My National Ranking Angst

As I mentioned already, I played in the BCAPL Texas state tournament this past week and weekend.

It's amazing to me how many people complained to my face and also behind my back, and even on social media about my "open" player BCAPL ranking.

Some people are taking is very personal that I'm not an advanced player and I do not know why they are getting upset with me. When in fact, I do not control how national BCAPL ranks their members.

I have not finished well enough in Vegas at nationals to be rated an advanced or master player yet.

Who knows, maybe this year will be my year to place well enough in singles in Vegas at Nationals for BCAPL and then I will be moved up automatically, and naturally.

But for now I am an open player.  And for the few that defended me, I sincerely appreciate it.

I'm out here trying to play my little heart out and play the best that I can under the circumstances of my personal life.  I have a few successes, and instead of people being happy for me, they are bringing me down. All because of a nationally ranked ranking that I have no control over.

I see more haters and drama in competition the last few years and I have to say, it makes the wins less special.

Don’t get me wrong, I'm very proud (and a bit surprised!) of myself for winning scotch doubles and placing second in singles this week!  Just tough to fade some of the negative comments, when in fact I'm just trying to survive in this tough life, while also playing pool.

Angry Players - An Interesting View

I always love running the Omega Billiards Tour, because sometimes I have great talks with players (besides watching all the great play) and I get to pass along interesting conversations via my blog, to share with you all.

I was talking to a player at the February stop who has prolly played as long as I have,  but also wasn't one of the top players yet on the tour, either.

He started to talk about a couple of players that did not get in this event because the standby list was so deep.  But he admitted that he was glad, because they were always upset and mad.

He said, "I really don't like playing them because they get so angry and it's tough to play pool when you are playing a player that slams their cue or is vocally upset or shows how angry they are."

Then he confided, "I used to be that player."

Really?

"Yes.  I was extremely competitive in middle school and high school.   I was kicked out of several basketball and football games because I was so aggressive and mean.  I wasn't trying to tackle, I was trying to hurt them!"

Wow, this guy didn't look like he would want to hurt a fly, and he was telling me this.

He continued, "and my competitiveness easily transferred to pool.  I would smash a cue about once a week.  I was brutal."

Yikes.

He continued and explained why he no longer gets angry, "I noticed that no one liked the players that got angry or were rude during their matches.  They didn't have many friends, either.   But mostly, they were looked upon like a bad person and an asshole.  And no one wanted to play them, NOR be around them. "

He shared something I hadn't thought of before, "I realized that I would rather be the type of player my opponent was scared to play because I played really pool.   I want them to hate to play me because I had talent to defeat them badly, not because I'm an asshole.   So, I changed.   I'm still working on being that monster player (as he laughed), but at least I'm not an asshole anymore that no one wants to play or be around."

Celebrations, Good and Bad

After my teammates and I came home from winning TWO ACS Nationals titles, they each had families to come home to to celebrate with!

Here is a pic from one of my teammates' welcome home from her kids:

I thought it was super SUPER sweet!

Another teammate lives with her Mom, and so she was waiting home for the huge hug!

And the final teammate, her Mom was actually IN Vegas with her so they were able to celebrate on the spot (okay, later that weekend in Vegas).

I feel very happy for my teammates, because I wouldn't wish my welcome on anyone:  I came home to an empty house.  I am not here to take away from my teammates' blessings, and that's the last thing I want to do.  But if I am to be honest in my blog entries, I have to say that coming home after such huge accomplishments to an empty house, with no one to even hug or share my achievements with was actually extremely depressing.

As you all know, my Mom passed 2 1/2 years ago, am an only child, and have no children.  No roommate, either.  My lovely dogs Lily and Izzy ALWAYS welcome me home, but they didn't know I came home as a 3-time National champion.

I have to say:  It sucked.

Most of my friends live too far for anyone to even say, "let's go celebrate."  (luckily one friend contacted me, who I will mention in a minute)

I'm NOT saying that we all need celebrations after a big accomplishment.  But I am saying coming home to no one and nothing was down right brutal, sad, and depressing.

Unless you are in my shoes, you have no idea even remotely what I am trying to say.  Let's just say it was a very lonely time and I was very sad.

Even one of my girlfriends told me this:  "I watched your team after you all won the second title.  Everyone was SO excited!  And every one of them got on their phones to call their families and loved ones.  Not you, though.  You were smiling and happy, yes, but you simply put your cues up and turned in the score sheet.  You didn't jump on your phone or text or nothing.  It was eye opening."

I don't want to harp on this, so let me share that my teammates and I DID celebrate the night of our wins, IN Vegas!  Although Janet was with her family in Vegas, Courtney and Nina and I went to MGM across the street from the Tropicana to try and find somewhere nice (and not super expensive) to eat.

After a couple of shots

We finally ended up a WolfGang's place.  

I admit I was apprehensive, but I was WRONG.  I LOVED the food.  AND, we got champagne, too!   So, we toasted our wins with the sparkling.  It was super cool!

It was a lot of fun!

After I came home, my friend Julie (who I wrote about recently) was so happy for me about my wins, she offered to meet up and have a toast.  It meant so much to me, that yes, I cried.  More than once! It was so very moving for me, and she had no idea how tough things were going.

Here we are:

So, coming home was bittersweet.

Can't take away that I'm a National Champion, though!  I just know in my heart my Mom and Dad are proud of me. 

Team Line Ups

Although I have a lot of good things to write about from the ACS Nationals, one of the things I witnessed was NOT good.

Actually, it upset me and perturbed me pretty badly.

On our way to the hotseat match, we ran into a really good team from Texas.

We started the match about 630pm, and it was 8-ball, and we had 4 players each on our team.  I flipped, the opposing Captain took the "home" side and then I walked back to my team and got out the score sheet to fill out.

I filled it out as best I could - putting the best player in the clutch position and then pitting the other 3 players in positions best for the team.  In a race to 10, it may seem easy to do, but it's still strategic placement.

I fill out the names and I wait patiently (okay maybe not) at one of the pool tables for the other captain to bring her score sheet over so I can fill in HER players' names.

Well, she comes over, and her FORM IS NOT FILLED OUT.

wtf?!

She then looks at MY score sheet and fills out her player's names based on where *I* put the name of all my teammates.

ARE YOU SERIOUS?

I was in such shock, I just watched her.  Mortified.

I *should* have grabbed my sheet and hid it behind my back and told her to come back when hers is filled out (nice how I think of these things days later, lol).

Well, I'm pretty miffed but it was too late.  My teammates told me she was prolly doing it deliberately to rile me up, lol.  I think she was just trying to pit the right players against each other, but imo that's not allowed/ or right.

Right?

We are suppose to fill out our sheets and THEN share the names.  Not look at the lineup and then decide where to put players.

We won that match and would play them again later on in the tourney.

This time, I hid my sheet until she was done filling hers out.  But, she comes over, and hasn't filled hers out!

OMG REALLY?

So she's standing there and asks me, "Which game is the hill-hill game?"

REALLY?!

This is the final match of the tourney and you do NOT know this yet?  REALLY?

I point it out to her, which I shouldn't have.  And she filled out two names.  Then changes one of the names.

Then she added the other two.

I was SO happy when I saw her final line-up b/c she wasn't breaking against me (she slow-breaks).

I then call out the first two matches.

Then she says, "Hold on, making a change."

And she changed two of the names around and now she's breaking against me.  OMG.

My sheet was all messed up because I used a pen!

I can't believe people would really look at someones sheet before filling theirs out.  Smooth tactic.  Rude, smooth tactic!  One I would never use.  One I wont ever let her use again.

Lesson learned from her!

$%^%^*!@

Stay Away Please

On my way to the hotseat match at the BCAPL Texas State 8-Ball Championships, I walk by a friend of mine from the Fort Worth area.

While he is a friend, he has also always rubbed me the wrong way and judges my play.  He used to comment about my mistakes after matches.  I call him "Straighty" in this blog entry I wrote about 2 years ago.

As I walk by him he says, "when do you play Tracie?"

"Right now,"

"Oh really?"

"Yep" as I keep walking.

I think to myself, "OMG please DO NOT come watch us play."

I would be too worried about what I'm doing wrong in front of him and what he would say to me later, instead of playing my game.

Luckily, he didn't watch.  Whew.

I was safe.

It's amazing how much certain people can affect us so negatively when we play when we have had bad history/experiences with them.