youngstown
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- Jan 15, 2015
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The first time I ever played in it, I played a guy named Jason Kane. I didn't know him at the time, but our paths would cross again in a year or two. When he first got to the table and shot, my mouth dropped. I started looking around to see if anyone else was watching. I'd never seen a speed pool player before, let alone played one. I lost the first set, luckily it's a best of three sets match. I played slow the next set, and won. The third set was close. He had some good rolls, two slop shots in the final game. He actually apologized afterwards because it was very uncanny how many rolls he got. I just smiled and wished him good luck. It's not like I played a perfect match, so oh well.
We "met" again at the APA Nationals one year, at an Artistic Pool Challenge, as it was called. It was just a lag contest though. He was working the booth with Tom Rossman. He won the contest the previous two years, I believe. $5 to enter. You can enter as many times as you want. You hit X number of lags, and you get points for how close to the rail it is. I put up a pretty good score my first try, in fact, it turned out to be the best score, by far. I kept checking the leaderboard the rest of the day, and the next, to see if I'd been beat. Still on top. When it was all said and done, I lost in a tiebreaker. I don't remember my score or exactly how it all went down. The memorable part was the tiebreaker. I think we had two scores, one set of X on each of two tables. I had a crazy high score on one and an average score on the other. I figured I was a lock for the tiebreaker. Turns out I was wrong. The tiebreaker was whoever had the most consistent score across both tables. I won a couple hundred bucks or something, which was second place prize money. We both got our pictures taken for the magazine, I think it mentioned how he dominated the contest, winning the last three years.
The next time I entered SBE I won several matches, but I think I lost the match that would've cashed, not sure. I just remember how crazy fast the rails and felt were on the last table I played on. I did end up splitting in the Wed Night Warm up bracket, with an older gentleman who had an accent, either Irish or British IDK.
I like to play the cheap $5 or $10 challenge tables. I remember doing well several times. One time in particular, I came up against Marc Vidal, aka Spain, and he broke and had a funny table, or made the 1 and got weird on the 2, I don't remember, but I remember the safe he played which was brilliant. The 2 ball was in the jaws and the cue ball almost was, in such a way that he couldn't make the 2. He didn't have a kick at it, so he shot at the two and froze it to the facing, leaving me in a similar but even more difficult predicament. The CB ball was now in the jaws as well, but not quite as deep as the 2. There was a small gap between the CB and the 2, and a small gap between the CB and the other facing. When I came to the table he said "Two bull frozen" in a thick accent. We were playing on a pro cut bar box so I knew the pocket wouldn't let both balls fall at the same time, so I shot, more like tapped, the cue ball, shooting it directly towards the pocket, as if to scratch. He stood very close to the table to make sure I didn't foul. In fact there were a dozen others nearby watching closely as well. The CB hit the 2, then hit the facing, then hit the two again then the facing, the might've happen again once or twice, until the were both perfectly wedged in the pocket. I stood up, looked right at him and said "Now they're both frozen."
We "met" again at the APA Nationals one year, at an Artistic Pool Challenge, as it was called. It was just a lag contest though. He was working the booth with Tom Rossman. He won the contest the previous two years, I believe. $5 to enter. You can enter as many times as you want. You hit X number of lags, and you get points for how close to the rail it is. I put up a pretty good score my first try, in fact, it turned out to be the best score, by far. I kept checking the leaderboard the rest of the day, and the next, to see if I'd been beat. Still on top. When it was all said and done, I lost in a tiebreaker. I don't remember my score or exactly how it all went down. The memorable part was the tiebreaker. I think we had two scores, one set of X on each of two tables. I had a crazy high score on one and an average score on the other. I figured I was a lock for the tiebreaker. Turns out I was wrong. The tiebreaker was whoever had the most consistent score across both tables. I won a couple hundred bucks or something, which was second place prize money. We both got our pictures taken for the magazine, I think it mentioned how he dominated the contest, winning the last three years.
The next time I entered SBE I won several matches, but I think I lost the match that would've cashed, not sure. I just remember how crazy fast the rails and felt were on the last table I played on. I did end up splitting in the Wed Night Warm up bracket, with an older gentleman who had an accent, either Irish or British IDK.
I like to play the cheap $5 or $10 challenge tables. I remember doing well several times. One time in particular, I came up against Marc Vidal, aka Spain, and he broke and had a funny table, or made the 1 and got weird on the 2, I don't remember, but I remember the safe he played which was brilliant. The 2 ball was in the jaws and the cue ball almost was, in such a way that he couldn't make the 2. He didn't have a kick at it, so he shot at the two and froze it to the facing, leaving me in a similar but even more difficult predicament. The CB ball was now in the jaws as well, but not quite as deep as the 2. There was a small gap between the CB and the 2, and a small gap between the CB and the other facing. When I came to the table he said "Two bull frozen" in a thick accent. We were playing on a pro cut bar box so I knew the pocket wouldn't let both balls fall at the same time, so I shot, more like tapped, the cue ball, shooting it directly towards the pocket, as if to scratch. He stood very close to the table to make sure I didn't foul. In fact there were a dozen others nearby watching closely as well. The CB hit the 2, then hit the facing, then hit the two again then the facing, the might've happen again once or twice, until the were both perfectly wedged in the pocket. I stood up, looked right at him and said "Now they're both frozen."
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