Tuesday night league.

So I played this guy in league last night who is a really, really good player. I played really good, not great by any means I missed some dumb shots, but really good overall. I ended up beating the guy 7-5. I know that he is a better player than I am and if we played 10 times he'd probably come out winner probably 7 times. He was just a jackass during and after our match. He would "complain" really loud that "His speed was off", "I can't make anything on the break", "He's out now", and one that I actually commented on as it really pissed me off was when he broke dry and I ran out. After the game he said "You got out and took the WRONG balls" and I told him that it appears that I took the right ones since I got out. Then he said "Well you almost screwed yourself upthere" (pointing at where I didn't leave myself the best, not terrible actually) and to that I simply said "horseshoes and handgrenades" which ended that conversation. So anyhow after the match he was bugging me to play him for money. Now I don't mind if a guy asks me once to play him for money to which I said "no, not now". But he asked me a 2-3 more times that night and to cap off the night after my friend and I were done playing on our hourly table I tossed my friend a couple bucks to pay for the table and he goes "YOU ARE PLAYING HIM FOR MONEY!?!? My reply was "no and it's really none of your fucking business" He is a really good player and he didn't play his best and I played well and won. That doesn't mean that I'm better than him or think that I am. He was so annoying.

Now as far as my game went I am pretty happy about several aspects of my play. The first is that I tend to lay up when I get well ahead or behind. I got out to a 4-1 lead and stayed on the gas. I subconsciously think that I'm great and I don't need to try that hard to win because hey I'm kicking this guys ass. I don't purposely think this and it never enters my mind but that is the only explanation I can come up with. It's pretty harsh and a little embarrassing but I want to be hard on myself to keep myself from laying up. I didn't break and run any tables but I did run 3 after he broke dry, one in 8 ball and the other two in 9 ball. I came real close to a break in run in 8 ball but my cue ball ran about 1/2 inch too far and couldn't see all of the the 8 ball. I made a kickass 45 degree cut all the way up the table and my cue ran to the side rail, across to the side rail and up and out to the middle of the table but just a tiny bit too far-BUMMER. I also broke the balls well, only coming up dry once the whole match. I was AWFULLY disappointed in my safety play. They were bad speed and hooked him almost never, need to work on that and my speed for sure. My pre-shot routine was good, I took my time on all shots. Whether it was moving chairs to get comfy or just lining up my shot several times if need be.

I will do it allover again tonight although it's a different team, different rules, and different format. I prefer the format of my tuesday night league to wednesday but I enjoy the rules and wednesday night team more. Everyone takes it pretty serious and I like that. I take my getting better pretty serious and enjoy an atmosphere like this more than I do my Tuesday night team. One of my mental pitfalls is I don't like to converse when I'm playing seriously. Which I guess isn't a pitfall in and of itself but when one of my teammates does talk to me I allow myself to get of the "zone" and I don't stay down on shots and don't totally focus. This does tend to happen more on Tuesday nights and probably because one of the guys is a great friend of mine and I enjoy his company and our conversations ALOT. So in a perfect world I would play my match without a word spoken, but in reality I need to get this problem under control. I can appreciate that people do not take this as seriously as I do, as they don't or can't practice as much as I do and might not want to. Some people are satisfied with their current playing ability or don't/can't put in the time to get better as this doesn't happen overnight. I have this thing in me that has to be the best at whatever I do, I have a hard time just "going out there and having a good time." I can have absolutely no more than 2 hobbies at one time, right now and almost always pool totally consumes me. I enjoy playing, reading about people who played it, watching it on TV, and am fascinated by the mental side of it. The last part of that sentence I believe is a HUGE part of the game and if I can, for lack of a better word, "master" it I believe my level in play will rise dramatically.

And by the way I got talked to one of the companies that owed me money and the guy told me the check went out on the 8th. My reply in an annoyed and frustrated voice was I hope it did because I was told on the 4th that it had already gone out. He says I don't like your attitude and you're basically calling me a liar. I stayed pretty calm and said I was either lied to or given false information by the accounts payable person last week (not the person I was speaking to now, I believe he was the boss actually) and wasn't calling HIM a liar and surely he could understand MY point of view and where I was coming from... He could not and hung up on me. They take over 50 days to pay, lie to me about when they sent they money, and get pissed at me for wanting to know when I will get the money they OWE ME!! Unfuckingbelievable!! Pissing me off all over again.