Thorsten Hohmann

StraightPoolIU said:
That was a very impressive performance vs Biado.
Click to expand...

aisde from unlucky situations, i dont think Carlo Biado played his best today. On the other hand, Thorsten was very strong. I look forward to a good finals match later against Gabica.
 
Sloppy Pockets said:
Last winter at Turning Stone I sat for hours watching him practice in between sets. It looked like he had a cold, but that didn't stop him from putting his entire being into it. He was actually sweating and had a healthy red glow over his skin, he was that intense. I wish him all the luck, he's right up there with my very favorite players. He seems like a real nice guy, too.

I have a lot of resect for a guy who can resist the allure of easy money from gambling. I know I'm part of a small minority here, but I've never been much of a gambler outside the ponies and a little poker now and then. Even with the horses, I learned early on that the only one raking in any money is the parimutuel window. It's an addiction and a disease. I have enough of those already.

I had a friend who used to work the windows here at Saratoga. He would punch up tickets just as the next race was going off. He usually lost, which made his drawer come up short. They didn't get on your case until you were a thousand or so short. Then they'd be all over you, taking it out of your wages in lieu of calling the cops. My friend said that almost everybody that worked the windows did the same thing and got into the same pickle. Kinda like owing the company store for goods advanced to migrant workers during the Dust Bowl. Twisted if you ask me.
Click to expand...

What you say about the track and its employees are spot on. I was an assistant pari-mutuel manager at a harness race track and I can assure you that what you described goes on not just daily, but every single race. We once had a line manager bet so far into her box that it cost her and her husband their home and she lost her job over it.

Interesting tid bit - as of 2003 the average track take across all betting pools was approximately 20%, with gimmicks going as high as 40% (superfecta pool @ Pocono Downs - Yikes!). Talk about tough action! I had access to the tote system reports, so I got curious one evening and dowloaded well over 100k individual wagers from the account wagering system. I speculated that as a group, betters would lose on average about 20 cents out of every dollar wagered - about the average track take. Actual results showed that they lost on average 19.23 cents out of every dollar wagered - pretty damn close to what I thought it would be.

This should illustrate to anyone wishing to make money at this activity that you MAY be able to outsmart your fellow gambler, but even if you do, it is extraordinarily unlikely that you will beat the rake. It's kinda like mutual funds - you MAY find a manager that is more skillful than average at stock or bond picking, but it is unlikely that their skill can outrun the fees they charge you to do it (especially after taxes). Oh, another digression...


Anyway, cheers and happy friday (god bless the weekend...),

JL

PS - oh yeah, this is about Toasty: one of my favorite players and perhaps the most technically proficient of anyone out there in my opinion. Hope he wins it all! :thumbup:
 
jalapus logan said:
Actual results showed that they lost on average 19.23 cents out of every dollar wagered - pretty damn close to what I thought it would be.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Back in the 60s I worked for A&P in Saratoga in the summer. There are two tracks in 'Toga - a year-round harness track and, of course, the prestigious flat track TB meet in August. There was plenty of betting going on all summer long. Back before OTB guys would take bets over to the flat track on their days off, and bookies would stop by and take bets right there in the store.

My Dad was an addicted gambler who loved to lose his paycheck on the ponies and big Greek rummy games. He also ran numbers on a small scale, laying off the bigger bets to his brothers, who were bookies in Troy, NY.

There was a successful baker named Vince Catone who used to supply out store with fresh Italian bread daily. In the summer he would collect bets after his bread delivery and take the bets to the track for my Dad and others who worked there. I thought I made a good horse in one of the races and asked Mr. Catone to make a $20 bet for me. He just gave me a disgusted look and refused to do it. Then the conversation went something like this:

"I try to tell your father to stay away from them, but he won't listen to me. You can't beat the horses. No way. They take about 20% out of every dollar you bet there before the odds are even made. How you gonna beat that?"

"Well, Mr. Catone, why do you bet them then?", I asked.

"Danny, I make ten times what your father makes, and about twenty times what you probably make. I like to go and watch the horses and bet a little money on them. It can't hurt me the way I bet. Your father? He's gonna gamble away your college education the way he bets. Don't try be like him, he's a loser I hate to tell you."

I was very angry at Mr. Catone for saying that, but I quit betting on the ponies on the spot when I heard what he said about the track's take. I'd never understood how the odds were made, I'd just heard all the success stories from my Dad, and not about all the ripped up ticket he threw on the ground.

For the record, Dad did lose my college education money. Thankfully I was smart enough to earn a Regents scholarship to SUNY at Albany or I would have gotten a job over at Gardenway making rototillers right out of high school.


And now back to Thorsten... Go, man GO! You on FIRE, boy!:smile:
 
Hohmann was friggin UNSTOPPABLE! a decade after his first, he gets the same title. sweet...
 
It is kind of funny how Thorsten took out the entire Philippine contingent single handed. They had a boatload of monsters through the final stages of the tournament and Thorsten took them out one after another. Enemy number one in the Philippines atm one would have to think, they must have thought they had it in the bag and Thorsten just mowed down the best they had to throw at him one after another.
 
Here's Hohmann's path to victory:

Group Play

  • Lo Li Wen, 4-9
  • Mehdi Rasekhi, 9-2
  • Francisco Bustamante, 9-6

Single-Elimination Play
  • Kuribayashi Tohru, 11-10
  • Darren Appleton, 11-5
  • Dennis Orcollo, 11-8
  • Jeffrey De Luna, 11-7
  • Carlo Biado, 11-4
  • Antonio Gabica, 13-7

Hohmann's aggregate game-winning percentage was 61% (won 90, lost 58). For comparison, Gabbica won 54% of his games (won 80, lost 68).
 
Celtic said:
It is kind of funny how Thorsten took out the entire Philippine contingent single handed. They had a boatload of monsters through the final stages of the tournament and Thorsten took them out one after another. Enemy number one in the Philippines atm one would have to think, they must have thought they had it in the bag and Thorsten just mowed down the best they had to throw at him one after another.
Click to expand...

Four Filipinos in a row, beating them 46-26 (64%)!
 
Sloppy Pockets said:
Interesting. Back in the 60s I worked for A&P in Saratoga in the summer. There are two tracks in 'Toga - a year-round harness track and, of course, the prestigious flat track TB meet in August. There was plenty of betting going on all summer long. Back before OTB guys would take bets over to the flat track on their days off, and bookies would stop by and take bets right there in the store.

My Dad was an addicted gambler who loved to lose his paycheck on the ponies and big Greek rummy games. He also ran numbers on a small scale, laying off the bigger bets to his brothers, who were bookies in Troy, NY.

There was a successful baker named Vince Catone who used to supply out store with fresh Italian bread daily. In the summer he would collect bets after his bread delivery and take the bets to the track for my Dad and others who worked there. I thought I made a good horse in one of the races and asked Mr. Catone to make a $20 bet for me. He just gave me a disgusted look and refused to do it. Then the conversation went something like this:

"I try to tell your father to stay away from them, but he won't listen to me. You can't beat the horses. No way. They take about 20% out of every dollar you bet there before the odds are even made. How you gonna beat that?"

"Well, Mr. Catone, why do you bet them then?", I asked.

"Danny, I make ten times what your father makes, and about twenty times what you probably make. I like to go and watch the horses and bet a little money on them. It can't hurt me the way I bet. Your father? He's gonna gamble away your college education the way he bets. Don't try be like him, he's a loser I hate to tell you."

I was very angry at Mr. Catone for saying that, but I quit betting on the ponies on the spot when I heard what he said about the track's take. I'd never understood how the odds were made, I'd just heard all the success stories from my Dad, and not about all the ripped up ticket he threw on the ground.

For the record, Dad did lose my college education money. Thankfully I was smart enough to earn a Regents scholarship to SUNY at Albany or I would have gotten a job over at Gardenway making rototillers right out of high school.


And now back to Thorsten... Go, man GO! You on FIRE, boy!:smile:
Click to expand...

My dad didn't drink, smoke, steal or curse. He did however have a penchant for betting the ponies. He kept that under cover for most of my life, until he passed away and I inherited his very, very old car. My dad was poor his entire life, grew up in the depression, had a minimum wage job for most of that. He worked long hours to make up the difference. He wasn't on the government programs and basically he and we just did without.

I noticed that the windows would not roll down and the a/c was broke so I couldn't fix the AC but decided I would take a shot at the windows and pulled the door panels off. That's when my eyes almost exploded. As soon as I got the last screw off of the door panel, the panel jumped off of the door and flooded the driveway and part of the car with THOUSANDS OF losing tickets from the racetrack. There were so many of those ticket stuffed in there, the windows couldn't be rolled down and many of these were ten and twenty dollar tickets. I just couldn't believe my dad had blown all of that money on horses. When I pulled off the other door panel, it was the same thing. Yeah, I think that's where my college fund went. The horses ate my college fund. I should have counted up the dollar amount but I think I was just too sick to do anything except throw them in the garbage. Oh well, life got better and I turned out ok, I guess.

JoeyA
 
Last edited:
JoeyA said:
My dad didn't drink, smoke, steal or curse. He did however have a penchant for betting the ponies. He kept that under cover for most of my life, until he passed away and I inherited his very, very old car. My dad was poor his entire life, grew up in the depression, had a minimum wage job for most of that. He worked long hours to make up the difference. He wasn't on the government programs and basically he and we just did without.

I noticed that the windows would not roll down and the a/c was broke so I couldn't fix the AC but decided I would take a shot at the windows and pulled the door panels off. That's when my eyes almost exploded. As soon as I got the last screw off of the door panel, the panel jumped off of the door and flooded the driveway and part of the car with THOUSANDS OF losing tickets from the racetrack. There were so many of those ticket stuffed in their, the windows couldn't be rolled down and many of these were ten and twenty dollar tickets. I just couldn't believe my dad had blown all of that money on horses. When I pulled off the other door panel, it was the same thing. Yeah, I think that's where my college fund went. The horses ate my college fund. I should have counted up the dollar amount but I think I was just too sick to do anything except throw them in the garbage. Oh well, life got better and I turned out ok, I guess.

JoeyA
Click to expand...

That's horrible, Joey. :(

Some folks can gamble without forgetting their life's priorities. I can go to the track with 300 bucks, and when it's gone, I'm ready to go home. Keith? Well, let me just say we've had many a heated discussion at the track with the $300 runs out. :grin-square:

It's the same with drinking alcohol. Some folks can drink and support themselves or families. Others are maintenance drinkers and can't wake up without consuming alcohol.

Gambling is an addiction, just like alcohol and drugs. Not everybody has a problem with it. :)
 
Testy number 1?

Celtic said:
It is kind of funny how Thorsten took out the entire Philippine contingent single handed. They had a boatload of monsters through the final stages of the tournament and Thorsten took them out one after another. Enemy number one in the Philippines atm one would have to think, they must have thought they had it in the bag and Thorsten just mowed down the best they had to throw at him one after another.
Click to expand...

After winning the 14-1 and this 9-ball event, Thorsten is for the moment, the best player in the world.
 
Not sure if anyone pointed it out but Thorsten is, by my perusal, the only male to win 2 WPC Titles in 8, 9 or 10 Ball this century!
 
JAM said:
That's horrible, Joey. :(

Some folks can gamble without forgetting their life's priorities. I can go to the track with 300 bucks, and when it's gone, I'm ready to go home. Keith? Well, let me just say we've had many a heated discussion at the track with the $300 runs out. :grin-square:

It's the same with drinking alcohol. Some folks can drink and support themselves or families. Others are maintenance drinkers and can't wake up without consuming alcohol.

Gambling is an addiction, just like alcohol and drugs. Not everybody has a problem with it. :)
Click to expand...

So very true Jam
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top