Congrats to Anthony Meglino and Mark Coats for taking 1st and 2nd. They split the prize money ($550 + $300). There's a lot going on in Florida these days, so what started out as a 27-player list dwindled to 12 during the last couple of days leading to the event. Zeno Rawley and myself split 3rd/4th.
Anthony won mainly because he played conservative and made the least number of mistakes, which is how most tournaments are won. I don't recall him giving anyone ball in hand. In our semi-final match, I gave him two, and that's a lot in a race to 3! He missed balls like everyone else, so the shot making wasn't the key to him winning. It was mainly shot selection and avoiding the far end of the aggression spectrum. He also banked very well, but so did I. I went back and watched our match (with him giving me 8-7), only to realize that I passed up a few better options that could have made the difference. There's a lot to glean from watching one's own matches because only you know what you were thinking at every stage of the match. Learned lesson: I didn't take my usual time to survey the entire table.
Here's a snippet of one situation in which he got out of a trap, hung his straight-back bank, and left me doubled up. It was a great shot with a very small margin of error; I personally would have probably kicked at the ball nearby the upper left corner pocket. But hey, you can't argue with success. Also shown is another situation in which I committed an unforced error because I tried to be too aggressive; I thought the 7 would come into play to prevent the scratch. No luck. In the final inning, I got it going but couldn't see enough of the ball that I needed to make to close the game, so I tried one of those classic carom trick shots to open up the cluster and win me the game. No good. In hindsight, I should have pocketed the ball by my side pocket and sent the CB up table. For a short race to 3, I definitely felt I took too much risk against an unforgiving opponent.
All in all, it was pretty exciting, and I look forward to the next event. I'll have to think about ways to improve the turnout and add more incentives.
Larry and Nick, thanks for coming. Nick drove 3 hours to play, and he grinded out one of the longest matches against Mark Coats.
https://youtu.be/O-O2ZetCTJs
