“Let me count the ways.”

“How do I lose thee? Let me count the ways.” ~ Billy Shakespeare

How did I get eliminated from last night’s tournament? By being stupid. After being shoved over to the losers’ bracket by Dan the Man in my first match, I strung 3 wins together and was looking pretty good, especially since my fifth game was against a nice young lady of moderate abilities.

I scratched on the break, but that caused no damage and I took the lead sinking six of my low balls to her two high balls. I had almost run out but I missed a semi-easy 45 degree cut on my next to last ball. Then she missed a shot leaving me snookered at the far end of the table. We don’t play ball in hand, just honest effort, so I wasn’t compelled to hit my ball but I tried to masse the cue ball around one of her balls and wound up kicking the eight into the corner pocket. Adios, bye-bye, fare-the-well.

Dumb, huh? But I always try to take something away from a match like that, so maybe next week if I’m in a fix like that I’ll remind myself “Whatever you do, Dumb-Ass, don’t make the eight-ball!” There’s a better than 50/50 chance that I’ll forget.

Anyway, aside from the lapse in concentration, I was playing pretty well – making shots and playing pretty good position. If only…

I haven’t been making many entries here because I’ve been preoccupied with my web pages, adding new ones, revising the old ones – it’s a never-ending process. The verdict still isn’t in on whether my switch over to pooldawg.com was a good move or not. They’re nice people and they offer a wide selection of pool cues and accessories, but they’re new to most online shoppers who seem to be a little wary of shopping with someone they don’t know. Take it from me, they’re standup people and you can buy from them with confidence. Besides! What the hell do those geeks at amazon know about pool? Nada! I wore myself out trying to explain to them that Le Pro tips come in different diameters.

I made a new aiming device the other day and remembered a step I didn’t include in that entry. Before you draw your lines you have to sand around the center hole to remove all the rough spots and ridges left from the cutting process. If you don’t, the disk will move around every time you shoot a ball off it. I practice the same shot sometimes 30 times without ever having to readjust the disk.

Not much more going on except I’ve been trying to get to the poolroom more often. I mean, pool should be played in a poolroom not in a bar. From my place it’s the same distance to Capone’s in Spring Hill and DJ’s in New Port Richey. I’ve been going to NPR mostly because it’s close to where my wife works and I can stop and pick her up on my way home. Capone’s is a nice place too. They host a lot of tournaments and give us a chance to watch the pros. It’s nice to watch guys who know what they’re doing. It reminds me of how I used to… Well, truthfully, I never got to be quite that good.