The annual Big Tyme classic has hosted many a great match and boasts professional winners such as legends Alex Pagulayan and Francisco Bustamante as well as up and coming talent, Skyler Woodward. On Saturday, Big Tyme Billiards opened its doors for a less prestigious event but a more encouraging competition for young interested billiards players all over Texas.
The Sam Houston State University tournament is the first tournament in a flurry. Texas A&M host the next one with the University of Texas capping it off in Austin all in the space of a couple of weeks. If you are a young billiards enthusiast in the state of Texas, then these intercollegiate tournaments should be on your calendar every year. It provides the perfect platform for you to match your game against all sorts of challenges. Even if you have only just started to take a liking to pool, the events are organized in such a way that players of every skill level can participate and enjoy. Yet, the experience goes much more beyond just shooting a few balls around on a Saturday.
The environment:
What makes tournament days special is the shift in the environment from your typical weekend drunken trash-talking over an 8-foot surface that you happen to shoot balls on. Tournament organizers often rent out established pool halls in the hosting city. That means high-quality, well-maintained pool tables. Then there’s the buzz around the place. Everyone is curious to see who they play. Plus, all the tables next to you are in action and it’s always fun trying to spot the best player in the room.
The tables:
Knowing how the balls should travel on a table and actually executing the shot to applying that knowledge to the table is one of the hardest things to come to grips with when starting out. Playing on abused cloths with tip-less cues means inconsistent responses from the balls, which means gaining consistency in your game becomes incredibly difficult. Worst-case scenario, you become accustomed to faulty tables and this makes your game impossible to translate onto a standardized table maintained by professional pool hall staff. Experiencing the most responsive tables out there is a treat for every billiards player as it provides them a platform to express how they visualize shots in their head.
Competitive Experience:
I can not overstate the importance of competitive experience. Once you gain a fundamental understanding of the game, eventually, you develop muscle memory. This means you ‘feel’ the shots more and you find yourself having a natural instinct of the paths of the balls and shot-making. What separates the best players from the rest is how to remain composed when the pressure builds. Pressure has taken several important wins from myself, especially from situations where I seemed destined to win. Pressure is the feeling when your heart is pounding so hard that you can feel it thumping in between your ears as you play the final shot. It can make some people angry, jittery and rash. It can also bring out the best in you if you conquer it well enough. Even if it is a shot you practice all the time, the nature of the situation can make it feel like you have never touched a cue in your lifetime. If you do as the best players do and maintain composure, then you are on course to win matches. And winning after overcoming all that tension is such a sought-after buzz partly because it feels nearly impossible to describe.
Most of all, intercollegiate billiards is a great opportunity to meet new people (and players) and have a friendly competition between universities. It also happens to be great fun!
