First of all, I went to the Music City Open in Nashville at JOBs as a lead up tourney to DCC, and also because I have family in TN that I was visiting.
Got to see a lot of awesome barbox pool, that is for sure.. Saw a few players I had never heard of before, such as Josh O'Neal, Robert Frost, and a few others.
JOBs was charging $10.00 an hour for the Diamond barboxes, starting the day before the tourney, which I heard was way above normal rental time. I also heard that a special "Music City Open" menu was printed out, with much higher prices as compared to the pool hall's normal food prices.
It did give me a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth, and generally felt like the tournament was simply a money grab. I wanted to rent a table to practice a little, and was told you prepay the hour, no partial hours.
I asked the table guy, "What if my match is called 5 minutes after I rent a table?" He responded, "Sorry, man.. No partial hours, no refund on table time."
NOT cool.
Anyways, on to DCC.
I show up to the Horseshoe Casino a day later than my reservation started, The front desk person said my reservation had been cancelled minutes before, but they reinstated the reservation, with no refund for unused first day, which I thought was fair. This made me feel that the Horseshoe really does appreciate our business.
My first night, I get into a little action, playing against a guy using the rake, and I had to spot him a little something, and let him buy out for 80%, as I didn't realize how out of line the game was. Played his friend, another C player, and won as well. Off to a good start!!
End of banks tourney was a little unusual, as it seemed players were not firmly shooting shots that "bank" players whistle in. The top finishers all seemed to have a strategy to roll in as many banks as possible, so that balls tied up in the pockets when missed. This led to many games that only had 1-2 open pockets available for banking into.
In the Banks finals, there was some controversy about Shane calling a four-rail bank, then making an actual two rail bank and raking the balls. I chose to give Shane the benefit of the doubt that he changed his mind and forget to call new pocket.
Something I observed yesterday has allowed doubt to creep in, however.
I saw in Shane's One Pocket match against Shuff that when Shane attempted a slow back kick on a ball near Brandon's pocket and fouled in such a way that one needed to be clear to see the lack of a legal hit, that Shane IMMEDIATELY started staring intensely at Brandon's back as Brandon studied the shot, and I simply got the feeling that Shane knew he fouled and was looking for Brandon to call him on it,.
Brandon asked if it was a good hit, Shane said the CB hit once going in and again going out (Completely untrue, I was three feet from Brandon's pocket), and finally relented when the fans sitting at that end of the table unanimously declared it a bad hit,
This situation kinda gave me the idea that Shane REALLY wants to win this year, and may be taking things to the extreme.
After Morra won the Banks tourney, I get to get up and play him second round in the One Pocket division after my first round loss, and I promptly get bounced out of the tourney. I'll still take 15-2 and play him some, though...
This morning, I sat and sweated a One Pocket match between Cliff Joyner and Danny Smith, even race to 5, have to win by 2 for a decent amount of jellybeans. I had a side bet down on Cliff, and my horse ran true, even though he definitely was not the Cliff of old. seemed very tentative, and did not have the fire power he used to have when playing in the 90's.
I stayed up until 0600 this morning sweating my horse, and have a match second round in the 9 Ball division against 2nd place One Pocket division finalist, Joey Gray.
Not sure who I p!553d off at the draw desk, but drawing two guys that made it to the finals out of two tourneys completed is pretty rough, ya know?
Russ
Got to see a lot of awesome barbox pool, that is for sure.. Saw a few players I had never heard of before, such as Josh O'Neal, Robert Frost, and a few others.
JOBs was charging $10.00 an hour for the Diamond barboxes, starting the day before the tourney, which I heard was way above normal rental time. I also heard that a special "Music City Open" menu was printed out, with much higher prices as compared to the pool hall's normal food prices.
It did give me a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth, and generally felt like the tournament was simply a money grab. I wanted to rent a table to practice a little, and was told you prepay the hour, no partial hours.
I asked the table guy, "What if my match is called 5 minutes after I rent a table?" He responded, "Sorry, man.. No partial hours, no refund on table time."
NOT cool.
Anyways, on to DCC.
I show up to the Horseshoe Casino a day later than my reservation started, The front desk person said my reservation had been cancelled minutes before, but they reinstated the reservation, with no refund for unused first day, which I thought was fair. This made me feel that the Horseshoe really does appreciate our business.
My first night, I get into a little action, playing against a guy using the rake, and I had to spot him a little something, and let him buy out for 80%, as I didn't realize how out of line the game was. Played his friend, another C player, and won as well. Off to a good start!!
End of banks tourney was a little unusual, as it seemed players were not firmly shooting shots that "bank" players whistle in. The top finishers all seemed to have a strategy to roll in as many banks as possible, so that balls tied up in the pockets when missed. This led to many games that only had 1-2 open pockets available for banking into.
In the Banks finals, there was some controversy about Shane calling a four-rail bank, then making an actual two rail bank and raking the balls. I chose to give Shane the benefit of the doubt that he changed his mind and forget to call new pocket.
Something I observed yesterday has allowed doubt to creep in, however.
I saw in Shane's One Pocket match against Shuff that when Shane attempted a slow back kick on a ball near Brandon's pocket and fouled in such a way that one needed to be clear to see the lack of a legal hit, that Shane IMMEDIATELY started staring intensely at Brandon's back as Brandon studied the shot, and I simply got the feeling that Shane knew he fouled and was looking for Brandon to call him on it,.
Brandon asked if it was a good hit, Shane said the CB hit once going in and again going out (Completely untrue, I was three feet from Brandon's pocket), and finally relented when the fans sitting at that end of the table unanimously declared it a bad hit,
This situation kinda gave me the idea that Shane REALLY wants to win this year, and may be taking things to the extreme.
After Morra won the Banks tourney, I get to get up and play him second round in the One Pocket division after my first round loss, and I promptly get bounced out of the tourney. I'll still take 15-2 and play him some, though...
This morning, I sat and sweated a One Pocket match between Cliff Joyner and Danny Smith, even race to 5, have to win by 2 for a decent amount of jellybeans. I had a side bet down on Cliff, and my horse ran true, even though he definitely was not the Cliff of old. seemed very tentative, and did not have the fire power he used to have when playing in the 90's.
I stayed up until 0600 this morning sweating my horse, and have a match second round in the 9 Ball division against 2nd place One Pocket division finalist, Joey Gray.
Not sure who I p!553d off at the draw desk, but drawing two guys that made it to the finals out of two tourneys completed is pretty rough, ya know?
Russ
