Thursday, Aug 11, 2011 1:43AM / Members only
Well...early this year I started shooting pool again, but this time it's in a pool league. I'm pretty competitive, so the league is perfect because each week we would play against other teams in the league. But the coolest thing was that every year there is a national pool tournament in Las Vegas, and a group of gals in the league formed a team to go. But at the last minute one had to bail and I was their last choice (since there's not that many gals who are in the league). Although I was pretty much one of the worst players in the whole league and was scared I'd let down the team, I went anyways because if not their team would not be able to go (minimum of four players) and I wanted to go for the experience and to watch at least a pro match. So off I went and actually did better than I expected.
During our match on the first day I performed pretty well, but whenever it came down to the last few balls I seem to miss them. Luckily near the end I get ball-in-hand (being able to put the white ball anywhere on the table to shoot) and pocket my last few balls, finally winning a game. But in the end, we lost our first match (it was a race to 9 and we lost 4-9). But because it is double elimination we got a second chance the following day.
The second day was brutal (read on and you'll see why it was brutal)...our match was at 9am. In my first game I had to break and I put most of the balls clustered into one corner. That led to our, what it seemed to be, 30-minute safety battle. We kept doing safety shots (where we hit our own ball but try to hide the white ball so it is hard for the opponent to hit her own ball which we hope will lead to them scratching and obtaining ball-in-hand). It took so long that my teammates and their opponents were playing their 3rd game while we were still on our 1st at our table (we get to play on two tables at the same time). The game finally ended shortly after I tucked the white ball near the corner of the pocket and it was in a position where you would need to shoot with your left hand or backhand. She eventually got annoyed when she had trouble keeping the bridge (the stick with a bridge on it) on the rail and was forced to shoot with her left hand. As I was watching her I was laughing to myself because I am quite capable in using backhand for these shots and so this same shot would have been very easy for me while she was having so much trouble and eventually scratched. With the advantage of ball-in-hand, I eventually won this game. And in the end, we won this match 9-4.
Winning this match meant our next match was at 2pm. So we watched other people play and had lunch before that. During the 2pm match I also won a game. We ended up winning this match 9-6.
Our next match was at 10:30pm and so after our 2pm match, we went to watch one of the guys' team from our league and the gals' team (my teammate's twin sister's team who is also a professional pool player). We ate dinner and got ready for our night match. By that time, I was already tired. You would think that shooting pool is
just physical, but it is mainly mental. We need to see what balls are
pocketable, what is the next ball I want to pocket after that, where do I
need the white ball after I pocket the 1st ball, where on the white
ball do I need to hit in order to get the white ball where it needs to
go after it hits the 1st ball, visually try to see the angles from which
the white ball will come off of balls and rails, how hard or soft do I
need to hit it, if I am probably not able to pocket the ball then how
should I do the safety shot...In other words, you get mentally drained
after about 3-4 hours of this. And even if you are not playing but
watching, you will also be thinking about how that person should shoot
(in a serious pool player's mind). Thinking back now, we should have went back to our room to take a nap and rest, but we were in pool heaven with tons of pool going on around us along with tons of venues with loads of pool merchandise. Being so tired, my eyes were extremely tired from wearing contacts since 8:30am and the AC was blasting above us. In the 10:30pm match, I lost all my games, and we ended up losing 4-9.
But overall we ranked 49 out of 126 teams, so I thought we did pretty well for our first year in this tournament. And I was very happy about my performance considering that in league I only had won 4 games out of the 33 games I had played. But in the Vegas tournament, I won 3 games out of the 15 games I played. So I had a lot of fun and it was very good experience for me. Plus, practicing in preparation for Vegas got me better in position playing (positioning the white ball for the 2nd ball after hitting the 1st) and in thinking more about safety shots.
First season of league already ended and summer season just started. We had already played 5 weeks and already I am playing much better than last season. Last season our team came in last in our division (there are 2 divisions in our league and we just play against other teams in our own division), but hopefully we do better this season...
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Thursday, Feb 14, 2008 5:09AM / Members only
First off, Happy Lunar New Year!! Hope everyone have a wonderful year.
K, I'm gonna do this too cause I wonder if I get a higher score than Ivy. ^_^
[X] Money always all faces the same direction
[ ] You have helped clean someone else's house.
[X] You are picky about everything
[X] You have wiped off a kids face that wasn't related to you.
[ ] You have taken three showers in one day at least once.
[X] You "fix" things like photo frames that are sideways.
[X] You rock at making lists.
Total So Far: 5
[X] A tag coming out of someone's shirt presents a problem to you.
[X] You're very into details.
[X] You know how to do your own laundry.
[X] If you can't fix something it drives you nuts.
Total So Far: 9
[X] Nothing is wrong with having things alphabetized.
[ ] You count your steps some of the time.
[ ] You have to know everything.
[ ] Everything has a place.
[X] Untied shoes bug you.
Total So Far: 11
[ ] If you're walking through a store and something is off a rack you put it back.
[ ] If labels aren't facing you, you have to fix them so that they do.
[X] Things don't have to be perfect. They just have to be the right way according to you.
[ ] You like vacuuming…it just makes the floor look better.
[ ] A cleaning product has blown your mind.
Total So Far: 12
[X] It bothers you when someone moves something out of place.
[X] You have categorized something.
[X] Typos drive you nuts.
[ ] You have corrected a teacher.
[ ] You have to touch a certain thing when you pass by it.
Total So Far: 15
Count the check boxes and multiply that number by 4
My OCD score: 60%...higher than my sis! Tho I think I'm generally messier than her... oh wells.
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Tuesday, Oct 30, 2007 4:52AM / Members only
Well, recently I got my friend into ballroom dancing and he has improved very quickly and we've just decided to try to compete at UC Berkeley in February. For now, we're probably just gonna do waltz, foxtrot, and tango, but depending on how fast he can learn the steps perhaps we can do other dances as well (I'm hoping one day I can compete in all the dances I know in one single competition just like my friend did--now he teaches the ballroom classes at the university I graduated from).
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