8-ball

Well, I'm a little further from my debut on the professional billiards tour than I would like to think. Today, I drove to Auburn, and played in my first-ever 8-ball tournament, plying my cue against a field of about 60 or so.

And it was less than pretty. I did have the distinction of signing up early enough to be in the first wave of players, and playing poorly enough to be the very first entry into the losers' bracket (or as I like to call it, the "late bloomers' bracket"). First round was a race to 3, but my match wasn't exactly a race.

I did come back and win my second match, though, only to go down pretty quickly in match #3. Still, I did win a match, my first ever also. And I did a great job calling the coin flip to determine who would break first. Heh.

We learned several things today:

• 7 tables are not enough for best-of-5-game matches. I played three matches in a tournament that began at 1 and ended (for me) at almost 7. Lots of butt-numbing action in between.
• I need to invest in my own cue. I borrowed my friend Anne's cue, which is pretty nice, but if I'm going to play seriously, I need my own. That's #46 on my 100.
• I need to work on balls number 5 and 6. I'm pretty solid when it comes to 3- or 4-ball runs, but the tail end of a run requires more precision than I'm currently capable of.
• That precision is acquired through controlling spin and cue speed, and those are the two things I really need to work on. With one or two exceptions, I was able to make the shots I should have. Being able to move the cue ball to a fortuitous location, however, is something that separates really good players from me at the moment. I make my shots more difficult than they need to be because I lack that control.

Despite my general lack of success, though, I had a good time, and it was certainly instructive to play against strangers in an elimination setting. Considering that I've only been playing once a week, and that it's been close to 7 years since I played regularly, I'm pretty satisfied with where I'm at. And it's nice to get my head out the academy for an afternoon...