Posted On Sunday, August 24th, 2003 By David Veatch
No matches today. Mel and I slept late, since our match against Electric Boogaloo went until after 2:00 AM. We got up lazily, and went out for a bite to eat. I knew that the finals match would start at 2:00 PM, and was curious to see who made it, and how things played out then. The awards ceremony, of which we were a part, was going to happen right after that match, so convenience and curiosity both dictated that my body be present at that match. As it turns out, Tom “Dr. Cue” Rossman was giving an exhibition in the room of the match before it was to begin. I saw him on ESPN a couple times, and I have to say he’s much more impressive in person. He really puts on a show, above and beyond the amazing things he can do at the table. Right around 2, the match started. Electric Boogaloo had made it through the matches that morning to face off against the Independence, LA team LumberJacks (arguably the most attractive team there, btw – at least in terms of their female members ;). We were up at the top of the stands, amidst several more »
Posted On Sunday, August 24th, 2003 By David Veatch
Matches at 8:00 AM MST, 1:00 PM MST, 5:30 PM MST match and 9:30 PM MST. Aaron went up to a 3. That makes three of us that have gone up. If there was any doubt before, it’s been removed. We are officially being watched. More on this later, but it doesn’t really matter. About Aaron… having had his car stolen within 12 hours of arriving here in Vegas, has done a really good job of dealing with it… that is, everywhere but the pool table. When he steps up to the pool table, I think every object ball becomes the bastard thieves and his only thought is to put them out of his misery. He’s a completely different person, with a focus I rarely see in anyone, much less him. He’s shooting like none of us have ever seen him shoot before. Two’s simply don’t shoot like that… it doesn’t happen. Consequently, he’s gone up to a three. If he kept it up, he’d have gone up to a four, and we’d been disqualified. Again, not that it really matters. Our first match, at 8:00 AM on table 13, wen’t pretty well. It wasn’t that tough, and so we more »
Posted On Saturday, August 23rd, 2003 By David Veatch
Matches at 8:00 AM MST, and 5:30 PM MST. After yesterday’s slaughter, Ali went up to a 3, and Monica went up to a 4. That’s two of four available handicap points we can raise before we’re automatically disqualified. That’s not a good thing at all. If our total team rating (the sum of our handicaps) goes up by 3, we’re going to be closely watched for shenanigans. If our total team rating goes up by 4, we’re out. Yeah. Not good. We’re starting to worry. The first match at 8:00 AM went well. Things are heating up already, or at least they feel like they are, so it’s getting difficult to remember who played. I do remember that this match wasn’t that tough. We won without much trouble. That, in and of itself is notable. I figured that once we got here to Vegas, all the matches would be pull-your-hair-out rough… not so, I guess. We pretty much breezed through this one w/o much heat. After the match, Mel and I went back to our room to drop off the cue. I ended up taking a nap. I didn’t mean to… honest. Here I am in Las Vegas, and more »
Posted On Thursday, August 21st, 2003 By David Veatch
Match at 5:00 PM MST. Mel and I slept in late until about 9:00 AM MST. We wandered around until we met up with the rest of the team at lunch. Everyone had arrived except Mike (9) and Aaron. Jake, Ali, Monica, Prasad (5), Dom (7) (here with Terri) and I got together around 1:00 PM MST in the main tournament room to check out the tables and get some practice in before our first match at 5:00. A bit about the tables: They’re incredible. Lightning fast Diamonds equipped with Simonis 860, extremely responsive rails, and extremely deep, very tight pockets. The ball return includes an optical depth sensor which singles out the cue ball from the rest, eliminating the need for heavier, larger, or magnetic cue balls. I can’t speak highly enough about these tables. Our first match at 5:00 PM MST wasn’t too tough. Our line up was Ali (2), Mike (9), Prasad (5) and Monica (4). Ali smoked her opponent, also a 2, 19 balls to 1, for a match score of 20-0. That may hurt in terms of handicap. Everyone else did quite well also, and we easily beat the other team. I can’t remember the more »
Posted On Wednesday, August 20th, 2003 By David Veatch
The plane left the ground on time at 9:40 AM CST. It wasn’t a straight through flight, unfortunately. There was an hour and a half layover in Denver. We arrived in Las Vegas at around 1:30 PM MST, and checked in w/o hassle (expedia.com actually worked!). Jake (5)*, Monica (4) and Ali (2), the only other members of the team to make it during the daylight hours were already there, and while Monica napped, Jake, Ali, Mel and I headed out to see the city. Our first night, we walked up and down the strip as far as the Treasure Island and Mirage casinos before the drinks, the heat and walking around in it started to catch up with us. On the way, we were slowed by groups of Mexicans (seemingly, anyway, by look and language) who were passing out cards with the contact information for various hookers and escorts. Awesome! However, tired from getting up early, and slightly jet-lagged, Mel and I retired around 11:00pm MST. Aaron (2) showed up late, but Mel and I had already gone off to bed, so we didn’t hook up with him yet. First impressions… Las Vegas is pretty cool, but it’s not more »
Posted On Wednesday, August 13th, 2003 By David Veatch
We head off to Vegas tomorrow. I’m not going to have a laptop on me, so any updates I make will have to wait until after I get back. I haven’t had time to try to work out some sort of remote-update mechanism, so there won’t be any day-by-day posts (sigh). I’ll let you know what happens when I get back on the 19th. Wish us luck!