What a difference a week makes!

One week ago last night, I went to the pool hall for the weekly 8-ball tournament.  While waiting to see if anyone else would show up, I had my normal hour or so of practice.  The practice went really badly - I was missing shots that I should make, and my position play was way off.  Luckily, no one else showed up for the tournament, and I got back my entry fee and went home.

On Thursday, my wife went to visit family for the weekend.  As the weather was pretty bad for most of the weekend, I spent quite a bit of time at the pool hall (about 10 hours over Friday, Saturday, and Sunday combined).  I met a guy named Scottie who plays there a lot, and he and I played quite a few games and did some drills and such on Friday and Saturday.  We even played another couple of players in a team match (both 8-ball and 9-ball).  Scottie taught me the rules of 3-6-9 (a variant of 9-ball) and I taught him how to play straight pool.

One of the main bonuses of playing with Scottie is that he often plays on the hardest table in the pool hall - table 16.  This table combines a fast surface with smaller-than-usual pockets, which is a combination that forces a player to be VERY precise with their shots.  If you get good on table 16, you will be able to shoot on any table.  Of course, the process of getting good on table 16 has its frustrations, as many shots that would go in on another table will miss on that one.

Sunday I was on my own for practice, and I managed to run 20 in Straight Pool practice, only the second time I had ever run that many.  Other than that, though, the practice on Sunday did not feel like it went all that well.

That brings us to yesterday - the day of the weekly 8-ball tournament.  I went to the pool hall for my hour of warmup, and at first it seemed that I would be the only one there.  But, before the deadline, three other players showed up, and suddenly we had a tournament!

Suffice it to say that my practice paid off!  I beat each of the other three players on my way to my SIXTH straight payday and my FIFTH tournament victory out of those six!  I missed a few shots that I could have made, but in general my level of play was pretty high.

After the tournament, Harold (the one I beat in the final, and someone I have played quite a few times in the tournaments) asked me if I wanted to play him in Straight Pool to 50 points for the pool time (meaning that the loser pays for the time used by both players).  He has been after me to do this for a while, and the timing was never right, but this time I said I would play.  I knew that he plays in the higher division in the Straight Pool League, so I figured I was in over my head, but I also had an extra $30 in my pocket from the tournament win and I saw it as a way to get a Straight Pool lesson for not much money.

Instead, I beat him!  Again, I missed a couple of shots that I really should have made, but so did he, and the final score was 50-42.  

FOUR hours of pool, and I came away with $30 more than I went in with!  Much better than the lousy practice of the week before.