Spring 2009 Final Standings

Our team played awesome the final night of Spring pool leagues...winning 22 out of 25 eightball games. My final league stats are

35-15 record (1st)
8.66 average (2nd)
2.56 power ave (2nd)
2 EROs (2nd)

I lost high average to a girl in the league that I lost to both times. I needed to win all 5 this past Tuesday to clinch it...but lost and was low man on the team with a 44..the others had 45, 47, 50, 50! Carried my ass..as usual. Maybe the team will trade me for the chick that won the individual stats.

2009 Midwest Day #2

After bumming a bed from Wathor and Russell, I managed about 4 hours of snore induced sleep before the early morning match. We rolled up the first team where I didn't miss a shot...this continued into the next match.

Our 2nd match was a team from Fremont and Jay had an ERO to get us up 25-14 after 3 games. Then my game came up...where they broke and ran, and I woulda bet anything that I was going to get a chance. I stood up out of my chair (preparing to shoot) after my opponents run seemingly stalled here...



Now this roll gave him a very possible opportunity to get out...luckily getting a breakout angle on a tough 13 ball to even get a shot at!



Of course he gets the perfect breakout and finds his way back to the 8.



This loss of mine was followed by a team member missing on a open table to lose 10-0 to get us behind 64-38 after 8 games. I won both of my next 2 games and the team won 5 straight to get to 88-88 with 2 games left a 50-24 run!

Both games started simultaneously with our break dry and theirs looking juicy! The guy from Fremont finished off the ERO with a bank 8 ball to take the match since enough balls were down on the other table. Of course a referee was again called for this shot...which kinda drove the guy to shoot the bank off the 3 ball and it turned out it was dead! No more refs for us!!



From:
25-14 through 3
38-64 through 8 (13-50 run)
88-88 through 13 (50-24 run)

Watched them shoot a little of the next match and it was a completely different team...they were looking to lose against a local team that we regularly beat. They stepped up their game with 2 EROs and another runout for a 10-0.

We really shoulda took this tournament down...got 9th-12th outta 128 teams for a $350 payday!

2009 Midwest Day #1

Our team headed up north this past weekend to Sioux City, IA for their team tournament. Our team squeaked into the open division and should definitely have won the dang thing. We started off winning our first match easily at 10 am in the shortened 15 game format, then in the 2nd match at noon we were up 15 through 9 games when our opponents got crazy hot.

I got ran out on here for a big loss...



Within literally seconds, a ref was watching the neighboring table on a jump shot that was being shot against one of my team members.



These guys were definitely not this good...but they ended up getting 16 up with 2 games left. Then Jay broke and ran for a 10-0 to get us within 6 needing a 10-3 to win. The guy broke and ran only 1 leaving him needing on more ball since they had more 8 balls wins. Overheard the other team saying that they needed 2 to win...this almost made a difference as I'll explain later. Rex gets up and runs off 4 or 5 and gets tied up with a ball and tries a safety. There is one easy ball to make on the table, but he takes the more difficult one since it'll set up the 2 ball victory. He rattles it in, but leaves himself nothing and their team groans as we walk over to shake hands and inform them that they have won....with a delayed victory cheer to follow.... ARGGGH

We won handily at 6pm, 7:30, and 9 to meet up with the same team again for our last match of the night at 10:30. We proceed to get up 16 with a couple games left and took the match. Now we play at 9 the next morning and decided to hit the bars and Perkins until 4am!

2009 City Pool Re-cap

The 10 days of Lincoln's city tournament were up and down, luckily ending on a high for the weekend.

Started off playing a rated 9 ball tournament, masters had to win 4, A had to win 3, and the rest had to win 2 games. My first match was against the eventual winner of the tournament, he needed 3 games and I needed 4 games. He made a 9 on the break and ended up beating me 3-3...somehow. My next match was against a 2, and he snapped the 9 the first game...making me win the next 4 straight and I failed. Out of the 9 ball, I played a mini tournament and won $25 on a $5 entry, 8 person tournament. The finals were against a team-mate, but he got $15.

Our masters team didn't do well, it was bracketed and as the 6th place team in the league...we got an "easy" match in the 11th place team in the league. Throughout the whole match, the runouts were a plenty... Our team had 4 (2 were mine) and the other team had 3. We built up a 13 point lead with 3 games left when they broke and ran for a 10-1. Now the lead was 4 and 2 games left with my game up... I broke and ran and missed my nudge on the 10 ball leaving myself a backcut for the runout and team match win. Then this happens...






My opponent gets ball in hand and runs out...now were are up 1 with a game left. And this is the situation the final two players were in...




Probably the same safety that I woulda played...but it ended up costing us the match with the bank luck going their way!




Our master team then managed to win one match, before losing out the next day for $150 payday. My wife had been at the tournament site the whole day and was still interested in playing a scotch doubles tournament at 8 (or 8:50 as it was) that night. We discussed going to the casino, but decided to play instead. The women break in the scotch doubles 9-ball and my wife fired the 9 in on the break while I was in the bathroom in our first match. The next 3 matches went that way until we found ourselves down 0-2 in a race to 3. We played great together and pulled it out to get to the final 4. Our next match was probably the best team in the tourney, and we again fell behind 0-2. This time a couple poor safeties got us the match in 3 straight games. The finals were a bruisin at 3-0 and we took the title!! Definitely had a blast...and got $160. Great ending to the weekend...here's a picture I took of the bracket!! :)

2009 Speed Pool Preperation

Our city tournament is this next week and my favorite event is again here this year... I've got 3rd in speed pool the past 3 years, usually takes around 60-65 seconds to qualify. This one below took around 54-55 seconds...

2008-2009 Final Pool Stats

Finished out the season with both my pool teams and this week is the city tournaments.

Sunday night we took the cake with a 4 round win against Risky's in a long fought 2 team race....beat them every time this season which was definitely the difference.

Won individual honors on Sunday with a 67-13 record, 7 EROs, a 9.10 average and 4.10 power average... hope I don't get a coaster like the City Single's champions are getting!

Everyone on my team played well this season and I'm looking forward to refining a team for the fall!

One my Wednesday master league, our team finished 6th out of 12 teams. I ended with a 57-63 record a 6.77 average and 9 EROs

Hope we can fare better in the tourney coming up!!

League Update

Haven't talked much about our pool leagues...but the seasons are nearly wrapped up.

First I'll talk about my Sunday Night league, below is the standings...



Our team is Incognito, and is in 1st by a few rounds with 2 weeks left. Our last two matches is the 3rd place team (Firesticks) and a position round against the 2nd place team (Who Cares). This season we have beat the 2nd place team 5-1, 5-1, & 4-2...so hopefully we can finish this league off. My record is 59-11 with 6 EROs, probably my best record ever. My team consists of a 7 man rotation including my wife, dad, and a 4 of my friends.

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My other league on Wednesday Master league is going pretty well, a couple days ago our team beat the 1st place team 4-2 with an awesome MUST RUN-OUT by our last shooter. I know I'd choked on this run...and another inch of roll would probably resulted in going 2-4 instead.



Then this next shot wasn't easy with the match on the line...but I guess that's why I don't play last.



This maintained our team in 5th with 4 weeks left, we have the last place team in the league, the 2nd and the 8th place team left, then a position round. We're the Smooth Stones...



Only a couple rounds outta 3rd...which is still in reach, especially if we get to 4th for the position round against 3rd!

2009 Great Plains Tournament

Our team played in an open handicapped tournament today at Pershing Auditorium here in Lincoln. We started off really hot, beating up on the first team we played pretty handlely (Rumored to be Iowa team champs). But we played pretty well. Then we lost to the next team we played...but gave them a nice head start, giving them the first 5 8 balls. We had a couple hour wait so we headed to Duggan's for some grub and caught some 3 card monte...this guy is from Omaha and has some pretty good slide of hand! He took a few buck and put on a profitable show for himself.





In the loser bracket, we won our first match easily, then started off horribly with 6 straight losses out of the 16 game format. Then we went on to win 7 straight back to make a good match of it. Our last player played a perfect safety with his 5 ball, blocking him from the stripe.





Then he managed to get a hit with a lucky, but good kick off the titty... er corner of the pocket.



That was the end for us in that tournament...that kick shot cost our team $60 minimum since we missed cashing by one team win. All-in-all it was a fun day though.

2009 Heartland Tournament

Our team started off badly losing 2 out our first 3 matches. But this made us eligible for the "Second Chance" Tourney. There were 22 two-time losers eligible for this tournament...we won 3 matches and ended up getting 3rd for a $60 payout.





After this we took off to pick up our kids from the grandparents. It was now midnight already!! Our first match was at 9am...needless to say my wife and I are now tired of pool!

I got pulled over on my way to get the kids and got lucky with just a warning! Got home with the kids at around 2:30 am....not sure I wanna do this again, but it was fun.

Tough 8 Ball Run

Played pretty well last night in leagues, winning 4 out of 5 games. Lost 10-0 the first game when Jim made an awesome run-out. Shot a 40...heres the runout. Didn't think there was room past the 4...but he got out!



Then a bank 8 to finish me off.



Our team went 4-2 and lost that round by 1 because of my goose-egg

Passing Lane Trickshot

Pretty popular shot done and is standard for many trick shot players. I can do it about 1 outta 10....Here's about a 1 minute video showing it in slow motion.



Here another interesting video I found for jump shots. Under 2 minutes...good slow motion and a close jump shot.

Pool Player Lottery Ticket

Couldn't help but buy a couple of these lottery scratch tickets, only down a buck since I hit $2. Sorry for the dull excitement here...all I got for now. Woulda been nice to hit a couple hundred instead of a gallon of gas.