ISPA Pool Tournament 2009

My best friend and sweetie, LouieY, is doing what he loves to do best….playing pool. He is at the 14th Annual ISPA State Pool Tournament in the Quad Cities. (Click HERE for the story.) Louie has been playing pool competitively for about 30 years now. He is very serious about the game, and he is also very good at it.

 

The competition started on Wednesday for 9 Ball in the Singles division. I am proud to say that Louie finished in the 17th spot (out of 354 players) and he won $150. I am very proud of him, and he is very pleased at where he ended up.

Thursday at NOON, Louie was scheduled to play his first match in the Singles 8 Ball competition. He didn’t win his first game, but he was still in the competition. His second match was scheduled for MIDNIGHT—12pm—11 1/2 hours later. Yes, you read that right. Midnight. His car was in the ramp, and if you take your car out of the ramp before 11:45pm, it costs you $7.50.  You could take your car out of the ramp several times in that time frame, so what did he do? He waited. He watched other pool players, he found a soft comfy couch in another area of the River Center, and he took a few cat naps. (Had I not worked 10 hours yesterday, and had I not had a million things to do last night to get ready for the activities today, I could have driven down, picked him up, and spent some time with him.)  My sister took pity on him about 10pm and picked him up and they went out for supper. By the time he got back to play his second match at MIDNIGHT, he really didn’t care anymore. He was tired, and he was tired of waiting. He lost his second match, and he didn’t care anymore. He did take an opportunity to tell the tournament director what he thought of his match scheduling, which went on deaf ears. I don’t know how they think people can play well when they are weary, but life goes on. 

This morning(Friday), he came home for the day. I was scheduled for a dentist appointment, and he was scheduled to have his pool table recovered. The whole pool recovery project started out as a surprise, to be done while he was away for the weekend, but a few details spoiled that gesture. All worked out for the best though. The pool table recoverers got here about 12:30pm, and finished about 4pm.

Here is Louie’s newly recovered pool table (I mean, quilter’s cutting/work table!) Louie was a very happy guy when the table was finished and he headed back to the tournament to watch the professional pool players exhibition this evening. If he could find a partner, he could also be playing in a Scotch Doubles tournament tonight. Team tournaments start at 9am Saturday morning. Matches are scheduled every 1 1/2 hours so hopefully things will move a little faster for him.

Here are a couple pictures taken of Louie at the same River Center, and same name tournament two years ago. There are professional photographers who wander around, take pictures, then sell them to you. I think he’s pretty handsome, and I’m glad he bought them for me!

Thanks for the stopping by for a visit!

Be blessed,

MichelleY