My Longest Run Out

While this isn't necessarily all that impressive, it is, as best I can recall, my longest run-out.

I broke, scratched, nothing fell.  My opponent makes the 1B, scratches.  I get the table back like this:



Progress through the 8 pages to see what I did.  I was so excited by the time I got to the 9-ball I had to take an extra few seconds to gather myself. My next goal is to run an entire rack.  During practice, I always take ball in hand after the break if I don't have a shot on the 1B, and I think this has helped, because I was able to study the layout of the table and I chose to start with the 2 in the corner, mostly because it had no other place to go, but more importantly because it meant that the 2, 3, 4 and 5 at least should be mine.  Once I got there, I played it basically one ball at a time, make the shot the first, then add position.  It worked out pretty well.

Yesterday was a damn good day overall.  I bought a glove and wasn't sure how I'd like it.  I'm still not sure, but it's nice having a pretty smooth sliding action consistently now. I also went back to doing chin-lock practice - and in doing so, I've upped my accuracy back to where it should be.  I also think this is why I'm making more cut-shots than I have the last 2 weeks.  Considering being sick the last 3 days, yesterday's combined total of nearly 7 hours of pool really went pretty decently. :)

The Path to the Tournament

Today's pool hall adventure was something pretty awesome.  I get there and the parking lot is near full. I walk in and most of the tables are taken; and the people I'd usually play with are busy.  So, I grab a tray of balls and find a table.  I haven't even put my stick together when Kevin (an instructor who hangs out there and to whom I've talked only a handful of times before) asks if I'd like to play some 9-ball.  Of course I accept!  I'm also strangely nervous, but trying to keep it in check.  We only got to play 2 games, which he, of course, won - because his student had just arrived for the day. But it was interesting to watch him move around the table.  Then Morris showed up and we played the remainder of the day. 

Now, I didn't make any fantastic shots, per se, but I did make three back-cut bank shots - one all the way down the table - and mostly got position.  Unfortunately, whenever I miss, most of the time I'd be in position for the next ball - which often meant he was snookered behind some other ball.  So: Point for getting position - Negative point for missing the shot.  This constant having to fight out thing really got under Morris' skin and I think it threw his game off.  Either he's miss the object ball, or scratch - sometimes both.  The table seemed to have only 2 speeds: too slow and too fast.  Getting distance-based position was a real trick, one that neither of us actually got a good grip on all day.  Normally, Morris can cut balls with very impressive accuracy, but today for some reason, he was off - to me, it seemed as if he wasn't accounting for throw, or was just simply out of stroke.  Regardless, he let me back to the table frequently and I was lucky enough to only 3 balls to clear to run out.  Today was my day to win, it seemed.  He, again, commented on my game, which is indeed pretty awesome.

Just before leaving, I heard someone mention a 9-ball tournament next month - now that caught my ear pretty strongly.  I will be entering this tournament.  It's November 4th, single elimination.  I have discovered a few other key elements to my game I really need to work on - most immediately the thin cuts.  I've gotten better, but they're still a gamble for me.  I also need to retrain my eye because every time I see a less-than-half-ball hit, I immediately think "bank" - I need to start thinking "cut". More often than not, a cut shot will offer more positional opportunities than a bank shot will.

I plan on spending a lot of time shooting the next three weeks and really try and work out some issues.  I have no delusions of winning the tournament, but I really don't want to go out the first round.