The Four-Oh Starts with a Bang

Turning 40 is starting off pretty well pool-wise.

Our BCA team, Monkey Steals the Peach, defended our title and won the league at Amsterdam Billiards again.

picture by William Fuentes

2-peat!

Since this is one of the toughest leagues in the city it was nice to do it twice.

I didn't play in the playoffs as we rode our better players, smartly, to the finish again.

I finished the season 5-5 as a C player. That's about right as my game's extremely up and down - so average win/loss record as an average rated player fits me perfectly. I did have some nice wins this season but I also had some terrible losses. Some days I'm on, some days I'm way off.

We're taking a season (or more) off which is good since it'll give me time to practice and try to develop some much needed consistency in my pool game.

After winning the league at Amsterdam the APA team the Monkey and I are on, Excalibur, won the 9-ball league at Platinum Billiards.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

This was nice since we actually played.

I'm a 6 in this league and I got to play a slightly higher ranked opponent named Chris who's a skill level 7. He a really good shot maker and I was a little bit nervous going into the match. I really haven't been playing all that well and was worried that I might have one of those "off" days and he really does shoot light's out. Only, as with a lot of good shot makers, he really doesn't care too much about position.

(Why play position when you can make the shot from anywhere on the table?)

I need to play well to win and I got lucky with two things that happened that really helped me.


#1

Chris won the lag, broke the balls apart HARD but scratched on the break. I started the match with ball in hand and a wide open table. I was able to start easy and make a few balls which immediately helped to settle me down and remove the jitters. It also put a little more pressure on my opponent since he has to play catch up as I added to my spot/lead.

#2

Chris and his team developed the annoying habit of cheering all things good and bad with the word "sexy" in it.

Make a shot? "That's a sexy shot!"

Get lucky and get position? "That's a sexy position!"

Get lucky and safe your opponent? "That's a sexy safe!"

Ugh.

I don't know if it was a shark or not or if it's just the APA and the players don't know any better, I've seen APA players on other teams clap when the opponent safes himself which is kind of a no-no, but it was like the best thing that could've happened.

See, to ignore all the sexy this and sexy that I had to put up my mental "WALL" and the easiest way to do that was to focus on what I needed to do: make the ball - get shape on the next ball. They basically helped me to FOCUS better - and while that didn't turn me into a superstar, let's not get crazy here, it did at least allow me to at least play to my abilities.

It was a close match and he did make a few runs at me, he's a 7 for a reason, but with my wall up it really didn't bother me. Normally I probably would've felt the pressure and would've started to play "tight". Nope. Stayed loose as a goose and calm.

It was nice to be so focused because there were a few moments during his runs where I had to shoot back at him just to show him I'm still in the match. For example, he broke dry and left me a tough shot on the 1 without any place to play safe and no easy way to get onto the 2. He's probably thinking he's coming back to the table immediately. He's got the momentum too - after running out most of the balls the previous rack - so he can't wait.

I loaded up with low left, drill the 1 ball up into the corner pocket and pull the cue ball down off the side rail for perfect shape on the 2.

And you could just feel him and his team deflate a little.

It was close until the end but I eventually pulled it out and got the win, beating the other team's big gun, and our team eventually ended up winning.

So I turned 40 and won two league championships in the span of a week. All I can say is...

SEXY!

(Hey, c'mon. I'm allowed.)