being the Champ

I must think very highly of myself to call myself the "Champ" right? Wrong... I don't call myself that, a lot of dumb people do. What is this "Champ" thing about? Well one night nearly 4 years ago I got lucky and won a pool tournament at Hawaiian Brians and since that time dumb people at the pool hall have been calling me the "Champ." I must have a lot of dumb friends because some of them started calling me the "Champ" too. It's definitely not a name I want to be called and it's definitely not justified. Yes, I won the tournament, but "Lucky Piece of Shit" is a much more appropriate name.

Winning that tournament has been a curse on my pool playing! I was playing really well for a couple years leading up to that Aloha Open. That year I won the Aloha Open I must have made $5,000+ playing tournament nine-ball. $3,500 for the Open, $500 for the Monday final, plus a lot of weekly and C class tournaments that I won or cashed in. Since then I've probably won $20! No joke! My game went to crap. I'm the David Duval of pool. And god damn I used to love watching that guy play golf.

I have this unnamed friend that I play pool with. We play sets race to 12 for 5 Starbucks. Prior to my winning the Aloha Open I used to spot 7 & 8 and win consistently. We increased the spot to 6 & 8 and I still won. Anyway, so I won the Open, and ever since then I can't beat this person. At one point in time, I owed this person almost 60 Starbucks!

This friend and I gave up pool for a while, but now they want to play again. So we've been playing. And I've been losing. What else is new right? Although I've been losing, I do see a marked improvement in my play. Although I still find ways to screw up, I run out more and screw up less. I can see myself winning again in the near future. It better be soon before I break my stick.

Since 2 of my readers also blog about poker so it inspires them to play better and rid themselves of mistakes, I shall do that for pool.

Mistakes

1. missing the shot - I have a bad ball pocketing eye
2. having a bad stroke - my stroke sucks, I have at best an ok poke stroke
3. bad positioning - I can move the ball around table ok, but I either leave it straight in or behind another ball. Both of those are not good if you're trying to run the table.
4. staying focued - I have a hard time concentrating on playing pool. I think a lot about how much I suck. And I find myself distracted.
5. luck - I've been having bad luck. Very bad.
6. skill of my opponent - my opponent has a lot of game. They can make shots I could only dream about making and makes them like they were hanging in the pocket. It's ridiculous how easy those shots seem when I know how fkn hard they are.

Good things I've been doing

1. breaking the balls - I've been hitting the breaks really solid. Don't make a lot of balls, but I spread em good for my opponent to run out.