Hook, line and sinker....
There's been a few tournaments that were pretty special and a few gambling sessions that I'm proud of but as they say, "It's hard to top the first time".
The first time I ever went "out of my local area" to a tournament was in the spring of 1990. I had only been playing pool seriously at all for a short time, maybe 8 months, and really had just started to play any 9 ball at all. Never had really beaten anyone of any note at all. Went down to Univ. of Illinois to see a girl and had heard about a tournament in Charleston, Il that weekend at Stix. Don Yosts' place. Dave Miller was running the tournament. Over a hundred players. I buy myself in both calcuttas' for the minimum as I am a nobody and no one in the tournament has ever even seen me before.
I get a great draw. Guys dogging their guts out to me every chance they get. I get every imaginable roll known to mankind. And..... actually play pretty well under the gun and win the tournament. I win a nice, fat chunk of change and start to think that pool could be a fun, profitable and easy game.:thud: Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad.:smile:Been hooked ever since.