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.