Dave’s Good Stuff

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 other teams that were beat out by the Boogaloo. Seems there was no love lost between the Boogaloo and their victims. Several teams had written complaints up against them, and those we were sitting with were *very* vocal in their dislike of the team. Apparently (*gasp*) the EB sandbags! No way! From where I was sitting, both final teams were guilty of it. Their fours and fives were all playing two or three points above their handicaps, and (oddly enough) that’s all they played. I’ll talk about my experiences and observations with APA sandbagging in a later post, but suffice to say here that I wasn’t at all surprised.

In the end, Lumberjacks were the better sandbaggers, and EB took home 2nd place. After the match we got our own picture taken, collected our prizes and went on our way.

The rest of the evening was spent at the other end of the strip, at the Luxor and Mandalay Bay, two of the nicer casino/hotels in Las Vegas. I finally gambled, and lost about $40. Mel spent about $5 or $6 and came home with almost $200… some people have all the luck. For dinner we ate at a really nice Chinese restaurant called Shanghai Lilly. The food was terribly expensive, and terribly good. However, the highlight of the evening was Mel making a crack about wrapping Poppy Seed Ice Cream in bologna, which really touched a nerve in Dom. I’ve never seen that man laugh like that. The more he laughed, the more the rest of us laughed, and the more the rest of us laughed, the more he did… repeat. After a while, we felt bad for the rest of the patrons, who were most likely there looking for a quiet dinner, so we took our leave to hit the gambling floors. That’s when Mel won her $200 in quarters. :)

• series_part: 7

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 got through it just fine.

The second match, at 1:00 PM was quite a bit tougher. The match between Mike (9) and his opponent (8) was the sort of stuff you expect to see as a climax to an epic film. The opponent was just amazing. That he isn’t a 9 already amazes me… he had excellent cue ball control and amazing defensive plays. He never had a hard shot, and when he missed (maybe 2 or 3 times), he rarely left an easy one. Mike definitely had his hands full. Towards the end of the match, things really turned around for us. Mike was down a ways, I can’t remember exactly how far, but it was getting tense. His opponent plays a safe on him, and he’s left with a very difficult shot. I put it up here so you can see how Mike Houdini’d his way out of it. We cheered, probably too loud, when he pulled this off. From here, it was a matter of running a couple of racks and winning the match. I followed Mike against a 4. I won, but it wasn’t the easiest of matches.

The third match at 5:00 PM, again, wasn’t that tough. It’s odd how the matches alternate like that. One hard, one not. I expected all the matches by now to be very difficult. Such was not the case. Oh well… I don’t remember much about this match, except that we won. The nice thing, though, about this match, is that it cemented us in 5th place. The next match is for 4th, or 3rd, or whatever. Things get confusing after a bit… suffice to say, we’re at least 5th out of 222 teams! :)

The fourth match… here’s where things got real interesting. It was against a team from New Jersey called Electric Boogaloo. This time, we were the team about which they said “I thought it would be harder.” We never really stood a chance. Ali played first, and was beat by another 3. Aaron played also, and was beat by a 4. Prasad played, and in spite of an absolutely amazing shot, was beat also. Mike then played, and actually won, but the spread is still stacked pretty well against us at this point. I go in against a 4 who plays like a 7 or an 8, and come within 4 points of taking us to the next match. It wasn’t to be, though… I left him ball in hand on their winning point. 7’s and 8’s don’t often miss ball in hand, even when they’re 4’s.

We lost, but it was a hell of a run (and we don’t have to worry about being watched anymore ;). Out of 32,000 teams that competed to get to Vegas, 222 made it. Out of those 222, we got 5th! To the best of my knowledge, that’s the best a team from Kansas has ever done. You can see us, near the bottom of the page here (I’m second from the left, top row), with our trophies and plaques. Our team name is “Nothing is Over.”

Definitely a good, if exhausting, run.

• series_part: 5

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 all I can do is take a nap. At least it’s in the middle of the afternoon, rather than at night. Nothing really happens during the day here, it’s pretty much a nocturnal city. All the same, I didn’t mean to take the nap. Mel, not wanting to nap, took off and had herself a walk. She walked all the way down to the other side of the strip to the Luxor and the Bilagio. Apparently, that’s where things are really nice. Good to know, since it’s not here.

The next match at 5:30 also went well. This one was a little harder, but still didn’t pose that much difficulty. The main issue now is that we’re being monitored. After the handicap ratings of two team members were raised, our team has been flagged as, for lack of a better word, suspicious. This doesn’t really come as a surprise to me, but it’s still a bit of a stressor. Here’s to hoping that we won’t get disqualified…

Call us boring, but being tired, after this match Mel and I went to bed. The nights on the town can wait until after the tournament is over.

• series_part: 3

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 score though… should have taken notes.

Following the match, we went to an Italian restaurant in the CC called Stivali. It was amazing. I had Shrimp Scampi, and it was some of the best food I’ve ever eaten. That it was in the CC is equally, if not more amazing (the CC, as it is, really isn’t that great). Jake and Monica, however, had a different take on it entirely. Being Vegans, they’re having a hard time finding food they’re willing to eat here. I suspect that won’t change much. There’s another Italian restaurant that a friend recommended called Batelli’s, or something like that. If it’s half as good as Stivali, it’ll be more than worth it.

Second day, and first match over. We won, which didn’t matter really… it’s a modified single elimination tournament. If we’d lost, we’d still be in it. Tomorrow however, if we lose, we’re out.

• series_part: 4

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 the fancy ultra swank beautiful-people-everywhere town I expected. Maybe I just didn’t see the right things or hit the right places. The Riviera where the tournaments will be held, and the Circus Circus (henceforth, called “the CC”), where we’re staying, aren’t anything like I imagined Vegas to be. Too many kids at the CC, and the Riviera is somewhat cheap looking. They’re like women with entirely too much make-up on, that once the make-up is scraped off with a butter knife, there’s nothing but bags and pits remaining. Maybe there are… no, I’m sure there are better things just around the corner and down the street.

The Thing Most Cool of our first day was meeting, even if only very briefly, Alison Fisher. She’s about as tall as I imagined. Monica had a lesson with her in Sky Box 209 (imagine box seating at a baseball game, complete with mini-kitchen and a balcony). We would have liked to have watched the whole thing, and I think Alison would have let us, but that would have made Monica nervous, so we respectfully waited until near the end. Either way, we can now say that Alison Fisher let us hang out in her box for a few minutes.

^{* Indicates APA handicap rating}

• series_part: 2

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!

• series_part: 1