Dominoes again

I got close to winning the tournament again last night. Close but no cigar. Remember I told you I made the finals in the November tournament? Well in December I skipped the tournament for my Nas concert and then last month I was sick the weekend of the tournament. With a turnout of around our average 15-16 teams we made it all the way to the semis before losing 10-6.

So let me give you my highlights. Nuff big name teams and alot of previous champs showed up for this one. Every set was serious business. In the prelims we lost our first round 6-2 then won our second one 6-3. Prelims don't really mean much though just jockeying for position in the playoffs and sometimes alot of the top teams get bounced in the first round of the playoffs after running though the prelims.

Lots of superconfident domino players in the lot. You can feel the testosterone soaring. And of course I decided cant be timid must go in there and be supremely confident and think I can win so was staying positive all night.

The tournament organizer was unwell but his team was one of the top teams entering the playoffs. Remember how Jordan used to play when he was sick or how Gordon Greenidge would score a century almost everytime you see him limping well I think that was what the tournament organizer was doing because I think he dropping some serious beatings in the prelims. lol.

The King was also there. If you don't know about the King, I mention him last time. The Jamaican fellow that I cant understand two words when he speaks. Seriously ya know like how they put subtitles in Shottas well I wish they had subtitles for this yout. I just cant understand the man when he talks but he duz talk nuff. He came out with a fella going by the name of the Prince so it was like the royal family playing dominoes...till they get dethroned. LOL.

Anyway back to my tournament. First round of playoffs me and my partner were quick out the blocks and rush out to a 9-2 lead. Would you believe we barely won the set 10-7. It could have been closer too but my partner made a nice switch with the fours and I had the double and the last two fours and won. Whew! Partner must be tired from carrying me all last night.

Next round, I guess quarter finals, we were playing one of the superstar teams. The battle was a "epic struggle for domination". No team could pull away. It went from 6-3 to them to 6-6 to 7-6 to us to 7-7 to 9-8 to us to 9-9. Crunch time. Win or Go home time. I love these games. I may not win them all the time but its a good test of how focused one can stay when something is on the line.

didn't have the best hand and to tell you the truth not sure how I stayed in the game, must be my partners skill because my hand had holes in it and when I Say holes I mean big gaping chasms the size of the grand canyon. I was running the whole game. Anyway came down to my last four cards; double six, double three, four deuce and five four. Not exactly the cards inspire confidence in winning. I was really worried about the doubles and I think my partner had passed so I saw the game slipping away plus the guys were hunting the double 6 so it was a tight squeeze.

Anyway there was a 4 on one end and a 5 on the other. The only other 4 out there was 4 six and I assumed it was in the hand of the guy just ahead of me. Usually this doesn't work but I played the 5-4 to switch it 4s , he came off his end, giving me the double 6. Breathe! It went around again and damn no three so I'm forced off my hard end and I've got a double three in my hand and my opponent still has one card and is ahead of me. Well somehow we were able to finagle our way out of it and I won the game with double three. Don't try that at home folks. Wow, man that was some serious tension.

So we made it to the semis. The semis were another kettle of fish. Of the first 8 games played 5 were blocked and we only won one of the blocks so we were down 6-2. We rallyed back to make it 8-6 then they won to make it 9-6 and then our opponents had the most phenomenal game of the tournament. One man draw 7 pieces of 3. That's all the threes in the pack! What are the odds of that? Still cant believe that. I've drawn 5 or maybe a rare 6 pieces of a card but all 7. No way we could get around that sort of luck so we lost 10-6. Oh well!

As for the King, we didn't play the royal family this month but they got knocked out in the quarter finals by the other eventual finalists in a boisterous event which finished 10-9. A so it a go! Next month I'm looking to go all the way. Maybe I should actually play between tournaments, lol.