On October 22nd, 2016 I played in a Captain Co-Captain tournament at Q Pin's 2 in West Springfield, MA. While I was there to play in this alternating shot doubles tournament, the person running it decided to also put together some single's qualifier tournaments together. They were able to get enough people together to have a total of four qualifier tournaments. Two qualifying tournaments of 9-ball and 8-ball. So I talked with the person I went with and we decided that we were there to play pool so why not sign up for these qualifiers.

So we got there and at 10am the doubles tournament started and we ended up loosing our first match putting us into the losers bracket. It was an interesting tournament as the losers bracket was a modified bracket where you played 9-ball to try to win a chance to get back into the winners bracket. So we played two matches of 9-ball and won our way back into the winners bracket. We played against the team that put us in the losers bracket in the first place and put up a slightly better fight by winning one game instead of loosing 3 straight. So now we are done with the doubles tournament but as we decided to make it a pool day we still had a couple more tournaments to play in.

The Qualifiers Start

My first match was for the 8-ball qualifier and it was against another skill level 6. I shot well and was able to capitalize enough on the fact that he was not able to find his groove. Be it because of me shooting well and not giving him much time on the table or him just not being able to shoot.

My next match I played against a 7. It started off well with me winning the first game and him winning the next game. I remember giving him a game as he played a defense of which he left a 3/4 table cut shot on the 8-ball of which I made but scratched in the corner pocket. That game also made me realize that other people are not going to have the same respects that I do for the game. If I am shooting for a ball and it is frozen or near frozen I will examine and also inform my opponent before I shoot. Well I guess in the rules it is the opposing players responsibility to check and call a frozen ball then the shooter confirms this ruling or opposes it. I was running the balls but also most of the time getting the leaves I intended. So even with the loss of that game I was able to pull out a 4 to 2 victory in a 5 to 4 race.

So I now play my first 9-ball qualifier match. I am playing a 4 as a 6 so she has to go to 36 points while I have to go to 46. I shoot well and even had a break and run in the match. Pulling out a 46 to 21 victory to advance to the next round. The 2nd round I played against a 5 but was unable to really string together any good runs and ended up getting knocked out. If I did happen to win this I would of had to jump on a 9-ball team so I guess it is kind of good that I did not win it.

Final 8-Ball Match

It is now time for me to play my 3rd and final 8-ball qualifier match. I am up against another 6 so the race is 5 games to 5 games. I was shooting well and able to start off with winning the first game. I felt confident while my opponent appeared to be off in his shooting. The feeling I got is he was a much better shooter than I was seeing but as with anyone they have off days. There was still a few shots here and there were I left myself junk but being able to make the hit saved me from giving my opponent any ball in hands. I remember one shot all I had to do was draw it back straight and I would of left myself a shot, but instead I drew it back a little to the right and hid the cue ball behind one of his balls forcing me to play a rail first shot on the 8. Overall I shot well and it felt good to be able to qualify for the regional state tournament in March.

In Conclusion

So overall I would say that it was a good day of pool. Even though my partner and I didn't do as good as we had hoped we would in the doubles tournament, I was able to redeem myself by winning a qualifier. I was able to show that I can shoot consistent. I hope I can begin to realize what I am doing wrong quicker when I am doing something wrong. If I can learn to pick up on those things I think I can become a decent pool player.