bank the nine

M1-5 Lounge

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:40:00 +0000

I would say there are three main kinds of pool bars. One is the kind of place that you try to frequent as often as possible, and perhaps might even do so without any desire to play pool. Those are very rare. Second is the kind of place that you hear about, visit once and never return. Those are pretty common, but still important. Then there's a third kind of place, the kind of venue that stays on your radar for a while, a place you might visit three times in four years. Down in Tribeca, at 52 Walker Street between Church and Broadway, is one such place. It's called M1-5 Lounge. I've been there three times. The first time was probably in 2006 or so to check the place out because I had seen it listed as a venue on an APA league schedule. The second time was soon thereafter when some friends of mine in a band were performing there. Then a few weeks ago I was at a nearby bar, Whiskey Tavern, with my friend Richard Khavkine, when we decided to have a nightcap and a game of pool there.

Walking by M1-5, you could easily pass it. From the sidewalk you can't really see inside because there's enclosed foyer/hallway area. The only thing that might give it away is people smoking outside, or the doorman checking IDs. Upon entering the space you quickly see that it is absolutely cavernous. I'm guessing it's in the range of 4,000 square feet, with super high ceilings to boot. During my recent visit, the place was not very busy. We had the pool table all to ourselves for several games but eventually it filled up and we began to get some challenges for the table, via quarters placed along the rail. Two women in their very early 20s wanted to play pool, but didn't want anything to do with playing doubles with two very old dudes. I did what any gentleman would do and gave them the table to let them deal with whose quarters were whose.

I definitely recommend a visit to M1-5 at lease once. The place is pretty dark but it's spacious and the seating around the pool table is very comfortable. I recommend it for a neighborhood pool tour, perhaps including other nearby bars such as Toad Hall and Tribeca Tavern. A nice review of M1-5 by Ethan Wolff's for NYMag can be read here.

Kick out of safety to (fluked) return safety

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:01:00 +0000

This is one of the more difficult shots I've ever attempted to diagram. A lot of it, in terms of ball routes, is improvised. But the gist is that it was an amazing shot to witness, even if it was somewhat of a lucky roll. This is a shot my teammate Adam made a couple weeks ago during our final match of the winter league session. He was on stripes and his opponent had just played a safe off the 3 ball, leaving Adam blind on his 14. My teammate Josh and I were sort of muttering to one another about what we thought he should do. My idea was that Adam should go for the kick but do it softly so as not to break up the 14 and the 8, so that even if he didn't make contact it would be no big deal. Josh was thinking Adam should be more blatant about it and just pick up the cue ball and hand it to the other player. Adam declined a coach and went for it, missing his ball entirely and scratching into the nearby corner pocket. With ball in hand, his opponent played another safety, effectively giving Adam another chance at the same shot he had just taken. So Adam lined up the shot, hitting it fairly firmly as I recall. I can't remember if the 14 was frozen (I don't think it was) but the cue ball double-kissed off of it and then went two rails–again, hard to diagram from memory. The 14 went somewhere in the middle of the table. All I remember is watching the cue ball roll slowly back to rest more or less where the 14 had been a few seconds earlier. But it actually ended up closer to the 8, leaving his opponent in a far more difficult bind than Adam had been in. So with ball in hand Adam ran the table out to put us up two games to nothing. I had played a strong match earlier, defeating my opponent three games straight. Adam's win gave us the momentum to close it out, and we ended up taking the evening 3-2 in the fourth and final match (we only had four players for the whole night). It felt fantastic. Because not only did they have their entire roster present (playing on their home table, I might add) but they were the top-ranked team. We ended up not getting the postseason wildcard but we did end up with a winning season, 8-6.

Doghouse Saloon

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 21:44:00 +0000

I've been sitting on this picture of the pool table at Doghouse Saloon since around mid-October or so. The quick back story for you is that I had walked by a week or so earlier, noticed a new sportsbar-type sign posted outside and a couple construction guys standing by the entrance having a smoke. They were in the process of renovating Annex and transforming it into Doghouse. I asked by chance if there was to be a pool table and they confirmed this.

So several days later I was killing time on a Friday night before going out to a party in Williamsburg. As I recall it was quite early, maybe not even 6:30PM, when I went in. The only people there were a couple guys playing beer bong on the ground floor. I was happy to discover the pool table was in an upstairs game room area. I quickly grabbed a beer and played a solo game and that was that. The table was in excellent shape, although it cost two dollars per game to play on it. The space immediately reminded me of a double-wide, frattier version of The Skinny just up the street on Orchard. By the way, Doghouse is at 152 Orchard, a few doors above Rivington Street. Combined with Sixth Ward and Lucky Jack's, I'd definitely say this pretty much cements Orchard Street's status as the most pool-friendly street on the Lower East Side. For a more in-depth breakdown of the Annex-Doghouse transition, check out the excellent neighborhood blog Bowery Boogie. (Note: the image above is an assembled panoramic from two separate photographs)

Kick out of safety to 8-ball bankshot

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:59:00 +0000

I have to hand it to my opponent, Jay Transue, who made this amazing shot last night during our match at O'Hanlons Bar. Neither of us had our own cue, nor teammates, so we were sharing a house cue and marking our own innings. It was a race to three games and I think at this point we were tied one apiece. I was on the 8 ball and could have banked it cross side, but I decided to play a safety instead. So I hit into the 8 softly and had it come off the rail and stop perfectly between the 7 and the cue ball, leaving him no access to his 7 ball. So as I'm taking a sip from my beer thinking I've Got This In The Bag, he's looking over the kick shot. I thought he'd have little difficulty making contact with the 7, so I wasn't quite preparing for ball in hand. But not only did he make contact with the 7, he drilled it into the far corner. The cue ball rolled downtable and stopped across from the 8. My diagram might be off, I think the 8 might've been closer to the rail, but no matter because he made that shot, too. In the next game I had an early 8, losing the match 3-1. He bought me a consolation shot and I toasted something to the effect of "I'll lose like that any day of the week." Nice game, Jay.

40C is now Batista

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:39:00 +0000

Several weeks ago I noticed that a new venue had been added to our fall session APA roster. The name of the bar, Batista, was unfamiliar, but the address, 40 Avenue C (at 3rd Street), definitely rang a bell. That's because the bar located at 40 Avenue C used to be called 40C and had since been renovated and renamed Batista (you can click here to read my brief review of 40C, from nearly three years ago). I'm a few months behind in reporting this, and many thanks to EV Grieve for the information. According to a photo posted on EV Grieve, of a note posted to the front door, here's what the situation at 40 Avenue C was as of August 14, 2009:

"Thank you for coming to 40C....

You may notice some changes over the next few weeks: we are busy transforming 40C into our new vision, "Batista." This new space will become an L.E.S interpretation of a 1950s Havana Cafe & Bar. Batista will retain all of the energy that 40C had, but with a new look, some food and lighter atmosphere.

So there you have it. I learned that the Monday team now playing at Batista is a recently relocated team, from ten or so blocks up Loisaida Avenue, where they used to play at Musical Box. I'm not so sure about the intended "1950s Havana" vibe at Batista, but the atmosphere is definitely lighter now than when it was 40C. Actually, the very first place I was reminded of walking into Batista was Whiskey Ward. The two bars share nearly identical layouts: bar on the right, seating all along the left, high ceilings, exposed brick walls, DJ area and restrooms in the back near the pool table.

Artifacts

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:12:00 +0000

My teammate Jules just sent me these two images of Sophie's, circa 2000 or so. That's her lining up a shot in the bottom picture, and a former teammate of mine, Dave, is shooting up top. I love the couple making out. Other than the cigarette smoke wafting through the air, a new light above the table and perhaps the addition of a few more stickers, not a thing has changed. Enjoy.

Brady's, Upper East Side

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:45:00 +0000

It's been quite a while since I've gone out of my way to check out a bar specifically for its pool table. Brady's on the Upper East Side of Manhattan is one such place I'd been meaning to check out for some time. A few weeks ago I had my chance when I was in the area to check out the Robert Frank exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Walking from the 6 train east toward the Met, the idea popped into my head to do a search on my Blackberry to see if Brady's was nearby. Since the Met is at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, it was definitely a "cha-ching" moment when I learned that Brady's is also on 82nd, at Second Avenue. By whatever stroke of fate you want to call it, the UN had taken over the museum for a private event that night and so I did a 180 and went straight to Brady's.

The only thing I knew about Brady's going in is that it's where the Manhattan APA wildcard picks are made. Knowing it was a league-friendly bar, I had somehow put it in my head that Brady's would have at least two pool tables there. Alas, there was only one, but I was impressed to see a couple was playing on it, as it wasn't even 4:30 PM. I overheard them talking about pool and one glance at their game was enough to tell me that they were playing league rules. On a bulletin board nearby there was a poster announcing the National Amateur Pool League (more on this topic some other time). Eventually I went up and asked if I could play the winner, not wasting any time in mentioning that I, too, was a league player. Some polite chit-chat and a few innings later I had won a decidedly lazy game, somehow leaving my opponent with three balls on the table. I let the couple have the table back. I wasn't there to put together a string of wins, I just wanted to get in a quick game and shoot some photos.

I was told Brady's is host to six teams. For this reason, I wouldn't mind going back some Friday night when there's a list to get on the table, just to get more of a feel for the "pool" of players who play there. In terms of the layout of the bar, and number of league teams, it's almost identical to Barfly (sans food and "pole"–curiously, Brady's bills itself as a "no short stick needed" pool bar). Overall, I found Brady's to be a pretty chill place. It had a bit of a time-worn vibe about it, a down-to-Earthness. I'm not surprised to discover, via Brady's website, that a bar has been at this same corner for over 100 years, and that it's been called Brady's for nearly half of that time. I don't really feel at home on the Upper East Side but Brady's is the kind of place I would probably gravitate towards if I lived up there. Beer prices were a little odd, I think I paid $4.50 for a Stella and then $3.25 for a Bud Light (both pints). Regardless, I need up my efforts and check out more Upper East Side bars. Hopefully, there are still more than a handful left that are similar to Brady's. (Editor's note: image above is an assembled panoramic)

Consecutive S-8s

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:41:00 +0000

Talk about a fluky ending to an otherwise well-played match, I had two S-8s in a row on Monday night. I was playing a SL4 so I needed four wins and my opponent needed three. I got ahead two games, then my opponent won the third. I won the fourth game to put myself on the hill, then I blew it two games in a row when going for the 8 ball. In the first one (above), my opponent totally got lucky with this leave. I think he was going for some bank shot and when the balls stopped rolling he had inadvertently gotten a near-safety out of the leave. I should have shot this much more softly than I did. But the gap between the rail and the 15 was pretty narrow and I worried about the ball straying off line if hit too softly. So I rammed it and the cue ball went straight in after the 8. Since I was so close to the head rail I had to hit center-high on the cue ball, plus I think having to hit it rail first, a little left spin was imparted onto the cue ball and it just got sucked into the pocket. In the final game I totally take credit for this horrible cut angle. I had a pretty easy runout but I hit one ball too hard and was left with this severe angle. The 8 ball didn't even go in the pocket. Just awful. So combined with my loss from last week I'm already at 0-2 for the season.

Historic Pool Footage

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:29:00 +0000

I have to give another long-overdue shout out to R. A. "Jake" Dyer, who's been digging up some excellent material over on his blog, Untold Stories: Billiards History. His most recent post is a must-see. It's of Jim McKay from ABC's Wide World of Sports paying a visit to Johnston City, Illinois, home of the storied Jansco Brothers pool hustler tournaments of the 1960s. Just watch it. McKay talks briefly about the history of the region, known as Little Egypt, and in particular a local legend about a gang war that took place in the 1920s. Fascinating stuff. But the real gem is Luther Lassiter's amazing two-ball runout in a game of one-pocket at the end. Priceless.

Saftey to clinch 6-2 season record, a personal best

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:01:00 +0000

This is a safety shot I made this past Monday night at Duke's. I was playing in the second match of the night, against a SL3, and was really under pressure to come through with a win because we were only going to have three players total (lots of people out of town). Peter, our SL7, had played first, winning his match six games straight vs a SL3. I won my lag, but as I recall after the break it was one of each down with no real shot on anything. I flubbed a difficult combination, handing an open table over to my opponent. Long story short, I lost the first game with four balls left on the table. Infuriated, I racked the balls and buckled down for the long, hard slog ahead of me (my opponent was on the hill, one win away, whereas I needed four wins). The second game was a little more even, my opponent was on the 8 ball and I still had two solids, but I played a safety and forced her to go for a difficult bank. She ended up making it into the wrong pocket, an S8 tying the match 1-1. At the end of the third game she whiffed on a shot, giving me ball in hand and an easy runout to make it 2-1. I don't remember how I won the fourth game, only that she was on the 8 at one point in it, a fairly easy cut shot but with an awkward reach over the table. She lined up for the shot, then had to back away from the table for a second to recompose herself, nervously fanning herself. She missed it and I ran out to make it 3-1, hill-hill. As I broke to start off the final game, I overheard behind me one of her teammates, who had lost to Peter and was now leaving the bar, say to my opponent (aloud), "Kick his ass." I kind of looked over at my team with a kind of "Was I supposed to hear that?" expression. Needless to say, it fired me up a bit. And so with one stripe left on the table, the 9 ball, I was forced with a dilemma (now you can go to the diagram above). As you can see, from C1, I could have cut the 9 ball into the upper left corner pocket. But that's not my kind of shot. If I was closer to it, then maybe I would have gone for it. But if I had missed she would have likely run out. Since the 8 ball was blocking the opposite corner, I knew that if I could pull off what I like to call a "trading places" safety with my 9 ball–hiding the cue ball behind it and blocking her view of her 7 ball–this would force her to go for that dangerous 5 ball. So I hit the cue ball with some follow and watched as the 9 ball rolled back downtable, perfectly eclipsing the 7 ball from where the cue ball came off the head rail. She looked it over and went for the full-table bank on the 5: a difficult inside angle with a potential double kiss of the cue ball off the side. And she almost made it, missing by only a few inches. So it was a bit of a gamble but it paid off big time, with a cinch of a runout for me. Once I made my 9 ball in the side pocket I heard her mutter to herself "C'est la vie" as I lined up for the easy 8. I wasn't the least bit upset that we lost our third and final match. Sure, it would have been cool to say "We won 3-2 with only three players present." But in the end, for all we brought to the table, we outscored them 11 games to 4. Barring any draw as a Wild Card in the playoffs, we resume league play September 21.

Running out the Season

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:32:00 +0000

Just a quick update for the ol' blog, sorry for my lack in posting. The summer session is wrapping up, we've got two more weeks to go. As a team we've kinda hit a rut. We're 4-7 with five of those losses being our last five matches. In other occurrences of the number 5, I got bumped up to a SL5 for the 5th time. And I've had a pretty decent season at 5 wins and 2 losses (this means that I'm guaranteed a winning record even if I lose my last two matches–I'm the only player on the team for whom this is true). Only real low point of the season for me was this week. I was psyched about being a SL5 again, and I wanted to play somebody I was pretty sure I could beat, such as a weak/beginner SL3. But at 7:15 I was the only player on my team present so I absolutely had to play. And it was the opposing team's captain, a former SL6, who went up against me. So I was definitely grumpy about that, shooting and having to mark my own innings, no encouragement, etc. Then it seemed that everybody on my team showed up at once, and it just spiraled downward from there. Oh well, that's being a captain for you. Two more weeks and then we'll get a nice chance to rest up before things pick back up in the fall, which is my favorite time to play pool. These might be the last days of the "Sophie's Crapshot" team-naming mishap, and I'm pretty excited about the new name we've conjured up. Stay tuned. (Above is Peter Leung, our resident SL7, playing at Parkside Lounge on the first match of the season, June 1st. We won the match 4-1)

Charlottesville, VA

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:22:00 +0000

I can't think of any other time I've visited an unfamiliar town for such a short amount of time and seen so many pool tables. Charlottesville, Virginia is one of those places. In just one weekend I was there last month I stumbled across three places with tables. Unfortunately, I wasn't in town to play pool. I was there for the LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph. On the first night of the festival I went to a party at a bar called Rapture (pictured above). Rapture, situated on downtown Charlottesville's pedestrian mall, has full-size tables both on street level as well as on an upstairs level. While I was waiting for some friends to arrive I got in a quick game with two ladies who were playing one another. The next night I ate dinner at a place called West Main, and throughout my meal I could hear people playing pool downstairs. The last night I was in town I met up with my pal Howard Arnn, who was a great teammate of mine at Sophie's last fall and has since relocated to C-ville. We met up at another great bar on the downtown pedestrian mall called Miller's. I was asking him about both places and as it turns Miller's also has pool tables (a pool hall on the third floor). Next time I go back I will definitely venture upstairs at Miller's. From my online searches I've also discovered a place called Orbit Billiards and Cafe that sounds promising. Finally, there is a place on the University of Virginia campus called Newcomb Hall Game Room with pool tables, but unfortunately you have to have a University ID to play, which is a shame because it's only five cents per minute to play (two cents per minute on Thursdays). Click here for more information on the scene in Charlottesville.

Trading Safeties

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:16:00 +0000

Here is a shot I made last Monday night during my match against a SL3. Without going into the details, my opponent had won the first game on an unintentional safety that resulted in him getting ball-in-hand on a pocket-hanging 8 ball. This put him one win away from the match, so I had to play the next two games extremely carefully. Before I knew it we had passed the one-hour mark. This is a shot I played in the final game, a kiss off the 8 ball to have it come off the rail and block my opponent's 15, leaving the cue ball as far away as possible. I was pretty happy with it and regretted that most of my team was out smoking when I made it. My opponent could actually see a little bit of his 15, but he slammed into the cue ball and ended up scratching, leaving me with ball-in-hand on the pocket-hanging 8. We took the evening 4 games to 1 and are headed home to Sophie's tomorrow night.

X Marks The Spot: My Summer '09 Pool Route

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:11:00 +0000

Last night I went and picked up the Summer 2009 schedule for my APA division. The first thing I noticed is that it's a jam-packed division: 14 teams (the last session only had 8 or so). With only 13 weeks of play, that's a lot of criss-crossing the East Village. So just for fun I made this map to visualize all the venues in relation to one another. The big black X in the middle of this map is Sophie's, by far the most centrally located venue, and home court for my beloved team, Sophie's Crapshot. (Note: Originally it was supposed to be Sophie's Crapshoot, a reference to the inconsistent depth of our roster from week to week. But I've actually grown fond of the typo'd Crapshot because it fits in with bank shot, kick shot, etc. At the end of last season we tried to get it changed Mötley Cüe but I our request was ignored). Red arrows pointing away from Sophie's indicate away matches; green arrows pointing to Sophie's indicate home matches. Blue Xs indicate venues where we do not play. We start this session off at a place where I've never played a league match before: Parkside Lounge. And of course all the old regulars are present: Edge Bar, Ace Bar, O'Hanlon's, Identity and Whiskey Ward. But venue variety is the spice of life when it comes to playing pool, especially toward the end of any given session, and so I'm most excited about all the venues added back to our division: Josie Woods, Musical Box, Sixth Ward, Duke's and Mona's. I think for Sophie's our biggest rivalry is going to be Mona's. I say this because Sophie's and Mona's are "sister bars" owned by the same person with a lot of bartenders working at both places (two of which actually play for one of Mona's teams). Unfortunately we don't get to trade home/away games with them, both will be played at Mona's.

I never got around to writing an end-of-session post. But we ended up with an 8-7 record and I'm pleased with that. I've enjoyed the past few weeks off but I'm ready to dive into the summer session. Good luck, everybody.

Hook & Ladder II

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:15:00 +0000

Over the past several years I've taken countless trips up and down Water Street via the M15 bus. As those of you non-New Yorkers might assume, Water Street pretty much hugs the waterline of Manhattan on its southeastern-most edge and runs right past the heart of the Financial District. Riding the M15 is always a pleasure because it goes underneath both the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, past all the old ships docked at the South Street Seaport, and eventually terminates at the Staten Island Ferry terminal. I was on the M15 a few months ago when out of the corner of my eye I spotted the neon signs in the window of an upstairs bar just off Water Street, at 133 John Street, called Hook & Ladder II. There's a banner sign out front that announces the bar is available for private parties and that it has a pool table. It's been quite a while since I've gone to a bar specifically to check out its pool table, and so a few weeks ago I did just that. The place is pretty small and definitely a no-frills zone. The first thing I noticed after walking up the stairs was the mix-matched red pool table with green rails. That, and the empty beer kegs over to the side pretty much sum up the place. But I certainly wasn't complaining. I ordered a beer and started setting up a rack, content to just hit some balls around by myself. But it was a slow Thursday night and before long the bartender came over and asked if he could play me, and so that was very welcome. We played a few games, chatted a bit, and I was impressed he knew about the APA. He pointed to a man asleep down at the other end of the bar and said something to the effect of, "That big guy over there plays on the league and he practices here all the time. I learned league rules by playing him." So of course I found it somewhat refreshing to find a place where pool is appreciated and talked about. I was expecting Hook & Ladder II to be a big cop or firefighter hangout, but I didn't get that impression. It struck me more as a dock worker kind of bar. From the outside, the building is pretty unassuming. The best reviews I could find for Hook & Ladder II were on Yelp. Apparently, and this is total speculation/assumption, there's a sister bar up in Murray Hill that simply goes by the name Hook & Ladder. I'll have to find out for sure if they're owned by the same people or what. The reviews for that bar have indicated the presence of a pool table, however it is mentioned far less frequently than the beer pong table. Stay tuned.

Safety to Forced Scratch-8

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:34:00 +0000

This is a diagram (approximate, as always) from the final game of my match this past Monday night at Identity Bar. At this point we were down 0-1 after losing the first match. I was playing a SL3, who only had to win two games to take the match; I am now playing as a SL4 and therefore needed three games to win it. In this final game of my match I just wasn't getting very good placement and so I was resorting to safeties until I could get a good pattern. I still had four solids on the table and my opponent was going for the 8. It was my turn and I was considering my options when Peter came over and suggested we talk about a safety off my 6 ball. As you can see from the diagram, it was a pretty effective move to go two rails off the 6 and hide behind the 2 ball. The cool thing about the safety was that if I had hit it too softly there was going to be a strong chance my opponent would scratch in the side pocket (or, top center pocket looking at this diagram) if he had gone for the top left corner. He took a coach and they decided to kick into the 8 ball to go into the top right pocket (I think he had a little more room past the 6 ball into that corner than this diagram shows). But clearly they didn't think about "hitting wide" on the 8 because that was also clearly going to scratch. Admittedly, there's a lot of hindsight going on here. Another thing I should mention about this scenario is that my opponent's coach had his finger held to the rail to indicate where he should hit it. As in, finger on the rail even as the cue ball was hit and was well on its way toward the rail. David Ferrara, who was keeping score, immediately called him out on it but as the cue went off the 8 ball into the side pocket, it quickly became a moot point. Yet while it's never any fun to win when an opponent scratches on the 8 ball, I was definitely lucky to escape with the win to tie things up 1-1. Adam won the next match (also on an S8) to put us ahead 2-1. We lost the fourth match but then Josh came through in the end to win it for us in the rubber. A welcome change of pace from losing the past two weeks in a row. As it stands, we are 7-4 for the season.

Identity

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:04:00 +0000

It's been a while since I've written about a specific bar that has a pool table. And one place that I find somewhat intriguing is an East Village bar known as Identity. It's on 6th and Avenue A, right around the corner from Sophie's. But looking in while walking past Identity, one would never know there is a pool table. That's because it's in the basement. And while you'd think Identity would be my kind of hangout because its pool table is somewhat of a secret, I've actually never been there other than league nights. I'm not sure I could go in on a Saturday night and play because whenever there's a party in the basement the pool table gets moved into a recessed storage space (visible at right in the photo above). What I really like about Identity is that when you play a league match there, that's all there is: two teams, a pool table and nothing else. In a lot of bars, league nights can be somewhat of a hassle due to the crowd that inevitably starts forming later on. But on Monday nights at Identity, we are usually the only people in the entire two floors of the bar. We had a stinging defeat there a few months ago when we played in the playoffs as a wildcard team. Josh won and then I followed suit to put us up 2-0, but then we lost the next three matches in a row to end our season. We ended up benefiting from that night, however, when one of Identity's players, Peter Leung (a SL7), expressed interest in playing on our team. I recruited him and we've had a good season so far. We play at Identity this coming Monday night so it'll be interesting to see how we fare this time around.

Winning Beginning

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:30:00 +0000

Sorry to be dwelling so much on stats, numbers and other pool-related data lately. But we just passed the halfway mark of our league season last night and I'm happy to report that our record stands at 6-2 (there are usually 15 matches per season). I did some digging and went back to summer of 2006, when I first started taking team stats. For the first half of that season we had a dismal 1-7 record. Going forward from there we went 2-6 in the fall of 2006 and then we teetered back and forth between 3-5 and 4-4 for the next several seasons until now, when we've finally mustered the momentum to be well within reach of a 10-5, 11-4, 12-3 or (if we really, really focus) an unfathomable 13-2 season. I'm not going to get ahead of myself, as I'm sure we're in for some tough weeks (just two weeks ago we suffered a humiliating 0-5 breakdown). But I can sense something is different with this team. Not only do we have a full 8 players for the first time in I can't remember how long, but even our newest player has been in the league for over a year. In other words, we're a more mature team. I've brought in two veterans of the league (from outside of Sophie's), one is a SL5 and the other is a SL7. I've brought back a former teammate who took some time off recently. I've come to the conclusion that the success of a team is not based merely on the skill rankings of its players. Indeed, it requires week after week, season after season of watching one another play pool. And taking away something beneficial from a loss as much as gaining confidence from a win. I can tell a few of our players are shedding their need to "be a hero" by going for gutsy runouts and are instead taking simple, effective defensive/safety shots. Players are calling for their own timeouts more often, as opposed to the timeouts being initiated from the bench. That is so refreshing. Normally I am reluctant to talk about winning for fear of being too optimistic or that I'll jinx things. But it's become pretty evident that we're a team entirely capable of riding this wave for a while and fending off the usual self-destruction/burnout that comes with the second half of a season (especially during the spring when it gets nice outside). Knock on wood.

Player stats

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:45:00 +0000

I'm pretty stoked about my new system for keeping track of my team's season stats. This image shows the new system on top, the old on the bottom. My old system was pretty much just all about me: who I played, how the games went, total innings, etc. Whereas my for my teammates, I would just scribble their stats in between rows. For example, if my teammate named John Doe who is a SL5 beat a SL3 with a score of 4-1, it would get written "JD5 W 4-1 vs a 3". This is all fine from week to week, but at the end of the season when I want to figure out how everybody did, it's a total pain going back through all that handwriting, line by line, searching for a given player's initials. I end up having to draw a grid on another sheet of paper and do a lot of extra tallying. So for my new system I started out fresh by giving everybody their own column with 15 boxes, one box for each week. And they're simple to fill in: a W or an L, the score of the match, and the opponent's skill level. It's much less writing and therefore much cleaner. Kudos to anybody who can guess what the X's and dashes are at the bottom of each box.

As for mid-season changes in skill level, I've overlooked including a place to make a note of it. Because the ratio of averages of my players' skill levels vs that of their opponents is significant. It's always been important for me to know that if somebody on my team had a bad season I can go in and see how tough their opponents were, and vice versa. Finally, and just as important, will be the total number of games won/lost vs simple match record. Using myself as an example, my match record is 3-0 this season (batting one thousand), but my total games won/lost record during those matches is 11-4 (733).

Sure, with this new system I sacrifice some detail about how I played each of my matches, such as any early 8s, whether I started out weak but rallied to come back for the win, etc. Anyway, I'd be curious to know if any other captains in the league do this end-of-season, highly detailed player stats report. I've heard of captains making photo copies of the scoresheets, or even using carbon paper. But that's mainly just to safeguard against any potential point-keeping errors made by the APA league operator (very rare). There's got to be somebody out there who brings a laptop each week and enters shot-by-shot data into a spreadsheet. Or am I the biggest pool geek in the city?

The Ghosts of Sophie's Past

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:11:00 +0000

I'm not too sure of the details of this picture, when exactly it was taken or how it was acquired. All I know is that it's a picture taken in the storefront at 507 E. 5th Street, in the space that is now Sophie's. This past Monday evening at Sophie's, Jessica the bartender brought this photo out and several of us were gathered around it speculating as to when it was taken. We figured somewhere between 1890 and 1900, most notably because those appear to electric, and not gas, lamps hanging from the ceiling. Apparently the photograph was discovered by the current landlord of the building, who is related to some people who owned the building a few generations ago. Again, I'm sorry I don't know the specifics (and that this is such a poor copy shot taken with my cellphone). But me being the photography/history buff that I am, this image casts a certain spell over me. Never would I have guessed that this space has changed so little over the course of an entire century. I mean, it looks exactly the same as it does today (see below for comparison). The bar is in the same location and places to sit are on the right side as you walk in. Of course there isn't a pool table anywhere in this photo, and the windows in the back haven't been boarded up yet. But I just love the guy seated in the front all the way to the right and how he's holding his playing cards. It's definitely got a bit of a Jacob Riis "Bandits' Roost" feel, straight out of the pages of Luc Sante's "Low Life."

A Night of Pool at Sophie's, Part III

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:11:00 +0000

Long-time readers of this blog might remember my first two forays into motion pictures, my experimentation with the Pure Digital Technologies "Flip" camcorder that resulted in A Night of Pool and Another Night of Pool. Shortly after I made those movies I ditched that camera (as well as iMovie and YouTube). Since then I've become much more enthusiastic about time lapse photography and other DSLR-created movies. This video you are about to watch is black and white still-photograph animation mixed with straightforward time lapse sequences. I've been doing a ton of time lapse lately (hardly any of it pool related) and this month I added a Meade motorized telescope mount to my arsenal. What this mount has allowed me to do is incorporate a slow (glacial, if I choose), planning sweep into my time lapses. But it's hard to set up at a place like Sophie's, I'm limited to whichever out-of-the-way spot I can find to clamp it down. Still, while these are early experiments and I feel that I have a lot of room to improve, I'm excited about the possibilities.

Sophie's Photo Roundup, Part Six

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:55:00 +0000

Sorry for my lapse in posting. Not much to report in the pool world. We just finished our season last night, as a wildcard draw against the first-ranked team in the league. We got two games up but couldn't hold on for the win. So it goes. It's been about 10 months since I last did a photo roundup, so I am definitely long overdue. Enjoy.
Above is a picture of Jeff, who is easily one of the best players never to have played on a Sophie's team. I've tried recruiting him but he's not interested.
This is Josh from a few months ago when we met up for some three-cushion billiards at Space Billiards in Koreatown. This is something that we need to do more often. Josh has become one of the most dependable players I've ever had the honor of playing with. Dependable because he's there every week and also because he's got the chops for when it counts most. He just came off an 11-3 season.
Slima, from a few weeks ago.
This is one of our new players, Howard. I've been very happy to have Howard on our team. Definitely one of the most easy-going people ever, he's got a real genuine southern-Virginia personality. I'm hoping he's able to stick around for at least a few more seasons. This was taken at Whiskey Ward.
My old teammate Freddy from last spring, taken very late one evening. Freddy has a house down in Puerto Rico and is constantly telling me I should come visit. I know he plays quite a bit of pool down there...but at Sophie's, not so much anymore.
Chris and Grace from Sophie's with Julie, our division rep. I have no idea when this was taken, looks like a summer picture.
Caveman, who I haven't seen in quite a while. Still shoots a pretty good game of pool.
My current teammate Freddy from Colombia, left, who has been at Sophie's for quite some time, and Abdi, who is in his second season with us.
Finally, a duo of Englishmen with an Irish guy in the middle. These guys were batting me around like a pinball several weeks ago. Three great players with wonderful personalities to boot. From left it's Jason, Conor and Dave.

New View

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 22:07:00 +0000

For Christmas, my sister-in-law got me a small spotting telescope and it's sweet. Where I usually live, the view outside my window is relatively mundane. So it's a good thing we are house-sitting this week for some friends who happen to live across the street from Soho Billiards. I was practicing focusing the scope last night and discovered that pool balls are excellent targets for this. Once I found a good angle, I tried taking a few pictures through the scope using the camera on my Blackberry. I was surprised it even came close to registering. The results with and without the scope are above. Definitely due for a visit to Soho Billiards this week, maybe I'll try a timelapse there. Happy Holidays to you all.

3D Pool: High Roller

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 17:32:00 +0000

In July, Yvonne and I got ourselves some BlackBerry 8130 phones. She had been on a month-to-month plan using a phone she hated, and my plan was charging me 20 cents per text over my 100-per-month limit. So we signed up for a new joint plan, charged up our new Blackberries and haven't looked back since. In addition to having all my emails forwarded to my phone (a luxury I can't imagine ever living without again), I've spruced up my device by adding a 4GB media card, switching to an iBerry theme and downloading a couple useful applications. TwitterBerry is my current favorite, but before that it was a pool game called 3D Pool: High Roller. The game features a couple different modes of playing to choose from, Career or Practice. Career is the one that allows you to play other people and unlock the rest of the game. In Career you start out in Monaco, then go to New Orleans and finally end up in Las Vegas. Throughout the Career mode, the opponents get harder and harder to beat as you advance. Same is true with the trick shots, which include jumping, swerving, making two balls in one shot, etc. Now that I have beaten every level and unlocked the entire game, I seem to have more options when I start up. So in addition to Career and Practice, I now get to choose Trick Shots (which is a collection of all 15 trick shots that are featured on all the levels of the game) and just simple Shoot Pool. This final choice is my favorite because it allows you to choose between one and two player, so you could theoretically play a friend sitting next to you at the bar. It also lets you choose the type of pool game (15 balls numbered, 15 balls red and yellow, or just 9 ball). And finally, it allows you to scroll through various shapes of pool table, from hexagon (as seen in the screen shot above), to L-shaped, to Z-shaped, etc. From what I can tell, the new version of 3D Pool: High Roller (updated October 21, 2008) features animated characters that you play against, as opposed to a still photograph of some model holding a pool cue. In my version of the game, I'd always be straight-in on an easy shot on the 8 ball when my opponent's picture would appear and I'd be taunted and challenged to go for a totally different pocket (of the opponent's choosing) for extra cash. I never once made any of these challenges to earn extra money, but by the time I played my last match in Las Vegas I had still amassed over $1 million. 3D Pool: High Roller is certainly a nice way to spend a long subway ride. And it's a game that's fun to put away and come back to, especially when it comes to trying to make a few of the more difficult trick shots.

Damn Right Your Dad Drank It

noreply@blogger.com (Cary) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 23:27:00 +0000

I was flipping through an old issue of Rolling Stone today and this ad for Canadian Club Whisky jumped out at me. The headline reads "Your Dad Never Used a Bridge." The text of the ad goes on: "He didn't wheel his luggage. Drive an automatic. Or drink anything rimmed with sugar. He drank whisky cocktails. Made with Canadian Club. In a rocks glass. And if there was a cue around, he didn't have to pay for them." Well, then. I can see where they're going with the demographic they're trying to reach. I looked up the Canadian Club Whisky website and was impressed to find a kind of do-it-yourself advertisement maker that allows you to upload your own photos. However, it only allows you to pick from one of three template ads. And beyond uploading the main photo, it doesn't allow you to customize it too much. But it's still pretty cool. I tore the page out of Rolling Stone and will put it in one of the books in my small billiards library. This ad makes me think of the brilliant Errol Morris Miller High Life ads. Click here to view one of my favorites.