Tucson APA 8-Ball City Tournament!

NEW UPDATE!

You may recall back in April I blogged about a bunch of the sports I was currently competing in.  While IBM basketball league didn't fair so well and I failed to make the finals for just the 2nd time in 8 years, today I am here to write to you about the upcoming city tournament for my pool league!

Back in April, my Tuesday night 8-ball team (nicknamed "The Dollar Menu") was fighting for 1st place overall and it came down pretty much to the last night, but we were victorious and we won the session as well as a bid into the Tri-Cup tournament.  That tournament actually occurred over Memorial Day Weekend while I was in New Orleans, but fortunately my team did well enough without me to qualify for the City Tournament, where the winners will have a chance to play in Vegas!

Below you will find the bracket.  I'm really excited to play in something like this, although it could encompass the entire weekend, depending on how we do.  Wish us luck!  Who could of thought a bunch of beginner type players could make it this far in just their first year of APA pool league!?

TOURNAMENT RESULTS:

On Friday night, our team played The Outlawz.  I put players up mostly based on how they were feeling that night, but as team captain I'm still very strategic in the order and matchups I want my players to get.  Unfortunately, every player I sent up that night against this team lost, and we found ourselves in the losers bracket coming back Saturday afternoon.

 

Our next match was Saturday at 2:30pm.  As team captain, I'm always an advocate of trying to give every player a chance to play in the tournament, so I put up 2 new players against team South Tucson Deadstrokes (yes, STDs lol).  The two players I sent up lost and our team quickly found ourselves down 0-2, 1 loss away from tournament elimination.  I hadn't played my strongest player Erica yet, and while most captains would probably do so here, I decided at that point that I just wanted a chance to play since I hadn't yet.  I ended up playing a 5 (I'm a 3, but don't forget I was Top-Gun in city last year...if they had a Top Gun for city).  I ended up "Racklessing" the guy 2-0 (that's where they don't get a chance to break a rack).  I was happy that team finally won a match, but the news I heard next would be most surprising.  Apparently the other team had to forfeit the final two matches because their 4th player was already playing in a different match and their 5th was never going to show up to begin with.  So we ended up advancing to the next round!  It was super lucky on my part that we advanced, since had I played Erica instead where she would have to win more games, that 4th player might've been able to play after all.  Nonetheless, we took the win and stayed for our 7pm matchup against Yup!.

 

For the 7pm match I continued to strategize, still trying to pick each matchup to give our team the best chance to win.  Chris ended up winning the first match and there was one player left on our team who had not played all weekend, so I let Vanessa play the 2nd game in a 3-2 race.  She ended up winning as well!  And for the final match I put up Tyler against a 6 (because I wanted to save Erica for later if needed), but Tyler ended up winning as well, so we went 3-0 and advanced to Sunday!

 

After a late night of partying Saturday night, I headed back to Clicks on Sunday around 11 to find that Anthony had lost the first match against team 8 Balls of Fire.  He was pretty exhausted all weekend from having to drive from Vegas just days earlier and wasn't playing well throughout most of the tournament.  I put Erica up next so she could go to work for a few hours and she solidly won her matchup.  The next player was a 3, but I knew she was a Top Gun for her tier in her league, so I put myself up.  It was a good battle but I ended up taking that match and Chris took the next so we won 3-1 and found ourselves in the semifinals!

 

At 2:30pm we found ourselves against The Outlawz once again.  This time I threw new players at them they had not seen before and we started out even at 1-1.  I put Erica up against a 4, but their 4 played very well and was able to steal that match from our team. :( Tyler was up 4th and found himself up against another strong 4 that ended up winning and taking the series 1-3.  I was left on the bench but was saving myself for the possible sudden death match. :/

 

All in all, I was really proud of my team and how far we came, just series away from Vegas in our first year playing pool league.  We're still getting better and I'm sure we'll have more chances in future years if we all stay together.  We're already on our way as we're in 1st place again this session through 5 weeks.  The APA city tournament was a lot of fun and I'm glad I could be a part of it; I love competing!!!

New Orleans - An Amazing City!

Over the Memorial holiday weekend, I went New Orleans with Mike and a bunch of his east coast friends.  Let me tell you about this AMAZING city that I've always wanted to go check out!

Mike and his friends got in on Wednesday, but I elected to leave on Thursday morning because I have IBM Basketball League on Wednesday nights. :) Anyway, I booked a 5am flight out of Tucson that would put me in New Orleans by noon on Thursday.  Running on 5 hours of broken airline sleep, I landed in New Orleans at the same time as two other couples: Steve and Sarah from D.C. and Sam and Steph from New York. (Yes, I joked about them all having names starting with S.)  The five of us caught a cab to town and got Deanie's for lunch since the others had already eaten.  Deanie's had some delicious crawfish boil...I got 2 pounds worth LOL. :)  I enjoyed it so much that I would actually end up getting this on the last day before I flew back home.

After Deanie's, we all met up on Bourbon street, which was within walking distance from our hotel.  Bourbon street is the most popular street in New Orleans for bars and partying.  It's where you get to see drunk girls make fools of themselves and flash their boobies for beads.  And yes, I saw 3 pairs of nice tits on this trip just as I was walking along the street. :P Thursday ended up being pretty crazy.  We kicked off the afternoon with some very strong Hand Grenades (imagine a frozen, lime skittle flavored drink made with Everclear).  We then went to Pat O'Brien's and Mike introduced us to this $120 mega-huge drink that we all shared.  The glass is so large that it requires a $75 deposit as well.  It tasted kind of like sangria, and I hear there were about 40 shots of vodka in it, ha!

The drinks in New Orleans are very strong! And when I say that, it's almost an understatement.  By nighttime, everyone in our group was super wasted and we ended up actually forgetting to eat dinner.  I remember stopping by some pizza shop on the street and eating some delicious Buffalo Wing Pizza.  Around 8pm, my shorts were stained red from the frozen mixed drinks that we had been drinking, and I actually got lost in all the bar-hopping.  There's actually a hilarious sequence of text messages between me and Mike when I got lost.

What I loved the most about this trip were the people and their mentality.  Everyone in our group wanted to have a good time and we all got very drunk to the same level.  We all know that sometimes it gets annoying when your friend is drunk and your sober or vice-versa, but everyone was just wasted every night we were out.  It was my kind of group, one that could actually keep up for a change! :) I mean, New Orleans was the first city where I ever saw a 3-for-1 special.  3-for-1!!!  That blew my mind and I just had to order 6 beers at a time! :P

When we weren't out drinking or eating, we tried to do some other touristy things.  On Friday we took an airboat tour in the bayous surrounding Lake Salvador.  We actually had plans to start the tour at 1pm, but that tour ended up getting rained out.  We were contemplating whether it was worth staying for the 4pm tour, but it totally was!  The first time our guide caught a gator and brought him onto our boat, I was a little nervous, especially since I was in the front row.  But I got a ton of great pictures of the swamps and marshes, and I got to hold the guide's pet alligator.  This tour was well worth the wait and the $75 it costs.

Saturday was more of relaxing day where we tried to check out any parts of New Orleans that we had not had a chance to visit.  This included going down to the French Market, playing so craps at the casino, and drinking on Frenchman Street.  All in all, it was a great trip and I'm really glad I went.  There were 15 of us total and for the most part we tried to stay together and there wasn't a bunch of drama, just a bunch of fun stories. :)  If you ever do get the chance to go to New Orleans, I would highly recommend Deanie's Seafood, Felix's Restaurant, and Willie's Chicken Shack as must-visit food places.  I really wanted to try Acme Oyster House and the beignets at Cafe du Monde, but couldn't because the wait was always so long...it's better to try and go to those places during the week before the weekends get packed with tourists.  I can't wait to go back to New Orleans and I will definitely go back again as it is now one of my favorite cities to visit!

Austin, TX

For Chris's bachelor party, he decided to go to Austin, TX.  He had never been and neither had I, but I had always heard about the great nightlife and that it was definitely a city to check out sometime.  Having traveled there, I definitely confirm that there are just rows of bars in downtown...it's like something I've never seen before.  There's literally one bar next to each other with almost no end in sight, it's kind of amazing that bars can stay competitive like this, but I guess people in Austin just love to drink and party...

I left for Austin on Thursday afternoon and it was a crazy start to my vacation.  My flight out of Tucson was originally scheduled for a 12:10pm departure, but right as I was driving away from my house at 11:00am, I got an e-mail saying the flight was delayed until 1:45pm.  Rather than wait at the airport for an hour and a half, I figured I'd just play some Diablo at home and then get some BK Taco Stand before my flight.  12:00pm rolls around and I get a new e-mail saying that the new departure time is 1:15pm, so I'm like, "okay, I should leave now so I can still grab some food, but I guess I will settle for the other BK."  As I pull into the drive-thru at Burger King and am waiting for my food, I get a new e-mail saying the flight leaves at 12:45 now.  Ruh roh!  So now I have like 25 minutes make it to the airport AND park my car.  As I run into the Southwest check-in stand at 12:40, I ask the lady if I can still make that flight.  She calls the gate and tells me, "probably not, but you should run to the gate and try."  Fortunately there was only 1 other person in the security line (man I love Tucson airport) and as I was running to my gate, I hear on the intercom, "Last call for Andrew Lin, doors closing in 5 seconds."  I make it to the gate and it's already closed, but the attendant opens it and lets me through, lol.  Such a close call and I'm extremely pissed at Southwest for the misleading e-mails!  I guess moral of the story is to not take too many chances and next time just go to the airport bar and drink...

Finally in Austin several hours later 'cause I had a connection in Las Vegas...

On the first night I met up with Chris, Nate, Pete, and other Chris, but that Chris passed out early from too much day drinking, a common theme of this particular bachelor party lol.  We headed out to 6th street that night, spending most of it at Kung Fu Saloon, a pretty chill bar with several video games to play (skeeball too but it was busy).  It was a fairly chill night, but we did stop by Magnolia Cafe on the way home, which I will say has awesome Queso Dip and great food.  I know I might've been drunk, but my tastebuds still function fine even then!

The next day, the rest of the party arrived in Austin including Chris's brother Mike, Lee, Adam, Doug, and Matt.  We started out with some Tex Mex lunch at Iron Cactus on 6th street, which was delicious but expensive in my opinion.  We then made our way over to Bikinis and had several shots and Dos Equis as shown below!

For the most part, Chris's bachelor party was a bunch of drinking at various bars around downtown.  Interestingly enough, Nate, Mike, and I did wander into the Pecan Street Festival on Saturday when we were trying to go back to 6th street.  Being the alcoholic that I am, I decided to get myself a 24oz Coors Light for only $4.  Mike and Nate weren't really day drinking much at that point, so they decided to meet up with Chris and some other guys to check out UT's campus.  I kept on drinking and checked out the festival, not really finding much interesting other than a big fat turkey leg.  Ugh, I ate soooo much this weekend and followed up a 1 lb turkey leg with a 22oz rib-eye steak at the Roaring Fork just a few hours later, lol.

In the end, a solid bachelor party and I think Chris got everything he wanted out of it.  Now it's just the waiting game until his wedding in New Jersey come September!

On Sunday I met up with my friend Mike who used to work at the IBM in Tucson but transferred to the IBM in Austin.  He took me to one of his favorite dive bars called C-Hunts Ice House where there's an ice trough at the bar where you can stash your beer.  Although there is really no reason to ever nurse a beer so long enough that it would go warm... Nonetheless, a novel idea!  I went to IBM Austin on Monday to say hello to a few coworkers and just check out the plant, but I think I definitely enjoy the Tucson site better.

Austin was a pretty cool city to check out, but it wouldn't be on one of my top cities to live in.  Anyhoos, was just great to be on vacation again since it had been a while!  Next stop Apache Lake and then New Orleans! W00T W00T!

Sports Competition Updates!

Shortly after the New Year, I blogged about a bunch of extracurricular sports leagues I was participating in.  Several months later, it's time to give you a much needed update!

IBM Bowling League:
The team was unable to make it back to the championship game, missing the finals for the first time in 5 years. I think part of the problem was 2 bowlers started out with 200-pin averages (Tony and myself) and we were unable to maintain it, which really hurt towards the end of the season.  After about 15 weeks I had a 198 average, but I fell to 191 by the end of week 24.  I feel like I just got mentally and maybe physically fatigued.  I had joined a 9-week summer league for fun beforehand, but when you tack that on to the regular 25-week season, maybe it was just all too much.  191 is still an improvement from 190 last year however, and I will be looking to improve on next season!  Towards the end of the year I even invested in a non-reactive straight ball that I use to throw at 10-pins.  My pickup rate on the 10-pin went from 50% to 80% in the last few weeks, so I'm hoping that I can take my game to the next level next season!

After Hours Gaming League:
The AHGL StarCraft season was going well up until the semifinals when team IBM faced a very strong opponent in Microsoft.  We had the matchups we wanted going into that battle, but 2 players who we were expecting to win didn't, myself included.  Team IBM ended up losing in the semis and unfortunately won't be going back to Santa Monica this year.  There were just so many good teams with good players this year's league that it really could've gone either way.  While disappointing and depressing, it was still a fun season and I met even more great StarCraft players who are also IBMers.  We look forward to getting back at it next season!

It should be noted that Team IBM was 0-3 this season when ATrain lost his game.  That guy needs to step it up next time! >:O

Tucson APA 8-Ball League:
There are a few 8-Ball leagues for APA (American Poolplayers Association) in Tucson, but I play in the Tuesday league at the Fox and Hound.  Our team, nicknamed "The Dollar Menu" features a band of my friends who I recruited to come drink some cheap pints, have some fun, and maybe play some pool.  The pool league is a handicap league where a lower skilled player can actually have a chance of beating a higher skilled player on any given night (although generally the higher skilled players will be winning more often).  The team as a whole must not exceed a certain number of skill level points, which means you can't just stack a team with awesome players.

The funny thing about our team is that we really are a bunch of noobs.  Skill levels range from 2-7 with 2 being the lowest, and to give you an idea, last year we had on our team two 2's, and three 3's (you play 5 players a night and the maximum skill level total cannot exceed 23; so you can see we were playing with 13 points LOL).  We were really bad and got our butts handed to us last season, but this year we've improved a lot, added a couple players, and wouldn't you know it, we're in 1st place going into the last week of the season!  It's really crazy because we are all lower-leveled players, but in a way other teams have been rooting for us to do well...it shows a lot about the handicap system and never before has a team with these skill levels done so well!

Going into the final week of the regular season, my team sits on top at 1st place with a 2-point cushion over the 2nd place team.  We came up huge against that team last week winning 4 out of 5 points and we'd basically have to have a meltdown tonight to lose our grip on 1st place.  The 1st place team of the league will get an automatic bid into the city 8-ball tournament that includes all the leagues from all over the city...and not to mention we win a fat stack of monies as well. :)

But that's not all.  There's an award called "Top Gun" that goes to the player with the most Top Gun points in the league for each skill level tier.  Each time you beat a player, you earn Top Gun points equivalent to their skill level.  I have a 3-point lead in my skill level tier and if I can maintain it in the final week I will win a patch!  But there's still more.  The Top Gun award extends into the city and if you are the highest player in all the leagues in the city, you get a plaque!  My 31 points are tied with another player, so really it all comes down to tonight and whether I can get a solid win against a decently skilled opponent!

Either way, it's been amazing season and I am so happy I joined the pool league here in Tucson.  I've had so much fun and have met so many new and fun people!

IBM Basketball League:
IBM basketball league has begun and we are already 4 weeks into the season!  I took over as co-commissioner this year and helped register our league at the gym we play at (Clements Center), got insurance coverage to cover the gym (since IBM no longer sponsors us; yeah, sucky, we're kind of an independent league now), and got IBMers and their guests to sign up and play!

As the defending champ, my team is built around it's core of 3 players: myself, Ryan, and Cooper.  Ryan is the best player in the league and arguably one of the best in Tucson.  To give you an idea of how good we are, in week 2 we scored a whopping 79 points to the tune of a 79-62 victory where Ryan dropped 40 (thus overshadowing my solid 22 points of production heh). 

But I bear some bad news.  Last week we were 3-0 going into week 4, but 10 minutes into the 2nd half, Ryan's foot got caught on another player's foot and he ended up dislocating his ankle and sustaining a small fracture. :'(  It was the worst case scenario and my star player is pretty much done for the season.  I'm really sad because a talent like Ryan's can't be released and he will surely be missed.  We ended up losing that game unfortunately.  Going into future weeks we have recruited replacements to help fill out our roster and bench, but the road to the repeat will surely be more difficult this year.  Time for me to step up my game!

Upcoming Travel and Fun Stuff!
When I'm not enjoying my leagues, I'll be out and about, still making it happen!  The next 6 weekends will be jam packed for me, but I'm looking forward to all of it.  We have on our way:
1. Birthday parties in Tucson for Matt (4/26) and Wes (4/27).
2. Bachelor Party for Chris and visiting Mike in Austin, TX (5/2 - 5/6).
3. Birthday party in Tucson for Dori (5/11).
4. Wakeboarding at Apache Lake with Matt, Doug, and Jonny (5/16 - 5/18).
5. New Orleans with Mike (5/23 - 5/26).
6. Salt River Tubing with Ann, Dori, and Wes (6/1).
Can't wait for May to roll around!  Gonna be fun!  Thanks for stopping by Andy Andy Blog and see ya next time!