For me the Derby was great, aside from the actual 1p tournament. First round as stated before I drew Mike Dechaine. There were two small highlights from that match. 1) He had me basically stuck to the top of the stack with balls on his side. I was planning on just nudging balls to my side, even if it meant taking a scratch. Mike sees me cueing and jumps up and says intensely, “Wait! Let me get a ref” I said sure. The ref comes over and I (Using a bridge, no less) shoot down into the stack and push through the ball, shoving 3 balls my way including the cue ball forward about a foot. I was ready for the call of foul, when the ref yells…… “Good hit!” Mike went crazy. 2) In the last game, Mike was 3-2. He ran 4 and got shape on his last ball, which was uptable and a few feet from the cue. I think that he expected me to give it to him, but I said nothing, so, to make some kind of statement, he fired the case ball…… and rattled it. It was pretty unnecessary and frankly I chuckled when he didn’t pocket it. I then ran 3 balls drug the game out a bit longer before he made a great bank to win. My second tournament match was against a solid player named Dave Ciamorelli (sp). I won the first, he won the next two, then I won the fourth game to make it hill-hill with my break. He then took a 5 minute break and returned 15 minutes later. Last game was a battle, with him getting the cheese. I did miss shape during the second game playing too tentatively which would have changed things, so I blame myself for that. He was beaten in the next round, and before I left I gambled with the guy who beat him (who was pretty rude, and pulled a move taking the first break) in a race to 3 and beat him (small consolation which Straightback was there for).
Tournament aside, the very best part for me this year was meeting, playing, and hanging out with the guys from the site! I had a goal this trip of playing as many of you gents as possible and I don’t think that anyone could accuse me of not playing enough J At one point we (1P.org guys) help a table in the action room (thanks to a call from the Ghost) from about 12 noon until close to 12 at night playing round robin for 20 a game and ending at night with Col Bille and I matching up. Overall I was able to match up with The Ghost twice, Steve Booth twice, Bille twice, and SzcrBill and I had a 5 ½ hour match. Also played Straightback, Miller twice (Though he may not remember lol), Tom Wirth, Crabcatjohn, Onepocketguy, Don, Fast Eddie, LsJohn, Cloidius, and Calibrate. Seriously what a nice bunch of guys.
Add to that having enjoyable breakfasts the past few days with Bernie one day and Ken Shuman the next, and fantastic Chinese food with Tom, Dan. Steve, and Brandon Shuff. I really never played great this week, but good enough, and my normally ugly stroke was as bad as it has ever been. Not sure if it was nerves, or being tentative playing on Diamonds for the first time since last year's Derby but probably a bit of both. I know there were a few stretches where I looked horrific. Oh well. I'll fix that next year
. This trip was awesome!!!!
Tournament aside, the very best part for me this year was meeting, playing, and hanging out with the guys from the site! I had a goal this trip of playing as many of you gents as possible and I don’t think that anyone could accuse me of not playing enough J At one point we (1P.org guys) help a table in the action room (thanks to a call from the Ghost) from about 12 noon until close to 12 at night playing round robin for 20 a game and ending at night with Col Bille and I matching up. Overall I was able to match up with The Ghost twice, Steve Booth twice, Bille twice, and SzcrBill and I had a 5 ½ hour match. Also played Straightback, Miller twice (Though he may not remember lol), Tom Wirth, Crabcatjohn, Onepocketguy, Don, Fast Eddie, LsJohn, Cloidius, and Calibrate. Seriously what a nice bunch of guys.
Add to that having enjoyable breakfasts the past few days with Bernie one day and Ken Shuman the next, and fantastic Chinese food with Tom, Dan. Steve, and Brandon Shuff. I really never played great this week, but good enough, and my normally ugly stroke was as bad as it has ever been. Not sure if it was nerves, or being tentative playing on Diamonds for the first time since last year's Derby but probably a bit of both. I know there were a few stretches where I looked horrific. Oh well. I'll fix that next year
. This trip was awesome!!!!
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