“Bi”fecta Tourney Weekend

It was a bittersweet tournament weekend but I guess two outta three ain’t too bad.

I spent this weekend in the Twin Cities at the annual MCC (Midwest Coin Concepts) Singles-Scotch-Teams event. This was my first year participating and I guess they don’t normally open it to players outside of their league system (in the St. Cloud area). This year, they charged an extra $5 entry for the non-league players to participate.

It wasn’t a bad deal for us since the other option was to drive 3.5 hours to the Northern Lights Casino in Walker to play in the MNACS Singles and have to pay for a hotel and play in pretty small fields (as it turned out). We were happy to stay close to home for this one.

Singles

I flew in Wed night and the singles started Thursday morning for me. I opted to play in the Men’s A since the women’s division didn’t begin until much later and it was a much smaller field anyway. Worst case scenario, if I got knocked out of the A’s I could jump in with the ladies.

Of the 66 players, I cashed, finishing 7-8th. I was pretty proud of my performance considering the tricky equipment adjustments. It was bar table 8-ball on Valley’s (with Flintstones rock cue balls and racks so tight it’s like playing Operation to remove them), a short race to four, loser-breaks format. The two matches that I lost were the only two that went to the hill.

Pros & Cons from this weekend’s event

Scotch Doubles

Scotch Doubles kicked off Friday at noon. Mike and I agreed that we would have fun and be nice to each other first and foremost. I made him promise to stay positive no matter what happened.

There were 32 teams in the scotch and it was handicapped. Races were to 4, 5, or 6 depending on your skill level. We were racing to 6. We only played one other 6 team and a 5 in the finals. Everyone else was getting two games.

We flew through the first four matches giving up only 2 games in 4 matches. At one point, we won 20 consecutive games. That was fun. In the quarter-finals, we drew the 5 team and couldn’t do anything right. They played great against us and we lost.

The next morning, we returned for an 8a.m. match against a 4 team. they had finished their last match at 4:30a.m. and hadn’t gone to bed. The poor team was so delirious, they had a system for time-outs and stripes/solids. Anyway, we beat them and came back to double-dip the 5 team in the finals 6-1, 6-1. It was poetic…

The Confrontation

On a side note, there was a little bit of drama in our first scotch match. We drew a team with the sweetest lady and the guy that knocked me out of the singles. During the third game, I went for a break out that dunked the 8 ball. As it was going in, he yelled, “GET IN THERE!”

I think the more and more I play this game, the harder and harder it has become for me to bite my tongue and not speak up for what I believe in. So, here it starts…

Me: “Seriously? Is that how it’s going to be?”

Him: “What?”

Me: “Well, it’s one thing to root for your partner but it’s another thing to root against your opponent. That’s just a little tacky is all.”

Him: “Well, you missed a foul that cost you the match.”

Me: “Excuse me?”

Him: “Yeah, I fouled and you didn’t even call it.”

Me: “Obviously I didn’t see it and assumed you were honest. And you’re proud of this?”

Him: “Hey, I stood up and walked around the table. I gave you a chance to say something.”

Wow… I was left speechless. After promising Mike that we would have a fun, positive scotch tournament, I made the decision to keep this to myself and not share it with him yet. I would just do my best to beat this guy to bloody pulp (mentally and on the pool table) and deal with it afterward.

There was one point when he had a close hit and I stopped him to call a ref. He looked at me like it wasn’t necessary so I said, “Well, you’ve already admitted that you don’t call fouls on yourself so why wouldn’t I call a ref?”

People like this amaze me. And it was like he was so proud of the fact that he got away with something. That’s so sad. That’s not how I would want to win. I have a conscience and I have integrity. I have never knowingly fouled and not called it on myself, even if it cost me the match. That’s just how it is.

After we beat them, maybe I should’ve refrained but I couldn’t help myself. “Karma’s a b*tch,” I said. So, of course, then I had to explain to Mike what the A-hole said to me. His actions were simply inexcusable.

In fact, I even posed the question here —> http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=179583

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Teams

I got the opportunity to play with Mike’s masters team in the handicapped teams division. We were giving up the world in points and cruised through the first match. Unfortunately, one of our players had a prior engagement during the second match so we only had four players. We all knew this going in and still played our hearts out. I won all of my games and had a couple table runs to show for. We ended up losing the second match by only 11 points (the difference of one more table run).

We had a long break and checked out the prime rib buffet as a team and goofed around for another hour or two before we finally got to play again. In our third match, we played a strong team that we were giving 35 points to. Unfortunately, I did not show up at all. I couldn’t get out from anywhere. It was so frustrating! I don’t know what was wrong with. No excuses. I just played horribly! I believe I cost us the match. That was disappointing…

Overall

Though it was a bittersweet weekend, I still had a lot of fun and met some very nice people (for the most part). Of the three events, I cashed in one, won the second, and stunk up the third one. Though many of the Cons were significant, the Pros definitely outweighed them. Overall, it was a good weekend of pool.

I’m looking forward to flying out Wednesday for Valley Forge. YAY!!!

Mismatched balls, drawn on spot, and super tight rack

I was perplexed by the equipment

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