Sang Billiards

I am happy to report that I've discovered a really cool billiards room called Sang Billiards. I saw it listed in the yellow pages and decided to go in for a look. The outside looked sort of sketchy, just a cinderblock building. But when I walked in and saw only billiard tables I was stoked. There's a small restaurant up front and the tables are in the back. It's a very stark place, but I was happy to practice somewhere other than Billiards Sports Plaza. The tables looked smaller, I have a feeling they were converted from regular pool tables. And the cloth played very slow. It was very fuzzy and not rock solid smooth like I'm used to. I took a lot more shots this time around because the balls came to a stop much quicker. In the end, I scored 15 points, including two early on that were back to back. At one point later in my session I racked up three or four points in about two minutes.

I'm thinking this will be my last post from Kansas. Last night I destroyed five opponents six games in a row in three different bars. I started out at a place that's only been open a week, called Alibi Room. I don't have any pictures to show the space, but it's huge. There was free pool all night, but nobody was lining up to play. I played one guy twice, beating him fairly easily. I'll have to come back to Alibi Room once the word's gotten out a bit more. It's next door to Kelly's Irish Pub, which is right next to the Wichita Eagle. I walked into Kelly's and saw two much more skilled players battling one another, intentionally avoiding straight-in shots on the eight and going two and three rails instead. The winner of that game, a guy named Joey, called and made a three-rail shot. When it was my turn to play I asked "So you guys playing two rails on the eight?" He said, "Well, we were." I said "That's cool, we can do that. Actually, how about let's just say you gotta go at least one rail." He agreed. Before breaking he warned me that the cloth was playing "like shag carpet." He broke and ran about 4 balls then it was my turn. I was concentrating on my stop shots, which I think were made a little easier with the sluggish cloth. Long story short, I won on a cross corner bank that almost double kissed, but didn't. He loudly went back to his chair apologizing for "not really being there" during the game.

Finally it was over the world's worst-named bar, "Emerson Biggins." Last time I was there was five years ago, during my ten-year high school reunion. Emerson has six tables: four coin-ops and two per-hour tables. Two hispanic guys were playing last pocket, and I beat the first guy I played. Then a sketchy looking guy named Smoky put his quarters in, only wanting to play regular eight ball, any pocket. He was fairly drunk I think. Still, I made an impressive full-table bank for that win. Then a man named Scott came over. He had watched me win the first game of last pocket. He appeared to be friends with Smoky. We played and I won that game on yet another cross corner bank, with my cue ball rattling in and out of the jaws of the side pocket. Even though I got a little lucky, I got a compliment from another player on the next table over. But I decided three consecutive wins against three different players on one table is a good note to end on, so I left quietly.