Okay, so I guess I'm switching cues.

I'm banking so much better with my Predator than I am with my Schon - I just can't ignore it any longer.

I don't know if it's the weight, or the balance, or the thinner shaft, or what the hell it is.

All I know is that banks with the Predator, whether they go or not, feel completely effortless. With the Schon, I feel like I'm having to really work at each and every shot.

Now, if I could only transfer some of the Predator ease to my 9-ball game.

I suppose an update is in order.

I've decided that I won't be playing in the one-pocket at the DCC next month. Oh, I'm shooting well enough, but I haven't been practicing any one-pocket at all. Also, I will be playing in the banks and probably in the 9-ball so a break of a couple days between those sessions would be helpful.

My 9-ball game is fairly decent. I don't think I'm playing as well as I can, but I'm playing well enough to make it into the money I think. We'll see.

My banks game is downright scary. I'm playing the best banks of my life (and I know, I say that each year at about this time). If I can stay in a offensive mode, and make it work for me, I may even be able to (dare I say it?) take the whole thing. Jason Miller did it last year by shooting at every shot, and I'm shooting better right now than he was then.

Of course that won't happen. I'll miss a couple of banks that I'll figure I should have made, then I'll revert to playing a more rounded game. Or maybe I'll start out cautiously, afraid to make a fool of myself in front of my adoring fans.

Yes, I have fans.

They watch these movies I put on the Internet, and they decide that I'm some kind of banking machine or something.

I wish.

To veer off-topic for a second...

While I was in Las Vegas last week I, every now and then, would pick up a house cue at The Tilted Kilt and bank a few racks in on their 7' tables with their 6" pockets. This never failed to get me a free beer or two, and once it got me a phone number that I didn't bother calling.

Anyway...

This friend of mine from Seattle has said that he might come to Louisville for the DCC this year. That would be pretty cool as I don't really have any pool-playing friends here at all. Just acquaintances. Also interesting would be to see if all of the stories (mostly in first-person) that I've heard about YouKnowWhoYouAre's abilities have any basis in fact. I still think of him as a bar-table 8-ball player.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

(crossposted to the main 'blog)

To properly experience election night, I've decided to watch the returns in the basement while I play pool.

I will pretend that it's Bush vs. Kerry.

While playing as Kerry, I will alternate between left and right handed play, and I will always choose the most complicated route to the pocket.

While playing as Bush, I will keep my eyes closed and blast everything as hard as I can.

Friday I went to The Bank Shot after work.

There's really not much to report except that I ended up playing a guy three games of one-pocket and won two of them.

I missed a lot of shots that I shouldn't have missed, but the guy was just trying to warm up so he didn't play much defense.

I did make one pretty fantastic shot that I need to put on the Eye-Openers page once I get it diagrammed.

All in all it was a decent outing but I'd probably have been better off going home and trying to take a nap.

Saturday I went to The Bank Shot for a while.

I've been playing very well at home and just wanted to see if I'd crumble against a real opponent.

I didn't.

I played this guy that I'd never seen before. We played 9-Ball and very early in the session I could tell two things:

1. I was nearly in dead stroke.
2. The guy was just out-matched.

I recall about three mental mistakes I made during the forty or so games we played. Those mental mistakes, along with the approximately four shots I missed, contributed to our final score being about 38-2. It really should have been 40-0.

Did I feel bad about beating the guy so badly? Not at all. Builds character.

I do wish the guy would have asked for some advice though as he had a few glaring problems.

He was relying entirely on his practice strokes to convince himself that he was aligned correctly. There was no attempt to step into the shot at all.

He was fighting the cueball on almost every shot. Using the path that the cueball wants to take may be tough to learn, but it's a vital skill to have.

After a while his attitude just disintegrated. He convinced himself that he was going to miss every halfway-tough shot and he very nearly did.

I have this really annoying habit. I think I've mentioned it here before.

I usually play my best at the very beginning of any given session, and it's all downhill - or at least steady, never better - from there.

Today I had this idea to try and capture this phenomenon.

I set up my camcorder, broke the balls, and banked eight in a row.

I then proceeded to spend the next hour before I could even bank five off the break.

This annoying habit of mine is thankfully something that is unique to Banks.

Today, that damn last ball was in my thoughts througout the entire rack. I knew it would be my last ball and I just couldn't get it or my cueball into position. I ended up missing a three-railer (not the way you want to try to finish a runout) by less than a diamond.

At least I got it captured for all to see.

Okay, the new eye openers page is up and running.

The more I think about some of the most amazing and informative shots I've seen over the years, the more I think that this page may end up being the longest on on the site.

I'm working a new page.

I'll call it "Eye Openers" and on it I'll put shots (mostly banks at first) that were shown or taught to me that truly surprised me when I saw them.

I've got some movies made for four of them and hope to have the new page and the movies available tomorrow.

Just a follow-up to the last fascinating entry.

LoL, sorry, I ment a rack of 9-ball at your movies page!

A rack of 9-Ball would be pretty boring I think.

Now if I can ever capture myself stringing several racks together, and then somehow compress the movie down to a reasonable size, I'd definitely publish that.

Of course before that can happen I have to actually (a)not suck, (b)turn my stupid camera on, and (c)be fully-dressed.

Got this message via my form thing on my main page:

Ey dude nice site maby you should put a movie of you running a rack up here I would love that

I'm not sure what the suggestion is.