Keith Lubben shoots league pool every week at The Caboose, but his experience last week in Mankato was a far cry from that.
Try 96 billiards table in a large arena, and hundreds of competitors at the CNN YearEnd 8-Ball Tournament.
But Lubben wasn’t phased and ended up taking first place and bringing home a $600 reward and a plaque. He even defeated a person who knocked him out of a tournament in Sioux Falls, SD, a week earlier.
“We kind of laughed at each other, because she said, ‘I beat you in Sioux Falls and that didn’t mean anything!’” Lubben said. “It was kind of funny that we ended up meeting in the tournament.”
This past weekend’s tournament consisted of four 16-person brackets. Lubben played five best-of-five matches of 8-Ball Thursday, earning his way into the Friday’s winner’s bracket.
He won his first match 3-2 and his second 3-1 to earn a spot in the finals, where he won as well to cap off a memorable run.
“It was exciting, it was fun,” Lubben said. “It was very good sportsmanship, which I crave.”
But, Lubben concedes, he didn’t rely solely on his skill or experience.
“I was lucky,” he said. “No doubt about it. I’d make shots that I sometimes don’t make, and there were times that I’d miss shots, but I was lucky enough where I hid the cue ball so they wouldn’t get a good shot. Or sometimes my opponent missed and allowed me an opportunity to make. A blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while!”
Lubben has been playing pool since he was a kid at home and has been shooting league for about 15 years.
“I got nervous for a while,” he said. “On the second day, I was not nervous, I was focused.”
