This was probably my best year in Vegas...at least the singles event. Every year I enjoy this trip a lot and come back a better player, but this year was a little different. I was finally able to stay on the winner's side and keep going. In the singles event, I placed 4th...out of 5 people j/k. 402 players. 3rd or above would have been nice because it's a lot more money and trophies! Oh well. Doubles was 17-24th and team event...well...long story.
Last couple of years, I really didn't/couldn't put that much time into practicing because work. The licensure exam took a lot of time and effort and everything else had to be put on hold. I think I only had 2 weeks to practice before BCA last year. Can't do much in such a short amount of time after not playing at all.
This year I started about a month and a half ago and really concentrated well. I tried to practice as much as possible, almost as much as I was studying (minus travel time). Special thanks to Dave...the lessons really, really paid off. More knowledge, more skill, and most importantly, more confidence.
The trip started off a little weird. As I packed I burned some CDs to listen to on the way there. I kind of felt like it was burning rather quickly but I was too busy packing. I checked them but of course they'll play just fine on the computer...when I put them in the CD player in my car, they didn't work. I apparently burned them as data CD, not music CD. Very smart. Luckily I brought some regular CDs so I didn't have to listen to noise the whole way there.
When I checked in, the man at the front desk (who apparently took a special interest in me just because I'm Japanese) confirmed the reservation for 5 nights. A few minutes later as I'm talking to Dave on the phone I realize that I don't have a reservation for Tuesday night!! I went downstairs and the man at the front desk called me over and let me cut in line. He added one more night and gave me a bit of a discount as well.
After dinner we went over to the Riviera to hit some balls to get a feel for the tables. As we were playing we heard the announcement about the scotch doubles mini tournament and decided to play in it. Perhaps this was a bad idea because it ended really late, but maybe not such a bad idea because we won $210.
The actual doubles matches were brutal. Scotch doubles is very hard. Of course, playing with a really good player makes the run-out much easier but it's hard not to mess up...I don't think we had the problem of not knowing what the other player wants to do (sometimes) but we just don't play as many safeties as we should. We got lucky here and there but we weren't playing horrible. Just not that great. We lost the 4th round (1st was a bye) and won 2 on the loser's side. 17-24th out of 341 teams isn't bad at all but we were hoping to do better. All of these matches except the last one was played on Friday. All day long.
Singles started on Saturday. My first match was at 6 PM so I got plenty of rest...well not really. I guess I was on work schedule and kept waking up early no matter what time I went to bed. A few of my friend from LA came to watch so we met up for lunch. We went to the Venetian to have Italian. It was a lot of fun and good food. I was too tired from the day before so I took a nap and went to play.
I knew I had a tough opponent right from the start. I've played against her during a mini tournament last year and lost. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but it sucks to have such a tough opponent the first round. She really didn't make any mistakes other than one safety. I probably messed up way more than she did. It ended up being 3-3 (race to 4) even though I was ahead. She came up to me and said she really had to go to the restroom and wasn't trying to be a bia-tch. You're not supposed to take a break unless it's your turn to break, so I could have said no. but I let her go. After all, I think the momentum was shifting her way and this might give me an advantage. I broke really well and made a ton of balls including the 8 ball. I didn't even know till she told me. I probably would have noticed eventually but I was really focused on running out. and I did. Break and run on hill-hill. yeah!
The 2nd match was against a player from the east coast. She is one of the players on a well-known women's team. I really wanted to win but again I knew it wasn't an easy opponent. I think she kind of got unlucky here and there and she was struggling. I manged to win 4-2. She was very nice and she waved at me when we ran into each other later on.
The next match was really delayed because the table was being used by another match that took an extra hour (maybe they were delayed, too). We had the option of being reassigned to another table but by the time I found her the match was already hill-hill. We still talked to the people at the desk for reassignment but it was taking so long the hill-hill game probably would have ended before we got the other table. She played very smart, maybe even smarter than the other two, but missed a few times. I won 4-0.
The following day was both singles and doubles. There were many conflicts with our matches being scheduled at the same time so it was a bit frustrating even though we knew it would be worked out.
to be continued.
No comments:
Post a Comment