It's all mental. The game of billiards get my heart beating and brings me face to face with myself, bringing out both my strengths and weakness in the same game.
It's funny - winning your match is the best feeling in the world. For me it's the following reasons.
1. You helped your team by adding a "win" point to your standings. Good feeling.
2. It's always nice to win - you feel accomplished.
3. I make a promise to myself to play just a little bit better with every stroke of the cue. If I show .0000000005% improvement, I feel I've improved.
Losing your match just stinks.
1. I feel like you have let your team down.
2. I feel like I should of made different shot choices, played a safety, taking that extra 2 - 3 seconds to line up that crucial shot...
3. Again, my heart hurts.
Tonight, I played a very strong "5". The race was 4/3. He had to win 4 before I won three. He won the first three games. I then won the next two, so we were double hill. The games that I did win was in 1 inning and the other was 3 innings, so we both played well. The last game we both had one ball left on the table + the eight ball. There was two options for me at this point: Go for the win and make my object ball or play a safety and get ball in hand for better position. I went for the safety and that was actually the wrong decision because he was able to play a perfect safety on me where I was not able to hit my object ball, and even if I did - he had a run out. My last shot is shown below with the red arrows and my opponents is with the orange arrows. As you see, the cue ball landed behind the 8 ball on his shot and I was not able to kick at my object ball, giving him ball and hand for the win.
I should of just gone for the win and let the Pool Gods control my destiny. It hard to know if you should go for it or just play safe. As you see here, playing it safe was wrong.
I love the game, so don't think I'll ever stop playing. I love watching great players shot - they amaze me and I strive to be at their level. My goal is to become a great player that just get's better. All great players do *smiles*.
Actually, I have always believed the Pool Gods want the player who had the worst day out of the two people to win. So, I am thankful that I had a pretty good day over all compare to his *smiles*.
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2 comments:
Well I guess then I should say, congrats on having a good day up to then! :)
I must be getting used to losing, or just not caring as much as I used to - last night I lost both 8 and 9-ball and our team lost 4-1 in 8 and 56-44 in 9. But we all had a great time and tons of fun. But maybe that's because this is a designated social league and I think there's only one team that seriously cares about winning to the point where it affects how good of a night you have.
At least you all had a good time! I don't think I could become immuned to losing at pool - I do lose quite a bit;). I do like the social part of the league, but the part of trying my best to win makes me strive and work harder on my game. Kinda like the bully in middle school that keeps taking your lunch money and giving you wedgies. You keep thinking of ways to beat him overall - like putting foreign coins that he can't spend on lunch, wearing a beat so tight (he can't give you wedgie), or giving he a 'truths' give of chocolate (when it's really Exlax). Ah, good times.
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