I’ve never been a huge fan of handicapped tournaments, not even when I was starting off. Call it pride, call it stubbornness. Whatever it was, I just always wanted to play with the best while attempting to perform at my best without any special advantages.

In Denver, we’ve been fortunate enough to have a steady open Thursday night tournament (and now Sunday afternoons also) which began at Family Fun Center which later became Paradise Billiards, then Hank’s Place, was then moved to the Colorado Cue Club, but now has a home at Table Steaks South. Since long before I ever began playing pool, this was the guaranteed one night a week where all the top players in the state, including ones traveling through, would stop in and put on a pro-caliber show for us railbirds. It’s our Hardtimes Sunday tourney.

Whenever I had the money and the free night, I would try my luck at competing with the best. It was a wonderful way to measure your improvements and get some serious tournament pressure.

The cool thing about this tournament is that it’s like a mini U.S. Open every week. You could show up on any given Thursday night and draw Tony Piazza, Laura Smith, Robert Rodriguez or any other world-beater, or you could draw someone like me or a handful of others that may not be the best player in the tournament and probably wouldn’t stand a chance of winning, but was still playing just for the experience.

If there is one thing I don’t see enough of these days it’s that appreciation for “tournament experience.”

It’s a sad, cyclical phenomenon. Players won’t spend the money to play in tournaments that they don’t think they have a shot at winning. Therefore, they deprive themselves of that much-needed tournament experience to improve their game. You can’t win from practice alone. Practicing helps develop your skills but if you can’t execute under the pressure, you never will unless you expose yourself to it.

My Point…

On Monday night, I played in the Shooter’s open big table 9-ball tournament. On Wednesday nights, they have a handicapped one with such a thorough breakdown that it requires a cheat sheet at each table to remember how many games you’re racing to and how many balls you’re spotting, etc. This Monday night 9-ball tourney has been going on for over 20 years, since 1988 to be exact, and is the longest running weekly tournament in the state. They generally get about 12-24 players every week and they also have a 9 ball break pot that builds each week. A couple weeks ago, my friend Jamie P snapped in the 9 for 1,300 big ones! Sheesh!

On this night, there were 16 players and once everyone was all signed up, they were drawing the names and making announcements and I heard, “We have one lady in the tournament. Now remember, ladies get a game on the wire.” SWEET! I had only played in this tournanment once before and had completely forgotten about that. I looked around the room and knew there were some master level players and that even with the one game spot, I may not even win.

As I outbursted, “SWEET!” a fellow player made the point to say, “Ya know, June plays in this tournament and she doesn’t take the spot so you don’t have to if you don’t want to.” Quickly, I had to make a decision. Should I take the game on the wire? Does that make a complete hypocrite? I didn’t make up the rules. I didn’t ask for the game spot.

It was a race to 5 on the A-side and 4 on the B-side. I took the spot. I felt a little weird about it at first. I won my first two matches 5-2 (with the spot). I convinced myself that since it wasn’t that close, it wouldn’t have mattered either way. Everyone was very nice about it. A couple people commented that I play well but didn’t complain one bit about the game spot. They were up for the challenge.

I played 5 matches to finish 4th to cash in my 6th consecutive tournament. I feel so great about how I’m hitting the ball right now and just as importantly, I’ve been competing well under the various pressures and environments. I’m feeling very confident.

When I got home, I asked Mike about the game on the wire and whether or not I should’ve taken it. He said, “You should take it until you win the thing and once you do, then don’t take it anymore.” That’s a good point. That’s what I’ll do. I’ll be back next week for round two.

On a side note, this was my opponent Dick S.’s walrus tooth ferrule and his Midwest cue. I’d never seen a walrus tooth ferrule before, so I deemed it blog-worthy.

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