Brian I don't know how you feel about Fargorate. My experience is it's pretty darned accurate. You have a well established fargo of 605. Which means you're not really that good or consistent. Trust me I know because I'm currently 607. Dave is a better player than I am. I've watched his matches. You weren't "out of stroke", you're just not a consistently strong player, just like me. The next time will probably not be different unless you do something to improve your game first. No disrespect intended just the cold hard truth.
It's easy to make the mistake of self assessing based on your best performances but that's not reality.
Based on your posts about CTE here on this aiming forum I feel you missed a huge opportunity to understand it better and based on Dave's posting I think he would have been more than happy to show you.
Fargo is good for league play or handicaps. I don't know well you play. I typically break and run several racks in every long race or match I play, either 8ball or 9ball. Dave and I played 18 games of 9ball and neither of us broke and ran one rack. That was unusual for me, and I'm sure it was for him as well. So yes, I was way "out of stroke". When Dave started playing better, I fully expected to step up into my normal speed. But I couldn't do it.
As far as Fargo.....Our local BCA 8ball league has over 100 players, and 13 have Fargo ratings of 600 or better. I am ranked 13th by my fargo score, the lowest of all the 600+ players. The highest player is 670 or something like that. Most of my teammate's are between 630 and 640. It really means very little.
I finished last season ranked #1 in points. We played 25 weeks....5 measly games of 8ball every week, for a total of 125 games. Each ball pocketed is 1 point and the 8 is 3 points, so a win equals 10 points. I earned 1,077 points out of a possible 1,250. I won 94 out of 125 games. Ranking by total wins I finished 2nd. The 1st place guy was on my team and he had won 96 out of 125 games. His fargo is 641. Fargo is based on wins vs loses. A 600 in a strong league is a stronger player than a 600 in a weaker league. If I played more Fargo rated tournaments then my score might be different, but my 605 is based primarily on local league play, 5 games of 8ball per week. Maybe one week the opposing team is a group of 400 rated players. You play each person one game. Sometimes even a 400 can get surprise you with a win. The following week you play 5 players with 600+ ratings. Many of those games are coin tosses, break and runs for either team. And any player is subject to lose to any other player, regardless of fargo scores.
One of my regular shooting buddies, Preacher John, is 647. He does not run over top of me. We have very tight matches. If he is off his game, I beat him. If I'm off my game, he beats me. Normally, it's a coin toss. The Fargo difference means nothing between about 590 and 660 or so. These players are pretty evenly matched. 670 or higher I can begin noticing a difference in consistency and skill level, though I have beaten a few 700+ players in vegas in short races to 4 or 5.
When I played Dave I was off my game, big time. Funny thing is, my brother had proposed to his girlfriend the night before, and we stayed up drinking and celebrating until around 3 or 4am. Then around 9am my girlfriend woke me up and wanted to go thrift store shopping. I got dressed, popped some advil for my hangover, and grabbed my cue case because I wasn't sure how long we'd be out and I was supposed to meet Dave at 3pm.
I ended up finding a very nice baby bed for my daughter (she's pregnant with my 1st grandbaby!) We also found a pilate machine for my girlfriend. I dismantled those contraptions in the sun, sweating out the previous night's liquor of course. Then it was already 2pm and I told her I had to get to the poolhall. We hadn't eaten a thing, just drank a few cups of coffee. She said she'd eat at the condo and I figured on eating at Family Billiards. I dropped her off and headed over to meet Dave.
Family Billiards doesn't serve food. I grabbed a bag of chips and a water and started playing pool. I know I talked Dave's ears off at first, and neither of us were focused enough to play runout 9ball. I figured I'd get into normal stroke eventually, but I never did. My stomach was growling so I grabbed a couple of snicker bars. Meanwhile, Dave seemed to have found a good rhythm, was playing with more focus. I, on the other hand, was still struggling and would continue to struggle.
I don't care about fargo scores. Normally I am not struggling to play the game. When you typically runout at least 2 or 3 out of 5 open racks, but for some reason you can't seem to get things clicking like that, most people would just say screw it and quit. I've always played through it. When I'm playing well I don't want to quit. When I'm playing bad I don't want to quit until I start playing well. It just never happened. The worse thing about not playing well is bringing your opponent down a bit by not providing much competition. I apologized for this.
So....yes, things will be different if we play again. You don't have to believe it, but I know my game pretty well, not based on best performances, but based on my normal play. If 10 is when I'm at my best, playing lights out, my normal game is between 7 and 8. An occassional 10 will come along some days. I walked into that place to show Dave my 8 game, maybe even my 10 game if all the pieces fit right. Instead, I showed him my 5 or 6, which doesn't happen very often. If it did, I'd have quit this game years ago. It's just too embarrassing to play that bad.
