My first match yesterday was against seasoned player from Canada, Grace Nakamura. Early on, the speed got me as I had not had the luxury of as much Smart Table play as last summer. Man! I do love those things though!

Immediately, I lost confidence and it was completely horrible. Everything just snowballed. I missed shots. I scratched. I couldn’t get out with ball-in-hand. It was so sad. She won, of course. Final score was 9-4.

After the match, I couldn’t talk to anyone. I hadn’t felt that way in a long time. With my current roles in the industry, I’ve felt somewhat of an obligation to be friendly and social, even between matches. But all I wanted to do was hit a bunch of balls and get that taste out of my mouth! And that I did.

My next match was against a very sweet lady called Phylis who had never played in a tournament before in her entire life. I’m so glad I didn’t know that at the time, but I guess I suspected it from when she asked, “Okay, so how does this work?” before the match combined with trying to fly the nine at just about every turn to the table.

I won, 9-0. As soon as I realized she was not a strong player, I told myself, “Self, do not give up one game.” It’s so easy to let up or start getting aggressive and careless when playing a weaker player. I just didn’t want that to happen.

Anyway, I play again at noon today against a player I haven’t heard of before. Thanks for all your support!

See Day 1 Write-up

See Online Brackets

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