Ine Helvik

Yesterday we played the weekly tournament at in my local club and even though I did not do to well I would like to explain how this works and why it is good practice.

We play 9-ball race to five and the handicap is A+, A, B, C, D, E. I am A+ and if I meet a B player we will start on 2-0 to the B player. A+ is our top players and E will be beginners. This is an easy system to even out the odds for winning and sometimes it is just impossible:) We seed the top four players so they do not have to meet in the forst round and the ranking is updated every week here. I am currently on third place, but I willl work on that (have to do better than my fifth place yesterday lol). Sadly I miss some tournaments because of travelling, but that is just the way it is.

We will have a stream from the tournament and for those of you that is interested, you will find it here

Anyway, it is good practice because of the handicap and short races. For me it is important to play with short races in some tournaments because the European Championships have short races. There we play to 6 in 10-ball and 8-ball, 7 in 9-ball and 75 in straightpool. It is important to be totally focused from the beginning and long races often make me take my guard down. Especially if I am in front. That is something else I need to work on:)

If any of you reading this is in Stavanger your are more than welcome to join us on thursdays at 18:00

Ine:)