Waverly Sophomore Pockets A Hi-Spot Feature
Connor Strange
Staff Writer
Sophomore Seth Carnes is an avid member of the Waverly JV baseball team in the spring, but in the summer he has a quirkier hobby: playing pool competitively.
“We do it every Saturday, and it’s really fun. I like the feeling whenever I beat people, because I’m competitive,” Carnes said.
Called shots and cross corners run in the Carnes household, passed down as tradition from Seth’s parents, Roger and Kim, to him and his older brother. Seth has played for years, whether the games be with family or friends.
“I started when I was six or seven,” Carnes said. “My parents were like, ‘Play some pool.’ They’ve always done pool before I was born, and I’m pretty sure that’s how they met.”
Seth plays very well, and often. The pool shark in training has experience in hustling a person or two, as well.
“I went on a trip with Nick Brown and his family for two weeks,” Carnes said. “One day, we went to eat at a bar when we were sightseeing. [Nick’s] dad challenged me to a game of pool for five dollars, and I won by a landslide.”
It’s not entirely uncommon for the average person to have played pool; it’s available at many a bar in Lincoln. Not many people play it at the level that Seth has, though. He has played at contests, where highly skilled pool players match their skill on the table against each other.
“[My favorite part is] probably the tournament in the summer,” Carnes said. “It’s where kids from everywhere go to a tournament for kids across the nation.”
There are a lot of bars with pool tables, but only a few host the tournaments that Seth is wont to attend. Drifter’s Pool Room & Grill is one of such locales, and it holds some higher-skill contests during the summertime.
The organizers have papers with brackets, and the players fill their names in to take part in mini-tournaments using a round robin system each week. Whoever wins gets a sheet of paper to indicate that they won.
“You can do it at a bar named Drifter’s or Madsen’s. Drifter’s is the for the experienced, Madsen’s is for the beginners,” Carnes said.
The prize pool (no pun intended) can get up to $1000 in bonds at times, which means that the issuer owes the winner the value of the bond, and makes victory pretty rewarding. Not all pool is as highly competitive as the tournaments at Drifter’s, however. Seth fully endorses new people to the game to give it a go if they ever have a couple of quarters and a whim.
“If you ever have the urge to play it, then you’ll probably like it and you should do it,” Carnes said.
Pool isn’t an easy game to become a master at. To play as competitively as Carnes, one needs to have a kiss (shot) of skill.
