Minnesota Fats, I am not

Last Thursday I went to the pool hall to compete in the weekly college 8-ball tournament. I'm not a great pool player, but I'm not bad either. I got knocked out in the first round, two games to one. In my defense, the Irish game is quite different from the American one. First of all, it's played on a different sized table with different sized pockets. If you've played much pool in America, you've probably realized that the coin-op tables in your local bar room are about a foot smaller than the standard pool hall variety. The 8-ball tables here are smaller than either by about a foot. Which at first glance would seem to make the game easier. But countering that are the facts that the balls are smaller and the pockets both smaller and angled much more tightly. That is, the jaws, or openings, of the pockets are completely parallel in the corners, and on the sides are only slightly more forgiving than in America. Also, the only balls that look the same are the eight and the cue. There are no 'solids' or 'stripes.' There are just seven solid red balls with no numbers, and seven solid yellow ones with no numbers.

Scratches and fouls are different, too. After a scratch or a foul, the opponent gets two shots in a row.

I'm not sure yet which style is tougher, but I will say that it definitely takes some getting used to. I'm setting a short term goal of winning a match.

Long term is to win a tournament, but I'm not sure I have that much time.