Summer session continues to roll along nicely for me. I practiced my races with a few $20 5-3 races against some good players during the week, played some single-game cash games with a friend as well. I can't get into the race for the league points championship because I was busy with finishing out my teaching year and didn't play weeks 1-3, but after this week I wish I'd at least tried because I've been rolling along.
It is a NAPA 8-Ball league. This week I pulled off a 4-0 win. Lost the lag by about half an inch, so didn't get the rackless. But it was my third shutout in 7 weeks now, and moves me to 6-1. Still salty that I got overconfident and lost that one week 4-2 (in a 5-2 race). But this win was very gratifying. In the spring session I played this same guy and he beat me 4-3 in a 4-4 race. I was incredibly disappointed with the result, my play, etc. and attributed it to the fact that I was up by 5AM that morning and had had a long tiresome day. This time I came in fresh, hoped I'd get matched up with him, and as luck would have it - that's exactly what happened. I knew his speed, and knew I could run over him if I just made my simple cuts. It felt like one of my most complete wins yet. If I'd pulled out a break n run it really would have stood out. The only weak point was I couldn't get anything behind my breaks. My rear foot slipped on the slick floor the first time and I was afraid to put anything behind it after that.
Every miss was played carefully and calculated to hide him behind a cluster. I played a few very good safety shots in non-obvious situations. My favorite shot of the night: he has 3 balls left on the table. I have 1 ball left, first game. If I nail my shot I need absolutely perfect english and speed to bring it back to even get a cross table bank with the 8 almost locked on the side next to a side pocket. So I play a slow roll off my ball and toward the rail. It gives him two table-length sharp cut attempts, and his ball sitting on a corner is blocked by my 8. A better player runs me out but I knew his speed, and let him go for it. He misses, and the repositioning of the cue ball puts me in line to easily and comfortably roll it back for the cross table bank that I want. I nail that, and I'm off to the advantage and rolled from there. It was easily the closest game.