Three of us, myself, Hafid and Dean have decided to play pool regularly at Dean’s house. We were just playing once a week, just trying to get back into the swing of it. But now that we’re back in said swing, we’ve decided to up the ante and play two or three times a week, at least. We figure we’ll play Monday, Wednesday and sometime on the weekend. There will probably be more than that, but that’s the minimum, with tonight being the start of our more extensive practice.

Practice, such as it is, really is nothing more than the three of us playing a very relaxed version of 14:1 Continuous, or Straight Pool. One will rack all 15 balls, give it his best 14:1 break, then shoot until he misses. We take turns shooting until we miss, and when the last ball is left, the Break Ball, we rack the 14 sunk balls and use that last ball to break it up… continue ad nauseum. The only full break (which is really a softer, minimal break, with only enough juice to get two balls into two rails and then back into the rack, while leaving the cue down at the other end of the table so as to leave your opponent with no shot) is at the beginning of the evening… after that, it’s full on continuous pool. Shoot at whatever you like, and just keep shooting until you miss. 14:1 is really a two person game, but there are three of us, so we improvise.

Tonight was especially nice for me. For the longest time, my record run was 15 balls. I just couldn’t get over that hump. I’d run a rack, but I couldn’t get that last ball in place to break up the 14 ball rack… so I was stuck at 15 balls in a row. Tonight I made 17. I got over the hump. :)

Tomorrow, we’re going back over for more.