The 8-Ball doubles “Captain’s Tournament” went pretty well. We started off well, played a couple of great matches, but eventually stumbled one too many times, and lost the match would’ve put us in the money. It was a good time overall and it was by far the best ran APA sponsored tournament I’ve been to yet. No table was left empty for more than a couple minutes and they moved the 32 teams through the brackets swimmingly. Afterwards, I had some drinks, then got propositioned to play a guy a race to 7, giving him the 8 ball on someone else’s dime. His “backer” was being quite a nag most of the day, so I took the game, despite having already started drinking. I took the match 7-5. 🙂
The following Monday was the “End of Session” pizza party and prize handouts for the in-house 9-Ball league at Cue & Cushion. Going into the last playing week, I knew that if I won my match I’d be in 6th for sure. I also knew that if any of the 3-5th place players lost I’d take their spot, since our records would be the same, but I’ve won more racks, which determines the tie. Not just one, but unbelievably ALL THREE players lost, rocketing me to THIRD place!! I was ecstatic (that money’s going with me to the DCC)! I end the session with a record of 8 wins and 5 losses. Not too terrible. There were a couple of matches I let slip through my fingers, which would’be put me into 2nd with a 10-3 record, but I just couldn’t close them. Always next time. It’s possible I might get raised to an A in that league though. Only 1 or matches were won because I got weight from the player; most of the wins were by more than 2, so we’ll see what the LO finds out when he crunches the numbers. I’m fine with going to an A, I might struggle a little more, but I also might get a little more focused knowing I don’t have a headstart.
Currently, only the Masters session is the only active league for me and in some ways, I just don’t care. We can’t catch first (which guarantees a trip to Vegas), and we’re battling it out for 2nd place, which doesn’t really get us much … other than determine which team we play in playoffs. Plans for next session are kinda up in the air right now. There’s been some talk of some people leaving, then flipping back to staying. I’m under the impression that if we stick around, then we should make every effort to win the damn thing and go to Vegas – at least to claim our reward for the session’s dues.
I’ve talked to a few people around and it looks like I’m pencilled in to join a NAPA 8/10 league at the start of the next session. It’s barbox, but it’s a cash league and I fully intend on doing well. I’m excited to play 10-ball, but my “dues” are that I have to also play 8-ball. *shrug* It’s with an entirely new group of people, so it’ll be interesting getting to know more people. The captain of the team and I get along pretty well and I kinda know a couple of the other players, so it’s not like I’m totally new to everyone at least. Rest assured, I’ll be posting about that experience when I get there.
Tomorrow I’m planning on hitting the new weekly 9-ball tournament at The Break, hopefully I’ll do reasonably well there. We’ll see how it goes.