APA Singles Regionals Tournament for 8-Ball:
March 5, Mesa, AZ
Regionals for 8-ball was held in Mesa at the Main Street Billards on Main near Dobson. In order to play in this tournament, you had to win the local qualifier, which for me was in Tucson last year. I entered this tournament as a skill level 4, which I had been for the past couple years in pool league, playing against only other skill level 4s and 12 other players.
This was a single-elimination modified tournament, meaning you were guaranteed to play at least two matches. I was top ranked for my bracket and received a first round bye. I ended up winning my first two matches pretty handily and I got moved up to a skill level 5 after the 3rd round in the winner's bracket. I played my first match ever as a 5 and shut out my opponent 4-0 in 11 innings. I was shooting some of the best pool I have ever.
This set up the finals, where I played a 4 and took the lead 3-1. As a 4, this would've given me the win, but as a 5, I had to win one more game. Despite how well I was playing, my opponent was able to come back and win the next two games and I ended up just a game short of making it to Nationals in Las Vegas. It was still a lot of fun (albeit a very long day) and second place is still not too shabby.
Mike's First Bachelor Party in AZ:
March 11-12, Scottsdale, AZ
I have the honor of serving as Best Man for my friend Mike who will be getting married in late May. His official bachelor party will be in Montreal in early May, but there are a few important friends of his from Arizona that won't be able to fly out for that. Mike was planning to come to Arizona in March anyway for spring training baseball games, so we decided to throw his first bachelor party for him this weekend.
On Friday, Mike, Nate, Chris, Lucky, Head, Andrew and myself traveled to Surprise Stadium for a spring training game between the Royals and the Diamondbacks. It was a very nice stadium, just far to get to from east Scottsdale. Many thanks to Nate for driving.
Later that night, I met up with Matt, Pamela, and her friends at the Arrogant Butcher in downtown Phoenix to celebrate Pamela's birthday. Meanwhile, the guys for Mike's party were getting dinner at Z Tejas in Tempe, where I met them after dinner. We ended up going to the country bar Whiskey Row across the way, and Mike almost got denied entrance to World of Beers for being too drunk, lol.
Saturday was another jam-packed day. We started at Salt River Fields to catch another spring training game. In attendance were Mike, Nate, Chris, Lucky, Head, Kyle, and myself. After the game, most of us went to Top Golf to get a bay where we would play for an hour. Jeff also met up with us at this point. Top Golf was a blur for me and I remember trying to hit 5 golf balls but failing 5 times. The party was already getting pretty drunk at this point.
We got Mike a 3-bay suite at the Talking Stick, basically one of the best suites the hotel has to offer. After showering up and pregaming for a while, Mike, Nate, Chris, Head, Kevin, and I went out to Fogo de Chão for dinner. The Brazalian BBQ was a hit and I was quite pleased (and stuffed!) afterwards.
2016 USBC Open Championships:
March 14-15, Reno, NV
After a successful bachelor party for Mike, I flew out the next day to Reno to participate in the USBC Open Championships. I've been the past three years (last year was in El Paso and the year before was in Tucson) with a couple teams of bowlers from the IBM League in Tucson.
My friend Chapin flew out to be my doubles partner. Chapin was the player known as Zai from the IBM team in AHGL for Starcraft 2. Bowling nationals is always rough and I struggled to break 140 on most games, even though I bowl a 190 average in house leagues. I also got food poisoning after the first night, so my stomach was given me trouble both days I was out there in Reno. Nonetheless, I still had a pretty good time, despite bowling so poorly.
I'm uncertain if I want to bowl next year in Las Vegas, because the lane conditions are just so tough and it's not enjoyable when you're throwing horrible frames and missing tons of pins. We'll see...
APA Southwest Challenge:
March 17-19, Las Vegas, NV
Also like the previous two years, Tyler, Chris, and I have been participating in the Southwest Challenge in Las Vegas. For some reason they always like to schedule the 8-ball tournament on the first weekend of March Madness. This made for a crazy weekend where Thursday was St. Patrick's Day and opening day for March Madness, and Friday was the first day of the tournament.
The 8-ball tournament was a challenge, especially since I had to now play as a 5 after moving up during regionals. We did not win a single match, which was pretty disappointing. Tyler and I also tried playing in the 9-ball tournament but again did not win a single match there, ugh.
With our team eliminated after the first day, we decided to hit up Fremont Street on Saturday for the cheaper casinos. We got lunch at Heart Attack Grill where the food was average, but honestly you are just going for the experience. Perhaps the highlight of this trip was at a $3 craps table at Fremont Casino where we ended up playing for hours, getting tons of drinks, and everyone was winning money. This was by far the most fun I've ever had at a craps table!
It'll be tough for the three of us to go to Southwest Challenge next year with me being a 5 putting us over the handicap limit. That and Chris is moving to Austin this year. Guess we'll see what happens.
2016 Tucson Beer Olympics:
April 15-16, Tucson, AZ
Chris invited me to be his teammate in the Tucson Beer Olympics this year. It's a privately hosted event at one of his friends' houses, but I must say it's one of the best events I've ever seen organized and that I've participated in. Here is a schedule of the events that took place:
We came back strong on Saturday, winning Gold in Straw Chug and the Obstacle Course. We would end up in 4th place overall. I had a ton of fun and am definitely coming back next year. And to give you an idea of how much beer was consumed, 16 of us finished 3 kegs over the 2 days...
Next Up...
May will be another busy month for me. I'll be flying to DC to visit Mike, flying with him to Montreal for his official bachelor party, and then flying back to Colorado Springs for a business convention before I make it back home to Tucson. Later in May is Mike's wedding in Pennsylvania and spending an extra day in Philly.
As busy as I've been lately, I'm hanging in there. There's a lot going on but most of it is for fun at least. 'Til next time!
