Breakthrough, and Victory!

Last Monday night, I decided to play in the handicapped 8-ball tournament at Buster's.  I wanted to break my streak of two full tournaments without winning a game, and I thought under the right circumstances I *might* win a match.

My hour of practice went okay, and my handicap was set at 11 (the same as it was for my last tournament).  There were six players, and so two players got a bye in the first round.  For the second straight tournament, I was one of those players, so I practiced some more.

My first match was against Jeremy, whom I had beaten in one of these tournaments a few months ago.  His handicap is an 8, and he was amazed that mine was higher.  It would be a recurring theme throughout the night - players commenting that my handicap was too high.  My response was the same to everyone - in practice I play well, but I have not been able to put it together in a match or tournament yet.

I lost the first game to Jeremy 10-5 (see my earlier post about the scoring method for these tournaments), but then I WON the second game 10-5!  This was not only my first win of a game in three tournaments, but because of the handicap, I could stay alive even if I lost the third game 10-7 (in which case one tiebreaking rack would be played).  Instead, I won another game 10-5!  My first match win in months!

What this meant was that I got to play Geoff in the second round.  Geoff has a handicap of -1, easily the lowest I have seen.  I did not even think they went below 0!  In my last tournament, I had lost to Geoff narrowly after missing a couple of shots on the 8-ball.  This match started off the same way, as I played well in the first game but missed my first chance at the 8.  Luckily, I ended up with another shot on the 8 and made that one.  The 10-5 win meant that I had a 21-4 lead going into the second game.  All I needed was to make four balls in the second game, and my total of 25 would be one that he could not reach.  I managed to do that, and suddenly I was in the finals!

Jeremy played Geoff to see who would face me in the final while I practiced some more.  No matter what, the final would be a rematch of an earlier victory.  The other three players had already been eliminated.

Geoff beat Jeremy, which meant that Geoff would have to beat me twice to win the tournament.  If I beat him in the first match OR a second match (if needed), I won the tournament and the $50 first prize.  I won the first game 10-6 and lost the second one 10-4, which made the score 25-15 going into the last game.  All I needed was to make one ball...and when Geoff did not run out, I did just that.

My first tournament victory EVER in 8-ball at Buster's...and my first tournament victory there of any kind in several years (I won a 9-ball tournament there back before they stopped allowing smoking in pool halls).  It was a good night.  I made $40 and got to shoot pool for about 4 hours.

Tomorrow night is the defense of my title...I am sure my handicap will no longer be 11, though, which will make it a bit more difficult.