Thorsten Hohmann Vs The World

Jay you are so right about Jose. He aint called Amang for nothing. Ive seen him give up the most ridiculous spots in order to get a game. 13 to 3!!!!!???? This guy should have a back room in heaven named after him. He was simply the finest in cue ball control in his prime.

The saddest thing was when he was player of the year Billiard Digest never gave him a cover putting on Jennifer Chen or Mika Immonen instead!!!

Hey GC's can be just as tough or tougher....

Cornerman said:

I think he's a great player, but IMO, he can't even be mentioned in the same breath as Efren when considering best overall. That's not a knock on Hohmann, but it's simply a tribute to Efren. He's won the overall at the DCC every year he's been there except this year where he came in second by a hair.

For overall players other than Efren, I have to put Alex and Marlon above Hohmann. I'll sound like an ass, but I have trouble including tournament wins where the tables are entirely too easy for professional play to use as a judge on great play. That would include the BCA tournament, and many of the European events (Barry Hearn events). I've gotten too many reports from professionals complaining that the tables were entirely too easy and that some players who don't normally do as well on tougher equipment did well in the tournament(s).

So, I personally only judge the players on tournaments where I know the equipment was tough. Unfortunately, I don't see every event, so I can only look at events that have Diamond tables (several) or Olhausen Pros (like the Challenge of Champions).

Fred <~~~ IMO, of course

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The GC's at the Swanee memorial were 4.25" corners and that's tougher than Diamonds AND Olhausen pros with standard non shimmed pockets.

Jaden said:

The GC's at the Swanee memorial were 4.25" corners and that's tougher than Diamonds AND Olhausen pros with standard non shimmed pockets.

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This is quite off point, but no question about that. I just mention those other two as real world examples of tournaments that use tight equipment out of the box.

Any doctored table can be tough. Most of the pro tournaments you might see broadcast don't use doctored tables. Like the Challenge of Champions, and the U.S. Open.

Fred

The IPT

One of the things that excites me so much about the IPT is that it can finally provide a way to compare some of these players fairly. The tournaments are going to:

a) Have the vast majority of the world's elite players on the same stage regularly
b) Have a round-robin format to eliminate some of the "luck of the draw"
c) Use a game (8-ball) which includes shot-making, pattern planning, and strategic play elements
d) Use long races to make sure the player who's really playing better pool wins
e) Use tough (tight and slow) equipment to force the players to really put thir shots on target and realy be able to move the rock

Finally we'll have a way to answer questions about whether Thorsten Hohmann or Efren Reyes is playing better pool right now. Of course it can't tell us anything about who was better in the past, and it can only tell us about 8-ball ability (which I think is a better yardstick than 9-ball ability at least), but still I look forward to using the IPT as a way to really compare apples to apples when talking about who's better than whom.

Even though these debates are fun, they're usually based on conjecture and rumors about who played who and when, and they're very dependent on subjective judgments about what qualifications make someone a better pool player than someone else. How cool would it be to really see who can produce the results in a fair test of ability?

-Andrew

enzo said:

great post jay, i enjoyed that. curious, what did harold worst die of? also, i heard grady mention him in a tape once, he said harold would practice strait pool everyday until he ran 200. don't know if that's true, but if it is, god damn!

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Harold contracted Lukemia. One year he looked robust and great (maybe 1985) and the next year he looked pale and thin. He still played well, even winning at the Stardust. Months later he was gone, at age 37.
To this day I say "Worst was Best".