My first one pocket tournament experience

SlashingAxe

Pool newbie
Silver Member
As some of you have seen I recently posted a video and have seen that I still lack quite a lot in fundamentals and despite that I tried my first one pocket tournament yesterday at golden cue billiards. Of course I knew I would just be donating and some may even say I shouldn't be trying it til I work on the basics first. Regardless I had fun and as expected I got the floor wiped with me. After balls owed and all my 5 games were finished I barely had made 6 balls which wouldn't have even won me a single game without the handicap. Even with my 10-6 handicap it was brutal and despite me making some crucial mistakes the two guys I played were extremely talented and the first round many said is one of the best in the tournament and even a top SoCal player(after some research it was Santos Sambajon) and it showed as he left me frozen on rails and in the stack plenty of times or a double sided moves to where he forced me to have to kick in his ball or carom into it due to positions he left me or risk giving him a run out. The second guy was Ricky Buensuceso the best of the middle tiered players and looking at the other mid tiered players he shined the brightest amongst them(might've even be a high tier if I'm wrong). So some told me I got bad luck for the picks but regardless I was easily outclassed by anyone else there. It showed me a lot though of the thinking it takes toward the game as I felt like I was saving myself from one shot just to possibly leave them another most of the time and the times I did something good to put them in a bad position they would just reverse it back on me. All in all a brilliant fun game and my ass that got whooped during the games didn't put me off from it any bit in fact makes me just want to improve more and more and it helped me learn from my mistakes and learn some moves from the better players. I had a fun experience and will do so again next month or if not for sure the month after depending on progression. I'd recommend to anyone thinking of trying a tournament to do so as its a great experience.
 
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As some of you have seen I recently posted a video and have seen that I still lack quite a lot in fundamentals and despite that I tried my first one pocket tournament yesterday at golden cue billiards. Of course I knew I would just be donating and some may even say I shouldn't be trying it til I work on the basics first. Regardless I had fun and as expected I got the floor wiped with me. After balls owed and all my 5 games were finished I barely had made 6 balls which wouldn't have even won me a single game without the handicap. Even with my 10-6 handicap it was brutal and despite me making some crucial mistakes the two guys I played were extremely talented and the first round many said is one of the best in the tournament and even a top SoCal player and it showed as he left me frozen on rails and in the stack plenty of times or a double sided moves to where he forced me to have to kick in his ball or carom into it due to positions he left me or risk giving him a run out. The second guy was also the best of the middle tiered players and looking at the other mid tiered players he shined the brightest amongst them(might've even be a high tier if I'm wrong). So some told me I got bad luck for the picks but regardless I was easily outclassed by anyone else there. It showed me a lot though of the thinking it takes toward the game as I felt like I was saving myself from one shot just to possibly leave them another most of the time and the times I did something good to put them in a bad position they would just reverse it back on me. All in all a brilliant fun game and my ass that got whooped during the games didn't put me off from it any bit in fact makes me just want to improve more and more and it helped me learn from my mistakes and learn some moves from the better players. I had a fun experience and will do so again next month or if not for sure the month after depending on progression. I'd recommend to anyone thinking of trying a tournament to do so as its a great experience.

Glad to hear this! Welcome to one pocket! Alot to learn and it is excellent at pointing out flaws in your stroke and game. Very hard to simulate the pressure of shooting off the rail with your opponents pocket full of balls to escape a trap in 9 ball/10 ball like comes up in one pocket.

My personal friend Tom Wirth wrote a one pocket book worth grabbing "One pocket: a game of controlled aggression". Also, Winning one pocket and shots, moves & strategy by Eddie Robins are must haves but very expensive. One of the pictures in Eddies book of Efren Reyes was taken by me, by the way. My pops helped Eddie get material for the book and helped Eddie alot. He got mentioned in the book.

I would suggest Accu-stats videos and Big Truck videos on one pocket. For accu-stats I can recommend a few great matches if you would like? I noticed the longer length matches tend to be the better ones!!! Look for matches 100 to 145 minutes long. The other matches on Accu-stats are typically one and done matches that have one player going brain dead and/or kamikaze mode. Not much you can learn from them!

Big truck has GREAT content and it is pretty lengthy. He sells matches from his library if you contact him. Not many people know this and he does not do himself any favors by not advertising it more. He is a friend of mine as well. He may be coming out with a best of one pocket collection as an instructional and teaching aid. We discussed this before and he said he would try. So, I am hoping for the best.

Sincerely,
KD
Dennis (Michael) Wilson Jr.
 
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Good for you. Playing better playears in a competitive spot is a great way to learn.

Tournament play is the cheapest way to do it.
 
Great post. You will only get better as you go along. I'm starting to understand the game... control the cue ball, elements for a trap, the catchers mitt, on the rail, and mainly...run out when it's there.
Iv'e been taking lessons with Tom Wirth... have plenty of drills to work with...however I have no real time competition for now and that hurts. You took a big stand competing and I'm sure you enjoyed it regardless of the outcome. I commend you for stepping up.
Keep at it...let us know your progress as you go along. Are you familiar with www.onepocket.org
 
Great post. You will only get better as you go along. I'm starting to understand the game... control the cue ball, elements for a trap, the catchers mitt, on the rail, and mainly...run out when it's there.
Iv'e been taking lessons with Tom Wirth... have plenty of drills to work with...however I have no real time competition for now and that hurts. You took a big stand competing and I'm sure you enjoyed it regardless of the outcome. I commend you for stepping up.
Keep at it...let us know your progress as you go along. Are you familiar with www.onepocket.org

Never knew of the site I'm super new to one pocket and am trying to learn as much about it.

After looking around knowing just the first name and seeing him in videos to verify turns out the first player I played in the first round for my first match is Santos Sambajon.
 
What was the name of the 2nd player you played?

Just curious

Not sure yet still waiting for the tournament results to get posted which should be tomorrow to see if the shooters full name gets posted. I only knew the first guy because I just typed Santos and seems he's a pretty common tournament player so wasn't hard to find videos of him. I just know the second guy I play his first name was Ricky and also seemed to be Filipino or from an Asian part.
 
Not sure yet still waiting for the tournament results to get posted which should be tomorrow to see if the shooters full name gets posted. I only knew the first guy because I just typed Santos and seems he's a pretty common tournament player so wasn't hard to find videos of him. I just know the second guy I play his first name was Ricky and also seemed to be Filipino or from an Asian part.

Might have been Ricky Buensueso

Good player..

tough draw for a first tournament:D
 
Glad to hear this! Welcome to one pocket! Alot to learn and it is excellent at pointing out flaws in your stroke and game. Very hard to simulate the pressure of shooting off the rail with your opponents pocket full of balls to escape a trap in 9 ball/10 ball like comes up in one pocket.

My personal friend Tom Wirth wrote a one pocket book worth grabbing "One pocket: a game of controlled aggression". Also, Winning one pocket and shots, moves & strategy by Eddie Robins are must haves but very expensive. One of the pictures in Eddies book of Efren Reyes was taken by me, by the way. My pops helped Eddie get material for the book and helped Eddie alot. He got mentioned in the book.

I would suggest Accu-stats videos and Big Truck videos on one pocket. For accu-stats I can recommend a few great matches if you would like? I noticed the longer length matches tend to be the better ones!!! Look for matches 100 to 145 minutes long. The other matches on Accu-stats are typically one and done matches that have one player going brain dead and/or kamikaze mode. Not much you can learn from them!

Big truck has GREAT content and it is pretty lengthy. He sells matches from his library if you contact him. Not many people know this and he does not do himself any favors by not advertising it more. He is a friend of mine as well. He may be coming out with a best of one pocket collection as an instructional and teaching aid. We discussed this before and he said he would try. So, I am hoping for the best.

Sincerely,
KD
Dennis (Michael) Wilson Jr.

As also being a friend of Tom since my late teens and kicking my self in my ass for not letting him teach me this game then because it was way to slow for my sports mind to handle back the now at 55 I'm there lol ,, I talked to him over the holidays was going to meet up with him to get a copy of his book but the only thing Tom does fast is travel so he sent me a copy , the visuals and the expanatinons are really one of a kind I give kudos to him for this , just recently Stan Shuffet did a review and said as much ,,
Tapes are good great to watch but Tom gives a breakdown of the thought process rarely given if ever
It's worth every cent and then some

1
 
As some of you have seen I recently posted a video and have seen that I still lack quite a lot in fundamentals and despite that I tried my first one pocket tournament yesterday at golden cue billiards. Of course I knew I would just be donating and some may even say I shouldn't be trying it til I work on the basics first. Regardless I had fun and as expected I got the floor wiped with me. After balls owed and all my 5 games were finished I barely had made 6 balls which wouldn't have even won me a single game without the handicap. Even with my 10-6 handicap it was brutal and despite me making some crucial mistakes the two guys I played were extremely talented and the first round many said is one of the best in the tournament and even a top SoCal player(after some research it was Santos Sambajon) and it showed as he left me frozen on rails and in the stack plenty of times or a double sided moves to where he forced me to have to kick in his ball or carom into it due to positions he left me or risk giving him a run out. The second guy was Ricky Buensuceso the best of the middle tiered players and looking at the other mid tiered players he shined the brightest amongst them(might've even be a high tier if I'm wrong). So some told me I got bad luck for the picks but regardless I was easily outclassed by anyone else there. It showed me a lot though of the thinking it takes toward the game as I felt like I was saving myself from one shot just to possibly leave them another most of the time and the times I did something good to put them in a bad position they would just reverse it back on me. All in all a brilliant fun game and my ass that got whooped during the games didn't put me off from it any bit in fact makes me just want to improve more and more and it helped me learn from my mistakes and learn some moves from the better players. I had a fun experience and will do so again next month or if not for sure the month after depending on progression. I'd recommend to anyone thinking of trying a tournament to do so as its a great experience.[/QUOTE
i am sorry :o:o
i could not read your post
i get a headache trying to read such a long paragraph with no spaces
if you make a few paragraphs and separate the lines it would make for much easier reading
jmho
 
As some of you have seen I recently posted a video and have seen that I still lack quite a lot in fundamentals and despite that I tried my first one pocket tournament yesterday at golden cue billiards. Of course I knew I would just be donating and some may even say I shouldn't be trying it til I work on the basics first. Regardless I had fun and as expected I got the floor wiped with me. After balls owed and all my 5 games were finished I barely had made 6 balls which wouldn't have even won me a single game without the handicap. Even with my 10-6 handicap it was brutal and despite me making some crucial mistakes the two guys I played were extremely talented and the first round many said is one of the best in the tournament and even a top SoCal player(after some research it was Santos Sambajon) and it showed as he left me frozen on rails and in the stack plenty of times or a double sided moves to where he forced me to have to kick in his ball or carom into it due to positions he left me or risk giving him a run out. The second guy was Ricky Buensuceso the best of the middle tiered players and looking at the other mid tiered players he shined the brightest amongst them(might've even be a high tier if I'm wrong). So some told me I got bad luck for the picks but regardless I was easily outclassed by anyone else there. It showed me a lot though of the thinking it takes toward the game as I felt like I was saving myself from one shot just to possibly leave them another most of the time and the times I did something good to put them in a bad position they would just reverse it back on me. All in all a brilliant fun game and my ass that got whooped during the games didn't put me off from it any bit in fact makes me just want to improve more and more and it helped me learn from my mistakes and learn some moves from the better players. I had a fun experience and will do so again next month or if not for sure the month after depending on progression. I'd recommend to anyone thinking of trying a tournament to do so as its a great experience.[/QUOTE
i am sorry :o:o
i could not read your post
i get a headache trying to read such a long paragraph with no spaces
if you make a few paragraphs and separate the lines it would make for much easier reading
jmho
Then don't read it ,, ,,,,,,,,,,,',,,
 
Santos and Filipino Ricky--man that is a real tough draw even with 10 years of experience under your belt. Welcome to Hard Times ooops the Golden Cue. If you go to Hard Times you will see them there as well. Sorry but that is just funny.

Keep at it though I have to admit that was one tough baptism.
 
Santos and Filipino Ricky--man that is a real tough draw even with 10 years of experience under your belt. Welcome to Hard Times ooops the Golden Cue. If you go to Hard Times you will see them there as well. Sorry but that is just funny.

Keep at it though I have to admit that was one tough baptism.

Lmao I avoided the Hard Times one pocket tournament the week before thinking the opponents may be a little easier and softer for a newbie but nope same thing I pretty much went in without lube xD. Good experience playing them though they were nice and recall another player Paul Joko who was nice and encouraging when I saw him outside after my matches

Idk why the letters are small idk what I did >_<
 
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Never knew of the site I'm super new to one pocket and am trying to learn as much about it.

www.onepocket.org is a dedicated forum. The members are quite sharing. Ask questions, read threads. There are no bad questions. You'll get positive answers. Any level player is welcome.
Also watch YouTube videos. Simply search for one pocket matches.
 
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