought out and placed as close to where it was before it dropped.

NON-PLAYER INTERFERENCE
During a game, if a non-player bumps or moves any balls so that play is directly affected, the opposing player should restore the affected balls as closely as possible to their original positions, and play should resume with no foul penalty on the shooting player. Also, if both players can’t agree where the balls were then the game needs to be re-racked.

SPORTSMANSHIP
Being disrespectful to another player should not happen. We will take each incident and give a warning for the first time. Hearing players call someone else a “sandbagger” and such is NOT acceptable! The TAP handicap system takes into account MANY factors and is a fairly accurate system. Also, cheering out load for another person’s misfortune is NOT condoned. All others should stay out of their match and keep their comments to themselves.

POSITIONING WEEKS
Positioning rounds last two (2) weeks of session. To play in positioning weeks, all players that have played in the current TAP session need to have a minimum of four (4) matches played with the divisional team by the end of 14 weeks. All new players need to have a minimum of six (6) matches played with the divisional team by the end of the 14 weeks or four (4) matches played with the divisional team if playing multiple nights. Please be mindful of BYEs. Players who do not qualify to play in positioning weeks will be removed from your roster and will be reinstated back the following session.

** If your team is in positioning weeks, you CANNOT play a player twice.

** At the end of the 14th week any ties will be broken down by the head-to-head play between the tied teams of the first 14 weeks for home field advantage and seeding. If teams are still tied, total games won will determine home field advantage and / or seeding.

** After the first positioning round any 2 teams that are still tied, home field will be determined by head-to-head battle only if they have played each other, otherwise it will be determined by their wins & losses of the matches between those 2 teams. If three teams tie, home field will be determined by the play of the first 14 weeks. If the teams are still tied, the total games won will determine home field advantage.

** After the second positioning round any teams that are tied will have a play off for that spot, race to three home field will be determine by the wins & losses during the session with that team. If 3 teams are tied, your weekly play of the first 14 weeks will determine which team has the bye as long as they have played each other the same number of times of matches. If they didn’t play each other, then a coin toss will be used to determine the bye. The other two teams will then play each other. The winner of that match will then play the bye team. All race to 3.

ABOUT TEAM POINTS

Your team earns a point for each match won.

If a team forfeits all 5 matches, your team will only earn 3 points (3-0).
Remember for forfeits: In the App, select the player that is present, for the opposing team/player, select Forfeit.

At least three of the matches must have been played by 3 different players for a team to win ALL 5 matches. NO EXCEPTIONS.

BYES
BYE matches will be scored 3-2 for every team receiving a BYE.

BONUS POINTS
4 bonus points (2 for each category) to be awarded each week for:

(1) - Properly submitting the match from the app or filling out the scoresheet CORRECTLY & NEATLY.

(2) - Weekly league dues. It is the team captain’s responsibility to collect the weekly dues from their team. They can pay via Zelle to either Doc or Alley, pay online via the website, or put cash in the envelope and drop it in the box provided at the hosting location. If your weekly dues are short money or unpaid, your team will forfeit the bonus points for that week and every week thereafter until the money is paid in FULL.
* All envelopes (if applicable) are to be dropped in the box at the host site by Thursday night of the week your team played. No exceptions!
* At the end of the 14th week, if you received all your points your team should have 56 extra points and will not be shown until the beginning of the 15th week. Be mindful of these bonus points because it only takes one point to keep your team out of FIRST PLACE OR THE TITLEHOLDER!

ROUND ROBIN TOURNAMENT FORMAT

ALL TAP League higher level tournaments begin with a Round Robin “elimination” round. 4 teams (selected by a random draw) will play in a bracket against each other. Just like regular league play... a WIN is 1 point, and a LOSS is 0 points... so DON’T give up! Every point counts!!! The team with the highest TOTAL points in their bracket will move on to the Single Elimination Round. If a team has WON their bracket 3-0 but does not have the highest point total in their bracket, they will be deemed the winner of that bracket and move on to the Single Elimination Round... AND the team with the highest point total will also move on to the Single Elimination Round.

If there is a BYE in any Round Robin bracket, each team receives a WIN and 3 points for the BYE.

If there are wildcard spots available in the Single Elimination Round, the wildcard teams will be selected by a drawing at the end of the Round Robin. Every win by a team earns them a ticket in the drawing... the more wins a team has, the more tickets and chances they have of being selected for the wildcard spot. So again... DON’T GIVE UP! Every WIN counts!!!!

TITLEHOLDER TOURNAMENT – Session Championships

The TAP Titleholder Tournament is played in the Round Robin format described above. This is a higher-level tournament and tournament rules will be strictly enforced!

MARK YOUR POCKET! We know that during league play players may agree to call the “money ball” for the win. This is NOT recommended during regular league play, but we know this happens. However, in a higher-level tournament, if players make this agreement and then call their opponent out for NOT marking the “money ball”, we have NO choice but to side with the rules of tournament play. We’ve seen this happen... so to avoid arguments, PLEASE MARK YOUR POCKET!

For a team to qualify for the session Titleholder Tournament, they must place in the TOP 50% of that division... 4 team division = 2 Titleholder spots, 6 team division = 3 Titleholder spot, etc.

If the division has an odd number of teams, the “odd” number drops off and then the top 50% will qualify. Example... 5 teams become 4, only 2 teams qualify; 7 teams become 6, only 3 qualify; and so on.

If there is a tie for first in the division, the head-to-head record between those teams will be used to break the tie. If there is still a tie, then we will play a ONE MATCH playoff to determine the winner of the division. To make it “interesting”, we would suggest having the two lowest level players play... only a suggestion.

Players MUST HAVE played a minimum of 6 matches in the qualifying session with their divisional team to qualify with that team for Titleholder Tournament for the session (and the National Qualifier, if said team wins a spot through the Titleholder event).

NATIONAL QUALIFIER TOURNAMENT

The TAP National Qualifier Tournament is played in the Round Robin format described above. This is a higher-level tournament and tournament rules will be strictly enforced!

The TAP National Qualifier Tournament is the League Championship for that year, and the winning team of the tournament will receive an “all-expense paid” trip to play in the TAP National Championship Tournament. The expenses paid by Treasure Coast TAP will be airfare for each qualifying member of the team, 4 hotel rooms (2 players per room) for the national tournament dates of the format their team have won, and entry fee for the tournament. Rental cars, food & drink, baggage fees, etc. are all up to the team to decide how to pay for.

How a team qualifies for play in the Treasure Coast TAP National Qualifier...

Win any session (Fall, Winter, or Summer) of the TAP year.
Win any session Titleholder event.
Place in top percentile of any of the session Titleholder events... number of teams that qualify in this manner will be determined by the number of teams in Titleholder events.

The team roster for the National Qualifier will be the SAME roster for the session that team qualified. As an example... if your team won the FALL session in your division (which is the FIRST session of the TAP year), THAT roster qualifies to play in the National Qualifier, even if the roster has changed since. As long as the qualified team players are still active members on a team and in good standing with TAP League, those players are qualified to play in the National Qualifier.

Your team can qualify TWICE for the National Qualifier! Let’s say your FALL team won the division and received entry to the National Qualifier, AND your team wins the division again in the WINTER session, BOTH teams will have a spot in the National Qualifier. You cannot qualify 3 teams... if your team wins all three sessions, you must choose which 2 teams will accept the qualifying spots.