Humble
Congratulations on your run, very impressive.
What is more impressive is you are humble and very respectful to all the players, people, pool hall,internet visitors,everyone around you. You have included all as if they ran those racks for you. To me that is more impressive than a 200 ball run. Combine your respect and a 200 ball run and that puts you around 5000 ball runner.You deserve to run many more balls just on the way you carry yourself.
Congratulations : SS
Steve Lipsky said:Thanks everyone... I have been beside myself with emotion all night because in truth I really never thought I would attain this goal. It's a goal I've had forever, and it just became this huge mental block over the years. The sky's the limit from here, I hope. It's also nice because there's absolutely no question what the run was. I ran the first two racks of a game to 200, caught a weird scratch on a breakshot, and ran out in my next inning. So that was a 173, and from there we just started keeping track of the run.
I really have so many thoughts to convey but I'll just start by saying that my opponent, a guy named Jim Gottier (formerly from out west), has been a great sparring partner lately. He's playing some great pool (running hundreds himself) and I simply don't want to miss when playing him. I was taking my time tonight and trying to play the patterns very deliberately. Jim and I have had some great games together and I look forward to many more.
I got a couple of nice rolls (nothing totally outrageous, but rolls nonetheless) fairly early on. From about 50 or 60, it was a really nice run. I only remember two hard shots, and both of them I could've chickened out and played something easier at the expense of the pattern. But I stuck to my guns. No banks, no real combinations ("real" meaning one that had to be aimed, as opposed to just two balls right in front of the pocket). Almost every end pattern - at least how I remember it now - was tight. Very little extraneous cueball movement in the last 3 or 4 balls of almost every rack.
I have a new appreciation for running this many - the focus it requires is difficult to explain. I wanted to leave nothing to chance. I made sure I knew what would happen on almost every shot. I was shooting balls uptable into the corners rather than risk a secondary break shot when one wasn't necessary, and I was very cognizant of that. It's much harder to play like that - it requires a diligence that is hard to muster in "practice" - but from about 130 on, I made myself slow down and think about everything. I refused to get lazy and let that get the best of me.
When I broke the 177 (my former high), it took a little pressure off, until about 190, when it all came back. When I finally made #200, I sort of took a deep breath, closed my eyes and leaned on the table like I just won the US Open or something, lol. But I was so lucky because a lot of my peers were in the room that night, and there was applause and I started getting a little emotional. Pretty lame, I know, but this has really been my only goal in the game for such a long time. The feeling of surpassing it is something I'll never forget.
I'm very lucky to play in a room filled with such talent. Guys like Danny Barouty, Jim Gottier, Jon Smith, Ginky, Tony, Mika, Chris Lynch, Flaco, Stu Mattana, Jude Rosenstock, and Mike Yednak. I'm sure there's more. It's not just watching them all play, it's also talking about various positions and discussing everything. It's a hell of a place to play, Amsterdam.
That said, what I did tonight is nothing less than a tribute to the man to whom I owe all my straight pool - Danny Barouty. It is under his tutelage that any of this was made possible, and there's just no other way to say that. His is the gold standard by which all 14.1 should be measured, and at least in NY, it is. We all owe Danny a debt we could never hope to repay.
Thanks for listening to the rambling...
- Steve
Congratulations on your run, very impressive.
What is more impressive is you are humble and very respectful to all the players, people, pool hall,internet visitors,everyone around you. You have included all as if they ran those racks for you. To me that is more impressive than a 200 ball run. Combine your respect and a 200 ball run and that puts you around 5000 ball runner.You deserve to run many more balls just on the way you carry yourself.
Congratulations : SS