My first 8-ball tournament at Buster's

On the last Monday in September, I decided to try the 8-ball tournament at Buster's Billiards.  It is a handicapped tournament, and since I did not have an 8-ball handicap, I was asked to play a couple of games against an established player so that Frank (the man who runs Buster's, and the tournaments there) could figure out what my handicap was supposed to be.

I lost the first game against John, the established player, but then won the second game.  I was given a handicap of 12 (0 being the best).

A slight tangent to explain the scoring system (which I was not familiar with before that night):  In this tournament, you get 1 point for each of your balls (solids or stripes) that is potted during the game (whether you put them in or not), and 3 points for the 8-ball.  So, the winner of each game gets 10 points and the loser gets a score equal to however many balls have been sunk belonging to that player (usually 7 minus whatever balls are left on the table).  A game where all of the balls are sunk is therefore scored 10-7 for the winner.

Each match in the tournament is three games, with the third game only being played if it is needed.  You start the match with the number of points equal to your handicap.  So, I started all matches with 12 points.
In my first tournament match, I played someone with the same handicap as me.  I won the first game, but lost the next two (and therefore the match).  Luckily, the tournament was double-elimination, so I got to keep playing until I lost one more time.

My second match was against the player that I played my "exhibition match" against.  His handicap was 8, so it was theoretically possible for me to lose two of three and still win the match (e.g. 10-7,7-10,7-10 would still give me a 36-35 win on points).  I was in good form, though, and won both of the first two games to take the match!

My third match was against another 8-handicap player.  We split the first two games, and then I broke to start the deciding game (in each game, the loser of the game before breaks the rack - the starting break of the match is determined by coin toss).  After the break, which sunk a ball, I looked to see which side (stripes or solids) would be best to have.  I saw a way to run the stripes, even though I would at one point have to separate the 8-ball and the 9-ball.  Optimistically, I decided to see if I could run out.  Usually, this is not a great strategy, because if you do not succeed, your opponent has many ways to make life difficult for you.

The game proceeded like a dream.  Every shot went exactly the way I envisioned it, and when I used a shot to separate the 8 and the 9, they both ended up makeable.  For the first time in many years, I actually broke and ran an eight-ball rack, and I did it in a tournament!  This was the highlight of the night for me.

The next match was against a player with a handicap of 1 (!!), which meant that I could lose all three games 10-7 and still win the match.  Unfortunately, he beat me worse than that, as my mojo from the previous round did not continue.

So, two wins, two losses, and a break-and-run...not a bad night for my first tournament in years.  Only cost me the $10 entry fee, too.  I hope to be able to play another tournament soon.