I was thinking about two things today, while I sat at the DCC and watched players more fortunate and/or better than me play their second and third round matches.

The first thing was that living so close to the tournament is a bit of a mixed blessing. It's surely nice to be able to drive home each night. Sleep in my own bed. Just chill out for a while, away from the tournament and its hustle and bustle. But, and this is something that I only noticed yesterday but which probably started last year, but it's a little bit too easy to just quit and go home. I'm sure that, if I'd driven several hours to get here, and if I were staying at the hotel, then I wouldn't have been nearly so quick with my decision to not buy my way back in. This may be something I'll want to consider next year - just getting a room at the place and staying there.

The second thing was a continuation of some of yesterday's thoughts. There are some really crappy banks players. I mean really crappy. I watched a guy yesterday get ball-in-hand five times during his match, and each and every time, without fail, he chose the wrong shot and missed it. Then the fucker won his match anyway. I saw him today. He's still playing, though I can't imagine that he's still undefeated.

But that's the way these random draws work. Charlie Chumpchange somehow keeps drawing players even easier than himself, and I get the guy who took 12th last year for my first match. I'm not complaining. It's random. But it's also annoying, and it makes me understand a little bit of that gambling mentality which has eluded me for so long. It kills me to see some of these people still playing when I'm not. It almost makes me want to challenge the whole fucking room to a race for a gazillion dollars. Just to prove my abilities. Establish a more realistic standing for myself.

There are two things holding me back from issuing that challenge.

First, I don't have a gazillion dollars.

Second, I suck.

I suppose, if I had to make an excuse, I'd say that it was the table.

Not that there was anything wrong with the table. It's just that we didn't get along. At all.

And the thing is, when a player and a table engage in a battle of wills, the table will win. Every time.

I totally failed to adjust to the table. It's as simple as that. I lost 3-1. I didn't buy back in.

I didn't shoot nearly as badly as I'd feared, and I didn't shoot nearly as well as I'd hoped. Three or four shots, had I made them, might have made the difference in the match. But I didn't make them. Oh well.

Of course, it didn't help matters any that the guy I played took 12th place (out of almost 500) in the thing last year. I didn't know that until after the match though. During the match I was thinking that he was getting very lucky by leaving me shit to shoot at 90% of the time. Now I'm thinking that there may have been some intent behind his leaves. Asshole.

I guess that if there are any lessons to be learned from this, besides the obvious one of leave your basement and play on different tables so you can learn to adjust you fuckhole, they would have to be eat something sometime during the day so you're stomach isn't growling at you while you're trying to shoot, and work on your softer shots you ball-slamming idiot.

(crossposted to main blog)

I'm off work until Tuesday!

Tomorrow is the start of the Bank Pool division of the Derby City Classic, which I play in every year. I'm actually looking forward to it this year. Unlike last year when I was sorta dreading the thing, and it showed up in my play. Or lack thereof.

This year my mental state is much better than it's been for a long time. Problem is, my actual game is pretty shitty.

My practice sessions have lately taken one of two distinct flavors. Either I don't miss a ball for several hours, or I don't make a ball for several hours. Unfortunately, the latter outnumber the former by a fairly wide margin.

Oh well though. It should still be fun. And it will almost certainly be better than going in to work. I will miss going to the bar and seeing my friends *coughHatGirlcough* though.

I've gone ahead and purchased my entry for the DCC banks.

I'm so out of practice this year.

I've been working on embedding videos, and I guess it's time to test it in public.

So here is an old video of me shooting pool and almost accomplishing something.

Please let me know if it displays okay. This requires Flash 8 I guess. And probably a broadband connection.

I had a pretty good day, pool-wise. Got a new tip on my shooting cue, then went over to this new (for me anyway) Louisville Billiard Club.

It's a pretty nice place. Their draft selection sucks, but they have Newcastle in bottles, so I can live with that I guess.

Not that I drank any beer. It was, after all, the middle of the afternoon.

Played a guy who's a lot better than I am, but I managed to win most of the games. This was mostly because I don't play for money and I think that's all the other guy ever does.

I'd like to say that I'll be going back, but with me it's hard to tell what I'm going to do. I had fun though. I guess that's what's most imporant.

Wow, two entries in three days! Cold snap hits Hell!

Accu-Stats has finally got the 2006 Derby City Classic DVDs up for sale. I, of course, bought the Banks offerings.

Gives me something to look forward to.

It really pisses me off that I don't ever post anything here.

I still play almost every day. I shoot banks, of course, and I'm showing a lot of progress.

At least until I fire up the camcorder, then I suck donkey balls.

I've let a month go by without a single post.

If anyone bothers to read this anymore, they probably figure that I've given up playing or something. And I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking that.

But it's not the case.

I'm actually playing a lot.

I guess, if forced to make an update here, I'd say that I've sort of abandoned the idea of sticking with a particular shooting style. I'm sort of shooting with my regular (if you want to call it that) semi-random style except for certain shots.

I don't have anything else to say at this time.

I'm waiting for the AccuStats tapes from the recent DCC Banks to come out so I can buy them and see what I missed.

People are going to believe whatever they want to believe, but I know what the truth is.

Yesterday at about noon, I realized that I didn't want to be at the tournament. My excitement and interest levels were both at zero.

My first match started at around 5:00, and other than the first game, I couldn't make a ball.

And I didn't care.

Once that match was over, I came home. I didn't buy back in. I doubt that I'm going back to watch. Maybe Monday to see the Banks final matches, but maybe not.

I was expecting this tournament to do too much for me I suppose.

Like I said, people are going to believe whatever they want, but this is the truth.

Losing that match was not the problem, it was only a symptom. Losing that match did not cause me to leave and come home, it allowed me to do so.

I expand on this a bit in my regular 'blog.