Tale of Two Matches

Last week I ended up playing two Straight Pool matches in four days. Monday night I played against Will, who was spotting me three balls (he had to get to 75 while I needed 72 to win). As has been happening in several of my matches, I stayed with my opponent until about the halfway point of the match. He had a 36-33 lead, and then he just turned it on. I did not shoot badly, but he shot really well and the match turned into my worst defeat so far. The final score was 75-41.

Thursday night I had to play the current division leader. He had run 25 balls in one inning during his previous match, and was only spotting me 17 balls (so I needed 58 to win the match). Well, even though I had not been actively practicing, I had been studying a book called Play Your Best Straight Pool by Phil Capelle (I highly recommend it), and the study paid off! My opponent never really got into rhythm, and while I never ran more than 7 at any given time, I played some really good safeties and made some good decisions, and ended up winning the match 58-35!!

This second match also led to some discussions of etiquette, which I will try to address in a future post. Pool match etiquette, especially in a social kind of league like this one, is a delicate question.

Last night I went out with my wife's brother-in-law to shoot some eight-ball, and while I was not able to control the cue ball as much as I would have liked, I was able to use some of what I have been learning lately. We had a good time - it was my first non-Straight-Pool game with an opponent in a long while, and it was a bit refreshing to not be playing on just one part of the table (straight pool is mostly played on the half of the table where the balls are racked, and when it is played well, the cue ball does not travel long distances, as a rule).


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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...

Signs of Improvement

Most days when I go out to shoot pool I am practicing on my own, which is why I have put so much effort into finding fun and instructive drills.  However, it has been difficult to see if I have really improved, as a lapse in concentration (easy to do when practicing alone) can make it seem like I am not shooting well, even if I have lifted my game quite a bit.

Recently, though, I twice happened to find someone willing to play some pool with me at the pool hall.  The first time was a short 8-ball match against someone at Buster's in Somersworth, and I won all three games (though luck played a part in one of them).  The second time was a much longer match, and (to me at least) was more of an indicator of how far I have come.

I went to Legends in Portsmouth a couple of weeks ago, as I often do on Monday nights.  As soon as I got to my table at around 5:45 (usually I practice from 7 to 9, but I was early that evening), I got into a conversation with the man at the table next to mine, and we agreed to play some 9-ball.  We played for the next three hours, until I had to go, and it was a lot of fun.  He was a pretty good player, but I was able to use a lot of what I have been practicing and I won the match 22-13.  It reminded me a lot of the marathon 9-ball sessions I had with my friend Christopher in Chicago about 15 years ago.

I recently signed up for the Straight Pool League at Buster's, which starts in a week or so.  I have not played Straight Pool in a league since I lived in Chicago, but it has remained one of my favorite games.  It is a handicapped league, meaning that each player needs to sink a different number of balls based on their ability as judged by the man running the league (in this case, Frank at Buster's).  Frank has seen me rebuilding my game for a while now, but I don't think he knows that I used to shoot Straight Pool quite a bit.  He has said that he will start me out "in the lower division", whatever that means.  At the very least, I should have a once-a-week barometer of how I am doing.

In anticipation of the start of the league, I have been practicing Straight-Pool related drills (which the Q rating drill in my previous post is, sort of) and also practicing lags and the Straight Pool break, which is not like an 8-ball or 9-ball break at all.  In Straight Pool, you basically do not want the break, as on the break you try to drive two balls to a rail while not leaving your opponent a shot.  It is a tough break to master.

One way in which I know I am improving is my ability to run at least 10 balls in a row, whether in the Q drill or in a Straight Pool setup.  It used to be quite an accomplishment to do this once in an evening of practice.  Last night I ran at least 11 balls three times in a row in the Q drill, and also ran at least 10 in Straight Pool practice (high run of 13, done twice) four times in the space of about 6 racks.  What made me happiest was that the Straight Pool runs went from one rack to the next, involving a break shot on the rack in the middle of the run.  This is one of the hardest things to be able to do consistently.

I am really looking forward to my first Straight Pool match in the league.  I have no idea of what my handicap will be, or who I will be playing against, but I will be posting results and reactions here.

Another interesting drill

Recently, while looking up some web sites that discuss the CTE aiming method that I have been using, I found myself at billiards.colstate.edu. This site is a great resource for any pool player that wants to improve.

I went looking through the instructional drills that they have on the site, and found another one that I like: http://billiards.colostate.edu/PBReview/HopkinsQSkill.htm.

This is a drill that has built-in scoring and a predetermined length (10 racks), so it is great for when you know you just have an hour or two. The maximum score is 20 per rack, or 200 for the session. I started out with an 18-point rack, which gave me a LOT of false confidence ;-). I found that the 10 racks provide a wide range of individual results, but the overall score is pretty indicative. I finished with a 78, which puts me in the "Advanced" range. Of course, even 10 racks is too small of a sample to really show me where I am at, but it is a pretty good start. The web site recommends using 50 racks (five sessions) as an indicator of your current skill level.

There are lots of drills and other great resources on the billiards.colstate.edu site. I highly recommend it.

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Practice,practice,practice

Things are starting to come together a bit. Though I have not played in any more tournaments yet, I recently had a practice session where I broke and ran a nine-ball rack for the first time in a LONG time. I have a lot more confidence in my shot, which has allowed me to experiment a bit with moving the cue ball around, as I do not have to worry as much about getting straight in on my shots. In fact, the best strategy is to always have an angle on every shot except the last one (in a game of 8-ball or 9-ball, for instance), as that allows for the most flexibility when trying to get position on the next shot.

Still have not been able to run more than ten or eleven when practicing straight pool, but hopefully that will come. I have developed a practice game that is kind of a hybrid of a couple that I have read about. I start with ten balls racked in a triangle - does not matter which ball is at the head. Break them from behind the head string, and after the break try to run as many as I can. If I sink any on the break, then I have to start from wherever the cue ball ends up if I want to keep them off the table. I can move the cue ball to start the run, but then all balls sunk on the break come out and get spotted. A scratch on the break means that all balls sunk get spotted and the run starts with the cue ball behind the head string.

One point for each ball sunk on the initial run. If I sink nine in a row, I can use the tenth as a "break ball" like in straight pool and re-rack the other nine. If I sink the tenth ball and break the rack, then I can keep shooting until I miss.

If I miss before the ninth ball is sunk, I can sink the rest of the first rack of ten for an additional point. So, if I sink six and then miss, I can get a seventh point by running out the other four balls without missing again.

Most racks so far (today was the first day I tried this game) were racks where I made eight balls and then missed the ninth while trying to get position on the potential "break ball", then made the last two balls for an extra point. One rack was an eleven point rack, which was my highest.

I find that practicing with a ten-ball rack, instead of the usual 15, allows for more open space and fewer clusters, which helps to hone the skill of going from one shot to the next. Occasionally you still need to break up a couple of balls that end up very close to each other. This practice game also helps me to learn how to break while leaving the cue ball in a good spot on the table (so that any balls sunk on the break get to stay down).

Went looking for a longer shaft for my McDermott cue online today, but I didn't find any. I had heard that they are available. I may have to call McDermott and see.


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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.

Evolution of an Aiming Style - Part 2: Theory and Practice

While getting used to the 15-30-45 degree angle aiming, I kept reading about the CTE method.  It intrigued me, partly because it was based a bit on feel instead of calculation.  I am not used to figuring things out that way, and I wanted to see if I could get it to work.  I found a couple of articles about it, and one of them discussed where the center of the pivot needed to be.  Suddenly, it all started to click.  I started practicing, and like magic, most of my shots were going in.  Not all of them, but I was gaining confidence.

Over the last several weeks, I have found that the best system for me is a mix of CTE and the degree-aiming.  If I know that a shot is a 30-degree shot, for instance, I do not worry about CTE, and I just aim for the 30-degree spot on the object ball.  Same with 45 degrees.  As long as I have confidence about where to aim the shot, I am happy.  When there is a short distance between the cue ball and the object ball, the degree-aiming system sometimes works even better than CTE.

There are two drills/games that I play whenever I go to the pool hall to practice. 

First drill:  I rack ten balls (basically a full rack without the last row) and break them apart.  After the break, I either start with the cue ball where it ends up or I take ball in hand behind the head string.  Then, I try to run the 10 balls without missing.  If I do not miss, I get ten points.  Each miss takes a point off.  Most of my racks are between six and nine points.  Very rarely do I run the whole thing out.  I usually play five racks at a time, and try to get as high a score as I can.  Right now, my top score is 40, meaning that I averaged two misses per rack.  I have had a hard time trying to break that mark.

Second drill:  I rack the 6,7,8, and 9 in a diamond formation, with the 6 on the spot.  I break them apart, spotting any balls that sink on the break, and then I get to put the cue ball anywhere I want on the table.  The object is to run the balls in order, as you would at the end of a game of 9-ball.  If I run out without missing, it is a "win".  If not, it is a "loss".  I try to get 5 wins before I get 5 losses, but I have not yet been able to do that.  I don't know if it is lack of concentration or what, but it is really difficult for me.  Most times I can only get two wins before I get five losses.