Tonight I played several games of one-pocket against Larry* at The Bank Shot.

I am really lousy at one-pocket, but Larry is quite good at it, so I really enjoy the opportunities to play and learn from him.

Despite the great difference in our game, we ended up splitting the first few games playing even. This almost always happens when I play him.

Usually I can give at least partial credit to my ability to stay focused and know my limits. The bulk of the credit, however, has to go to Larry and his inability to care about a bunch of free games against a one-pocket beginner.

Anyway, after we split the first four games, Larry asked if he could play me 8-5 to see if the spot would help his concentration. I agreed to the spot, again just grateful to be playing such a good player.

We ended up splitting the next 8 or so games until we both quit at the same time.

I wasn't very impressed with my play tonight. I could pocket balls fine, and my safeties tonight were a little better than my opponent's, but whenever I tried to do both at the same time I sold out a shot. This is actually what I expect my one-pocket game to be like, and perhaps my better performances in the past have been mere flukes.

My opponent's problem was one of being too reliant on the pressures usually caused by money games. He missed far more than he normally does and became visibly frustrated by his poor performance. Basically he wasted a night's play because he wasn't able to perform without the pressure of money being bet.

This is exactly why I've never bought into the "Get used to playing under pressure" argument used by the gambling pool players. If you can only play well under pressure, what happens when the pressure goes away? You can't shoot well until you raise the bet and create even more pressure. This works until you get used to that, then the cycle starts over again. It's never-ending.

My approach is to feel no pressure, no matter what the circumstances. I try to play my best no matter what's at stake. This approach means that playing for funzies, for money, or in a tournament all do the same thing to my game - absolutely nothing.

I'm not saying that my approach is right for everyone, but I'm positive that it's the right approach for me. I want to play as well as I can all the time. Playing well is to me a more lofty and reliable goal than winning (or at least not losing) money or advancing in a tournament.

Larry ended tonight's session completely disgusted with his performance. I ended the session with a little more one-pocket knowledge and a couple of important reminders.

First, I need to fight to the urge to try to do too much with a given shot. Usually there's an offensive opportunity or a defensive one. I can't have 'em both on every shot.

Second, I think that needing to create pressure in order to play well is a self-defeating activity. To play well should be the only goal.

* - Name changed to protect the guilty.

Was messing around tonight trying to develop a better two-rail kicking system than the one I've been using.

I may be onto something. A system that does not require any math or memorizations, and seems to work pretty well for most angles.

If I get this clearer in my head I'll post more later.

Yay! My first practice on my shiny like-new equipment!

I racked nine balls up and broke, then banked nine in a row. That's right, nine in a row. This is exactly the opposite of what I thought would happen. I figured that the tighter pockets, the fast cloth, and the slick balls would conspire to make me miss way more than normal until I got used to the changes.

What I failed to take into account was that on cloth that is very new, with balls that are very slick, shots that have no business at all being made will slide right down the rail and drop.

This is what happened to me. After the initial nine banks I continued to make most banks for over an hour. At first they went in as I just described - very sloppily. After a while, however, something very cool happened. The shots started hitting the pocket centers. I really looked like I knew what I was doing there.

I guess my confidence was so boosted by the accepting pockets that I relaxed just enough to become very accurate on my banks.

I know that the pockets will become less and less forgiving over the next several sessions, but I'm sure going to have some fun while it lasts. Hopefully I can keep up with the changing table conditions.

Today, to go with my nice new cloth and retightened pockets, I cleaned and polished my set of Aramith Super Pros with some Karseal polish. I also cleaned my cue's shaft with Larry's cleaner and finished it off with some CueSilk.

While waiting for the polish on the balls to dry I went ahead and drew my standard lines on the table. First I used string to very accurately determine the footspot and drew a 3-inch "+" at that point. I drew a line across the headstring, another from the footspot straight to the end rail, and another set of lines around where a rack would be placed. For the footspot itself I used a hole-reinforcement sticker like I used in the connect the dots practice.

After taking a towel and buffing the balls off I was finally ready to play on the best equipment available.

I got my table back today as promised!

Actually all I "got back" was the rails with the new-improved tightened pockets and some new 860 cloth.

I can't wait to get down there and miss for a week because of the slick cloth and tight pockets.

The pool table has been dismantled so the cloth can be replaced and the pockets tightened. I have to wait until Friday to play again. Woe is me.

For a year and a half I've been saying that the pockets on my table got wider when I had the Artemis rubber installed.

I was right.

The pocket facings that were installed were 1/8" and the old ones were 1/4" facings.

So there.

Truman banked 13 in a row while beating Shannon Daulton Saturday night.
After watching him shoot Friday and Saturday I felt the tournament was his
for the taking. Apparently he decided not to take it and lost twice on
Sunday.

Straight-In Lou wrote...
> My. First Smorg reappears, then Ghosst, Blackjack, and now Paul. Who've I
> missed? They're coming out of the woodwork, I tell ya.

Poking my head out of the woodwork long enough to contribute to this topic.
Below is from a conversation I had with Fred back in March. The important
part is the last paragraph. My game still hasn't recovered, but the memory
of those two days in February keeps me trying.

Forgive my whining:

Meanwhile, I suck. In the middle of February I lost my job and the next day
my sister found a lump in her breast. To keep my mind off these issues I
played pool. Some combination of my mood, lack of sleep, sore arm, etc.
combined to drop me into flat out no exaggeration top level pro mode. I had
made a slight, simple adjustment to my stance, one that I didn't pay much
attention to, that threw me into alignment like never before.

I was playing the ghost, getting ball in hand after the break, and stringing
5-packs together like it was nothing. Pool was fun fun FUN again. The next
day I went to The Bank Shot and was STILL playing like a pro. I was even
able to make what I call "one-pocket cuts" (thin long cuts while controlling
the cueball with speed and spin) with no effort, and beat a top local player
in one-pocket all day long, mostly by running out at every opportunity. The
guy wanted to take me to Oliver's (another pool room) and back me against
anyone there.

Then Truman Hogue came in and started practicing banks on another table.
Inspired, I started practicing my own banks and found that this new style of
mine wasn't suited to bank shots. I reverted back to the banks stroke I've
been developing for the past few months, thinking that the slight adjustment
I'd made to my regular stroke earlier would be easy to recall since I'd used
it for the past two days.

I was wrong. Way wrong. Whatever it was I'd done apparently wasn't as
simple as I'd thought, since I've spent the past month struggling (I mean
REALLY struggling) to run even one rack of nine ball. My magical alignment
is gone, and any attempt to manually align myself destroys my speed control.
I'm missing so many long straight in shots you'd never know I've been
shooting dozens of them as practice nearly every day for 15 years.

What I'd noticed about my magic stance was a slight opening of my right arm,
around the armpit. What I unfortunately failed to notice was things like
head position, bridge length, right shoulder tension, left arm position,
blah blah blah.

So I went from being one of the best players I've ever seen to a pretty
lousy banger overnight, just because I failed to properly take notice of
something really special that had happened with my game. You can bet that
if I ever get it back I'll damn sure pay attention then. I just hope it
doesn't take another 17 years.

My sister's lump turned out to be nothing

Tony Mathews wrote...
> This question was asked by a few posters in the past. I once heard a
> generality uttered that shafts with high squirt draw the ball better than
> shafts with low squirt. I don't think that this is true.

Interesting. I have a practice shot that uses maximum straight draw, and I've found it to be easier with my original Schon shaft that with my 314 shaft. I've been assuming that the difference was due to the Schon shaft being stiffer, or that the tip on the Schon shaft is a little softer. Perhaps the squirt thing has something to do with it. Or I could just be a crackpot.