Killers on Valentine's Day

the game, that is.

last wednesday, valentine's day, i decided to ask my students to teach me how to play billiards. at the cybermall training center, we have a large pantry that has two foosball tables and a billiards table and we are allowed to play during lunch breaks and after office hours. it was around 7pm when i went out of the training room and decided to join them.

the students were in the middle of a game but they were willing to let me hold the stick and try a few shots myself. i am not good at this game and i never really cared for it. normally i would just pass by the billiards table and excitedly join or start a foosball match myself. i just love foosball, i have loved it from the first ever game i played almost 7 years ago. this time though, i thought id give billiards a chance. just like trying learn anything for the first time, i was hesitant to hold the stick and wondered if it was worth it. but my students were really patient and accomodating so, that encouraged me to stay and play some more. they were in the middle of a game already, but they would let me try some easy shots from time to time. i stayed until they finished their set and agreed to join the next one. this time they said, we were going to play killers.

naturally, i have no idea what killers is. never heard of it. again, i hesitated and wanted to tell them that there's no need to change rules now, that we can continue to play the same game they were playing before i joined in which one person shoots the striped balls and the other person shoots the solid-colored balls. that's cool right? easy, i thought to myself. i can totally do that.

the rules
but rather than questioning them, i gracefully submitted to their proposal and inquired about the rules of the game. according to them, in killers, there would be 15 balls on the table and there would be three players. a player gets assigned 5 balls, which the other two players will try to shoot out of the table during the game. a player gets eliminated if all of the balls assigned him or her have been forced off by the other players, or in some unfortunate cases, by himself even.

the outcome
out of the two games we played, i made so much more bad shots than good ones. sometimes i would even hit object balls before hitting the cue ball. there was very little direction or control or strategy to my game. but in the end, i won in both the two games we played. natalo ko sila pareho, hehe! obviously my students were kind and polite enough to let me win and were trying to force off each other's balls rather than those assigned to me just so i can continue to be in the game and learn some more. don't you think that's sweet? also kind of intersting... this time, they get to be the teacher and i get to be their student. basta, it may not be the best valentine ever, but its definitely worth remembering (ay, parang kanta 'to ni karen carpenter a, hehehe!)