A good match, but...

Last Saturday I played another Straight Pool match.  Fresh off of my win, I had high hopes, and when I found out that I only needed to get 55 points (as opposed to my opponent's 75), I really thought I had a chance.  I stayed right with him until we both had about 40 points, but then I started missing chances that I had to make, and he got into a groove.  He beat me 75-47.  I feel like I shot okay, and in fact in the first rack I made eight in a row, which started me off well, but I still missed shots I needed to make, and my cue-ball control needs a lot of work.

A measure of revenge, and my first win!

One thing I did not mention about last week is that the night after my Straight Pool match, I ran into my opponent at a different pool hall, and we played some 8-ball.  I won the 8-ball match 3-1, and while it did not really count for anything, it gave me a bit of confidence that I had been lacking.

This past Saturday, I had my next Straight Pool match.  Due to the handicaps, I had to get to 69 while my opponent had to get to 75.  I did not shoot lights-out, and I had a few break shots where I missed the shot while breaking the rack (always a bad move in a Straight Pool game), but I was steady.  I generally made shots I meant to make, and I was able to string together runs of 5 or 7 balls a few times.  Suddenly I looked up at the scoreboard and realized that I only needed four balls to win!  I ran out four shots in a row for my first Straight Pool match victory in about 15 years.  Good to get the first one under my belt!  Final score was 69-56.

So...not sure how the rest of the season will go, but it seems to be (maybe) going in the right direction for now.

Still not close to where I want to be...

I played my second Straight Pool match last Sunday afternoon, and while mentally I was a lot more positive about it, I lost by even more than before.  My opponent gave me chances, but I missed a lot of shots.  Even though I only had to go to 66 while he had to go to 75, I lost 75-48.  I have a lot of work to do...next match is tomorrow afternoon, so we'll see what happens.

Not as much improvement as I had hoped

Was it a case of nerves?  Lack of confidence?  I am not really sure...but though a practice session on Saturday went pretty well, my first Straight Pool match on Sunday could not be considered a success.  We were both playing to 75, and I started off badly by losing the lag by a wide margin (not a huge deal - just meant I had to break) and then scratching on the break (a big deal - loss of two points).  I dug myself out of the hole, and after five racks I actually held a slim lead at 40-36.  I was missing shots I should have been making, though, especially shots to the pockets at the head of the table.  My safeties were pretty bad too.  My only good shots seemed to be the shots coming out of a cluster - deciding which balls would go into a pocket when a cluster of balls was hit a certain way.  My position play was pretty bad, too.

My opponent ran 13 in a row in the middle of the match, easily more than either of us had run up to that time, and soon he was ahead by 20 at 69-49.  In the last rack, I actually had a chance to catch up a bit, but then my last mistake hit - I miscued on an easy shot, giving him a runout of the match.  Final score was 75-58.  

I think I learned quite a bit about the need to concentrate at all times on all shots, and to play better safeties.  My second match will be sometime in the next few days, so we'll see...