Posted On Monday, June 17th, 2002 By David Veatch
Tonight was horrid. It was embarrassing. It was even a little humiliating. I’m just glad I wasn’t playing for anything more than the cost of the table. I started over at Dean & Lydia’s place. They weren’t there, but they’ve extended an open invitation to play without them being there. I wasn’t doing too bad, but at some point, I felt something inside click. A silent mental click as loud as a Howitzer that signaled the end of any decent shooting for me this eve. I gave up. Don’t know why, but I just decided that I’d had enough pool for the night. I just wish the part that decided such a thing had communicated that to the part of me that wanted to plow on. Had it, I might not have uselessly sunk so many quarters into the 9-ball table. There really does come a time when it’s better to just walk away. Cut your loses and step away. Take some time to gather yourself back together, and come back later. I should have walked away from Dean’s table and never set foot in the Pool Room tonight… I think it would have been better for my game. As more »
Posted On Monday, June 10th, 2002 By David Veatch
Tonight kicked ass. Sure, I lost $2.50 playing 3-ball for quarters (to say nothing of all the quarters I plugged into the 9-ball table before that – it’s only a quarter a game, so no biggie), but I reconnected with a friend I haven’t seen in many many moons. About 2 years ago, maybe a little more, I registered at Ladders Online, a place that lets you hook up with people you wouldn’t normally meet and compete in any number of sports. It’s actually pretty nice, though I haven’t used it but once. Not long after registering, I got an e’mail from a guy named Matt Strausz who saw my name there, and challenged me to a race to 13 in BCA 8-ball. That was my one use. We set it up to play at the Pool Room on a Saturday at 1:00pm. I showed up early to warm up a bit, half-expecting to see him there. He showed up, a tall lanky fellow with a custom (carved) ebony cue with a 10mm shaft. It was fancy. We started playing, and I took the lead with 6 games to 0. He ended up coming back and winning 13 games to more »
Posted On Sunday, June 9th, 2002 By David Veatch
I just got finished with a 4 hour long 8-ball and Straight Pool afternoon at the local pool room. They re-covered their 9′ tables with Simonis 860 (which is what was on there before, but it was horribly abused by disrespectful patrons and sharp overhead lamp shades), and the table I was on played very nicely. Not too fast, not too slow, no table roll and tight pockets. I played an elderly gentleman by the name of Jesse (assumed spelling) several games of 8-ball and two games of 14:1 to 75. We were pretty much back and forth on the 8-ball games… I’d win one, he’d win one, etc. But I took control of the table in 14:1. I felt bad about the first game, in spite of Jesse’s insistence that I not, when I won 75-26. I don’t think I had a single inning below 6 balls. The second game, however, was a different story. It was much slower, the table wasn’t nearly as forgiving, and my margin of victory was much smaller with a win of 75-74 (or maybe 75-72… I don’t know – either way, it was a very close game). Going to play today was a more »