It’s inevitable that someday you’ll have to play pool against people you know and players that are your friends. When this happens, all skill levels go out the window and it’s a whole new ball game. On paper, you might be a 10-1 underdog, but when you play against friends, there are so many additional mental factors that come into play.

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Playing on the WPBA, I’ve made some great friends and great travel partners. In one of my events last year, my best friend on tour, who was also my roommate at this event, drew a spot in the bracket that was similar to my match play schedule. At first we thought this was great because our practice/warm-up times were similar and eating schedules fell right into place. But we soon realized that if we both continued to win matches, we would soon have to play against each other. We supported each other along the way and eventually did have to meet up in the brackets.

At first, I was very intimidated going into this match because my roommate is a very strong player. This was only my second WPBA event ever, whereas she is a far more experienced player who has played on tour for a couple of years and has competed in multiple world championships all around the world. As I have mentioned in previous articles, you should never allow yourself to be intimidated by another player’s strong reputation or track record. So I took my own advice and reminded myself that no player is unbeatable.

But what if your friend is not a higher skilled player than you? What other mental factors could affect your play? A big factor is the tendency to be talkative and relaxed during your match. While this doesn’t necessarily sound like a bad thing, being too relaxed can certainly take you out of your game. When you become too relaxed, you often get lazy with your pre-shot routine and can easily make uncharacteristic mistakes. A match against a friend requires just as much, if not more, focus as any other match.

In previous articles I talked about how to recognize your strengths and weaknesses and focus on exploiting your opponent’s weaknesses. Well, who knows your friend’s pool abilities better than you? Being a close friend who plays with them often should certainly give you an advantage. In my match with my roommate, I made myself analyze the types of shots and situations that I knew she had issues with.  For instance, our match was running late and the tournament director decided to put us on a shot clock. The regional tour I qualified through routinely uses shot clocks, so I am comfortable playing under one. But, I knew she had been stressed earlier in the tournament about previous matches where she felt rushed by the clock. Although this was not a strategic move on my part because shot clocks are determined by the tournament director, I immediately felt at ease and gained a new confidence in the match that was tied at the time when we began playing under a clock. Shot clocks may not come into play during APA matches, but the concept is the same. You know more about your friends and how they play than you do about a random opponent. Use this to your advantage and come up with a game plan that helps you keep the upper hand in the match.

I went on to beat my roommate and in the process, achieved my highest finish on the WPBA to date, but the match easily could have gone the other way. Next time you play against a good friend, block out the negative thoughts and stress that comes with that and focus on the mental and physical things you have learned to get yourself through the match successfully.

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