A New High Run in Straight Pool!

Well, my attempt to go a day without pool failed. After work yesterday I got a call from a guy who was interested in buying an old cue case of mine, so I headed over to California Billiards to meet him. He was running late, so I grabbed some balls and warmed up for about 20 minutes. Wanting a little more structure, and to put some pressure on myself, I decided to play some straight pool. On my first attempt, I shot a two. Yes, a two. I swept the table clear, reracked, took a deep breath, and started again. This time, I forced myself to completely plan and think through each shot before getting into my shooting stance. Angle. Speed. Minimal spin. Minimal cue ball movement. Keep it simple. I was pretty relaxed through the first rack, then got down to the dreaded last couple of balls and made perfect position for the break shot. Crack! Rack number two opened up and spread well. I immediately identified the perfect break ball for the next rack and was excited. I was a little nervous as I maneuvered through the second rack, but I was able to get perfect position for the next break shot. Whack! The third rack opened up, and I was ecstatic! I had 30 balls down, the balls had spread wide open, and I was only two away from tying my personal best! I told myself, “Don’t over think it…keep it simple.” I made the next two balls and was nervous as hell. To break my personal best record, I had to make a sharp cut to the side pocket. I lined up the shot, focused on the aiming point, and pulled the trigger. The object ball rolled slowly toward the pocket, hit the tip of the leading edge cushion (a very bad sign!), ricocheted and hit the tip of the trailing cushion, wobbled, then dropped into the pocket! Wheeewwww! A miracle! I could continue the run! From that point on, every shot was excruciating. My routine was always the same. Planning at least three balls ahead. Carefully determining the proper aiming point. Fundamentals! Fundamentals! I was able to clear the table and setup another pretty good break shot. Whack! It was an okay collision into the fourth rack, but several balls stayed glued together in the middle of the pack. I knew this rack was going to be trouble. I needed to find a way to break open the middle of the pack. I identified a good candidate ball, sank four balls around the perimeter, then got okay position on the fifth ball to allow a secondary break shot attempt. I hit the fifth ball hard and it flew into the corner pocket. The cue ball rocketed into the middle of the pack…and died. All of its energy had been absorbed by the pack. The cue ball was snuggled up against three object balls…I was almost completely locked up. My only possible shot was a very low percentage carom shot to the side pocket, which I missed. The final count: 50! A new personal best!