Mike and I played at the Rack ‘Em Tournament on Saturday. It was a coin toss as to whether or not we were going to play since we’d been up since 5a.m. that morning working on a holiday volunteer project that morning. We barely got home in time to feed Vegas, hop in the shower, and grab a quick bite.
I’m glad we decided to play though. As exhausted as we both were, I finished just out of money and Mike won, well, sort of (details to come). It was bar table 8 ball, race to 5, only $10 entry, but 39 players showed up. Ironically, after we finally decided to play, we almost didn’t get in because it was originally limited to 32 players.
We got there just in time to hit a few balls before the tournament began. The snow had just started to come down pretty hard about an hour before we left so the roads were a little yucky, but at least we weren’t the last ones to show up.
I lost my first match to my very least favorite person to lose to. He’s a decent player that makes shots and gets out but his idea of a follow through is standing or jumping straight up on every single shot. It’s so painful to watch and miraculous to me that the balls go in the hole.
I won my next three matches and lost the fourth one to an intermediate APA player that made balls pretty consistently. In fact, that’s all he did. He just fired everything in from everywhere, with absolutely no plan. Up 4-2, I missed an 8 ball cut shot because my thumb caught the far pocket when I went to pull the trigger. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Something goofy happened the following rack and the next thing I knew, it was hill-hill. He missed and left me a tricky 4 ball out. I got funny on the ball before the 8, attempted to play a textbook 9 ball safety, leaving the cue ball behind the 8, but it rolled just a little too far. I sold out and he made a solid shot-maker out. He lost his next match and the guy he lost to lost his next match. Argh!
The good news is that with everyday of practice and competition, I’m feeling more and more comfortable with my shaft. On the other hand, as more and more shots are coming up, I’m also discovering new difficulties with it.
For instance…
- I’m still having trouble when I’m almost straight in and using inside english.
- I keep tending to “over-spin” the ball when I have an obtuse cut into the side pocket.
- Interestingly enough, when I have the same angle shot into the corner, I have no problem with those. In fact, I might even say I pocket those better than with my other shaft.
- The miscuing thing is killing me. This taper allows me to get so much closer to the edge of the cue ball but it’s also SOOOO much easier to miscue. I’m learning that I don’t need to aim as close to the edge as I’m used to, to achieve the same results.
So, as promised, here are the details of Mike’s finals match. In fact, I’d like to get your opinion on the matter.
First, I caution you, BEWARE OF SORE LOSER BULLY CRY BABIES. They come in all forms. The one from my story comes in the shape of a white haired, very experienced, incredibly skilled player with an enormous belly larger than Santa‘s wearing a shirt just barely long enough to cover the bottom of it, that could seriously use himself a Jack Nicholson Anger Management course… or five.
SO! At the beginning of the tournament, Mike and I showed up and Irv (the sweet, 67-year-old guy that runs all the tournaments at Rack ‘Em) asked Mike if he was a AA or a AAA. I looked around the room at the other non-AAA players and took the liberty of ranking him as a AA. Not that I didn’t believe that he played to the ability of a AAA player or that he wouldn’t stand a chance as AAA, but simply that other known players at his level and even a BCA/VNEA master player friend of mine were all playing as AA’s. Given the bracket, I believed he was fairly ranked as a AA.
There ended up being only one AAA player who was asked to spot a game in every match. As you may gather by this point, this is one of those “sore loser bully cry babies” you should beware of.
This AAA player was also asked by the owner and tournament director to help rank the incoming players. Apparently, Mike was classified as a AAA player but no one ever informed him of this (not that it mattered because not one opponent got more than 3 games on him anyway).
He played all his matches that day without one person asking for the game spot or anyone telling him he needed to spot a game. When the match for the driver seat came around, Mike met up with the AAA player and put his game on the board. The AAA said nothing about it. That is, until… after losing 5-2 (with the handicap) all h*ll broke loose! I could hear him yelling from across the room.
OMG! Seriously?!??? I’d known he had a reputation for being a sore loser, but hadn’t seen much of it in action. He immediately got this crazy, scary look in his eye and began yelling and puffing his big, Santa chest out. He wouldn’t listen to anyone and just kept insisting Mike was a “cheater” and started getting louder and louder.
Mike remained very calm, then patiently waited while the AAA defeated the incoming loser’s side player. When Mike walked over to begin the finals match, the AAA threw a huge tantrum and refused to spot Mike his game on the wire.
By this point, he was so unnecessarily irate that I even asked him why he was yelling. He continued with his cheater accusations (which is just flat out rude and offensive as Mike is the most honest human begin I’ve personally ever met) and now claiming that Mike was trying to “change the rules.” If anything, the rules were being changed on Mike. He’d been playing the entire tournament one way until he got to the finals and was being told he had to play another way. How’s that fair?!???
Unfortunately, they couldn’t come to a resolution that evening and scheduled to meet again the following evening with the owner and tournament director present to make a decision and finish the tournament. (I was secretly glad because it was after 2a.m. by this point.) As we drove away, I asked Mike why he didn’t just beat him straight up and shut him up. He validly responded that if he was being accused of cheating by taking the spot, to play him even would be to admit fault and wouldn’t do it for the pure principle. I get it.
Even more unfortunately, when we arrived the next evening, the owner wasn’t even there. He left a list of four options:
- Split the money
- Play the set even
- Flip a coin to determine whether or not to spot the game
- Play one race to 7 where Mike gets a game spot (this one seems totally arbitrary to me)
What the heck were these options?!??? None of them were in Mike’s favor and Bill was still yelling. To cut to the chase (because this is already the longest post in history), we were so disappointed at the entire outcome and the way everything was handled, Mike just took the split so we could get out of there.
He’s such a nice guy that after all the yelling he’d endured, he still calmly tried to rationalize with the AAA, explaining that he was never informed of his status so he may have been ignorant but not a cheater, shaking his hand, and ending on a neutral note. Me? I’ve lost so much respect for this guy and his temper. He’s burned a bridge with me and I’m incredibly disappointed. Boy, losing sure brings out the worst in people…
So, I pose the question to you: What do you think was fair?
I probably would have split the money too. To hell with him. He has such a poor reputation! He is one of the main reasons that I don’t even play in any of the local tournaments. Between him and Mark, they usually always get in the money, and I am not in the business of paying their light “BILL.” I would NOT have shook his hand though, but that is just me. Dont lose any sleep over it, just ignore the guy.
I may have asked him if he:
5) Wanted to flip a coin for both 1st and 2nd place money.