jrhendy
Verified Member
I want to thank everyone who helped put this together. My old friend James Boch and his wife Stefanie, and Daniel and Geraldine from povpool. I had not been down to Southern California in a while so I took a couple extra days to see some friends and family.
It is always fun to see Daniel and Geraldine from POV because that means there is some pool going on. If I am not playing I get to commentate and had a ball this time with One Pocket Rich Grenier, Magdi and Phil Misson, who also played in the tournament. If you see all the equipment and set up they go through to bring us the stream, you realize the time and dedication involved.
The other players beside myself and Phil were Wayne Pullen, who beat me at the Seniors Tournament in Houston last October, and my old friend Frank "The Barber" Almanza. We have known each other over fifty years but never played one pocket against each other.
They seeded the players for the match and put the old guys, Frank and I, last. This makes sense since Wayne and Phil are the top players in Santa Monica now that One Pocket Rich doesn't play, but a race to three on strange equipment can result in upsets. I know Frank has beat Wayne a time or two and most of us have beaten better players and lost to inferior ones in short races. I could go to Santa Monica and get a little weight from Wayne or Phil and bet what I want. But I felt I had a slight advantage on this 5 x 10.
On the drive down on Weds I stopped at Blue Fin Billiards in Fresno. They have a 5 x 10 tight snooker table and the rails are set for pool balls. I practiced on that table for a couple hours and spent the night there before resuming the trip. On Thursday I went to Hard Times In Bellflower and played some golf on the 6 x 12. I think both of these stops helped give me a little better perspective to play on bigger pool table.
So here we are on a beautiful 1922 five by ten table that none of us have ever played on. The table was at Cochran's, the famous room in San Francisco, for years before James got it and had it reconditioned. Frank has a beautiful old Brunswick in his home and I suspect it plays closer to this table than the equipment the rest of us are used to. Maybe Frank can comment on this, but I think he adapted to the 5 x 10 earlier than the rest of us. He certainly banked better than we did.
The first match was Frank against Phil. Phil is a very aggressive player and that style did not work on this table. Phil and Wayne like to spin the cue ball and on this table it caused them to miss many shots they would usually make. The extra distance gives you a little trouble with the angles. After watching Frank take down Phil with fairly conservative pay and very good banking, I could see the favorites might be in trouble.
Now it is my turn against Wayne. The table really had him out of sorts. I lost the cue ball and scratched a few times in the set before I decided to go with center cue ball on everything unless it was close to the hole. He missed almost every spot shot spinning the cue ball. I still had a couple brain farts and let him back in it, but I have been doing that all my pool playing life. That is why I got a job in 1960.
The good news is I can usually recover and get back into the game.
On Saturday Frank and I played for the hot seat in a very competitive match that I won. Now Frank had to play Wayne, who had knocked out Phil on Friday. For a while it looked like Wayne was getting more comfortable and playing better, but he faltered a little and Frank pulled it out.
Now it is the finals and we agreed to two races to two in a double elimination format. Frank beat me the first set when I thought I had him put away and thanks to me forgetting the ball count one game and some terrific safety play and making tough banks by Frank, he won the first set and we went to the final race to two. We were both dead tired and mentally exhausted but I held it together long enough to get the win.
It is always great to win, but it would have been a good trip no matter what. Mutual friends came by to say hi and watch us play, and I got together with my two sons and grandson on Sunday before the long drive home.
This was a blast and I hope this format catches on and we can have more of them. Wayne was talking about putting together an eight player tournament in Santa Monica.
It is always fun to see Daniel and Geraldine from POV because that means there is some pool going on. If I am not playing I get to commentate and had a ball this time with One Pocket Rich Grenier, Magdi and Phil Misson, who also played in the tournament. If you see all the equipment and set up they go through to bring us the stream, you realize the time and dedication involved.
The other players beside myself and Phil were Wayne Pullen, who beat me at the Seniors Tournament in Houston last October, and my old friend Frank "The Barber" Almanza. We have known each other over fifty years but never played one pocket against each other.
They seeded the players for the match and put the old guys, Frank and I, last. This makes sense since Wayne and Phil are the top players in Santa Monica now that One Pocket Rich doesn't play, but a race to three on strange equipment can result in upsets. I know Frank has beat Wayne a time or two and most of us have beaten better players and lost to inferior ones in short races. I could go to Santa Monica and get a little weight from Wayne or Phil and bet what I want. But I felt I had a slight advantage on this 5 x 10.
On the drive down on Weds I stopped at Blue Fin Billiards in Fresno. They have a 5 x 10 tight snooker table and the rails are set for pool balls. I practiced on that table for a couple hours and spent the night there before resuming the trip. On Thursday I went to Hard Times In Bellflower and played some golf on the 6 x 12. I think both of these stops helped give me a little better perspective to play on bigger pool table.
So here we are on a beautiful 1922 five by ten table that none of us have ever played on. The table was at Cochran's, the famous room in San Francisco, for years before James got it and had it reconditioned. Frank has a beautiful old Brunswick in his home and I suspect it plays closer to this table than the equipment the rest of us are used to. Maybe Frank can comment on this, but I think he adapted to the 5 x 10 earlier than the rest of us. He certainly banked better than we did.
The first match was Frank against Phil. Phil is a very aggressive player and that style did not work on this table. Phil and Wayne like to spin the cue ball and on this table it caused them to miss many shots they would usually make. The extra distance gives you a little trouble with the angles. After watching Frank take down Phil with fairly conservative pay and very good banking, I could see the favorites might be in trouble.
Now it is my turn against Wayne. The table really had him out of sorts. I lost the cue ball and scratched a few times in the set before I decided to go with center cue ball on everything unless it was close to the hole. He missed almost every spot shot spinning the cue ball. I still had a couple brain farts and let him back in it, but I have been doing that all my pool playing life. That is why I got a job in 1960.
The good news is I can usually recover and get back into the game.On Saturday Frank and I played for the hot seat in a very competitive match that I won. Now Frank had to play Wayne, who had knocked out Phil on Friday. For a while it looked like Wayne was getting more comfortable and playing better, but he faltered a little and Frank pulled it out.
Now it is the finals and we agreed to two races to two in a double elimination format. Frank beat me the first set when I thought I had him put away and thanks to me forgetting the ball count one game and some terrific safety play and making tough banks by Frank, he won the first set and we went to the final race to two. We were both dead tired and mentally exhausted but I held it together long enough to get the win.
It is always great to win, but it would have been a good trip no matter what. Mutual friends came by to say hi and watch us play, and I got together with my two sons and grandson on Sunday before the long drive home.
This was a blast and I hope this format catches on and we can have more of them. Wayne was talking about putting together an eight player tournament in Santa Monica.
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