[POOL] Week 1 Playoff Results

[John Valdes]

It was a thrilling (and long!) night.  We played Bass Ackward; turns
out only the results from the Winter session are used to determine the
team seedings.  The whole Moe Szyslak Experience made it out to Q to
play and cheer on the team.

Martino opened the playoffs against Dave in a 2:4.  Martino won the
lag, and on the opening break, sent the 8 rolling towards the corner,
where it rolled, and rolled, but then stopped less than an inch from
the pocket.  So close!  That would turn out to be a sign of things to
come during the night...  Martino shot well in the first game, but so
did Dave who won the game.  Both continued shooting well in the
second, but Dave got to and sank the 8 first, and then cueball,
scratching and giving the game to Martino.  Martino continued shooting
well, at one point having a good runout all set up with only 3 balls
on the table and cueball in hand, but he missed a sharp cut on the 2nd
ball in the sequence and wasn't able to get to the 8.  Unfortunately,
Dave was unrelenting and didn't repeat his mistake from the 2nd game,
finally taking down Martino, 1:4, in a hard fought, 1.5 hr battle.

Tami went next in a 1:4 against Don.  Tami shot well too, making most
of the cut shots she tried.  Don was shooting well also, and when he
missed, he often left Tami with nothing but tough bank shots--twice on
the 8 ball in one game, with which her coach was unfortunately of
little use...  Tami was in every game though, getting to the 8 in most
of them, but ultimately she wasn't able to sink it before Don.  Don
won the match, 0:4.

After 2 tough match losses, we called on our ace, Paul, for the third
and potentially final match against Art, a 3:3.  Unfortunately, Art
was on fire, making shots almost at will.  While Paul shot well too,
Art didn't give him many chances, winning the first and then the
second game to put Paul in a deep, 0:2 hole.  Undaunted, Paul
continued playing his game, making shots when he needed, and rallied
to win the third, shaking Art's confidence a bit in the process.  Paul
continued shooting well while Art's aim started to waver in the next
game, allowing Paul to get to the 8 well ahead of Art.  Unfortunately,
the 8 was just off the short rail between the corner pockets with the
cueball just on the other side of it, in a line perpendicular to the
rail; Paul had to either make a tough bank to try to sink the 8 into
one of the corner pockets along the rail or take a safety.  He opted
for the bank, and, with a little help from one of Art's balls that
was near the corner pocket, sank the 8 to take the match to the hill.  
Art got back on track in the final game and put the pressure on;
however, Paul was able to stay focused, got to the 8, and sank it with
a nice, long cut.  So in a great comeback, Paul won the match 3:2 to
keep us alive!

For the 4th match, Bass Ackward put up Candido, and we put up ringer
Az for a 3:2 matchup.  Az came out of the gate running, making good
runs and banking tough shots in the first two games with little
resistance from Candido to take a quick 2:0 lead.  Candido rallied in
the third game though to make the match interesting, taking it to the
hill.  He continued to put the pressure on, but Az remained calm and
confident, making his shots, until he finally sank the 8 to win the
match, 3:1, carrying us out of the valley of defeat to the hill
match of the night.

Unfortunately for us, Bass Ackward only had 1 player left for the
final and decisive match: Dean, the league's top handicapped player.
At least that meant it would be a 1:9 match for any of our remaining
players, Jack, Roger or myself.  I was feeling good and shooting well
in practice and felt confident that I could take at least 1 game out
of 9 from Dean, so I took him on.  Alas, it wasn't meant to be; while
I was making most of my shots, even some banks, I struggled to put
together any significant runs beyond 2 or 3 balls, and that just
wasn't enough against Dean.  Surprisingly, Dean only ran the table in
one game, giving me chances to shoot and allowing me to get down to
just 2 balls on the table in a few matches, but I never got to the 8.
My best chance for a win came mid-match when I missed a shot and
inadvertently but very luckily sent the 8 banking towards a corner
pocket where it parked itself behind one of Dean's balls and blocked
half the pocket.  Dean had nowhere to shoot that ball but in that
pocket, and after delaying that shot for as long as possible, he
finally took it.  And of course make it without touching the 8 at all,
which he then sank on the following shot for the game.  I didn't have
any good opportunities after that and went down, 0:9, losing the match
and the night.  So close!

Despite the disappointing outcome, it was a good night; we all played
well and gave it our best shot.  We were simply beaten by a better
team.  All is not lost, however.  We continue on in the playoffs next
week and the following week, and if we win both of those nights, we'll
get a 5th place finish for the playoffs.

In other matchups last night, Nice Rack (Melanie's team) beat Get More
with Les, Holdin' Our Own (Jenny/Kevin's team) beat X-Cue-Ses
(Jason/Ron's team), and Nice Game, 7 Bucks (Bob Daun's team) beat
Retarted Monkeys (Mike McKiernan's/the Wiedmeyer team).

Next week we'll be playing Retarded Monkeys, and after we beat them, :)
we'll then face the winner of Get More with Les vs X-Cue-Ses.

John