Music City

So I am officially home from the Bat Cave err.....J.O.B Billiard Club in Nashville. For those of you that haven't been there it is located at 960 Gallatin Ave., Nashville, TN. I would have to say it is one of those pool rooms that you have to visit just to say you were there once in your life. I believe they said the Music City Open has been going on for 22 years.

The only way to describe the style of this pool room is the Bat Cave. There are three seperate rooms, all equally crammed with tables and pool memorabilia. You go down a few stairs to get into the first room and walk into a smoke screen. There are about 10 bar tables and the main action 9ft table has it's own pit. To the left you have another room with 10 or so more bar tables and a set of bleachers. Those bleachers are pretty historic. They have seen 21 champions crowned. This year was a bit different, the lower room of the building which previously had all 9ft tables was converted to a bar table tournament/league room. Another set of bleachers (which were full for most of the weekend) line the wall.

Okay, I know...on to the actual tournament. Thursday night the men's event started. Race to 11, bar box 9-ball. There were 113 men entered. Some of the top names and past winners were Johnny Archer, Jonathan Pinegar (aka Hennessey), Shane Van Boening, Gabe Owen, and the list goes on. All of the usual suspects were hanging around late in the tournament. At about 11pm Sunday night Jonathon Pinegar defeated Chad Vilmont 11-8. I know....such great updates. It was so packed in the place I couldn't get a seat...I only got score updates every so often.

Another thing I missed out on was some of the late night action. Hennessey and Van Boening played a 10 ahead set of even 10-ball on the bar box. From what I heard, they quit even at about 9 am. I have no clue if they were going to continue at a later time or not. Maybe we will see a rematch in Louisville.

Alright....on to the good stuff. In case everyone didn't know, I came into this weekend as the defending champion. What everyone else might not know is that Karen Corr relocated recently to Nashville, TN and is the house pro at JOB's. Twenty-five women entered the tournament, mostly local ladies. I was feeling pretty good considering Karen said she had never played on a bar table before and she was really confused. So three rounds in we met up....

In my head I was thinking "well, maybe I'm the favorite, she hasn't been doing this bar table stuff long." Well, thats what I get for thinking! We both played alright but in the end it came down to me playing two bad safeties. I lost 7-5. There went my plans for making my way back to the mall. Instead I got to play about 5 extra matches.

After playing Karen I mosied my way on through the losers bracket and sure enough, there we were....a rematch. I felt pretty good even though the table was totally different than the others in the room. I started out pretty strong and got ahead 5-3. The only downside was that I gave away two of the 5 games....it was only a race to 7...oops. Then from there I started making some stupid mistakes and not making a ball on the break (and leaving the table wide open, of course). I got a bit lucky, Karen missed the 4-ball when she was up 6-5. I took my break, composed myself, and came back to run out. Now, 6-6...in my head all I was asking for was to make a ball on the break and get a shot. So the power of positive thinking works but I guess you have to be careful what you wish for. I made a ball, got my shot and a wide open table. Of course I was running out just fine and then just happened to hook myself on the 6-ball. I went for the gusto and missed...leaving her out. So, second place instead of first....I guess I will have to live with it!

<----So here I am, accepting my 2nd place trophy!! Haha..just kidding. Everyone knows I can't keep my eyes open for a picture and I saw this at the Chinese buffet and it totally reminded me of myself!

All in all it was a fun trip. Even though I'm not happy with how I played or the fact that I didn't win, I had fun and I guess that is all that matters. I also decided to finally go out and see some stuff. I went to the Grand Ole Opry...I had to say I was there one time in my life, visited the little aquarium in the mall and saw the Gibson guitar shop.

Geez...enough rambling already!!! Until next time everyone...