Thorsten Hohmann

New beginning...

2009-04-25T00:58:00.003-04:00

I know, I know. It's been almost a year. I sincerely apologize. I needed "the time off" and focus on some very important things. I kept using my "facebook" account, so I never really completely vanished.

I really don't know where to start. I have been going through a lot of changes. Let me divide it in some several posts.

The good news is.... Toasti is back !

Special Guests

2008-07-26T04:31:00.004-04:00

Toasti is back in Florida and has been practicing and working out a lot since his arrival. Four !!! Straight Pool tournaments are coming up in the next two month and I am very excited about that. The Lucasi Hybrid Invitational Classic here in Jax first, then the European Championship in Willingen/Germany, next the New Jersey State Straight Pool Championship in Parsippany/New Jersey and finally the World Straight Pool Championship in East Brunswick/New Jersey. Time for some serious Straight Pool practice...

Yesterday I had some very special guests visiting me here at the crazy Dome, Jeanette Lee and Rolando Aravena.

In February at his farewell party at Amsterdam Billiards in NY I told my friend Rolando I would be one of the first to visit him in his new home. Back then I didn't know that he would be the one to visit ME first.

I had my table recovered by the Billiard Factory, Jacksonville. Great job ! I'm all ready for some crazy highruns... LOL

Fulda !

2008-07-22T09:23:00.015-04:00

I know it has been a while but I simply enjoyed my given time in Germany. Fortunately I spent a lot of time with my coach/friend/psycho-uncle Michael Wahl. He always finds something about my game.

"Thorsten, you changed your stance. Thorsten, you twist your wrist and come out with your ellbow. Thorsten, you set up your bridge to much to the left on certain shots and more. So, that's what we were working on. Take a look at his "desk" during a typical hour with him

Twice we drove to south of our state in Hessen to spend half a day practicing there with the youth selection team in the nice club of Astoria Walldorf. It also gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of good old friends. The following week this youth group came to Fulda for an eight hour workshop every day. Some very talented young kids and all of them a lot of fun.

For all of you who don't know one of the best custom cue makers, here he is - Michael Vollmer from Rohrbach. I used to play his cue for many years. For example I won the World 9-Ball Championship, the BCA Open and ran my 404 in straight pool with his piece of art. He is celebrating his 15th anniversary this year and made an especially brutal monster cue. Check it out on his website...
On the picture in the middle you see my old beloved Vollmer Cue !

www.vollmercue.de

What is Germany without it's fantastic food ? The first thing I did when I arrived was to eat a schnitzel with green sauce and potatoes in Frankfurt with my friends Wolfgang and Carola. This should be symptomatic for my Germany trip. I basically ate every hour. Half way through my stay I told my mom "Okay mom, from tomorrow on I have to be on a diet. Only salats, vegetables, fruits and healthy stuff." She nodded and the next day she said: "Thorsten, I have potatoe dumplings in a bacon sauce." I could not resist and ate three of them...

When you live in the States for so long and come back after 1 1/2 years you see your city with different eyes. For the first time I realized how beautiful my tiny little Fulda is. Even an ordinary street with trees seems so unique and picturesque. Here a bunch of pictures of Fulda !

One of my personal highlights was, of course my 29th birthday on July 14th. I took my friends to dinner in a very traditional German restaurant on the evening of the 13th. Afterwards we went to the trendy Havanna cocktailbar where we celebrated into my 29th. As prophesied I had my very first German beer at midnight. More food battles on the 14th with family of course !

But every good thing comes to an end. And my visit was limited. With a crying eye I had to leave my Fulda, but I know I will return on August 6th ! Summary: I spent time with my family and friends, had some quality practice with my coach Michael, got a new tip on my cue, grew another grey hair, got physically back in shape and ate too much good good food. Can't beat that !

Back to the roots...

2008-07-07T18:15:00.006-04:00

After 1 1/2 years of Germany abstinence I finally returned to my home town Fulda. Well, actually I was here for Christmas and my mommy´s birthday last year, but without counting that, it has really been that long...

I have two weeks here in Fulda, were everything (Pool) started for me in 1992. I will spend some time with my family and friends, celebrate my birthday on the 14th, having my very first German beer and go back to the roots by practicing and working out with my coach and mentor Michael Wahl.

Now I realized how beautiful Fulda is. Like one of those snow globe cities you shake and just stare at. So cute, small and pretty.
My mission is to take a lot of pictures and post them on here, so the whole world can get an impression of this wonderful place, German culture, food, architecture and my loved ones...

I will also write some lines about my tournament in Qatar, but in the meantime I will enjoy home for a little bit.

There is no place like home...

Puerto Princesa Mayor's Cup

2008-06-24T22:52:00.031-04:00

Just about one month after my last Philippine visit it was my pleasure to travel to my favorite country again. There is so much Pool going on in Asia, it would almost make sense to move here. The Philippine tourneys, the Korean tournaments, the Japanese, the Taiwanese and more and more... Unfortunately the Guiness 9-Ball Tour is exclusively only for Asians and I chose Florida as my home of choice for now...

The second leg of the Philippine 10-Ball Tour started with a welcome party and a presentation about the city of Puerto Princesa by the Mayor himself, Mayor Hagedorn. I heard so many good stories about Palawan, how clean it is, how beautiful. So was pretty excited to get an impression myself.

To promote the event we went on a car parade through the streets of Puerto Princesa. I felt like the pope cruising on the back of a pick-up truck waving at the locals. A lot of fun though and a brilliant idea...

A brief player meeting was held in the morning at the very nice city coliseum.

The official opening ceremony was quite impressive. I have never seen so many people attending a pool event like in Puerto Princesa. It seemed every high school in Palwan was present. I think the organizer promised each student a yum burger from Jollybee for who would show up...

I counted 3000 spectators, but I could be wrong. The pictures clearly show the major effort of the organizers of the event !

Here is a video of an attempt by the Pinoys to do the Mexican La Ola wave...

For this second edition of the Philippine 10-Ball tour more foreign players had committed to show up, such as Ralf Souquet, Wu Chia Ching, Ko Pin Yi, Chang Jun-Lin and more. I never could get my game going and lost my opening match against the in Thailand residing Courtney Symons, originally from the UK.

After winning my loser round match Jonathan Corpus from the Philippines I had another tough loss against Cebu residing Augusto Boots.

Guiness tour dominator Chang Jun-Lin got knocked out the same round but the favorites came through.

In the final it was double World Champion Wu Cha Ching to claim the title against Filipino Junior Champion Jerico Banares with 11:9. Third places went to Ralf Souquet and Marlon Manalo.

Puerto Princesa is a very clean city. You will find many trash bins on the streets and you won't find garbage lying around. The protection of the environment is a common goal and mangrove tree planting is custom. Here some pics of Toasti and friends planting mangroves...

There was a taifun devastating parts of the Philippines. Many people died. Luckily Palawan hasn't been hit in decades but what we got was plenty of rain showers during my stay. I did not get to see as much of the island as I had hoped, like the beaches, the diversed islands, but on our last day in Palawan the city office had planned a trip to the Underground River, the longest in the world. To get there was a hardcore bumpy trip through forest and mud. Enjoy the picture documentation:

Inside the cave. At least three million bats... :-)

Boat Trip going to the cave...

I had a great time in Palawan, even though I didn't do as well as I did in the first tour stop. August will be pretty busy for me in Europe (European Championship) and USA (World Straight Pool Championship) so I probably will miss the next tour stop here in the Philippines.

Puerto Princesa has left a very nice impression for me and for sure I will return to the city in the forest...

Update

2008-06-05T21:32:00.012-04:00

Finally after all the travelling I had some quality time to spent in Florida. I signed up at a new gym here in Jacksonville where I started working out again. I have been practicing a lot with my new powerful Lucasi Hybrid Cue and enjoyed the Florida sun, the beach, the food (after weeks of eating soup) and visited Charlie and friends in Orlando (watched Iron Man and loved it). Soon I will be travelling again to compete in multiple events around the globe. And in July right before my birthday I get to go to Germany after more than one year of absence (excluding five days Christmas visit). I miss Germany, my family, my friends and I can't wait to come home. But for now: "work before pleasure"...

All my friends know how much of a Dream Theater fan I am. Well, super lucky me I was able to buy two first row balcony center tickets two days prior to their concert at Hard Rock Live in Orlando May 31st. Had a super rockin evening !
YOUR GUYS ARE ASOLUTELY AWESOME !!!

Here are my upcoming events:

June 8th - 14th Generation Pool Championship/BCA Trade Show in Charlotte/NC
June 20 - 25th Philippine 10-Ball Tour in Puerto Princesa, Palawan / Philippines
June 29 - July 5th Qatar World 9-Ball Open in Qatar / United Arab Emirates
July 6th Germany !!!!!!! (soon to be European Soccer Champions :-)

Documentation coming soon...

Pool School in Jacksonville

2008-05-25T22:56:00.010-04:00

Had a lot of fun teaching along side Tony Robles, Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante at Top Hat Billiards in my home town Jacksonville, Florida. It was a little tough at some points getting through the day because I was still affected by my stomach virus, but I am sure it was very instructive at times for our students :-P and everybody including the instructors were having a good time !

As promised we"The Dome-Gang (Dan, Deirdre, 8-Ball, Sandy, Honey and Toasti)" was hosting a BBQ party on Wednesday evening for all participants of the Pool School. We made sure to get a taste of different cultures (German beer, Filipino Adobo and good old Hot Dogs) for general pleasure.

Rough night

2008-05-15T09:56:00.012-04:00

The International 10-Ball Championship here in Vegas has just begun and on the first day I ran into some unusual problems...

It started with some abdominal pain and body ache in the morning...

After a bye as a seeded player I had a good match against Matt Krah late in the evening of the 13th and beat him 10:1. He seemed to have trouble finding his game at all and I only made a couple errors.

I returned to my room, ordered some room service food and tried to fall asleep. Suddenly I got cramps in my belly, started shaking like a palm tree during a hurricane in Florida and my overall condition wasn't really the greatest.

I rushed to the Emergency Room here at Sunrise Hospital in Vegas where I spent six hours from 3.30am till 9.30am. They did a lot of fun stuff to me during the night and the doctor diagnosed foodpoisoning or some sort of virus.

I had 103 degrees fever, but after the IV and some medication I am feeling much better now. I lost my next match against reigning World 9-Ball Champion Daryl Peach with 7:10 that evening. We both made a lot of mistakes and I really had enough chances to beat him. The loosers bracket is full with players who all could win this tournament. Souquet, Reyes, Immonen, Pagulayan, Archer, van Boening to just name a few.

I have one day off so it should give me some time to rest and recover.

Check out the official website with live scoring and even live coverage !

Mandaluyong Mayor's Cup

2008-05-13T08:44:00.030-04:00

10-Ball has been getting more and more popular around the world. The Florida Pro Tour has adapted the fastest and been preferring this discipline over 9-Ball for several years in the Sunshine State already. Players including myself seem to like this advanced rotation game. Is 10-ball the pocket billard game of the future ?

The Philippines has realized the trend as well. Raya Sports and the Billiards & Snooker Congress Of The Philippines (BSCP) started a new 10-Ball tour (the Philippine 10-Ball Tour) which will feature stops in Puerto Princesa, Cebu City, Davao City, Subic-Olongapo, Clark-Angeles and Pasay City.

The President of Raya Sports Mr Yen Makabenta invited me to be part when the tour kicked off in Mandaluyong City, the heart of Metro Manila on May 6th...

We had a full field of 64 players including top guns like Johnny Archer, Satoshi Kawabata, Marlon Manalo, Jeff de Luna, Antonio Gabica and Leonardo Andam.

For the first four days the Mandaluyong City Hall served us as the host venue. The place was frequently visited by spectators and the event was very well organized.

My game got stronger with every match that I played. On the first day I beat Deleon B. Lopez from the Philippines with 9:2, on day number two R. Eborda from the Philippines with 9:3 and on the third day Gerry Watson from Canada with 9:4.

Let me add at this point that we were playing call-shot, which means I had to call the ball and the pocket before taking on the shot. A little new for me was that whenever a player made a ball unintentionally or didn't call it, the incoming player had the option to take over or give the table back to the opponent.

I rarely saw players stringing more than two racks together. Not like in 9-Ball when a four-, five- or sixpack is very common. 10-Ball seems to be a bit tougher and specially on the break you won't see the corner ball flying in all the time, like it happens in 9-Ball a lot. I start liking this game, but have to figure out the right break myself...

I continued with another win over K. Tuguchi from Japan with 9:5 and the dream match was set for the evening. Marlon versus Toasti

I started out very strong, using every opportunity given to me to jump out for a 5:0 lead over Marlon, who was born in Mandaluyong City and lives just down the road. Next he played a nice cross bank in the corner but had forgotten to call it. It was obvious to me that he intended to go for the shot, so I told the referee to let Marlon continue. And the momentum changed...

Next thing I know I was trailing 5:6 and I didn't get any rolls in the end. At hill-hill I broke, but failed to make a ball. Marlon played a safe on the 3ball. I kicked at it to combo another ball in, but unfortunately left him a very easy combo to start his run-out. It could have ended up in an awkward position for him easily but it wasn't the case and Marlon cleared the table.

The following day we tranferred across the street to the Kaban ng Hiyas Auditorium, a city hall that looks like it was build for a pool tournament, beautiful ! With only one table and six players left all matches from now were shown live on Philippine national television.

My quarterfinal match against Filipino Junior Champion J Banares started out the worst possible. I just didn't get an easy layout to get used to the fast slippery table. Banares played perfect, I missed some safe opportunities and whoom... I was down 0:7 before I got my first real chance. I reduced the damage to a 4:9 defeat and spent the rest of the event as a spectator.

I watched the final match between Marlon Manalo and Antonio Gabica side by side with Mandaluyong's Mayor Benhur Abalos. The Mayor is a very energetic and charismatic person who watched the entire three-hour final match with only one short bathroom break. I had a very nice conversation with him. A person who loves horse-racing, motorbikes and has won several awards as an outstanding mayor who constantly fights poverty in his country. Hopefully we can involve the popularity of pool in the Philippines to help him with some of his projects. He has won me as an admirer...

The final was one-sided in the beginning. Gabica dominated the first few racks, receiving all the layouts and showing no flaws, until Marlon had his chances to catch up but made some uncharacteristic mistakes. Gabica showed a great performance as he broke and ran the three final racks to win 13:8.

The next tour-stop will be in June in beautiful Puerto Princesa in Palawan. I hope I can come back more often and play in as many 10-Ball events in the Philippines as possible !

Korea Pro Tour Championships

2008-05-09T02:29:00.009-04:00

The tournament took place at the Ambassador Hotel in Doksan, Seoul. Top players of the event were Mike Davis, Raj Hundal, Charlie Williams, Hiroshi Takenaka as well as some new players from the Philippines.

Had a good match to get into the single elimination stage against Go Takami from Japan. At a score of 8:7 in a race to 9 I played a safetie on the 8-Ball. He came with a great "Efren-Shot" to take the rack and the match down...

After a solid performance on the looser side the tournament format brought me Go Takami again. This time I was able to string a few racks together and establish a lead which allowed me a 10:5 win.

The quarter final against Takenaka was a head to head race from the start. At 7:7 I had a perfect break, the cueball stopped in the center of the table but unfortunately got kicked in the side pocket. Takenaka never looked back and broke and ran the last three racks to throw me out of the competition. Overall I was happy with my tournament here and a 5th place !

Mike Davis, who got in late due to his good result in Phoenix was put on the looser side, came all the way back to win the first place here in Korea.

The womens event was dominated by reigning World Champion Yuan Chung Lin from Taiwan.

Johnny Archer wins Desert Shoot Out

2008-05-09T02:04:00.006-04:00

The story is short. I could not keep up the good performance and lost my next two matches against Oscar Dominguez and Cliff Joyner in two close matches.

Mika had a phenomenal tournament, beat every World Champion in the field, like Efren Reyes, Earl Strickland, Jose Parica and Johnny Archer to take the hot seat. But Johnny recovered and came back to beat the "Iceman" twice in the final. And I know why... FRUITLOOPS

Congratulations Johnny and Mika !

Desert Shoot Out Day One

2008-04-25T15:28:00.004-04:00

What a great field... Johnny Archer, Efren Reyes, Mika Immonen, Tony Robles, Earl Strickland, Jose Parica, Corey Deuel, Charlie Williams, Scott Frost, Steve Moore, Luc Salvas, Gabe Owen, Tony Crosby, John Schmidt, Jeremy Jones, Mike Davis, Louis Ulrich, Rodney Morris, Dennis Hatch to just name a few top players that have shown up here in Phoenix.

My filipino uncle Jhun and his wife Lenylin live here in Phoenix. They moved here two years ago from the Philippines. We used to hang out in Manila all the time. It was great seeing them and I am looking forward to have some crispy pata on Saturday :-)

The venue was changed only a few days prior to the event from the Sheraton Hotel to a poolroom called Kolby's located in the south-east of this desert city.

In my first match yesterday afternoon I beat Carl Wilson 9:1 and in the evening US bar table Champion Mitch Ellerman 9:5. I am pretty happy with my performance so far. Was a little nervous in my first match and played very strong from 5:5 on till the end against Ellerman.

Today I will face Oscar Dominguez at 4pm...

My Next Events

2008-04-21T20:20:00.004-04:00

As some of you might know, I relocated myself back to Jacksonville, Florida. For quite some time now I have been house shopping which is very exciting for me and I could not update my blog as frequently. On Wednesday I will be on the road again for some serious tournament action...

Here is my schedule for the next few weeks:

April 23rd - April 27th Desert Shoot Out, Phoenix/Arizona
April 28th - May 6th Korea International Championships, Seoul/Korea
May 7th - May 11th Philippine Pool Tour, Manila/Philippines
May 12th - May 18th 10-Ball Championship, Las Vegas/Nevada
May 20th - May 21st Pool School, Jacksonville/Florida

Pool School update

2008-04-13T09:33:00.002-04:00

Ok, here is the deal...

The two days clinic will take place in Jacksonville, Florida on May 21st and May 22nd.

Efren Reyes, Fransisco Bustamante, Tony Robles and me are going to teach our pool philosophies for eight hours each day for a maximum number of 20 students, devided in small groups...

The price for the course is 1500 US $

If you are interested you can contact dpsportsmanagement@yahoo.com, call 1-407-782-4978 or contact me using my contact form on my website... www.thorstenhohmann.com or call me from Tuesday on under +1-646-463-2040

Thorsten

Poolschool with Superstars !

2008-04-04T17:43:00.002-04:00

Great news for all poolfans !

On May 20th and 21st Jacksonville, Florida will host an unprecedented pool school experience. "The Magician" himself Efren Reyes, "Django" Francisco Bustamante, "The Silent Assassin" Tony Robles and your own Thorsten Hohmann will share their pool secrets with a group of pool enthusiasts. I will talk more about the details as they become available.

As a bonus I will throw in a BBQ party for all participants. Chicken Adobo, Crispy Pata and Sinigang have already been added to my to-buy list.

Interested ? :-) Damn, I might sign up as a student myself...

Check out my balls... ( )( )

2008-04-02T23:41:00.008-04:00

Hey, I've just added another product to my Ebay store. I am a signature collector myself and I thought it would be nice to offer this signed and numbered Thorsten Hohmann cueball to everyone who shares my passion for collectibles. Tell all your friends! :-)

Click here to go straight to my balls...

Snooker in Brazil

2008-03-20T23:20:00.036-04:00

In one of my previous posts I was showing some pictures of my vacation in Brazil. Let me add this...

My girlfriend Luciene comes from Araraquara. A for Brazil small city in the countryside of Sao Paulo state. Most of you probably have never heard of this city before. I could not believe it when I found out that one of the best Brazilian Snooker players lives in that city and a friend of Luciene's mother knows him. What are the odds ? We arranged a meeting with Wagner Monteiro at Araraquara's private sports and recreational club "Clube 22 de Agosto".

Wagner who speaks fluent English has spent several month in England to learn more about the game, introduced me to the Brazilian version of snooker. It's really more related to snooker than it is to pool except the fact that it's mostly played on a pool-size table. The cut of the rails, the cloth and the balls are very similar to snooker.

Here are some of the rules:

The game is played with all the colored snookerballs but only one red ball. (instead all 15). The player with the most points in the end wins the frame.
The player who begins the match has to play a safety. (can not score, but also can not snooker his opponent)
Red counts one point, yellow two points, green three, etc...just like in snooker
A player doesn't necessarily have to shoot the red ball first. He can choose to play a colored ball first. However, if the player misses the shot, his opponent receives seven points.

@Wei... you need to make a snooker table version of cuetable...

I played Wagner a few frames and I picked up the rules and strategy fast. At one point I almost ran the whole table at once.

Gave a speech to the members of this very nice club. I mentioned that I wish to see a Brazilian player in one of the future World Pool Championships and International events to represent their country. I think I made a lot of friends and fans that night.

After the "little exhibition" we went to Wagner's house, who by the way won multiple Brazilian championships. He owns one of very few full-size snooker tables in Brazil and we played some snooker and "pool" matches, which was a lot of fun. We made two teams and Luciene's daddy made the winning shot for our team !

On top of that there is another great player that lives only one hour drive away from the city. His name is Miguel Costa and he represented Brazil in the World Games 2005 in Duisburg, Germany. I was there too. When Miguel found out that I was in the city he came to Araraquara and we played some snooker. Man, he can play...

I am sure I will be back soon. I see a lot of potential in Brazil and would love to see them play pool as well. For everyone who is interested... There is going to be a big tournament at Miguel's snooker salon in the beginning of April.

Blatt Billiards NYC 85th anniversary party

2008-03-19T07:11:00.023-04:00

Last night it was my pleasure to attend the opening party of Blatt Billiards 85th anniversary celebration. For the next two weeks Blatt Billiards will present the first of it's kind antique pool table, cue art and billiard memorabilia exhibition at The National Arts Club in Gramercy Park.

It was very interesting to walk through the museum and see all these collectibles about the history of billiards. I own a copy of Victor Stein's Billiard Encyclopedia, but to see his originals here was very exploratory.

I can advise everyone who lives in the New York area or has the loose cash to travel to come out here and check this rare collection out

Blatt Billiards has been manufacturer, engineer and supplier to some of the finest and most demanding furniture and design firms in the world. You can spend 60 000$ easily on a pooltable here and acquire a piece of art, which will last a lifetime

I had a lot of fun, met interesting people and saw some nice pieces of art. Congratulations to Blatt Billiards for 85 years of excellence !

Super Billiards Expo Final Day

2008-03-17T15:05:00.014-04:00

Shane van Boening once again impressed with rock-solid performance to claim another tournament victory on American soil over Shaun Wilkie in the final with 13:7.

1. Place Shane van Boening
2. Place Shaun Wilkie
3. Place Rodney Morris
4. Place Mika Immonen

Check out the new pool sports drink "Extreme Focus"

Some more pictures with my friends...

Wanna add this one on without any further comments...

Going to New York City for a couple days to visit my dentist Louis Pannullo and attend Blatt Billiards 85th anniversary party...

Super Billiards Expo Day Two + Three

2008-03-14T13:58:00.004-04:00

Wasn't my tournament. Again.

Just lost to my friend John Schmidt 4:10 and now have two days off. I will walk the Expo, take some pictures and post it here on my blog.

Well, usually I am the one taking all the pictures for my blog with the result that I'm almost never seen in my pictures. So I started walking the Expo hunting the stars down for a snapshot... Enjoy !

Bought two books which I am gonna start reading today. You can find my reviews soon here on my blog ;-)

"Running The Table" from L. Jon Wertheim about the life of
"Kid Delicious" Danny Basavich

From Bob Watson the beautiful title "Painting On Green Canvas"

Got my first autograph from upcoming ten year old superstar Taylor Reynolds :-)

With the weekend and all the amateur events starting the Expo is getting a bit busier...

More later...

Super Billiards Expo Day One

2008-03-13T21:49:00.007-04:00

Just finished a very long and tough match against Danny Basavich. The game went all the way to hill-hill but unfortunately I didn't come through at the end. The match was actually played on a high level. I missed a 9-Ball to go up 8:6 which was crucial. At 9:9 it was my break, I made a ball but was facing a weird 1-6 combo. I knew that the cueball would travel two rails and the side pocket was big. I decided to go for it, made the combo but...scratched in the side. Danny ran out.

Have another tough one against John Schmidt tomorrow morning.

Thorsten
Sent from my iPhone

Super Billiards Expo Day Zero

2008-03-13T12:35:00.013-04:00

I arrived a bit earlier in Valley Forge, Tuesday morning. Most of the exhibitors still had not arrived yet, so the two floors of the Convention Center were still empty and quiet...

The pro room looks nice and I hope the bleachers will fill up during the weekend...

The player meeting at 6pm was short. Here are some facts of this 9-Ball event:

- 20 000 $ added
- Races to 10
- Rotate break
- Rack your own
- Double elimination
- UPA sanctioned

After the meeting there was a Pro-Am Charity Event in which I participated. All the entry fees and donations went to the Junior division scholarship payouts.

For 25$ poolfans were able to team up with a pro to compete in a "scotch doubles" format. We had 16 teams each consisting of one pro and up to six "amateurs". Some of them really rocked that evening. We had a lot of fun and sharking was mandatory...

My team "Calling Shots" won the first round of 20minutes play 5:1, the second round 3:1 and we lost the third round 3:4 which put us in third place in the end. That was fun...

I also played some challenge matches before I went to my deserved Cheesecake factory dinner with Ralf Souquet...

My first match will be later at 5.30pm against Danny "Kid Delicious" Basavich. I haven't seen Danny in more than one year. I heard he had some health problems and it's nice to see him back on the tour.

Vacation Brazil 2008

2008-03-12T16:15:00.000-04:00

Check this out !

2008-03-12T10:59:00.005-04:00

Discovered a new website...

www.mick-hill.com

I love the design, the arrangement, the colours and the menue. People, what do you think?

Congratulations Mick for a fantastic looking website !!!

Turning Stone Classic

2008-02-24T19:53:00.010-05:00

Twice a year I receive an email from Mike Zuglan. It's the invitation for the Turning Stone Classic in Verona, New York and I always look forward to play in this event. I've won the tournament in February 2006 before against Keith McCready and I wanted to do it again.

The venue is in my opinion very beautiful. It has a classy athmosphere and allows spectators a wonderful view when you sit up high on the bleachers.

In my first round match I made a pretty good comeback against Paul Dryden. Trailing 2:6 I managed to win the game 9:7. It followed a win over Paul Rozonewski (9:5) and a strong 9:3 over Shin Park.
Right before my next match against Jason Klatt from Canada I lost my tip on a practice draw shot and I had to switch shafts, resp. get a new tip put on. Jason played solid and I made some silly mistakes, (like a miss on a medium difficult cut shot on the 1-Ball with option of clipping the 9-Ball in at 5:6), which cost me the game 5:9.
I could not recover and lost my game completely against Tom McGonagle with 4:9

In one of my matches I was facing the following situation:

My first option was to cut the 2-Ball into the corner pocket. A difficult shot and easy to miss.
Option two I thought about was to bank the ball into the opposite corner pocket but again - a very risky shot to take on.
So I decided to play the multiple option shot. My goal was to freeze the cueball behind the 3-Ball. But in case I would fail I made sure to put the 2-Ball into a position where my opponent would not have an open shot, because of the 7-Ball.
Luckily I put the cueball dead behind the 3-Ball.

Moral of the story: Don't go aggressive on your first thought. Weight your percentages. Sometimes it's better to play safe and take the higher percentage option...

The winner of the TurningStone Classic was once again Johnny Archer. Congratulations !

Good Bye and Good Luck Rolando !

2008-02-17T23:22:00.016-05:00

Rolando Aravena started working for Amsterdam Billiard Club, New York City in 1991. That was one year before I began playing pool. On Saturday, the 16th of February it was his last night at New York's original billiard club as a manager. And a very touching moment.

After 17 years !!! of ABC Rolando is moving on to new ventures. With The Black Widow Jeanette Lee herself, Rolando is starting a new business as the head manager of a future poolroom in Indianapolis.

On Saturday his friends gathered at ABC to throw him a farewell party. Here are some pics taken by Wei Chao www.cuetable.com

Rolando is definitely one of my favorite friends to hang out with. I enjoyed our conversations, he wrote me a fitness plan, we went to the gym together, he did all my cuerepair work (excellent) and he is a fantastic pool player and teacher. I will miss him...

"Rolando, I wish you all the best for your future. You truly deserve only the best. One thing I can promise you - I will be one of the first to visit you at your new home !"

Third place at second tour stop

2008-02-12T00:50:00.000-05:00

Only one week after Tony's season opener in Hempstead, this time Master Billiards in Queens opened their doors for the second stop of the Predator 9-Ball Tour. 80 players from the Tri-State area including my good friend and top player from West Palm Beach/Florida Hunter Lombardo showed up to support the tour.

I wanna mention that tournament director Bill Finnegan is always doing a great job and if I ever run my own tour I will strongly consider hiring him :-)

The saturday went by without any big upsets. I had some good matches where I was showing a lot of heart and I had some struggles. The "favorites" like Mika, Tony, Hunter and myself all came through undefeated.

On sunday I lost to Tony in the morning but came back with a few wins among others over Tony "Flaco" Rodriguez to get to the semi-final. Here the last 2-9 combo I had to shoot to win that match...

Here a short "what happened in my semi-final match against Mika"...

1. I broke and ran out (1:0)
2. Mika broke, didn't make a ball. I ran out (2:0)
3. I broke and ran out (3:0)
4. Mika broke and ran out (3:1)
5. I broke and ran out (4:1)
6. Mika broke and ran out (4:2)
7. Didn't make a ball. Mika cleared the table (4:3)
8. Mika didn't make a ball, but I hooked myself on an easy wide open table (the crucial mistake of the game) and he ended up winning the rack. (4:4)
9. I broke and ran out (5:4)
10. Mika broke, cueball and one-ball very close. He tried to thin-cut the one downtable into an in front of the corner hanging ball, but instead time-shot the ball in the side, made another one at the same time and had a medium difficult bank shot next, which he made and ran out (5:5)
11. I broke, no shot, played push for a jump, but left a funny angle. He let me shoot, but because the angle was to the wrong side I attemped a jump-safe which failed. (5:6)
12. Mika broke and ran out (5:7)

Very high performance from both of us. Mika showed a lot of heart and had luck when he needed it. I came out strong in the beginning, but made one mistake and one silly decision...

In the following final Tony took an early lead and never looked back. With 11:6 our host himself conquered the first place of tour stop number two. Mika finished once again second but has proven his consistency.

Here is a tricky situation that came up in one of my matches. At first I thought about the agressive way and cutting the 7 in the corner, making sure I would hit the objectball first and not the rail to make the cueball travel along the path as shown on page 2.
I know that hitting the rail first is much easier but would also send the cueball towards the corner pocket for a possible scratch, so I would have to play just the right speed as shown on page 3. I finally decided to play a safety as shown on page 4 and it worked out perfectly...
What would you have done ?

I wanna encourage everybody to come and play in Tony's tour in the future. Joey has shown us last week that the tour gives new faces the opportunity to prove their skills and win and with the pro's supporting the tour the level of play will raise in the New York and Tri-State area.

Tony Robles new 9-Ball Tour in the Northeast

2008-02-08T16:04:00.000-05:00

Until now I have only been playing in one regional tour in America - the Florida Pro Tour. Today I will add a whole new series of events to my calender - Tony Robles Predator 9-Ball Tour in the Tri-State area !

75 pool addicts made their way to Holden Chin's beautiful Raxx Billiards in West Hempstead, New York. Ten Percent of the field were - women ! Congratulations Tony for such a fantastic turn out to kick off the season...

Here are some facts about rules and format of the new tour:

- there is no handicap, anybody can play, but amount of the entry fee is determined by the level of the player. Pro's pay 100$, C-players 50 $ for example.

- Race to 9 winner side, race to 7 on the one loss side (final race to 11)
- alternate break
- rack your own
- nine on the break counts only if made in side or upper corner pockets

At this point I don't wanna go too much into match details. The usual suspects came through - Mika, Tony, Ginky, ShinYoung and Toasti. But we have to add another new name to that list - New Jersey's Joey Testa surprised the fans with excellent play and beat tournament favorite Mika Immonen in the final 11:10. I was Testa's victims in the quarterfinal and finished Fourth place.

Thanks to Jerry Tarantola with www.nycgrind.com and Williams Fuentes with www.williamfuentes.com for the picture courtesy !

Straight Pool Exhibition at the University Club of NYC

2008-02-08T15:33:00.000-05:00

On January 31st it was my honor to perform a Straight Pool exhibition at New York City's prestigious University Club. This private club located on 54th street and Fifth Avenue was founded in 1861 and is still a landmark in the Big Apple. The club features three pool tables as well as one billiard table.

More info's about the University Club of NYC

Mr Lawrence Darby, member of the University Club approached me after my 152 and out run at the New Jersey State Championships in Parsippany last year to do this exhibition and we agreed on the 31st.

I was very excited to talk about my favorite game and give some insights here and there about pool in general. For the very first time I was playing on a 10foot table and I wish I could call myself an owner of such a beautiful table one day.

The crowd, all gentlemen and one lady were very knowledgable and helped me throughout the two hour session with interesting questions. The day ended with a nice dinner in one of the clubs private rooms.

A big thank to Lawrence and the University Club as well as to all the straight pool lovers who attended my exhibition. I hope I can do it again in the future...

Derby City Classic

2008-02-06T16:22:00.000-05:00

9-Ball Banks, One-Pocket, 9-Ball, Straight Pool Challenge, One Pocket Challenge, Mini-Tournaments, Carom and Artistic plus action, action, action and more - The Derby City Classic !

To be honest - it is a bit controversial in my opinion. I wanna promote pool as a professional sport. Clean, serious but fun, no smoking, no gambling. The Derby City Classic promotes the exact opposite what I am fighting for. Action and Gambling. Sometimes it is even hard to distinguish between a gambling match and an exhibition match, I know. And I have to admit, it is cool when you are here and wether it is day or night, the place is always packed with people playing for money. But will it change the image of Pool for the better ? Will parents send their kids to the pool room to learn a new sport if they see what's going on here ? I don't know the answer. I just wanna share my thoughts. What do you think ?

People come here with different expectations and goals. I personally like the Derby because it gives me the opportunity to practice my other games like Bank Pool and One-Pocket. Since Derby City Classic founder Greg Sullivan with the help of Bob Jewett added the Straight Pool competition it is even more fun for me. I don't gamble at all but it's cool to see what's going on here.

The tournament started as every year with the 9-Ball Banks devision. American Airlines screwed up my flight from New York to Louisville, so I ended up missing the first round. About 450 players had signed up at this unusual format. Let me explain how it works...

It's a single elimination tournament with a new draw every new round. Every player has the option of a buy back, which means no matter which round you lose your match, you have one chance to buy yourself back in. Even if the first match you lose is the final.
Sometimes there is an odd number of players, so one lucky guy gets a by.

There is no exact schedule. Because of this system, the tournament director has to wait for each round to finish completely before he can do the next draw. That means players have to stand by and wait. Sometimes you go there and you are told: "Next draw is approximately at 5.30pm". So you show up at that time but then you are told: "7pm". My advice: Bring a book, a playstation or start writing a blog...

So I missed the first round of the Banks but bought myself right back in. I was practicing for the 9-Ball Banks in New York City with Randy Goldwater every day for a few hours and wanted to do well. I survived the next few rounds until I found my master in Jose Parica, a former winner of the Bank-devision. The year before I finished in the top 15, a good accomplishment for me.

Winner of the Banks: Larry Price

The One Pocket was next. The game I have the least experience in but boy, I did well. At the end I finished 10th out of again more than 400 players. I had to bow to Scott Frost and Shannon Daulton. Both just have much more knowledge in this game than I do, but I was extremely happy with my performance. I even beat Alan Hopkins on the tv-table :-)

Here a possible development of a one-pocket game. Look how the balls slowly move uptable...

Winner of the One-Pocket: Gabe Owen

I don't really wanna talk about the 9-Ball. So, let's just skip it. But let me be a typical pool player and give the excuse that I was really sick :-P

Winner of the 9-Ball: Ralf Souquet

There was an extra prize of 20 000 $ for the overall point winner after all three disciplines which went to: Francisco Bustamante

I also participated in Bob Jewett's Straight Pool competition. We Straight Pool lovers have to say a big big thank you to Bob. Not only he added 10 000 $ out of his own pocket to the event, he spent the whole day from 10am in the morning until late late at night inside the little room writing down scores of us players. Thank you Bob !!!

For 100$ entry fee I had 12 tries to score a high run. Every day's high run was awarded with a bonus prize. The top eight highscore shooters would meet in a single elemination tournament.

I ran 98, 98, 98 some 50's and 60's and qualified for the last stage, but lost to Niels Feijen in three innings race to 150 in the quarter final. The winner of the Straight Pool competition, a surprise I am sure for all of us was - Darren Appleton who beat Niels in the final. Congratulations Darren ! I am expecting more from you in the future...

I didn't really follow all the other events, including the gambling so I can't give any informations or stories about that. Overall I enjoy playing the Derby and one day I might be able to do really well in the One-Pocket or the Banks...

Updates...

2008-02-06T16:14:00.000-05:00

Hey there,

sorry for not updating my blog for a whole month. I took me more than four weeks to get over a flu and I have been travelling between Jacksonville and New York a lot.
Very soon my blog will receive a brand new look. Much cleaner and nicer in my opinion. A few stories about my performance at the Derby City Classic, my exhibition at the University Club of New York City and Tony Robles new tour will also follow very soon...

Give me some feedback !

Super Cup Final

2008-01-02T06:12:00.001-05:00

Just a quick note to complete my tournament report...

With another superb performance in the final recently crowned World Junior Champion 2007 Ko Pin-Yi defeated Superman Roberto Gomez from the Philippines with 10:4 and keeps the trophy in Taiwan.

Bottom: The top three finishers of the 2007 Taiwan Super Cup !

After the award ceremony we all went to a Taiwanese restaurant on the top floor of the TaiMall. After some good food and a couple drinks a small group including Rodney, Marcus, Ralf, Illy, the Filipinos, the Japanese and myself went to downtown Taipei. We barely made it in time to the former Asia World Plaza hotel to watch the spectacular firework show from the open air roof of the building. The worlds tallest building, the 101 in Taipei was transformed into a giant countdown firework bomb and we witnessed this surely unique firework for several minutes...

Here a link:

Taipei 101 New Year Firework 2008

I wanna wish all of you a Happy New Year 2008 !

Super Cup Day 3+4

2007-12-31T03:47:00.000-05:00

Sorry, could not update last night. Wasn't much positive to report from my point of view anyways. I lost both matches to Chang and Morris and finished 6th in my group.

The Chang match on table one went back and forth. Ultimately I never got a shot after the break and that kept me from getting into a rythmn.

Rodney and I actually fought a nice battle. We both made some great outs with quiet some trickshots and he deserved to beat me. Rodney qualified for the quarterfinal but wasn't lucky at all in his match against Roberto Gomez and finished 5th.

Gomez went on to beat Fu double hill after Fu scratched on the break at 6:6 and is now waiting for his opponent in the final.

On the other side Ko Pin-Yi is slaughtering everybody. I witnessed the last rack against Wu Chia-Ching when Ko kicked a ball in, cut the next, then jumped, cut the eight and banked the nine in to win the match.

The semi final between Yang and Ko was a thriller. Ko ran rack after rack to climb the hill first with 6:2 and then missed a shot. Now it was all Yang catching up to 5:6.

I am sitting in my room and watching the rest of the match live on tv even though you won't notice by reading this...

Yang broke, made a ball, but the cueball and the 2-Ball ended up very close to each other. The only shot was a super tricky 2-9 combination and Yang missed. Ko came with some terrific shots, I mean brilliant shots and ran out the game !

Roberto Gomez and Ko Pin-Yi for the crowne !

Super Cup Day 2 (12.29.07)

2007-12-29T10:09:00.000-05:00

For me Day number two was the reverse of day number one. I started with a fantastic match against Jeff De Luna from the Philippines. I closed the match with five break and runs 7:1.

Table two seems top break very easily. The corner ball went in every single time that I broke and the one ball travelled three rails in ideal position for the cueball which I controlled near the center of the table. But it wasn't only me running racks. Every match on table two that I watched - the same story - one break and run after another...

I was looking forward to play Wu Chia Ching again. I haven't beaten him in a long time but I guess I have to wait for my next chance to come. 3:0 for me when the match completely slipped away. I made a bunch of mistakes and he capitalized. It wasn't the best match from the both of us - final result: 4:7 for the youngster from Taiwan.

Our group is a tough call. Only Wu hasn't lost yet, the rest has 3:1 or 2:2 records. Tomorrow will decide who advances into the quarterfinals on monday.

I still have Chang Jung-Lin and Rodney Morris left to play. Jung-Lin stands 2:2, Rodney stands 3:1, it's going to be a nailbiter...

Finally !!! For general amusement here the link to the dance performance of Wu Chia Ching and Ko Pin-Yi

Wu - Ko DanceShow

And here is another one. The video that was made as an introduction for the SuperCup. I don't understand Mandarin, but I think they are making fun of the foreigners. Very funny ! Have to mention that all actors in this video are Taiwanese pro pool players.

SuperCup Clip

Let me know how you like it !

Super Cup Day 1 (12.28.07)

2007-12-28T11:17:00.000-05:00

Day one finshed with a happy end for me. But let me start from the beginning...

It was me versus Fu Che Wei from Taiwan to start off the tournament as the first match of the day. Unfortunately it was all Fu and not me to correct my statement. I had my chance in the first rack after breaking the balls. I made a tricky combination but got hooked at the same time. I kicked, but left him a shot. 0:1 Next rack he came dry on the break but I missed an easy 5-Ball. 0:2 After that it was all Fu. 0:7 - have a nice day...

My second match of the day was also the last match of day number one against Japanese Hayato Hijikata. Hijikata had lost his first match 6:7, also to Fu Che-Wei so we both needed the win badly.

I started out great by running some racks and achieving a comfortable 5:0 lead. Maybe I didn't focus enough when I played the 3-Ball off the 8-Ball to clear the path for the 7-Ball. My draw came to short for position on the 4-Ball and I ended up losing that rack. The momentum shifted and I saw Hijikata with his powerbreak climbing all the way to the hill 5:6 but then he didn't make a ball on his sledgehammer-break. I ran the rack and finished the game with a 9-Ball on the break. Lucky me...

It's unbelievable how a game can swing from one side to the other. Back and forth...

The winner break race to 7 format is brutal. Especially on those kinda big pocket tables. I saw so many players stringing four and five-packs together today, it's ridiculous.

Afterwards I went to the local poolroom with Marcus and Rodney and I was introduced to a cool (for me) new game. It was Wu Chia Ching, Fu Che-Wei and Lu Hui-Chan playing the following carom-game on a pool table...

There are four balls on the table. The cueball, the yellow 1-Ball, the red 3-Ball and the red-striped 11-Ball.

First you gotta make a carom with the yellow and one of the red balls.
If accomplished you need next a carom with the two red balls.
And then you need to hit all three balls with one shot.
Only three good shots in a row would bring one point !

Let me give you an easy example how you could score (use the page arrow to see all 3 pages)...

Here some more of my Taiwanese pool images...

It's late already. Gotta go to sleep. Next opponents for me later today are Jeff De Luna and Wu Chia Ching. Stay tuned...

Super Cup

2007-12-26T06:18:00.000-05:00

This years Super Cup takes place from December 28th till December 31th in Taoyuan / Taiwan. Taoyuan is approximately 45 minutes carride from capital Taipei City. 14 players from around the globe have been invited to compete at the TaiMall, one of the countless malls here in Taiwan.

I arrived in Taoyuan on the 26th after spending Christmas with my parents and family in my home city Fulda in Germany. It had been more than seven month without seeing my family and friends, so I was happy to get at least a few days to hang out with them. But job was calling...

I found out that there are over 4000 !!! poolrooms in Taiwan. There must be more than 60 000 pool tables in this country. No wonder Taiwanese players are the most feared competators in the world of pool...

The Super Cup started with a playermeeting and a press conference. Highlight no doubt was the dance performance of Wu Chia Ching and Ko Pin-Yi. I took a video, will try to upload it when I have a better connection. The two World Champions dancing with there cues on the stage to funky music - hillarious !

Let me list the invited players. Here we go:

Group A

Chang Jung Lin (Taiwan)
Thorsten Hohmann (Germany)
Wu Chia Ching (Taiwan)
Jeff De Luna (Philippines)
Rodney Morris (USA)
Fu Che Wei (Taiwan)
Hayato Hijikata (Japan)

Group B

Yang Ching Shun (Taiwan) defending champion
Lu Hui Chan (Taiwan) replaced Shane van Boening (got stuck in bad weather in US)
Ralf Souquet (Germany)
Roberto Gomez (Philippines)
Kuo Po Cheng (Taiwan)
Marcus Chamat (Sweden)
Ko Pin-Yi (Taiwan)

We are playing 9-Ball, race to seven, winner breaks. Two groups, round robin, the second and third place finisher of each group is qualified for the quarter final. The winner of each group is automatically seeded for the semi final...

My first match in on the 28th at Noon Taiwanese time against Fu Che Wei. All matches live on Taiwanese television. Keep your fingers crossed...

Steve Mizerak Championship

2007-12-06T09:52:00.000-05:00

I made my decision to go to Hollywood and participate in the Steve Mizerak Championship, the final tournament of the Seminole Florida Pro Tour only two days prior to the event. I had long skype conversations with Mika whether we should go or not. I finally found a good deal, a straight flight for a reasonable price. I also convinced Mika to give it a shot. Interestingly he was the one to kick me out of the tournament....he should buy me dinner at least now that I think about it...

The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is one of the most beautiful hotels I have stayed in. Located only 15minutes away from the Fort Lauderdale airport and 30 minutes from Miami beach. We had 83degrees Fahrenheit and I am looking back with a tear in my eye writing these lines...30degrees in New York City right now. I am freezing my butt off...

The arena, the Hard Rock Live hall with plenty of seating and 16 Diamond tables, a perfect venue for such an event. I wish more speactators would have shown up. I guess thats the major problem in pool. The organizers even provided the players with a nice lounge, comfortable chairs, free soda's and snacks.

The evening before the tournament there was a charity event with some sport celebrities. I could not make it but I heard it was nice and the Seminole's must have spent a lot of money on the buffet...

Stroke it ! Check out Tony's and Natalie's store !

The tournament was handled well by Kevin Pickard and Brenna Mello. The game was 10-Ball, race to 8, winner breaks.

I had a bye in the first round and then Angelina Paglia for my second match. I played horrible and she was supposed to beat me but I came through at the end. There were a bunch of girls participating and the Seminole's had added bonus money for the three best women finishers.

After another victory I had to face Mika next. I played well and beat him 8:4. My next match was with Nathan Rose and he didn't show up at first. Someone told him the wrong time so I was waiting for him to arrive. We started late, it wasn't my best match but I succeeded.

Final four on the winner side - wow - it has been a long time...

And then when I was just about to say: "Tap tap Thorsten. I am proud of you." - I dogged it.

I was having some problems with the tip of my cue and being too concerned I missed an easy 9-Ball in the first rack against Rodney. He cleared and ran the next three - score 0:4...

I made a good comeback with three runs on my side - score 4:4...

The match went back and forth with some mistakes on both sides. Rodney was the first to reach the hill but left me a shot. I cleared but came dry on the break at 7:7.

Twice Rodney missed position, at last he hooked himself, kicked but left me a shot at the 7-Ball. It was almost straight in with the cueball almost frozen to the rail. I was limited in my cueball control, made the 7-Ball, just passed the 8-Ball and ended up pretty straight on the 8-Ball with less than a chalk width distance (use page arrow to view 2 pages).

Usually the German pope would have made this shot with his scepter on one leg standing, singing a psalm in latin. But I rushed into the shot, happy that I wasn't tight up with the 8-Ball and.....fouled, by not even driving the ball to a rail.

Frustrated I conceded the match to Rodney, who thankful ended up winning the tournament...

In my last match I couldnt bounce back and saw Mika performing well against me.

One little thought I want to bring in here... Yes, I felt disappointed, angry with myself and frustrated. But you can always talk to me right after my match. I am very realistic and being to mad at myself and my environment won't change what just had happened. People say: "Well, you won't make the same mistake again." But I say: "No, I will make it again. It happened in the past and it will happen again." We are all humans and make mistakes. We just have to deal with it and accept it. I know I will celebrate great victories in the future. But I also know I will suffer from hard losses too. It's part of the game.

I know everybody is different. Some people you better leave alone for the rest of the day and thats fine. But if you see me dogging it in the future like a D+ player, just come over, put your arms around my shoulder and buy me a drink...
And in case I win another big title...let me buy you a drink...

I wanna take this opportunity to thank John DiTorro. He let me and Luciene stay in his room during the tournament. I saved a lot of money, it was super convenient and part of my little success. Also thanks to my new friend Hunter Lombardo. What a cool guy he is and talented. Hunter took us to his house in West Palm Beach and showed us around. We had a blast and I hope I can come back soon...

Here a few pics from my very first trip to Miami Beach. Thanks for the great day Neil and Monica !!!

The upcoming season has been scheduled already. I will try to play in as many Seminole Pro Tour stops as possible. Here is the schedule:

See you on tour...

All Japan Championship

2007-12-05T22:05:00.002-05:00

First things first. Just arrived in Tokio, waiting for our connection flight to Osaka/Itami, Mika and I we had to had sushi ! Oishii des

Arrived in Japan the first thing you will notice is how clean, organized and strict this country is. Of all the places in Asia I have travelled to Japan reminds me of Germany the most. Once you have figured out how to read the bus schedule you better make sure if the bus leaves at 7.35 to be there ON TIME. One minute later and you will have to wait for the next one, no exceptions...

The taxi price is compared to what I had to pay the week before in the Philippines outrageous. 40 US $ from the airport to the hotel, in Manila it would have cost me less than 4 US $...

Japan is very organized. Even the birds follow certain "sitting on a pole rules"

And Japan is about food. I have never been interested in sushi until I met my girlfriend Luciene. She really got me into appreciating the Japanese cuisine. I love it
So, the All Japan Championship started with a playermeeting and - a buffet !

The All Japan Championship is the tournament with the longest history in the world of billiards. 40 years the event has been around !!! It was only my second appearance after 2003 when I finished in third place...

The venue, the hall of the New Archaic Hotel in Amagasaki has nothing spectacular to offer but tables organized and lined up in the center of the arena and seating for the spectators on the left and the right. The tournament director desk has evenything under control...

Unfortunately my tournament story is again - short. I would like to mention my opponents names, but I only saw the Japanese characters on the scoreboards and I didn't make the effort to draw it down.

Anyway, I was leading my first match 8:4 when I pretty much didn't get a chance again. He started running racks and leaving deadly safeties. The last clearance was excellent and I found myself after the first round on the loser side already...

After beating my next opponent the same old story from match number one happened again to me. I was winning 8:4, missed a railshot and had only one more visit with a three rail kickshot which I missed and the tournament was over for me...

The other two Euorpean did better. Mika and Ralf finished 3rd and 4th. Taiwanese Wu Chia Ching collected another title by winning the 40th edition of the All Japan Championships.

There is one interesting thing to mention: "The Draw" It was very obvious that the draw has been tweaked a bit. On every sheet the "foreigners" had to battle it out by themselves, while the other side was completely filled with Japanese players. Every single sheet, so there was a guaranteed Japanese player in the further round...

I started the post with food. So I want to end it with food as well...

Ever had Okonomiyaki Mr Neumann ?

Dumaguete Trip

2007-11-18T23:45:00.001-05:00

It was my first time in Dumaguete. Invited by Puyat Sports everything was taking care of. My flight, my transportation and accomodation. Dumaguete is a city in the Visayas, just south of Cebu island. It took us one hour flight from Manila.

After the arrival a police escort cleared the way to the convention center where a brief opening ceremony was held. The highlight for me was the performance of the song "Prayer" by two local children - wow, two fantastic voices...
The same evening we were invited for a dinner at one of the local restaurants.

Probably the best 32men field I have ever seen. Some of the players were

Johnny Archer
Corey Deuel
Ralf Souquet
Mika Immonen
Wu Chia Ching
Yang Shin Chung
Efren Reyes
Ronny Alcano
Francisco Bustamante
Niels Feijen
Alex Pagulayan
Kunihiko Takahashi
Rodolfo Luat
Ramil Gallego
and Thorsten Hohmann

The following day we had a press conference. One funny thing happened. There was one funny local reporter who asked Niels about his 0:11 lost to Roberto Gomez during the World Championships. Niels gave a nice answer but the reporter wasn't happy. He asked again.. Yeah, but what's your comment to your 0:11 desaster against Gomez. How can you prepare yourself mentally for this event after losing 0:11?" - very rude this guy...

Again there was a buffet set up. Filipino's like to eat...

The center court arena was nice. The tournament was broadcasted live in the region and recorded for airing a couple month later on national tv on Solar Sports...

There were five Puyat tables set up on the other side of the building. Unfortunately the room had no carpet and the floor was very slippery. Wet towels were places everywere so players were able to wet'n their shoes for a better grip.

The players, media and guest were put in two different hotels. My place with Ralf, Niels, Mika, Corey and some Filipinos was a little resort at the beach. We didn't have warm water or windows, but therefore a nice ocean view and plenty of mosquitos. And mosquitos love my blood. Every night they came to visit me. And the good host that I am, I provided them with plenty of food...The liked my hospitality and came back every night.

The tournament story is short and simple. The draw brough me Wu Chia Ching in the first round who destroyed me. I wasn't able to adjust to the speedy table in the corner and Wu played decent.
My first loser round match I had pretty much under control, but again I found an early out in the tournament after the next round against Warren Kiamco on the same table as my first match. I wish I would have played on the tv table which played much slower and controllable as all the other ones...

The best day I had the following day, when Johnny Archer asked me to join them for an adventure tour organized by some American's who have a little adventure ATV business in Dumaguete.

It was me, Johnny Archer, Rob Saez, Niels Feijen and his girlfriend Katrine Jensen. We started our trip with one of the guides, a girl. The ride was smooth and easy...

We drove uphill further and further. We saw a lot of local people and waved at them. All of them were friendly and waved back at us. Only when they saw me they had to laugh. Because dirt keep flying into my face and eyes I found some googles which looked more like a diver mask and I had to put it on. I have to admit I looked a little dumb, but it was practical...

We made a bunch of stops to enjoy the view and get something to drink. The first time I spend 3 1/2 hours driving and my thumb still hurts from giving gas...

The was one little path we had to drive downhill and it was pretty damn dangerous. Huge rocks and deep whole were covering the tiny path down and we had to be very carefull. I almost fell and Rob actually did. But when we all made it down with no injuries we were very relieved...

Soon it started raining and we had to put on our cool yellow ponchos. It was even more fun then and we left the good paved roads and into the muddy, stoney jungle of Dumaguete...

Johnny is so funny and a very good driver. There were so many cows on the way and everytime he saw one, he drove straight towards it and honkted at it. I should have taken a video or at least taken a picture. I have never seen a cow jump sideways with all four legs - hillarious !

The night came and with it a bad ass rain-thunderstrom. And of course, it had to happen - in the middle of nowhere Rob's ATV broke down. We first tried to fix it, but there was no way. All of a sudden it was pitch black and we were surrounded by lightening and frightning thunderrolls...

Before we had agreed to watch out for each other. Always keep an eye on the driver behind you. But now it was - everybody on his own. The guide raced downhill. We had a hard time following. The streets were flooded and I was barely able to see. I had to hold my poncho with one hand and drive with the other. It was fast, dangerous and I loved it !

We finally made it back. What a trip. I was soaking wet like everybody. My muscles soar but full of adrenaline and happiness. Hope we can do it again one day !

I wanna mention that the first four places in the tournament went to the Philippines. Alex Pagulayan beat Ramil Gallego in the final. I left Dumaguete the day before to spend more time with my friends in Manila but I heard next year there will be a huge tournament again in Dumaguete with 50 000 US $ to the winner. Sounds like I will be back...

Manila here I come

2007-10-29T12:13:00.000-04:00

I have been sitting here for three hours now. 20 minutes more to go and I will enjoy my emergency exit seat at the window of this huge monster plane.
There was a friendly woman at the Japan Airlines check in desk who coincidentally comes from the Philippines. After mentioning that I am best friends with Efren "Bata" Reyes she tagged my luggage as priority and gave me the best seat in the house upstairs (economy)

Just found out about my first match on th 5th. It's going to be aganist the talented kid from Taiwan Ko Pin-Yi who just won the third qualifier in Manila. Won't be an easy match.

Manila here I come...

Halloween morning

Well, I arrived at 9.50pm on Tuesday the 30th in Manila. The flight was long but not too bad. I had a connection in Tokio and was picked up by my friend Ernie right outside the plane in Manila. He is da man and everybody knows him at the airport !

Ernie skipped all the lines at the immigration desk, even the diplomat line (pool players should be treated like that all over the world ;-)

After having a late dinner with my friends Biboy and Marika I hit the sheets around 2am, but found myself awake at 6am in the morning again.

About an hour later downstairs, enjoying my breakfast I see three German fellows walking in armed with their cue cases. You can guess the answer of my question "Coming or going to practice?"

Thursday, 1st

Two more days to go before the tournament starts. More and more players are coming into the city. Most of the action happens at a poolroom called Oneside. Gambling around the clock, all the filipino stars are there, the place is packed. I have never been there before, but I might check it out myself one of these days. Sure, I will take some pictures...

I prefer the homie atmosphere like the poolroom Sidespin (former Ferrule). The place is small, very nice with new recovered tables. The people are very friendly and I feel comfortable here.

I spent a few hours practicing at the tight pocket table near the entrance and enjoyed great company with my friends Bogee and Biboy. Jay Helfert was there too. We played for an hour and had a nice chat. I will go there again tonight. Ralf Souquet and Thomas Engert have promised there appearance too.

Took me a while to update I know. I wasn't too happy with my performance. Gonna try to be more up to date in the future...

I didn't get out of the group stage. First time ever. I guess this tournament was symptomatic for my year.

Lost my first match against Ko Pin-Yi. He is 18years of age and a very promising Taiwanese player for the future. Very composed with great technique he didn't make too many errors against me. There are three Taiwanes juniors with great potential. Wu Chia Ching already became World Champion with 16. Another Wu, double Junior World Champion was supposed to be the best of the three but as usual he is the laziest of all. The Taiwanese coach sees in Ko Pin-Yi the star for the future. Well....he has my name on his belt already...

I played okay against Ko, but against I definately didn't get the rolls. A very early out turned me all to soon into a spectator.

Here are some impressions of the tournament...

I spent a lot of time at the venue, even after I was out. For most of the time I thought Bustamante is gonna make it. He seemed to be on a mission. He needed average two to three innings to finish a set to 10 or 11. I saw the controversial situation against Daryl Peach on tv and my first impression was foul. The score was 10:9 for Bustamante when Django broke, had a possible out but himself on the two ball. He kicked and kissed the 9 in. BUT - he hit the 9 first. It was the closest call I have ever seen. The referee Nigel watched the shot over and over again on tv. Finally he made the right decision - foul. Daryl Peach proved his mental strengh and cleared the table and the next rack to win the match.
Some people say he was not suppose to ask for the replay on tv and he should have made a decision right away. But I don't blame him. It was a very tough call and why not use the replay when the situation allows.
I feel sorry for Bustamante, he is overdue to win a title. Well he had his chance and somehow he always seem to lose in the quarterfinal or semifinal. Weird...

Great tournament for the Europeans. With Vilmos Foeldes, Karl Boyes and Daryl Peach three out of four players from Europe in the Semis - respect.

Daryl showed strong nerves. He had to fight 3000 Filipinos in the final. Eventually that is what cost Roberto Gomez the title. He was dominating all of his matches, won 10:1, 10:2, 11:0 and 11:4. The softbreak was working for him (One little comment on the softbreak - it's terrible for the spectators. I heard the tv ratings dropped because of that. It's just plain boring. I am sure next year Matchroom is going to do something against it) Gomez was facing a lot of new circumstances in the final. Matchroom replaced table one with table two, which meant the softbreak wasn't working anymore. Also Gomez never had a close match in the tournament, the final should be different. At the end Gomez was a broken man. You could tell by his bodylanguage that he had lost his confidence. The screaming and yelling spectators just intensified the pressure on him. That's why he missed a very easy Nineball when the score was 15:15.

After the event I got to hang out a few days with my friends here in Manila. We finally went to OneSide. Looks like nobody there know that I don't gamble, because as soon as I opened the door, I had ten guys jumping on me, ready to get some action...

US-Open 9-Ball Championship

2007-10-16T20:53:00.000-04:00

The US-Open finally started for me too. I guess thank my UPA ranking I was seeded for the event and didn't have to play on Sunday. On top of that I caught one of the tournaments bye's which meant an extra day off. I don't know if it's good or bad skipping two rounds. Well, yeah - I'm two rounds advanced but also lost the opportunity to get used to the equipment and switch on the competition mode.

I'm sitting here near table one counting the spectators on a Tuesday evening. Pretty good in my opinion. I'm sure the convention center will be packed at the weekend.

Played my first match at 3pm against Paul Scarboro. It was one of those matches you don't really wanna talk about. I had problems with the speed of the rails and the break. Only made a ball once or twice and had only one run out. We are playing break from the box and maybe I should head over to Q-masters tomorrow to work on that.My confidence weakened during the game with the result that I missed a lot of easy shots. My opponent played some great safeties but could not take advantage of my bad play. I ended up beating him 11:5.

Again I have more then one day off. My next game is scheduled for 9pm tomorrow night against Lee Holt.

Mika lost yesterday double hill to Japans Naoyuki Oi . He now has something like 150 matches ahead of him to win the tournament, but he can do it. Rodney was down 2:8 and I am just witnessing an incredible comeback. 9:8 for the rocket.

The US-Open is probably the event every pool player dreams of winning besides the World Championship. It's still my dream too. Good when I think about it - to still have a big dream. But I want one of the green jackets. They are ugly but I want one :-)

Pretty much every country is present. The Filippinios with Francisco Bustamante, Efren Reyes, Jose Parica, Dennis Orcullo, Ronnie Alcano and Alex Pagulayan. The Europeans with Ralf Souquet, Daryl Peach, Niels Feijen, Mika Immonen, Marcus Chamat, Fabio Petroni and myself. America with Earl Strickland, Johnny Archer, Shane van Boening, Rodney Morris, Corey Deuel, etc... But I miss the great Taiwanese players like Shin Chun Yang, Wu Chia Ching, Fong Pang Chao or Pei Wei Chang. They would add some spice to the tournament.

Check back as I will add some news when time allows. Hope I won't have to much time as the tournament progresses...

Oh, Rodney just won...amazing !

Wednesday, 17th 2007 (late)

Well, I guess my extra training session at Q-Masters today has paid off. I played Lee Holt tonight and at least 350% better than yesterday. I still had trouble making balls on the break, but at least I didn't miss to many shots and made some nice tough run outs. Final score was 11:5 again.

The tournament continues for me tomorrow at 7pm with a re-match against Tyler Edey from Canada. He kicked me out of the World 9-Ball Championships last year in Manila so I should be prepared to play best.

Thursday, 18th (11pm)

Let's face it - I played terrible. I just didn't feel comfortable at all. He played better and deserved to beat me, even though I had my chances. Was down 4:8 and came back with two run-outs and a break nine to make it even 8:8. I was supposed to go up 9:8 but missed an easy shot on an open table. He then cleared from there and broke and ran the next to go on the hill. I had a chance but dogged an easy nine. Symptomatic for the match. Lost 8:11

Well, I will have to play again tonight. Or should I say tomorrow ? 12:30 (late) it's what it says on the score board. Of course I am a little disappointed but I will try my best to recover...

1.20am

Decided to play at 11am instead. Gallego and Bollman still playing to determine my opponent...

Friday, 19th

I will keep it short. Ramil Gallego from the Philippines beat me bad - 6:11 ! He then continued his destruction by eliminating Francisco Bustamante, Mike Davis, Efren Reyes, Jose Parica and Corey Deuel. Great performance. Respect !

Winner side final tomorrow is going to be Shane van Boening versus Tomoki Mikari for the hotspot. Remaining players on the loser side: Ralf Souquet, Ronato Alcano, Ramil Gallego, Louis Ulrich and Dennis Orcullo.

Who will win ?

Sent from my iPhone

Marcus wins Mini-Tournament

2007-10-15T01:13:00.000-04:00

Saturday noon we started our little warm up tournament at Amsterdam Billiards. I think we all got some good practice for the following week in Chesapeake. I am sure the spectators saw some fun matches. People showed up numerous and appreciated great shots with applause. It's always fun to play here...

Tournament organizer Rolando Avera had everything under control !

Marcus crushed us all, undefeated! Tony came in second. Tony, Mika and I had three wins versus two loses. Rodney and Raj have to put in some extra hours at qMasters before the Open...

Ride to Virginia

It took us two hours to get out of Manhattan. 9pm we made it through the Holland tunnel.

Raj and Rodney were listening to a comedy channel the whole ride. Each break the both would give us a little stand up improvisation for our entertainment...

We finally arrived at 3.30 am in Chesapeake. Glad the player meeting is at 4pm...

US-Open Warm-Up Tournament

2007-10-11T19:48:00.000-04:00

To all pool fans in the New York area !

There is going to be a round robin "US-Open warm-up" tournament at Amsterdam Billiards on Saturday starting at noon. The game is 9-Ball !

The six players participating are:

Marcus Chamat (Sweden)
Thorsten Hohmann (Germany)
Tony Robles (New York City)
Rodney Morris (Hawaii)
Mika Immonen (Finland)
Raj Hundal (England)

Amsterdam Billiards owner Greg Hunt, Randy Goldwater and Joel Schapiro from New York City are adding 1500 $ to the mini-tournament. Fans are welcome !

Oh, by the way... afterwards we are all riding down in the same van to Virginia. Loser drives...

New York City

2007-10-08T14:54:00.000-04:00

Let me give me you some impressions where I've been spending some time...

I like to go running along the Hudson River. The Riverbank State Park is just a few blocks away. Here you can play tennis, basketball, soccer, ice-skating, etc. They have an indoor olympic size swimming pool and for the fun an outdoor pool as well. No pool billiard tables though, but I was recognized once as a professional pool player by a bus driver who watches pool on tv. Isn't that cool....

I could consider myself as a Harlem Globetrotter. If you think my neighborhood is dangerous, you are wrong. Stop watching tv and play more pool.

World famous Amsterdam Billiards near Union Square. If you walk in this week you might find top players such as Tony Robles, Mika Immonen, Marcus Chamat, Rodney Morris and myself getting ready for the US-Open next week.

Oh, I found these shoes in Shoemania. Real Adidas....maybe I should send them my proposal for possible sponsorship. Don't you think they would look nice with my black trousers and dress shirt ?

Jack Colavita Memorial New Jersey State Straight Pool Championship

2007-09-28T18:55:00.000-04:00

Hi Straight Pool Lovers,

I am in Parsippany, right here at beautiful Comet Billiards. We are just about to start the 6th edition of the Jack Colavita Memorial New Jersey State Straight Pool Championship.

Many great players have shown up, such as Tony Robles, Danny Barouty, Jonathan Smith, Mike Davis, Tom Walter and many more, including me ;-)
The tables are playing great. I just ran a 130 balls in practice and I am sure we will see some great Straight Pool matches with many high runs during the event.

We were supposed to play with 16 players, but Comet owner Bill Haley gave Jim Gottier from New York City an extra spot, so that we are playing a 32 player chart with a lot of bye's in the first round.
And that's why I am not playing tonight. I have to wait for the Mike Davis versus Ed Hodan match to finish. I am going to meet the winner tomorrow.

I am gonna use my iPhone to post updates about the event here on my blog. Check it out !

10.45pm

- Tony Robles came very close winning the 100$ bonus for the first 100ball run of the tournament. He was on 93 when he played a great combination to open up the stack but the cueball found it's way through all the balls into the corner pocket. No luck...

- Featured matches of this round as far as I can see are Mike Davis against Ed Hodan and Danny Barouty against Steve Lilis. Both matches very close so far...

I wanna mention that I love this pool room. Great ambiance, great tables, very clean and so friendly people. There is even a free buffet here tonight ! Pool fans in the area - drive your car to Comet Billiards and check this tournament out live !
Anybody else - read my updates ! ;-)

Saturday, 3pm

Sorry, it was kind of late yesterday and I couldn't post the last results of the day. We had to drive back to Manhattan and there was crazy traffic going into the city. Didn't get to sleep before 3am in the morning.

Well, Ed Hodan beat Mike Davis so my first opponent was Ed. I started out with some good runs but silly mistakes at the end of each run and lead the match 143:7. Ed came back with a 83 and 24 until I finally escaped with 150:114.

My next game against Jonathan Smith was simple. He broke and I ran the 150 balls and out unfinished ;-) whoo-hoo...

The four players on the winners side playing at 5pm

Barouty vs Robles

Walter vs Hohmann

On the one loss side playing right now

The winner of Bill Horn and Ed Hodan plays Carmen Lombardo

Jim Gottier vs Bob Madenjian

Don Polo vs Jonathan Smith

Winner of Steve Lillis and Mike Davis vs Ed Deska

Saturday 8.00pm

I have to admit - I am a little frustrated. After a flawless performance earlier my last match was a desaster. Walter played quite well, finished the match with a 46ball run. But I took too many wrong decision, too many terrible safeties and some weird misses. Anyway, I am still alive...

Tony Robles just beat Danny Barouty and is gonna meet Walter in the winner side final tomorrow.

Unfortunately we are running a little late. I was supposed to play at 8pm but the match to determine my opponent hasn't even started yet...

Saturday, 9pm

In the next match against Jim Gottier, I had calmed down and put the recent lost behind. Jim scratched on the break, and I countered with an intentional foul. Soon we had 2 fouls each. In a safety attempt Jim left me a shot while the cue ball was buried in the pack. From there I ran 152 and out! More to report tomorrow!

Sunday

I made a nice comeback against Danny Barouty. Danny only needed one more rack but he missed on an open table. I ran 89 and out from there.

In the semifinal I got my revenge with Tom Walter who had just lost to Tony Robles. The match was medium okay, I had some medium runs but no problem winning 150:46.

Final Robles vs. Hohmann

The final took more than four hours. Tony started with a 80+ run but scratched in the side. I was just getting into my rhythm when I had a skid on a side pocket shot. From there the match went back and forth. I was the first player to reach 150 so the match was extended to 200 points. A stupid position error forced me to go for another break shot than I originally had planned. I was trying to stun the cueball into position for the breakshot but missed by a mile. Tony closed the match with a nice 63 ball run.

The first place for me would have been the icing on the cake. I had a 150 and out, another 152 and out (both caught on DVD), plus several nice high runs but I just could'nt keep it up in the end. I am still happy with my overall performance and I won the bonus for the first 100ball run of the tournament and the high run of the tournament. The week of fitness and pool has paid off I think. Tony deserved the win and I am really happy for him. Just have to make sure he buys me dinner next week ;-)

Thorsten
Sent from my iPhone

This past week...

2007-09-24T21:39:00.000-04:00

Had a great week with some good practice. I am still not 100% happy with my game but I am doing the right things. As you can see from the image below I have been doing a lot of physical activities. I am feeling much better and it helps my game a lot. The Yoga on wednesday really got me - I hadnt eaten all day and was still a little sore from the running in the morning. I really pushed myself and afterwards I had to vomit. Everybody was making fun of me...

I was practicing some drills, mostly working on my stroke and playing a lot of Straight Pool. Three poolrooms I wanna mention - Amsterdam Billiards, Broadway Billiards, both in Manhattan and CueBar in Bayside.

Looking forward to this week full of pool and work out. The weather supposed to be nice in New York for a few days and at the end of the week I have the Jack Colavita Memorial in Parsippany / New Jersey.

Going to talk some pool very soon...

Error 404 - lucky error

2007-09-22T22:13:00.000-04:00

By the way...

The 404 Error that occurs when you try to go to my profile section is one of the most common errors on the internet. Try to open a page that doesn't exist (for example www.thorstenhohmann.com/cantplaystraightpool) and you will notice the big 404 error.

So, why did JP put it on there?

404 is also my highrun in straight pool and after completing the IPT season end of 2006 I had completed 404 racks... lucky number; thanks Roy :-)
Soon my profile section will be filled anyway...

Cut Shots Exercise

2007-09-21T12:33:00.000-04:00

Let me show you a typical shot Mr Hohmann misses a lot. Too often Mr Hohmann concluded. Mr Hohmann noticed it and started working on it. Here it is:

Instruction

Start from Cueball position A and cut ball number one in the corner - ten times without missing. Continue with ball number two, three, etc.

Next is Cueball position B and cut ball number five, six, etc...

Switch sides...

Note

Usually when I haven't been playing for a while I start with Straight Pool. It's a great way to get into your rhythm. After I ran a couple of 100+ runs I continue with other drills and exercises.

By the way, I decided to play in next weeks New Jersey State Straight Pool Championships in Parsippany. I won the event in 2003 and have very good memories. So, I guess I will be up for a lot of Straight Pool this weekend and next week before the 9-Ball is going to take over again...

Weekend with Mickey and Co....

2007-09-18T10:30:00.000-04:00

Had a fabolous weekend in Orlando. My butt has a big purple bruise from all the hardcore slides at the waterparks, but it was so much fun. Luciene, Justin, Gloria, Larry, James and I went to Disney's MGM Studios, Animal Kingdom, Typhoon Lagoon and Wet and Wild. Gloria has super connections, so we had free access and the fastpass for some of the parks :-) And because pictures say more than thousand words I have uploaded some here...

Share my pain:

Ok, that was the fun part. I'm back in New York City to get ready for the remaining tournaments this year. I haven't been performing well almost the entire year (which really sucks big time) except my European Championship 9-Ball win earlier this year (which meant a lot to me). It's tough to play 100% all the time, especially after winning such a historical event like the IPT in Vegas last year. But I will give my very best to come back again. My coach Michael promised me (despite the fact that he is afraid of flying and never been on a plane before) to come to New York City on October 3rd. I am really looking forward. Working with him always gives me a boost.

If there is anyone out there who wants to meet the probably best pool instructor in the world, or maybe even wants a lesson, contact me.

I have started "my mission" already. Went running this morning along the Hudson River. I will document my training and talk about it more on my blog this month. I thought I will pick one day and describe in detail what I am doing. A day in a life of a professional pool player I would call it. I will share some of the pool exercises that I am doing as well as my physical activities. I have some secrets to reveal and whether you are just interested in my personal training or you want some tips for your own, you should not miss out to visit my blog.

Florida life...

2007-09-12T19:00:00.000-04:00

I like coming back to Jacksonville. It's so peaceful and relaxing. I went to the beach this morning running. My heart rate monitor watch says:

Duration: 50minutes,
581calories burned; 25% fat.
I averaged 169beats per minute, my high was 182. It was hot and I think I got a little sunburn. I miss running on the beach. Central Park and the Riverside area in New York are nice too, but nothing beats the beach...

After getting my car fixed on the other side of the city I had lunch with my good friend Shane Sinnot and then returned to the "Dome".

I will talk more about the Dome and it's inmate's soon. A crazy place everyone should get to know ! Beware of Eightball !

Gonna head to Bankshots now to practice with Neil Fujiwara for a bit. My laundry is done, my bags are packed. I am all ready to spend the weekend in Orlando. Mickey here I come... :-)

Say hello to thorstenhohmann.com

2007-09-04T18:52:00.000-04:00

I am so excited. After months of hard work I am sooo proud to finally present my new website.

My french esprit supérieur Jean-Philippe Parmentier from Paris has exceeded my wildest expectations and created a dream of a pool player website. Along with crazy mastermind "Mr Cuetable" Wei Chao we have spent the last several days (and nights) in New York City to give the site the last touch.

And here it is...voila...http://www.thorstenhohmann.com/

I hope it will serve pool players and fans around the world in many ways...

At first of course I wanna let you know who I am, where I'm coming from and where I am going... check out the large biography section with tons of pictures, the video gallery or my upcoming tournaments !

The focus I definately wanna put on my blog. My friend William Fuentes from New York City has inspired me to start a blog. This guy is so creative and consistent, a rolemodel for all bloggers. Find out - www.williamfuentes.com

My goal is to talk on a regular basis about my life as a professional pool player, stories that happen to me on the road and the latest gossip :-)

I hope not only to represent myself well with this site but also our beautiful sport in general. Hit me with some feedback. Let me know what you like, what you don't like or what in your opinion is missing.