MARINE CORPS AIR STATION MIRAMAR, Calif. -- A focused look dawns on Pfc. Andrew J. Pfenning’s face as he aligns his pool stick to the cue ball. He draws his arm back slowly, then fires the stick forward, sending the cue ball crashing into the pyramid, breaking the formation with practiced ease.

Pfenning works at the Installation Personnel Administrative Center from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. What does he do after work? Simple. He makes a Great Escape to play pool.

“I play about every day. [Pool] keeps me out of trouble,” He said in a joking manner.

He stalks around the table slowly, taking in all the possibilities he has for a shot. Mechanical in his game, he leans over and sends the seven ball home to a corner pocket.

After 14 years of playing the game, everything looks like it comes naturally to the 18-year-old administrative specialist with Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron.

“My father would go to biker clubs when I was younger,” he said. “[Pool] was a pastime for him, and I wanted to give it a shot. I’ve loved [pool] ever since then.”

“[My father] taught me the basics, keeping my eyes on the ball and some of the more basic shots,” said Pfenning as he angles the stick behind his back. “Sometimes he wasn’t there, and I had to learn certain shots on my own.”

The 5-year-old Pfenning, barely tall enough to see over the table and hands almost too small to fit around the pool stick, would play against big burly bikers.

Pfenning explained that playing pool with the bikers was a normal thing. Eventually the boy began to see the bikers as family and would play pool with all of them because the bikers would teach him too.

“My whole family plays pool. My father’s father and his father before him. My mother and my brother play, and my sister will start,” explained Pfenning. “One day I’ll teach my kids how to play pool just like my family did with me.”

Pfenning doesn’t just play as a pastime anymore. He has his eyes set on one of the many pool tournaments that take place at The Great Escape.

Although he has yet to participate, Pfenning says he wants to win.

Pfenning looks up from his game with a smile as a friend walks by and congratulates him on a shot he just made.

“There are certain people that I like to play [pool] with,” he said as he lined up his next shot. “If there isn’t anyone to play with, then I’ll play by myself and get in some extra practice.”

One of those people is Lance Cpl. Anthony J. Golden, who has been playing the game for six years.

“He’s got potential,” said Golden. “He gets really focused, and he’ll wait to take a shot.” Pfenning and Golden play pool about once a weekend, said the 20-year-old legal clerk with H&HS.

Pfenning lines up a risky-looking shot and hits the cue ball neatly, banking it off the rail and dropping yet another ball into one of the six pockets, leaving one ball left.

Pfenning stares at the ball as he walks slowly around the table, looking at the shot possibilities he has. The eight ball looks like it’s staring back, the white circle like an eye, daring Pfenning to miss the shot and lose the game.

Calmly, Pfenning leans over the rail; lines up his shot then lets fly the cue ball, sending the final ball careening into the corner pocket.