First Tournament Stories

In a tournament you got the 6 Out?

Oh ok gotcha! That is hilarious!

Not a Pro event but a small event with top players in it.

In the south years ago there were always Mini events the night or week before the larger one. I was a bad player but threw in my $20 in hopes of getting someone like Archer, Hatch, McCready etc.
Well I draw another local nobody --great. The events are single elim but I am lucky enough to beat this guy and draw Keith McCready.

I was as nervous as I had ever been in my entire life. It was a race to five and in the end the score was 5-0 BUT in my favor. I won 5-0 over keith who was not exactly with the program at the moment. My first match with a top player and he was all put passed out.
Fast foward about 1 hour and they start a PayBall game on the snooker table. Someone gets Keith and before you know it he is killing the game. He shot balls in from all over. The other players just watched and paid over. It was amazing.

In the mini I went on and lost the next one to Clint McCoulough (sp?) from
Atlanta. He waxed me 5-0 and took no prisoners. He played lights out.

Still fun and I can always say that I beat Keith 5-0 but I think I played about 1% of Keith. I really liked the cheap minis and all the good players played them.

When i was playing for about 6 months i was playing an 8 ball doubles tournament and got straight in on the 8 ball for the win and shot it so softly the 8 ball didnt move more then 6 inches and i lost.

My first year playing pool after 25 years of very little pool, I played in a weekly tournament that had about 60 different players throughout the season (27 weeks). If you played 8 weeks or more during the season you qualified for the final tournament. There were 18 players in this final tournament and of those 18 about 10 were strong players (small town tourney), anyway, I had no expectations in this final tourney because my game had not completely returned from my younger days. It was a double elimination tourney and the winner gets bragging rights for a year, your name on the in house trophy and I think the payout was just under $100. Even with the 8 or 10 beers I consumed that day I didn't come close to losing a game, I was there for the fun and atmosphere. Undefeated all the way and the confidence this tourney gave me has been there ever since. You never know what circumstance is going to elevate your game to a different level, it could be one game, one tourney or one shot. My name is now on that trophy twice out of the last 3 years, it's not a huge thing in the overall scheme of pool but in my little world it feels great.

In my first tournament, I left quickly after I lost my first match. I found out later the next day, from being made fun of, what "double elimination" means. LMAO!

Another funny story - one time this guy walked by my tournament table and picked up one of the pennies off the table and handed it to me. He said, "here, someone left a penny on your table." I still think that's funny for some reason!

Some years ago, 3 of my buddies and I decided we would start playing in The Tri-State events, To get some tournament experience. We are from NY so we headed over to NJ to play in one of these things.

We traveled for a couple of hours to get there. and wouldnt you know it in the first 2 rounds we all had to play each other out of the 70 or so players that were playing that day.

We could of stayed in NY for that, but i did take down second that day! so i bought dinner that night and payed for the gas to get back home.

Steve

I actually have a pretty good one about my first big tournament...

I had played in a lot of local tournaments prior to this, but this was my first journey into the world of the regional tournament.

The year was 1988. At the time I was a student at the University of North Texas and was pretty much majoring in pool.

There was a Texas tour called the Southwest 9-ball Tour that was run by Randy G. and they were having an event in Sherman, TX about 40 miles from where I was living.

A friend and I took the plunge, paid our $60 and drove to Sherman.

In the first round I drew Bob Vanover and he drew Dick Lane... LOL

Yes, at the time the tournament favorites and two of the best players in the country.

I lost to Bob 9-3 and he lost to Dick 9-4.

After each winning a match in the loser's bracket we play...

Wait for it...

Each other.

I won the match, and was immediately put out by another really strong player David Henson (who had so much regard for my game that with a big lead he actually attempted and made a cut on the 9-ball where the 9 was frozen to the center diamond of the top rail and the cue ball was nearly frozen to the center diamond of the bottom rail).

I can take heart in the fact that Bob Vanover won the tournament, Dick Lane got 3rd and David Henson got 5th.

The wonderfully hilarious Scotty Townshend got 2nd.

My Dad talked me into playing in my first tournament. I was 15 yo (1955). It was at local barbox tournament. I lost one match and wound up meeting my Dad in the finals.

Before we started to play he asked if I wanted to split first and second. Although I never could beat him on a big table I had about a 35% shot of beating him on a bar box, so I said no.

He winds up winning. I figure surely he's going to split the money up anyhow when we get out to the car. First was about $45 and second was $25 I think. Anyhow we get in the car and he doesn't offer to split. He asked how much I got for second place. When I told him it was $25 he quickly said, "let's go to the poolroom. I'll give you 50 on the wire going to 150 for $25." That was dear old Dad. Johnnyt

My first pool tournament I was at a resort in Orlando we use to go to every other summer for a week and they have a game room building with pool tables, ping pong and arcade games. I saw on the schedule they were going to have a pool tournament one of the nights so I went up there after dinner and I was to late to sign up for the 16 and under tournament so I had to play in the 16 and over tournament and I was 12. I ended up winning it, I don't remember how many matches I had to play to win but I remember it was a lot of fun beating all the old guys that were like 30+ years older then me.. haha I played for a few more years at home til about 15 then stopped til I turned 20 and I haven't stopped playing since.

Mine isn't a happy story but it is educational.

I was in an A-Class tournament down in Nagoya. During one of my matches I got a pretty shady position on the 9-ball while I was on the hill and my opponent was on 3....racing to 6. The 9 ball was about an inch or so off the long rail at around the 2nd diamond. The cueball was at about the 2.5 diamond mark directly across the table. At that time I always used english on thin cut shots like that. Anyway, looking at it I saw that it had huge potential to come straight back across table and scratch in the side. Turns out I was right. That's exactly what it did. I don't remember why it bothered me so much but it really got under my skin that I scratched. I won the set but that scratch was really bothering me.

Anyway, next match comes around and I'm against a kid that just got put into the A-class. Sure, he played good enough to be in that class but he was still new to it. I had him down hill-0 and stupid me under shoots the position to the 9 and end up in just about the same situation I was in before. That situation from the previous match came flooding back to me and I swore that I wasn't going to scratch on that 9. So, I knuckle down and loaded her up, cut the nine cleanly into the corner and the cue ball came back across table and hit above the side pocket. I was so happy that I didn't scratch and I raked the cueball before it stopped moving. It wasn't heading anywhere near a pocket, and didn't have the speed to get to one anyway, but the kid screamed foul on me, spotted it up, pocketed it and got ready to break. I was furious. I looked around and everyone standing around the watching us had their mouths gaped open like "WTF was that?" I was so pissed I couldn't see straight. I wanted to ram it up his ass after that but it threw me off so bad he came back and won the match.

Everyone I talked to agreed with me that A-class players don't call foul on crap like that but according to the rules, I fouled and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I was still in the tournament but I was so hot I couldn't finish. I packed up my stuff and drove the 3 hours home without finishing the tournament.

I learned a few lessons that day. First, don't ever touch the cueball when it's moving. I haven't touched the CB after pocketing the 9 in more than 10 years. Second, when something bad like that happens you gotta get it behind you asap and keep yourself composed. And third, even though he was correct by following the rules, I still hate him and if I never see him again it will be too soon.
MULLY
I'd never call that on anyone, even if I hated them.....well, unless it was him of course