I WON! (…finally)

This weekend, I felt like Toasti after he won the Lucasi Hybrid Straight Pool Classic. I spoke with several players a few months ago while working on my article, “Help! I’m stuck in a rut!” and I distinctly remember Toasti mentioning how he felt like he’d been in a slump since his big $350,000 IPT victory in 2006. Well, secretly, I was working on the article because I felt like I was in a bit of a slump myself.

I can’t promise that this tournament is the springboard many more wins in my near future, but I can say that I hadn’t felt so confident and played so well at a tournament in over a year.

Though the turnout was extremely small this year in both the men’s and women’s fields, I am most proud of the fact that I played pretty outstanding throughout the entire tournament. I’ve won tournaments before where I was the heavy favorite and limped my way into the finals. It’s one thing to win because you’re “supposed to”, but it’s another to actually feel like you deserved it (no matter who was there or not there).

This weekend, I got out when I was supposed to (90% of the time) and made very few mistakes or regretful decisions. I won five matches for all the marbles: 5-0, 5-1, 5-0, 5-4, and 5-2.

My toughest match was the hill-hill one for the driver’s seat against local player, Rachael Wentz. I miscued twice in the first two racks and she broke and ran one. Before I knew it, I was down 4-2. She’s probably the toughest lady player in the area. She pots balls well and was definitely outplaying in me in the first half of the match.

I also made a decision to move across the room because her teammates were sitting directly behind us and cheering loudly for her every move. I know I just need to learn to deal with that stuff, but that’s how I decided to deal with it.

At 4-2, she made an error with one ball left before the 8-ball. I ran that rack. She broke dry, I chose the favorable suit and played a lock-up safety. With ball in hand, I ran out. At hill-hill, I broke, chose the favorable suit again and instead of attempting the super aggressive 50-50 out, I ducked, got ball-in-hand and ran out.

I’m not sharing the details of my tournament experience to boast about my decisions, but to remind myself that making smart decisions wins matches. When I’m struggling in the future, I hope that I can read this back and remember that even when I’m not playing perfectly, making smart choices wins games.

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(courtesy of BilliardCoach.com)
Mike, with the big lense

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