I Gave As Good As I Got

This past weekend was a major local tournament,
the Ron Greenberg Memorial,
at On Cue Billiards, in La Mesa, CA.
Nine ball, race to 9 on the win side,
and to 7 on the one-loss side.
Winner breaks. Rack your own. No jump sticks.
No handicapping, so all 72 players were good.
A lot of familiar faces in the lineup.

It was supposed to start at noon,
but when was the last tournament you did
that started on time?
It's like the Army: hurry up and wait.

In any case, it's a marathon.
You get up early to prepare everything
including supplies (water, protein bars, chalk, etc)
and shoot some racks before the drive south,
giving plenty of time for the usual traffic delays,
and arrive in time to play some more
at the scene to get a sense of the tables.

And then it begins...
Non-stop pool, for hours and hours and hours.
No breaks, no time for a decent lunch.

At my best,
my break is un-spectacular,
but after 8 hours of nine-ball
I was hitting the rack like an nine year old girl.

It just doesn't seem true that pool takes endurance,
but in a big tournament like this
I'm reminded of the need for top physical conditioning.

When all the chalk dust settled,
the top four were:

1. Lou Ulrich
2. Oscar Dominguez (son of Ernesto)
3. Dan Wallace
4. Morro Paez

Dan was the guy who
knocked me out of this tournament,
so I guess I can't feel so bad about that.
About a year ago I played Oscar at Hard Times,
and he won, demonstrating an aweome preshot routine.

The bottom line is that I won 2, lost 2.
And I won by greater margins than I lost.
So I gave as good as I got,
and maybe a little bit better,
but I was not pleased with my play, generally.

Another learning experience
on the road to excellence.

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