Yesterday, Mike went to a $500 added at Uncle Jack's. He drew Rafael first round. This was the 3rd time in a row he drew Rafael 1st or 2nd round. Last week at Shotze's, he drew Rafael first round and lost, then won a few matches and played Danny Louie on the loser's side.
Danny had lost to Kyoko Sone. For those who don't know who Kyoko is, she is ranked 3rd in Japan among the women and plays really well. She had him hill-hill and Danny was shooting an easy stop-stop-stop pattern for the win and missed the first ball in the side.
Danny showed the layout to Mike who then came home and duplicated it for me.
Then when Mike and Dan played, Dan banked a ridiculous bank into the side to win. (Shown on
Cuetable, banked to A. Not sure where the 8 or Mike's balls were; he only showed me the bank. Sorry, don't know how to draw the pathway lines in.) So that was last week.
Yesterday, when he was at Uncle Jack's, he drew Rafael again. Oddly enough, Paul Potier and Dan Louie drew each other in the other bracket.
Other than Alan Ima, they were the top 4 players in the tournament.
Well, Mike says he waxed Rafael 9-4 and then Rafael lost to Kyoko! I'm not sure who put Kyoko in the loser's bracket, but then she got beat by Chuckie, the 14 year old!
Mike says that she was probably under the same pressure with the kid, as men are with a good-playing woman.
So today, Mike plays Jeff J (Mr. J) in 5th/6th and I'm not sure who else is on the winner's side.
As for me, I tried to three-peat. I was tied up from 9 to 6:30 all day in a meeting, so I just drove straight to Mike's Place Tavern for the Saturday night shoot.....without my cue.
I borrowed a cue from the gal that runs the Friday night tourney, Diane. Her cue (an old Helmstetter) was heavier, skinnier, and stiffer than mine, plus the tip was more rounded so I got more english than normal for me. It was more crowded than usual, with I think 6 women in the field and 31 players total. Mike was still up at Uncle Jack's and did not play in this one.
I started off slowly, and got more comfortable with the cue, and my opponents just refused to win and then I played Raul for the point and won. I played a great out on him with perfect speed on the whole rack.
Raul went over to play another Filipino, Greg, that I had already beaten, then came back over to play me in the Finals. I broke, came up dry, he ran out.
Second game, (the finals) he broke and ran but had 2 funny shots, and missed, selling out. I again played flawlessly until I got to the last ball before the 8. The 5 was on 1 rail and the 8 was on the other opposite rail. I had the right angle, but if I didn't take care of it, there was a scratch in the side pocket. I drew with low right in a slough shot to avoid missing the scratch, but with not TOO much to avoid hitting his ball in the cueball's path back off the rail. Well, not being used to the tip, I got more spin than I accounted for and it threw it out of the pocket, so I sold out. But I was perfectly straight in on the 8!
First was $100, 2nd was $70 and I threw Diane $20 for letting me use her cue. I didn't win, but that was 3 nights in a row that I was in the Finals.
That beats my previous records of 2.
Sure wouldn't want to have to live off the proceeds from my pool playing though!
