I didn't think I could do better than last week's 7-0 game wins.  Three of those were perfect wins where no one scored a goal.  But I guess I was wrong.

Celebration Station had the Hotflash table turned off when I got there.  The reason?  The coin slot was jammed and the table was giving free games.  Well, I found a group of three guys who were pretty good and challenged them on the Hotflash table.  The result was not losing a single game out of a seventeen game blitz!  (Note: blitz refers to playing game after game with only one allowable short rest period.)

The three guys were definitely a unique study.  The best player out of the bunch could aim fairly well and noticed when I left my defensive position to cover a small hole in my right side.  He shot a few right-wall-overs and when I moved a bit to guard the position, he alternated with a right-wall-under.  Not bad.  Not bad at all.

Two of the three guys forced me to think and keep a level of play past what attrition allowed.  I had to aim bank shots every which way, alternate them with straights, and continue with reverse banking.  Fortunately, I could still use pop-shots, of which I depended on more than four games (Note: pop-shots refer to faster than normal straight shots directly at an opponent's goal, normally when serving).  In fact, one game was nothing but pop-shots back and forth (sue me: it was around the 12th consecutive game and I couldn't move as fast as I would like to defend against a pop-shot at that point).

Two lessons learned:  1)  Use the full given seven seconds to rest, hit the opponent's back wall and use the next seven seconds to rest.  2)  More importantly, when down 3-5 in a game, think clearly, carefully aim each shot, and make certain you get the rebound.  I ended a few games 7-6 because I had to concentrate on aiming and draw out a second wind.

Darn--17 games blitzed today and didn't lose a single one against some pretty strong people.  This just means my skills are improving.  How happy I am!