Dave’s Good Stuff

Wherein those posts having to do with Pool and Billiards are grouped.

Score Sheets
I’ve put together some spreadsheets that help me keep score in Equal Offense and Straight Pool games. You can use them too, if you’d like…

Team Stats
I’ve been keeping track of the progress of my current teams, and the players on them. You can too, if you’d like… I’m currently on Where are My Pants? out of Sharks in Shawnee Mission, KS and Deep Pockets out of The Clarette Club in Merriam, KS.

Last night was the last night for our Wednesday night pool league. Tuesday night was the last for the Tuesday night league. I still love the game, and am 100% certain I’ll get back into it, but it was taking too much time, and there are so many other things I want/need to take care of. It’ll be nice to have free nights for a few months to get caught up.

We’d only been playing the Tuesday night league for a single session, but already made our mark pretty well. The wait staff, as well as others working there made it a point to tell us, in no uncertain terms, that we would be back, so just accept it and move on. It was very nice, and made us feel very good. The whole night was fantastic. The four of us had a blast, and made sure that the last night would be one to remember.

We’d been playing the Wednesday night league for some time, and felt it was just time to let it go. Last night was, also, a lot of fun. I’ve enjoyed playing there for the last few years, but I’m thinking it’s time to expand my horizons a bit and move on.

I’m really not sure what’s in store for me and pool when I return in a few months. My game feels pretty good right now, like I’m nearly back to where I was 5 or 6 years ago. I’ll keep playing on my own, over lunch, on the weekends, and the like, but not in league. I may try out some tournaments here and there, just to see what’s up. Who knows? Right now, I’m just looking forward to a little bit of a break.

This morning, Mother Nature seemed to mourn the close of a chapter with clouds, misting and a little light rain. It was pretty chilly for a while too, until I warmed up into the ride.

There weren’t any mini-vans blasting gangsta rap this morning, or groups of suburbanites flashing gang signs. There weren’t any small children playing with their dogs. There weren’t even any other cyclists/bikers/bicyclists out.

Just me.

In the mist.

Slowly making my way into work.

Finishing last night leaves two more weeks of pool for the Tuesday night league. Wrapping up tonight will leave two more weeks for the Wednesday night league. After that, we’re going to take a session off. Playing two nights a week is good for the game (though not as good as 5 or 6 nights a week), but it’s bad for the sanity at this point. I have too many other things I want to focus on, and it’s time to take a break.

All that said, last night was pretty good. I ran out on two opponents for two 10-0’s. Well… ok, I ran out on one, and while I missed the 8 ball on the other after a tight 7 ball run, he missed, leaving me clear on the 8 for a two inning 10-0. The other two games weren’t so cut and dry, but I did win them 10-5 and 10-4.

I remember back in the day when I was playing nearly every day, I noticed that a really bad day was often followed by a really good day, and then things would level out a while until the next really bad day, which would then be followed by an even better day than the previous really good day.

This holds true even now. Monday night I went to a local Irish pub and had some drinks with co-workers. One of them brought her fiance, and we ended up at the pool table. He was a surprisingly good shot. I probably had an average of 3-4 balls left on the table every time he won, and he won probably 7 to 8 out of 10 times. Granted, I was deep in a pool malaise at the time, but still, even had I cared about what happened, he still would have won handily.

That night of horrible losses was followed by a night of handy wins.

I wonder what tonight will bring…

In a stunning upset last night, Deep Pockets, formerly in 6th place out of 10, defeats the 1st place team 8-Ball Junk-eez 3 and a half rounds to 1 and a half rounds. When asked how she felt about the outcome, one team member replied simply “Hell YEAH!!!” It is uncertain how last nights stellar showing on the part of Deep Pockets will change the overall rankings, but one thing can be certain: they are out of their slump.

Defeating the first place team did a lot to bolster the flagging confidence of the team members. Over the course of the last three weeks, they went from splitting the rounds even, to suffering two 1 round nights in a row. Out of 12 rounds, they won 4.5. While last nights performance may not have improved their percentages enough to put them in one of the top three spots, winning the majority of the rounds against the first place team made the team members feel like they were already there.

Of the four team members, two monopolized the 8-ball, each sinking it three times out of four for 37 points each. While the other two team members weren’t able to pot the 8, they were able to maximize their losses with 5’s, 6’s and 7’s. Only once did our team suffer a significant defeat, when, having been unable to pot a ball, an opponent ran out to the 8 for the win, resulting in a zero to 10 score. That game resulted in a tie for the round, but it wasn’t enough to deter the tenacious Deep Pocket players, who were able to hold on to the point lead through the next round to the end of the night.

Looking forward, we’ll have to wait to see how the rest of the teams managed before we can know how last nights performance affected the overall standings. One thing is for certain, however, Deep Pockets will enter next weeks match with heads held high with renewed confidence.

Last night we won 4 of 6 rounds. That’s pretty good, and far better than winning 2 of 6 rounds like last week. However, while I had a perfect night (5 out of 5 games - can I get a “Hell yeah!”), everyone else on the team got only 1 game out of five. That makes for 9 games out of 25, giving the other team 16 games, nearly twice what we got. However, we still won over half the rounds. Odd.

This can be explained by two things…

1. We got 4 points a round in handicap. Take the handicap out and we still won 3 of 6 games, so the handicap only accounts for one round by itself.
2. When my teammates did lose, they lost by a close margin, with 5, 6 and 7 points to the opponents 10. This accounts for some games, but there were some 10-1 and 10-2 games as well. On the other hand, when we won, we won well, keeping the opponents to 10-2 through 10-5.

Still, even understanding the math, it’s just weird. That makes for two weird nights in a row. Two nights that really felt like we were going to come up very short, and in fact, came out the winners.

Two things of note from my games last night…
I beat a guy named TJ with a difficult run-out. TJ is a good friend of mine. Don’t get me wrong. But he’s an arguably better player, and likes to talk a lot of (friendly good-natured) sh*t about it. My run-out was not a gimme, and it felt really good to stick it to him like that (in a friendly good-natured way, of course).

My last game was against TJ’s brother, Kyle. It turned into a battle of safeties towards the end. I was definitely in his head, as he had a tough time with impossibly (to me, at least) easy shots. Then he pulled out what is probably the luckiest shot I’ve seen in 10 years of playing. I’ll have a diagram coming, but for now…

I played a safe which left the cue ball and my last object ball at one end of the table, his last object ball at the other end of the table, and the 8 ball right in between. He attempted to hit his object ball by banking the cue ball off the side rail near the side pocket. Instead, he hit the far corner of the side pocket, which deflected the cue ball into the near corner of the same side pocket, then across the table to the near corner of the other side pocket, which deflected the cue ball straight at his object ball with just enough speed to send it to the rail, and leave me hooked behind the 8.

I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry or rage. Instead, I tried a massé, which failed, giving him ball in hand and an easy out. Fortunately, he choked the out and I went on to win… after a few more safeties, of course.

The rest of my team rested momentarily on islands of joy amidst a sea of frustration. They just couldn’t pull it together, unfortunately. I can only imagine the beat-down we would have delivered had they been even just a little bit more on top of their game. As it was, they did enough, and the night was a success.

… barely. Last night at the Clarette Club in Shawnee, my Tuesday night pool team Deep Pockets, through judicious application of luck, managed to score 4 rounds of 5. The round we didn’t take was… best left forgotten. Two 0-10 games, one of which was an 8 ball snap, made it a nearly impossible round to take. The whole night felt off, honestly, and when we got to the end, it was with some surprise that we realized the outcome.

Mike sat out, letting the GF step in and get on the books for the session. He’d jumped up to a 9, so it also allowed us to give up one less point in the handicap scheme. Turns out one point wouldn’t have made a difference, but it’s a nice option to have.

Chris had 2 wins with 26/40 points.
Linda had 2 wins 27/40 points.
GF had 3 wins 37/40 points.
I had 3 wins 37/40 points.

Chris should have had at least one more win, and I should have had one less. He’s been having a hard time adjusting to the tables. They’re a lot faster, and moving to a brand new environment can affect a player a lot more than most realize. He’ll find his stroke. Until then, he just needs to keep playing. I’m not immune, either. I see it in him b/c I see it in me. I really only won two of my games. The third game was given to me. Down to the 8, my opponent rattled an easy out. No one really likes to win like that, but he choked where I didn’t, so if you look at it that way, I guess I deserved it. I sucked less, in other words.

As a team, we’re not doing too badly. The first night was rough, apparently. I wasn’t there, but we were swept 0-5. No fun, that. Since then, we’ve pulled it back together, taking 4 rounds of 5 for the last three nights running.