Texas State 8Ball Tourney Recap

The BCAPL Texas State 8Ball Tourney was held last week at the Harker Heights Convention Center in central Texas.

This is a pretty tough blog entry to write, because after the tourney I heard about a lot of unfortunate drama that happened (that I didn't know about during the tourney), and so while I want to share the results of the tourney, I am disappointed with all the extra crap that I found out about and I admit it's taken away my high from the successful event.  I will write about all that soon, to share with you the different non-pool aspects of competition that can arise.

So, this is my Susan Lucci tourney, and this year was no exception.  I didn't win the singles division.  I wanted it too badly and faltered in a crucial match the second day of singles, like I have the previous years.

The difference this year was I played in three divisions... and played very good in every event!  I placed 2nd in Scotch Doubles, 4th in Singles, and 2nd in Teams.  It was very a successful tourney for me personally because I placed so well in each division and because I played good throughout the entire 5 days.  It felt wonderful.  :)

This year I only had one dress malfunction (not THAT kind).  My shirt had a sequenced collar and I was told to change because it wasn't a true fold-over collar.  They offered one of their shirts and the color was hideous.  I even told them I wouldn't wear it again, even though I had to pay for it.  Luckily, my boyfriend didn't mind the mustard color and stole it from me.  Money not wasted after all :)

I played really well in scotch doubles and feel fantastic about it!  My boyfriend and I can play very well together and this tourney was no exception.  We didn't bicker and we just played good/smart.  We lost the hotseat hill-hill but we recovered and met the team again in the finals.  We beat them the first set in the finals, but in the second set we lost wind (while they gained wind), and we lost 2-4.  But, I played good and didn't dog it for us!  Whew.

Scotch Doubles Finals

A few of my girlfriends asked how we can play together, "what's your secret?", because most couples cannot play together without a divorce in the near future, lol.  I had no good reason except that we both play good 8ball and he knows I don't play well if he gets on to me.

I celebrated our 2nd place finish with a little cake, that the "grill" was selling per slice:

Only a couple of matches I faltered those 5 days of the State Tourney, and those were the two matches I lost in the singles division.  I tried desperately not to get wrapped up mentally in my first match of the day on the winner's side on Friday, but I just couldn't pull it together til the end of the match, and by that time it was too late. 

I had won all 4 of my matches on Thursday and found myself on the winner's side the next day, but that first match Friday afternoon to propel me into the hotseat was one of my nightmare matches.  I played badly, had no confidence, and wanted the win too badly to even compete properly.  I tried and tried all morning to just be happy where I was, but I also knew my own internal pressure to win this coveted title was too much for me.  Just as in previous years, it alluded me.

Before my next match on the now one-loss side, I kinda whined to a teammate about how every year I psyche myself from the winner's circle, and she shared with me, "Well, you ARE the person to beat.  Everyone says it; everyone knows it."  And that really helped me.  Instead of ME thinking I can win the tourney, I heard the same thing but worded so differently, and it fired me up.  I no longer felt pressure.  I know that it doesn't make sense, it would seem that comment would put more invisible pressure on me, but instead, I just felt confident.  I felt more at ease; content.  I felt like the pressure wasn't on me, it was on them.  AND... I played that way in my next matches!

I played the 5th place match against the best player in the tourney (imo) and sure enough we went hill-hill.  I played like a champ!  Which means, I played more confident, very good, and much better than my previous match.  I was so happy that I SHOWED UP in this match, I wasn't really concerned of the outcome.  A lot of people were watching, and so it was a cool feeling to play great in that competitive match, and I actually won hill-hill.

Whew!  Boy was I relieved I played good and also happy I won.  If I would have played that way in the previous match, I KNOW I would have been in hotseat match!  (dang it.)

I had to wait for prolly over an hour to play my 4th place match and the "zone" feeling had left my body.  Even though I still played good, I could have played even better if the match was played right away.

We play the match at the end of a row of tables and my opponent (who is a very good player) and I go back and forth in the match and it remains close the whole time.  I make a few mistakes and so does she, but we are both still grinding it out and making up for our mistakes with great shots and good play.  The match took forever it seemed, then all of a sudden, even though there are already a lot of people watching, there are suddenly even MORE people watching.  Turns out they weren't there for us (lol, of course), but the 4 blocked off tables (for our match) are now ready to be played by 4 guys' teams at 10pm.  But, they must wait for us to finish.

Poor guys see these two women players playing their little hearts out and they have to continue to wait as the match goes to a beautiful hill-hill set!  The final match is a nail biter and it goes the full distance with safes and balls tying up at weird times and so the last game lasts forever.  After safes back and forth, I finally have an out.  But, I hit a ball too full, too hard, with too much left spin and I HOOK myself with only one ball left on the table!  OMG..... lol. 

- Click on image to enlarge -

Even tho I'm hooked, I immediately see where and how I'm going to kick the 8ball.  I check out the 8ball and notice it is a little off the rail.  I then walk back to the cueball, get down on the shot, put a little English on it (prolly shouldn't have), and shoot the cueball with speed toward the 8ball.  The 8ball fires right toward the pocket!!  I BARELY miss the shot!  It hit the pocket sides, but didn't go in.  The whole crowd goes wild!  They verbally moan and shout out because it almost went in.  They can't believe I got THAT close to making the final the shot with that kick!

My opponent gets up to shoot a tough tenball that I accidental left her, and a bug flies onto the table.  She tried to shush it away but it was not leaving this match!  We finally had to call a ref over because it landed right in line for her shot, lol.  It was a very wild end to a great match!

After she won, I walked through the Convention Center to get some popcorn as my "treat" for my 4th place finish in the singles, and SO many people stopped me to say how awesome that 8ball kick was and how I almost made it!  I was very elated and shocked so many people were impressed by my shot and how close the match was.  I am still surprised, tho, lol, that not many talked about how I HOOKED myself to begin with.  It's so weird to me that everyone focused on the almost-kicked-in-8ball and not that I had to do that because I stupidly hooked myself.  lol.  Such a wild, crazy, awesome, THRILLING match!  To play good in front of that many people and for the match to be close was thrilling beyond words.  Beyond words!  :)

And although I didn't win this coveted title /again!/ (Susan Lucci), I was more at peace than I had been in years.  I finally played well.  I didn't dog it completely.  I didn't give it away completely.  I played good in all the matches (except that one, and I'm okay with that).  To go out on a high note really helped me accept the fact that it just wasn't my time.  And I'm alright with that, because I played good and didn't dog it from nerves or emotions.

I was VERY exhausted after the long day of mental pool and long matches and had to prepare for the women's team event that started at 10am on Saturday morning.  I went to sleep by midnight and was well-rested for the long day ahead of me.

My team, How's My Rack?, won our four matches on Saturday!  We played well together, had fun, and enjoyed ourselves, which is very key for team spirit! 

And everyone loved our team name and shirts!  Score!

Because we won our 4th match, we didn't have to play at 10pm (whew!), and we could go rest up for our 9am HOTSEAT match on Sunday.  OMGoodness, we were in the hotseat!  Monica, Lisa, Jennifer, Connie and I were doing so well!  I was proud of the girls and hoped they enjoyed the team tourney as much as I did.

I made myself the captain, only because I had mailed in our entries for state/nationals and wanted to give everyone a break (and no pressure for decisions).  The line-up seemed to work out very well for us and everyone was gracious about either sitting out, removing themselves if they didn't feel good about their play, and/or coming in for those struggling.  It was a good team chemistry but more importantly, we had fun..... and laughed A LOT!

I show up about 8:50am on Sunday morning, praying my teammates are all awake and I was surprised because they were all already at our assigned table, hitting balls, ready to fight in the hotseat match!  Love my team.  :)

We play solid and that led to a victorious win for us!  How's My Rack is now playing in the finals in two hours!!

We don't fair as well in the finals, but we play against the toughest team in the tourney in the finals.  They defeated us 9-4 two sets to win the event.  They did play better than us, but we were still okay with 2nd place because we played our hearts out all weekend, we were in the finals, and we still had fun!

Can't wait for more fun in Vegas with these wonderful ladies!

I played well in all events, and felt very good about my play, more so than my finishes.  To lose playing well does amazing things for my psyche.  I never felt ashamed, embarrassed, and never let myself or my teams down (Scotch or Women's Team).  It truly is a wonderful feeling to finally play well, consistently, in all the divisions.  What an emotional high!  No let downs or feeling bad, no remorse or Monday quarterbacking, just great play.  Love it.  :)

I also want to mention that I deliberately didn't drink this tourney.  And my goal was to get plenty of rest.  If that meant heading to the hotel early, so be it.  I wanted to give my body and mind a good chance this year, and being hungover and tired is a deterrent to that very goal.  I also meditated and did yoga stretches every morning.  I gave myself extra ammo, I truly believe, to compete better.  At times I kinda wanted to socialize more, but I also recall what Jennifer Kraber said about choosing being competitive with a good nights sleep over staying up late socializing.

I choose ahead of time if my tourney is simply for fun or for a good competition.  This tourney was FUN (no doubt), but not on the level of socializing late at night with lots of alcohol, risking good play!  But, as I read back over this blog post for errors before I hit 'publish,' I think it's no accident I use the word "high" twice in this tourney recap, talking about playing well and not alcohol.

Did I mention I placed 2nd in Scotch Doubles, 4th in Singles, and 2nd in Teams?  Oh yea, I did.  :)