Very sad what happened to Mika.
He hung out in Santa Monica House of Billiards when he was in LA and had some good friends in that room.
He gave lessons to many of the players and played a lot of One Pocket, cause that was the game in that room.
He wasn't a really knowledgable One Pocket...
Wood shafts all play a little different.
It's like guitars.
You can play ten guitars, say Les Pauls all the same model and they will all sound a little different.
Folks usually with lots of hearing loss suffer from tinnitus.
So even if his hearing aids are off his brain is manufacturing noise.
The noise is hard to deal with..........