[POOL] Results

[John Valdes]

We played Bass Ackward for the final night of the regular season.

I played first against Don in a 3:3.  I shot terribly; my aim seemed
to be dead on, but my stroke was dead off, with my shots going nowhere
near where I was aiming.  Don struggled in the first game too, but
managed to sink more than me and won the game.  My stroke improved in
the second game, up until the point where I cut one of my balls into
the 8 (nowhere near where I was aiming...) and sent the 8 into a
pocket, giving Don the 2nd game.  Unfortunately, the third game was
much of the same, with Don ultimately winning to take the match, 0:3.

Jack played next against Lori in a 2:2.  Jack was being thwarted at
times by the table but otherwise was making good shots.  The match
went back and forth, with Jack winning the first game and Lori winning
the second.  In the hill game, Jack was on his way to take the game
and match, but towards the end, Lori kept leaving Jack with really
hard shots.  Ultimately, Lori prevailed, 1:2.

Roger played third against Gary in a 2:3.  Roger started out slowly,
also being thwarted at times by the table, and lost the first 2 games.
Undaunted, Roger kept his focus and rallied to win the 3rd game,
sending the match to the hill.  This time, it was Gary's turn to be
thwarted, at one point giving up ball-in-hand after poking too lightly
on an easy shot and leaving his ball short of a pocket w/o anything
contacting a rail.  Roger put that to good use, running 3 of his
remaining 4 balls, and eventually getting to the 8, which he sank with
a nice, long, cross-table cut into a corner for the game and match,
2:2.

Paul went next against Jill in a 2:3.  Jill was right on target with
her shots, sinking her balls cleanly wherever she aimed.  Fortunately,
Paul was on too and matched her stroke for stroke (more like run for
run).  He got to the 8 first and sank it to take the first game.  Paul
continued shooting very well in the second game and nicely avoided
scratching on the 8 for a win, taking the match 2:0.

Tami played the final match against Dave in a 1:4.  Dave got off to a
quick lead in the first game, but Tami's stroke was smooth and true,
and she slowly caught up to Dave one ball at a time while his last
ball left him stymied by a corner pocket.  Alas, he finally kicked it
away from the pocket and sank it in another, followed by the 8 to
take the first game.  Tami continued shooting well in the second game
however, this time sinking balls 2 or 3 at a time, 'til she got to the
8 before Dave, which she then sank for the game and match, 1:1.

So we won 3, lost 2.  We entered the night tied for 3rd with Holdin'
Our Own and only 1 game out of 2nd behind Nice Game, 7 Bucks.  At the
time we finished, both Holdin' and Nice Game were still playing
matches, but both had only won 2 so far, so depending on the results
of their final matches, there's a chance we pulled ahead of Holdin'
and tied Nice Game for 2nd.

On an individual level, with his win, Paul secured his standing as
the top performing player in the league for the Winter session,
winning 10 of 12 matches and increasing his handicap by 16 points,
catching Az with a final handicap of 48.  Great job Paul!  Tami and
Martino also finished among the top 10 players--Tami at 7 and Martino
at 10 going into last night--with Tami winning 8 out of 12 matches
played and Martino winning 7 of 12.  Az did very well percentage-wise
too, winning 4 of 5 matches, but with only 5 matches played, his net
rating was lower--19th overall.  That was out of ~70 players, so still
good.  Ultimately, everyone got wins when they were needed, so great
job everyone!

The next 3 weeks are the playoffs.  The 1st place team (the one with
the most combined match wins from the Fall and Winter sessions) will
play the 8th place team; the 2nd place team will play the 7th, and so
on.  The 4 teams that win the first week of the playoffs will advance
to the winners bracket to play for 1st through 4th place in the
subsequent 2 weeks of the playoffs, while the 4 losing teams will drop
to the losing bracket to vie for 5th through 8th.  A winning team on a
given night during the playoffs is a team that wins 3 out of the 5
matches against its opponent; as soon as a team wins 3 matches, it is
declared the winner for the night and no more matches are played
against its opponent (eg, if a team wins its first 3 matches, then it
wins the night and matches 4 and 5 aren't officially played).  On the
last night of the playoffs, there will be food!

See you all next week!

John