Megan Smith is one of the top players on the highly competitive Northeastern Women's Tour and is currently attempting to break onto the WPBA tour. In her column, Megan will discuss her experiences as she strives to make it as a professional pool player. Megan's regular column for the NEWT tour can be found at www.susiecuebilliards.com/Tournaments/WPBA/MegansNews/megansnewtnewslist.htm. You can email Megan at megan@azbilliards.com
	It Was Meant to Be… By Megan Smith Destiny.  Fate.  Divine Intervention. Whatever you call it, pool players everywhere know the mystical forces I'm speaking about---they are the powers which either align themselves against you and seem to make it impossible for you to win, or the forces which seem to cause everything to go your way. Pragmatists deny the existence of such a force, and attribute all occurrences to probability. (remember that class in high school?) Anyway, I've never been a very superstitious person, but after this weekend's pro tournament in Baltimore, I'm wondering if I should be more of a believer in the pool Gods however fickle they may be. My latest experience began on Friday, August 4th at the pro player's meeting which was held at the Ramada Inn of Pikesville, Maryland. After the usual roll call and announcements, Steve Tipton announced the draw and the match times for the next day. So much for my routine of not looking at the bracket. I waited with anticipation to see who I would play, partly out of sheer curiosity since there were about ten friends of mine from the NEWT tour in the draw who had qualified for this event along with me. I finally heard my name called next to Jeri Engh's. We would meet up at 11:30am and the winner would have the honor of playing Jennifer Chen in the second round. For anyone who isn't familiar with how the draw at a 48 player pro field works, the 32 unseeded players are put in the first round open draw, and the top 16 touring pros are seeded into the second round. If you win your first match and advance to play a seed, one of two things can happen. You can win and advance into a guaranteed top half finish, or you can lose and find yourself in the one loss side in the same exact place you would've been had you lost the first round match against the other unseeded player. It sounds unfair, but there is no other way of running a 48 player tournament with 16 of them being seeded. At any rate, my mind was clear, my attitude was good, and I also had the luxury of getting in a workout before my first match. I love to play after a nice workout, either swimming, running or some light weights-it makes me feel very relaxed and calm at the table. Consequently, my first match against Jeri went well. It's always nice to warm up your stroke and get that first match under your belt. The final score was 9-4, but now I would have my work cut out for me in the second round against none other than Jennifer Chen. Chen is the fifth ranked player on the WPBA tour and is also an Asian superstar who has a fan following and a resume comparable to the size of Michael Jordan's in our country. My goal for our upcoming set was, if nothing else, to PLAY MY GAME. How often as aspiring players do we say that to ourselves when we stand up against a great player? It is the easiest thing to say, but to honestly BELIEVE we can do it is an extremely difficult task. Well, on Saturday August 5th I not only believed it, I DID it. The set started off on a good note as I snapped the nine ball in on the break, and I kept my focus throughout the match by expecting her to run out every game in which she got an opportunity. If she didn't run the rack, which didn't happen that often, I viewed it as a gift that I needed to graciously accept. I did my part to put myself in a position for good things to happen by getting out when I was supposed to and ducking if I couldn't. I managed to start off with a 6-3 lead on Chen, which she then cut down to size before overtaking me at 7-6. A few racks later, with Jennifer on the hill, I caught a break and was able to win two in a row to bring the match to the apex of excitement-double hill. This is the part where I wonder if there weren't some forces at work in my favor other than hard work and concentration. In the case rack, Jennifer began running the wide open table, and I had pretty much written off the possibility of getting another shot when the improbable happened. She flat out missed the five ball. The five rested near the corner pocket, and the six and nine were nestled together near the other corner. The seven and eight were up at the other end of the table and my cueball was in great shape to run out. My adrenaline kicked in a bit, and I tried to keep my composure for just five more shots….I played the five to get on the short side of six ball, and left myself with more of an angle on the six than I preferred. I could make it, but the cueball was now on a collision course with the nine ball. I delivered an Efren-like spin stroke to the six ball and clipped the nine. The cueball nearly scratched, and my full attention was focused on it balancing in the gaping corner pocket, when I heard the clamor of the crowd rising. I got up from my stance and watched in disbelief as the nine took a stroll right over to the opposite side pocket. It didn't appear to have any speed on it, and I would've bet any amount that it would've hung up there like a yellow and white striped insult. I would've lost that bet. The nine fell in the side, and just like that I won the match. The funny thing is that it was the very same pocket that the initial nine ball had softly rolled into off my opening break. The match started with a lucky roll and it ended with one also. For all of about ten seconds, I felt guilty. Then I realized that I had just defeated the number 5 player in the world and got my first pro point. That cleared up any misgivings I had about winning the match. Later that day, I played the number 10 seed Aileen Pippen and was defeated by her 9-3. The match was rather unimpressive, but I wasn't disheartened by it since I didn't have a lot of good scoring opportunities. My next match was with Monica Webb, the number 16 seed. That match was again one of those sets where I wasn't able to get any momentum going. I picked up the games that I could, and tied the score at five apiece, but she ran away with it from there and won 9-5. I would've liked to have won a few more matches, but I'm definitely ecstatic about getting my first 17th place finish. Afterall, something very important happened to me this past weekend-I've come to truly believe in my potential as a player, and that beating great players is not as hard as we make it seem. I think great players escape defeat all the time in nine ball tournaments simply because their opponent has mentally disarmed themselves by not believing that they can win. As far as Fate is concerned, I find myself no closer to any revelation than I was before this experience. I believe that certain things are destined to happen. Certain coincidences crop up all the time that are just to eerie to dismiss as chance. However, I have to agree with those pragmatists to a certain extent, and concede it's not all about the pool gods or some kind of astrological conjunction acting on our matches. You can get a million good rolls, and it doesn't mean a thing if you don't play well on top of it. I may have had some luck on my side at this tournament, but all things considered, I defeated Chen and got my first pro point by playing well and maintaining my focus and composure. Now it's back to the drawing board….. Until next time... Meg Smith   All copyrights are owned by Megan Smith. No duplication is allowed without her permission.