UGH

If you listen really closely you can hear it...shhhh...wait for it...there it is. Someone just said something really stupid. It happens several times a day in my life, sometimes I partake in the stupidity as well. For example on Saturday night I go to a poker game with about 2 people I know there and 20 people I don't know. The game was Hold'em and I hear this guy playing at a different table than me spew this doozy "I lose with Aces(pocket aces is what he's referring to) 90% of the time." For those of you trapped under a rock for the last 8 years and haven't played or seen hold'em played, aces are the best hand you can start with. So the idea that one would lose with the best starting had 90% of the time is laughable. That's immediately followed by this gem "When I have Aces there's only 2 left in the deck for me to hit(the other 2 aces). I'd rather have Ace/King because it gives me more cards to hit my outs." This might just be the absolute dumbest thing I've ever heard. He would rather have more "outs" to hopefully hit a hand that will MAYBE be as good as the hand he claims to lose with 90% of the time, AND SAYS HE DOESN'T WANT. So by his theory he would rather be DRAWING to a pair of aces as opposed to having them from the start!!!!! Now I would normally relish in giving this goon a ration of shit but since I knew 2 people there I thought it wise to bite my tongue.

I was giving one of my drivers his load information today and upon telling him that he had 5 different places to stop and what the load paid he says "That's a lot of work for that amount of money." Let me explain something to you about my field of work. The truck gets paid x amount of dollars to travel x amount of miles in x amount of days. The idea is to get the most money for the least amount of miles in the shortest period of time. The load in question passed all these tests but because in had to go to 5 different places he was pissed. This, in turn, pissed me the fuck off. The rest of the conversation went something like this:
Brilliant Dispatcher: :"Would you rather I found you an easy fucking load that paid like shit?"
Stupid Truck Driver: "Well no, but the load we do to Beloit almost pays as much as this one does and it only has 1 stop."
Brilliant Dispatcher: "That's true and IF there was a load to Beloit, I'd have gotten it for you but there isn't and this is a good fucking load."
Stupid Truck Driver: "I'm not mad at you, I just wish they would pay more for these multi-stop loads."
Brilliant Dispatcher: "They are paying more, a straight load(this means 1 pickup and 1 delivery) to Chicago out of Denver usually pays about $1200.00 This one pays $1575.00 So you're getting paid for you extra work."

Truck drivers are a whole different breed of people. There are exceptions to every rule, but by and large truckers are whiney, full of shit, irresponsible, and long winded just to name a few. Truckers will whine about whatever load they have gotten no matter how good it may be. They will then tell another trucker how great their load is and how much money they make and yada, yada, yada. Basically if their lips are moving, they are feeding someone a line of bullshit. It normally doesn't bother me and usually I find it comical but when I have to explain to a guy that he's making more money for working hard and not spending it on fuel...it can get tiresome. Only one of my guys is this way and he's not usually as bad as I've portrayed him to be here. I do have another guy who gets diarrhea of the mouth though and I'll finally get so annoyed that I snap at him to get to the god damned point. He thinks I'm an ass. And I guess if the shoe fits...

Wicked Beatdown!!!!

I played in the Dr. Cue tournament this weekend and all I can say is......... holy-fucking-crap! I got there Saturday morning to find out there are 128 players. I heard players from Fort Collins all the way down to Albuquerque, NM were there. Looking around I see SOOOO many great players and I realize before I even take my cues out of the case that I'm dead money. Some people see this as the wrong attitude but I try to be realistic and honest with myself about my skillset and where I'm going to finish. I was like the Junior high kid playing in the NBA allstar game. Unfortunately I didn't play well at all and went 2 and out. I think maybe I let myself get too intimidated by all the great players. I know I can't win that event but if I play well I believe I could make the money, they paid out the top 32 places. I'm not saying I was in the top 25% of players there but if I played real well you never know what can happen. Both matches I got off to real slow starts and I believe that is a HUGE factor when playing short races(they were to 4). No matter how good the player if I run out the first or second rack, most people will see that you can play and it adds a little pressure to them because if they miss then they realize they will probably lose the game. I didn't do that ever. I've got no excuses for my bad play and I'm very frustrated and honestly a little embarrassed about the way I played. There were a lot of people I knew there watching me play and I choked big time. Again, not making excuses but these are some of the REASONS I believe I played poorly. I had in my mind right off I had to play great just to win a match. I put more pressure on myself instead of just going out there and playing pool. I played a more conservative game than I normally do because I was afraid to take the "hard" shot of the match and maybe miss. So in an effort to get great position to take an easier shot I would usually hook myself or leave myself a harder shot than I originally would of had. This was WAY out of character for me because it's very rare I run into a shot I don't believe I can make. Again, I allowed myself to be intimidated into not even playing the game that has gotten me to be a good player. I played scared, I played like a bitch, I was clearly not on the level of ANYONE in that room on that day. I know for a fact I can play with 80% of the people in that room and didn't, I embarrassed myself instead. It's also very hard to play without being able to warm-up before you play. Get up and play after sitting for 4-5 hours is difficult for me to do. Now obviously this is the case for everyone and not just me, so again not an excuse but something I didn't handle well.

There were probably about 10-12 people who had a realistic shot at winning this tournament and I played one of them in the first round. Mike Helmer was his name and kicken' Preston's ass was his game. He owns a pool hall in Fort Collins and this cat could shoot some stick. I would say that out of the top 20 players in Colorado, 16-18 of them were at this tournament. This was a ridiculously strong field. I'm going to Denver this weekend to play in another big tournament this weekend. I have got to try and redeem myself after this pathetic outing.

A couple things from this past weekend I'd like to note. I met my dad for breakfast at this little joint at about 9AM and there were about 10 people in there drinking a beer for breakfast! I also added another thing to my list-o-shit that annoys me.

I've got it all figured out

Have you ever thought that you had it (pool is my it, yours is: golf, sewing, poker, skipping rocks, etc.) all figured out and then come across more information that makes you feel as if you know absolutely nothing about the game? I knew I didn't have it ALL figured out but thought that I was really getting somewhere with my recent work on my preshot routine and mental game work. I'm reading a book on the mental side of pool and I'm only a couple chapters into it but I realize I've got, well, nothing figured out. There is some serious shit in this book and I feel like I need a psychology degree to understand some of the stuff he speaks of. I was also reading on a billiard forum about stroking straight, which seems easy and obvious enough but it got very deep and someone actually put a picture of a skeleton and the hands. Now I also need a damn biology degree! I'm not terribly fascinated with learning about how my mind works nor what my mind does that makes me fail when I practice. I'm doing this because I love to play the game and want to be as good as I possibly can. I guess where I'm going with this rambling is am I prepared to get neck high in a barrel of shit? Am I willing to look down every avenue, read books on all topics concerning pool, and take the time and effort to import them into my game? These are the things I don't enjoy and I'm not sure if I want to make this sacrifice. I'm not satisfied with where my game is though, but I don't know if this is even possible for me. I'm not happy unless I make every shot and get every position. This "goal" is unattainable because it's impossible for any human to do that. Looking back to just 2 years ago, my game has dramatically improved.

I think one of my problems is I need some sort of goal. This goal is usually preparing for the annual tournament in Vegas but I'm not able to go this year. I think I need to attend more tournaments and set a goal for what I would like my results to be in those. I'm also going to play more straight pool and my goal in that is to run 50 balls. I'm playing in a big tournament this weekend (should have 64 people) with lots of strong players so I'll post my results on Monday for that. I played in it last year and lost my first two matches. I'll be interested in seeing how my results stack up against last year. It won't be apples to apples as both the guys I played last year were pretty good, but people I expect to beat. I'm very excited for this tournament.