Just wanted to say a few words about the tournament this weekend. First, I have to thank Rick and Cindy at Big Daddy's Billiards for hosting the tournament in their beautiful room. The tables were immaculate and very well-maintained. The staff was friendly and helpful, and everyone really made the players feel so welcome. There were many spectators, and the seating was nicely spaced around the tables. Seriously, I can't say enough about this room. If you are in the area, you must check it out.
I also want to thank Peter Burrows, who works so tirelessly for months on this tournament. Even in a bad economy Peter was able to secure a good deal of added money for this event. That is not easy to do, and the players sure thank him for it. He also puts together a beautiful program which serves as a great memento for the event. Pool could use a lot more guys like Peter Burrows.
So the event began with 32 players arranged in 8 flights of 4. Each player played a round-robin against the other 3 people in his division, and the two shooters with the best records advanced to Sunday's single-elimination. On Saturday, I played decent but not great, and was really lucky to have won all 3 matches by as large a margin as I did. I think I had a ball differential in the 3 matches of 193, and considering I never made any huge runs, that would not be expected. Still, the 193 was good enough for the 3rd seed of the day, and theoretically a good draw on Sunday.
Sunday started with a match against someone I had played in my bracket the day before, and he just never really showed up for either of our matches. I had seen him play the other guys and he was running balls, then against me he seemed to stall out a bit. So I got past that match pretty comfortably, and then drew a player named Dan Heidrich, from I think Syracuse, New York. Because I've been a bit out of the loop in competitive 9-ball lately, I was unfamiliar with Dan, but I had certainly gotten the wire on him. A previous winner of not one but two Joss tour events, a high run of well over one hundred, and probably tied with Shaun Wilkie for the most talented shotmaker in the tournament. So much for my easy draw.
We had a great match... I started out with a couple racks, then made an egregious open-miss. This was a huge match and I was disgusted with myself. I never show emotion at the table but as Sherry described in her excellent write-ups, I showed some there. Nothing outward but I had a look on my face like I wanted to die, which I did. And here's why: The winner of our set would get to play the winner of the Maidhof-Deska match for one of the qualifying spots. Additionally, if Danny Barouty beat Shaun Wilkie on the other side of the brackets, it would mean the loser of my match with Maidhof/Deska would have a second chance to qualify by beating Shaun in the consolation match. So... beating Heidrich would give me two shots at the spot (assuming Danny beat Shaun).
It's been a long time since I've played a tournament of any kind - probably almost a year (jeez, I can hardly believe that). I really wanted this match against Dan, but didn't know if I'd remember what it felt like to have to reach down a little bit. That miss was such a blatant error; it was really amateur hour. The shot wasn't hard, but I was playing a pattern that I felt was probably wrong and I was too lazy to get up and re-evaluate. As I suspected, Dan took advantage of the mistake and found his way to a score of about 80-26, which - since this was only a race to 125 - did not bode well for me. I forget how I got back to the table, but I managed to run a 77, relinquishing the table when I missed the rack on a break shot. I played safe, but Dan beat me to the shot. Dan ran to 90 and then, after playing his next shot, he informed me that he moved the 3-ball with his hand. Normally this would not be an issue (this was cueball-fouls only), but Dan drew the cueball right in the general direction of the 3. Dan knew it was probably a foul, as I did, but we called over the refs just to make things official. Things got a bit out of hand when 3 separate refs initially were confused over exactly what happened and got the call wrong. Finally, when I was about to give up, Andy Lincoln stepped in and informed the refs that it was a foul. Dan was so gracious about everything, and I took the position and ran out.
I hope someone on this board knows Dan and relates to him how impressed everyone was with his conduct. I never even saw the 3-ball move; he could easily have just gone on shooting, and he DEFINITELY could have gone on shooting as soon as the refs said no foul. I have only seen that level of sportsmanship a few times in my career, and I didn't get a chance to tell Dan what a stand-up guy he is. Please, if anyone knows him, let him know how much respect I have for him.
My next match, for the spot, was against Bob Maidhof. Bob and I have gone back and forth over the years; we've had some great games together. For the US Open qualifiers 8 years ago, Bob beat me twice in the same tournament, each time by less than 15 balls. In the finals of the Downingtown tournament a few years ago, I ran a 142 on him. I can honestly say Bob and I have never played a game where at least one of us didn't play well. We've never played a 50-inning-slugfest lol. Anyway, we began the match and very quickly, I was deep in the hole. I had a few chances but they were always very awkward. And against Bob, if you don't take advantage of those chances, he's going to punish you. And punish me he did, to the tune of 150-2, closing with about a 90. The match may very well have hinged on the following shot, which I swear to you he made. The score at the time was probably 70-2 or something, and the table was playing so nicely that even if Bob had missed at 149, I'd have felt I could run out on him. So... when he made this shot, which is probably the best shot I've ever seen live, it was my death knell.
It looks easier and more obvious on the wei table, but believe me, when he called the shot, I at first looked at him like he was insane. Even after I quickly figured out what he was doing, I still thought he was insane. I was praying for him to pull the trigger on this, rather than do something more... sane. I thought even if he somehow got the right hit, it wouldn't have enough energy to get to the hole. And let me tell you, that ball had plenty of speed on it when it fell in the heart of the pocket. Just to see a shot like that was worth the loss. I'll never forget it.
So I was a bit dejected at this point, but Danny was beating Shaun, so there was a good chance I'd have a second opportunity. The end of their match got a bit ugly, but Danny pulled out the win for me. This set up the finals between Bob and Danny, and the match for the second qualifier spot between me and Shaun. I had never played Shaun before, but I certainly know of him and his excellent 9-ball game. The match began and I was leading about 40-10 when I missed. Shaun only ran a few before making a rare error. Now, to those unfamiliar with 14.1, this is a huge turning point. He had the chance to get back in the game, he didn't take advantage of it, and I was still warm from running some balls. He left me an open table, which I cleared to an excellent break shot. Instead of him tying the game or pulling ahead, I had the opportunity to make the score something like 90-13 with a decent run. In all likelihood, this error of his would cost him the game. Things were great.
I hit the break and caught one of the worst scratches of my career. My cueball bounced off the rack and started heading towards the side pocket - as it always will on this particular shot. However, there is so much topspin on the ball that it always curves well out of the scratch. One of the balls which moved in the rack came off the rail and caromed into the cueball perfectly, well after the cueball had passed the side pocket, and put it right back in the hole. It was devastating. He took the BIH and ran to about 55. From here we see-sawed a bit to 110-97 me, but the match was good, not sloppy. Shaun ran to a perfect break shot and caught a bad scratch himself. He hits the break shots harder than anyone I've ever seen... much harder than I break at 9-ball, for instance. Harder than Thorsten hits some of his 14.1 breaks. He blasted this one, went straight back to the end rail, then straight forward to scratch in the same corner pocket he made the break ball. The cueball was still racing, that's how hard he hit the break.
Anyway, it's all a blur but I took the BIH and ran the 40-and-out. I was so happy, especially when I found out that my friends, travelling partners, and fellow players Mike Yednak and Brian Lau were informing my wife back at Amsterdam (via text message) of all the updates. Gina was then in turn relaying them to the manager at Amsterdam, who was spreading the word to all my friends. Not five minutes after I won, I started getting a string of text messages from my friends in NY congratulating me. It was a wonderful feeling and a great end to a great event.
I am sorry for the length of this post, but I really wanted to relay the experience. Special thanks also to Sherry Pouncey, who did a kick-ass job as tournament reporter. It isn't easy to write well about pool, but she sure does it!
- Steve
I also want to thank Peter Burrows, who works so tirelessly for months on this tournament. Even in a bad economy Peter was able to secure a good deal of added money for this event. That is not easy to do, and the players sure thank him for it. He also puts together a beautiful program which serves as a great memento for the event. Pool could use a lot more guys like Peter Burrows.
So the event began with 32 players arranged in 8 flights of 4. Each player played a round-robin against the other 3 people in his division, and the two shooters with the best records advanced to Sunday's single-elimination. On Saturday, I played decent but not great, and was really lucky to have won all 3 matches by as large a margin as I did. I think I had a ball differential in the 3 matches of 193, and considering I never made any huge runs, that would not be expected. Still, the 193 was good enough for the 3rd seed of the day, and theoretically a good draw on Sunday.
Sunday started with a match against someone I had played in my bracket the day before, and he just never really showed up for either of our matches. I had seen him play the other guys and he was running balls, then against me he seemed to stall out a bit. So I got past that match pretty comfortably, and then drew a player named Dan Heidrich, from I think Syracuse, New York. Because I've been a bit out of the loop in competitive 9-ball lately, I was unfamiliar with Dan, but I had certainly gotten the wire on him. A previous winner of not one but two Joss tour events, a high run of well over one hundred, and probably tied with Shaun Wilkie for the most talented shotmaker in the tournament. So much for my easy draw.
We had a great match... I started out with a couple racks, then made an egregious open-miss. This was a huge match and I was disgusted with myself. I never show emotion at the table but as Sherry described in her excellent write-ups, I showed some there. Nothing outward but I had a look on my face like I wanted to die, which I did. And here's why: The winner of our set would get to play the winner of the Maidhof-Deska match for one of the qualifying spots. Additionally, if Danny Barouty beat Shaun Wilkie on the other side of the brackets, it would mean the loser of my match with Maidhof/Deska would have a second chance to qualify by beating Shaun in the consolation match. So... beating Heidrich would give me two shots at the spot (assuming Danny beat Shaun).
It's been a long time since I've played a tournament of any kind - probably almost a year (jeez, I can hardly believe that). I really wanted this match against Dan, but didn't know if I'd remember what it felt like to have to reach down a little bit. That miss was such a blatant error; it was really amateur hour. The shot wasn't hard, but I was playing a pattern that I felt was probably wrong and I was too lazy to get up and re-evaluate. As I suspected, Dan took advantage of the mistake and found his way to a score of about 80-26, which - since this was only a race to 125 - did not bode well for me. I forget how I got back to the table, but I managed to run a 77, relinquishing the table when I missed the rack on a break shot. I played safe, but Dan beat me to the shot. Dan ran to 90 and then, after playing his next shot, he informed me that he moved the 3-ball with his hand. Normally this would not be an issue (this was cueball-fouls only), but Dan drew the cueball right in the general direction of the 3. Dan knew it was probably a foul, as I did, but we called over the refs just to make things official. Things got a bit out of hand when 3 separate refs initially were confused over exactly what happened and got the call wrong. Finally, when I was about to give up, Andy Lincoln stepped in and informed the refs that it was a foul. Dan was so gracious about everything, and I took the position and ran out.
I hope someone on this board knows Dan and relates to him how impressed everyone was with his conduct. I never even saw the 3-ball move; he could easily have just gone on shooting, and he DEFINITELY could have gone on shooting as soon as the refs said no foul. I have only seen that level of sportsmanship a few times in my career, and I didn't get a chance to tell Dan what a stand-up guy he is. Please, if anyone knows him, let him know how much respect I have for him.
My next match, for the spot, was against Bob Maidhof. Bob and I have gone back and forth over the years; we've had some great games together. For the US Open qualifiers 8 years ago, Bob beat me twice in the same tournament, each time by less than 15 balls. In the finals of the Downingtown tournament a few years ago, I ran a 142 on him. I can honestly say Bob and I have never played a game where at least one of us didn't play well. We've never played a 50-inning-slugfest lol. Anyway, we began the match and very quickly, I was deep in the hole. I had a few chances but they were always very awkward. And against Bob, if you don't take advantage of those chances, he's going to punish you. And punish me he did, to the tune of 150-2, closing with about a 90. The match may very well have hinged on the following shot, which I swear to you he made. The score at the time was probably 70-2 or something, and the table was playing so nicely that even if Bob had missed at 149, I'd have felt I could run out on him. So... when he made this shot, which is probably the best shot I've ever seen live, it was my death knell.
It looks easier and more obvious on the wei table, but believe me, when he called the shot, I at first looked at him like he was insane. Even after I quickly figured out what he was doing, I still thought he was insane. I was praying for him to pull the trigger on this, rather than do something more... sane. I thought even if he somehow got the right hit, it wouldn't have enough energy to get to the hole. And let me tell you, that ball had plenty of speed on it when it fell in the heart of the pocket. Just to see a shot like that was worth the loss. I'll never forget it.
So I was a bit dejected at this point, but Danny was beating Shaun, so there was a good chance I'd have a second opportunity. The end of their match got a bit ugly, but Danny pulled out the win for me. This set up the finals between Bob and Danny, and the match for the second qualifier spot between me and Shaun. I had never played Shaun before, but I certainly know of him and his excellent 9-ball game. The match began and I was leading about 40-10 when I missed. Shaun only ran a few before making a rare error. Now, to those unfamiliar with 14.1, this is a huge turning point. He had the chance to get back in the game, he didn't take advantage of it, and I was still warm from running some balls. He left me an open table, which I cleared to an excellent break shot. Instead of him tying the game or pulling ahead, I had the opportunity to make the score something like 90-13 with a decent run. In all likelihood, this error of his would cost him the game. Things were great.
I hit the break and caught one of the worst scratches of my career. My cueball bounced off the rack and started heading towards the side pocket - as it always will on this particular shot. However, there is so much topspin on the ball that it always curves well out of the scratch. One of the balls which moved in the rack came off the rail and caromed into the cueball perfectly, well after the cueball had passed the side pocket, and put it right back in the hole. It was devastating. He took the BIH and ran to about 55. From here we see-sawed a bit to 110-97 me, but the match was good, not sloppy. Shaun ran to a perfect break shot and caught a bad scratch himself. He hits the break shots harder than anyone I've ever seen... much harder than I break at 9-ball, for instance. Harder than Thorsten hits some of his 14.1 breaks. He blasted this one, went straight back to the end rail, then straight forward to scratch in the same corner pocket he made the break ball. The cueball was still racing, that's how hard he hit the break.
Anyway, it's all a blur but I took the BIH and ran the 40-and-out. I was so happy, especially when I found out that my friends, travelling partners, and fellow players Mike Yednak and Brian Lau were informing my wife back at Amsterdam (via text message) of all the updates. Gina was then in turn relaying them to the manager at Amsterdam, who was spreading the word to all my friends. Not five minutes after I won, I started getting a string of text messages from my friends in NY congratulating me. It was a wonderful feeling and a great end to a great event.
I am sorry for the length of this post, but I really wanted to relay the experience. Special thanks also to Sherry Pouncey, who did a kick-ass job as tournament reporter. It isn't easy to write well about pool, but she sure does it!
- Steve
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