The Home Stretch

I’m pretty proud of my performance today. There were twelve women this year which is actually a lot more than in the past few years.

Format (for the Women’s Division):

• Race to 5
• Combination 8-ball and 9-ball
• (3 games of 8-ball)
• (6 games of 9-ball)
• Winner of the lag will choose either Break or Format
• APA rules
• Double Elimination

My Strategy This Year:

• Whenever possible, start with 9-ball (most of my opponents are bar table 8-ball players and try to go for everything when playing  9-ball)
• Make smart decisions and duck when necessary
• Deliver a smooth, quality stroke on every single shot

So far, after four matches, I’ve given up seven games and played four games of 8-ball. All while a number of my students came to watch and support me. I felt so honored that so many of them stopped by today just to check in on me. I’m so fortunate!

Match #1 vs. Leslie from Nebraska

This doesn’t sound very nice, but she didn’t have a chance. I only say (write) this because while she was shaking my hand she said, “I’m so nervous. I don’t even know why I came out here. I knew I was going to lose,” and she meant it. I could sense from her body language and mannerisms that he had already given up before our match had even began. She missed ball-in-hand and I don’t believe she ran more than three balls. All I had to do was come out firin’ and she was toast. That’s exactly what I did. As Doug said, “you could smell the blood in the water.”

It was a shame. She had wonderful mechanics and I could tell that she was not giving me her best game.

My mission in this match: Do NOT feel sorry for her. That’s exactly how I let end up letting players back in match.

I won 5-2 and these were her two wins:

I hung the 8 ball

I cut in the 8 ball and scratched

Match #2 vs. Virgie from New Mexico

I remembered playing this lady at last year’s qualifier and it was the same story, different year. She stroked the ball great and potted balls pretty well, but she hits everything at mach speed and when she would miss, inevitably, I was hooked. I jumped and kicked several times in this match.

Final score was 5-1. After understroking the 7 ball to get to the 8, this is what I was left with:

I banked in the 8 ball while attempting to play a safety

My intention was to bank the 8 ball to the center diamond behind the 9 ball and send the cue ball up table. I chunked it so badly that I pocketed the 8 ball and even if I hadn’t, I would’ve sold the farm anyway. On the hill, I was faced with a very tough 9 ball shot. This is where I would normally sell out and let my opponent win a couple more games before barely winning hill-hill or something silly like that. Nuh-uh. Not this time. My instinct was to shake my head but I caught myself. Instead, I forced myself to nod and accept the shot. Without taking too much time and allowing my brain to realize what I had just done to myself, I got down and fired it in. It was so sweet.

Match #3 vs. Carol who kept calling me “Pat”

No highlights to report from this match. I didn’t play my best, but I played steady enough to win 5-1.

Match #4 vs. Aimee, my friend and sometimes-student

This was the toughest match of the day for me. Not only is Aimee a VERY good player with flawless mechanics, but she is VERY sweet and I absolutely adore her! She and her husband often attend my monthly pool clinics and I love everything about her game. She works so hard  and I can see the improvements every month. I love the way she hits the ball.

My mission in this match: Remember that I want this just as badly as she does.

She must’ve read my mind, because she won the lag and wanted to start with 8-ball. Blast! During our match, her confidence was high and she was stroking the balls in beautifully. She won the first game and really should’ve won all three 8-ball games but I got very lucky to get back to the table. I still believe she outshot me in the match but I just played smart and didn’t do anything too crazy.

I felt fortunate to win 5-3.

I return at 11 a.m. for the single set finals against ???

The evening ended so early that I decided to head to Tarantula’s downtown to hit some balls with Uncle Joe. I heard they had just recovered the tables or just got new Goldcrowns in there for something. Well, the tables were slow as molasses and the balls were old, dirty, and chipped. After one and half set to five, we got out of there before I adjusted too much to those tables. As I was maneuvering through the downtown weekend traffic and drunk pedestrians at 9:30, I was reminded of why I don’t go out on the weekends anymore except to play pool. Yuck, I’m too old for this crap!

Early morning tomorrow. I’m looking forward to the long race to nine and hoping to continue shooting well. My friend and former coach used to always remind me:

“Just because you’re getting deeper into the tournament doesn’t mean you have to change what you’re doing or play any better. Just stay steady and keep doing what you’ve been doing to get this far.” ~ B. Keller

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