Second Queen of the Hill Title

Two Friday's ago I played at Diamond Jim's in Arlington/Grand Prairie, Texas.  On Friday nights, they have a separate ladies event from the men.  I have said this before but it is SO cool to be able to have a weekly ladies-only tourney in the area to play in!

There were only about 12 girls or so in it, but I was still happy to be able to play.  And then it got better.

As I played my very first match, I was ELATED!

I was seeing the table SO well.  The layouts, the runs, how to get on tough balls.  I was almost shocked how well I was playing.

I won the tourney not only undefeated, but not one person got a game on me!  In a race to 2, that's pretty cool.  :)

The next weekend, I would play at the same venue in the Queen of the Hill tournament, which is the end-of-season singles tourney for my ladies Thursday night league.

I won this event last year.  So, this was my second time playing in it.

We were all very disappointed when only 11 girls showed up.  :(  We aren't sure what is going on, but the league has about 85 players in the league.

I figured the calutta would be CRAP.  Instead, I was pleasantly surprised that $505 total would be in the pot after the bidding was complete!  We were all mostly bidding on each other, lol.

Well, I didn't bid on anyone, as I didn't have that much money and plus, I had faith in myself so saved my cash-on-hand to buy half myself.

I could tell ALL morning I wasn't feeling IT.  I could tell I would be struggling this day.  I tried very hard to recall how well I played just the Friday before, but the feeling wasn't the same for some reason.

And it showed in my performance. 

I had 3 or 4 hill-hill matches, including being down 0-2 in the finals.  I somehow overcame being mentally agitated about how long the finals was taking, and won 3 in a row to win the tourney and the title and first place.  But I missed a lot of balls and didn't have much focus except for maybe two matches the entire day.  

But, I held on and won!

Here is my fellow teammate and I, Nina (first and second place):

And the brackets (click to enlarge if you are bored, lol)

So, first place monies ($105), calcutta ($305/2).    Not too bad for a $10 dollar tourney (house matched the pot) and going for $160 in the calcutta.

Thank you to all my friends and supporters!  Means the world to me!

Bantering with Teammates

At the BCAPL State tourney, I along with all the other Open players had to race to 5 in the women's 8ball division.  If one was an Advanced player, then you had to race to 6.  This was noted with the letter "A" next to your name on the scoresheet.

So I play one of my teammates in my very first match of the second day, at 10am.  This is for 9th place.  We are both happy to still be in the tourney, but we also pick on each other because we love being teammates.  :)

She sends me a text and asked if I was awake about 30 minutes before our 10am match.

I replied, "Um, yes."

She replies, "You better bring your game because I plan to kick your ass." 

I said, "Same to you. LOL."

As I finished getting ready, I then sent her another text.

"Hey, they moved our match to noon.  See you then."

She replies, "Really?  Who told you that?  I heard they just moved it to 1pm."

LMAO!

We are both screwing with each other, basically saying we don't want to play each other because it's gonna be a tough match.

Our match had not moved at all and was still planned as scheduled for 10am.

I get there about 9:50am and go to our table.  She already has the score-sheet at our assigned table but she is in the bathroom.

I look down at our score sheet and the bitch wrote an "A" next to my name!!

Funny girl!!

Men, Women, Pool, Equal?

I have alluded a few times in my blog to the fact that I believe that men play better than women when it comes to pool.

Almost every time I hint at it, I get a comment from someone about it.

There are many people who are passionate about the idea that there is no physical difference between men and women playing pool (except maybe the break) and therefore we should be equal competitors in the sport (I often wonder the same thing about poker). 

People get so passionate about the topic regarding pool, that they argue about it.  Either in person, or on forums.

I have seen SO many posts about this topic, that I wont even read them anymore on forums because it's almost like how you shouldn't talk about religion or politics, lol.  People get too passionate about the topic.

Someone asked me after my latest comment about men and women, would I write a blog about that topic?  Would I explain why I think men play better than women.

Sure!

But, it's not the normal blog I write.  Instead, I'm going to point you to a fellow blogger who already wrote about this topic in detail.  No reason to rehash how well she explains why men and women do indeed have differences when it comes to pool and why men compete better and finish higher;  she stated it well already.

In fact, here is an excerpt that sums up my sentiments exactly: 

I agree, side by side I don’t think women are at a disadvantage physically when it comes to pool. It’s the inner workings of our brain that really separate us. Given pool’s more a mental sport rather than reactionary, I think it’s women’s thoughts & emotions that give us more obstacles to success.

Also, please, PLEASE read the comments under the blog entry.  There's some really great thoughts from my friend Jennifer, and others provide links for further reading.

Without further ado, my dear friend, Gail Glazebrook and her blog entry: "Let's Talk About Sex."