My first win against a world champion - sorting thoughts

Tin Man

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
It was 2007 and I was playing in my third pro tournament, the World Summit of Pool in Vegas. I got a soft draw in my first match and won 11-2. My second match was scheduled for 9PM against Thorsten Hohmann.

Thorsten was playing really strong at this time. He had recently won a world championship as well as some huge IPT event. These days he's cooled off a bit along with Mika, but back then it was like drawing Fedor.

There were a couple of things leading up to this that helped prepare me. One, I had played a pro event the month before, a Seminole event in Florida. I had played Alex Pagulayan in a race to 8. I wilted and shot straight up in the air. I remember feeling super disappointed with how I failed to even put up resistance. So I had a strong hankering to make Thorsten earn it and not repeat that performance. The second thing occurred while I was watching some round one matches at the World Summit. I saw Alex playing John Schmidt. John played terrible. Not only was he hooking himself, fumbling open racks, playing safeties that sold out, and finding every way to dog it, but he was melting down. Banging his cue, throwing chalk, swearing, shaking his head. This was shortly after he won the US Open 9 ball. I remember thinking "I may play this bad some days, but I don't lose my head like that. If he can win the US Open, I can win the US Open!" These were my thoughts going into my match with Toastie.

The moment came. We started playing. Thorsten played great as expected. He was a perfect pool machine and got me down 7-1 in a race to 11. It was an exhibition of pool greatness. I knew my chances of winning were grim to begin with, at this point they were essentially nil.

I took my break and went to the bathroom. I don't remember exactly what went through my mind, but I remember deciding I wanted to perform in a way that would leave me satisfied when I was flying back home to Minneapolis. I didn't want that weak feeling I had after playing Alex. I wanted to be fully present and engaged until the last 9 ball fell. With that I went back to the table.

Dead stroke is a funny thing. It sneaks up on you and you never know when it will come. Well, at that moment I fell into the deepest trance of my entire life. I was so detached it felt like an out of body experience. My body was at the table playing pool. My mind was somewhere else entirely.

You know where my mind was? I was in an imaginary factory. I was a quality inspection worker at a conveyer belt. I had on blue overalls and a yellow hard hat. I was wearing worn leather gloves. And I had a job to do. You see, I was sorting thoughts. This conveyer belt kept spitting out different thoughts. Those thoughts took the shape of small metal contraptions. My job was to pick them up, inspect them, and then sort them into one of two spots. If they passed the inspection I would place them on another conveyer belt that would take them to the packaging area for deployment. If they failed the inspection I would through them in this trash heap where they would be shredded for scrap at the end of the day.

One by one those thoughts would roll by. One might be "I need to make sure I don't cross the shot line on the 5 ball or I won't be able to get up table for the 6". Hm. Looks useful. Looks like a keeper. Then I'd think "I wonder what my chances are of winning from here?" Uh oh. I don't think that fits with my task at hand. Into the trash heap with you!

This continued as the match went on. I just kept sorting thoughts. I started wondering who was watching. After all it was a late night match and all the other tables had concluded, but the stands were still full. That meant everyone was watching me. Who were they? Were there pros in the stands? I'll never know, because when that thought rolled down I tossed it in the trash bin. I never looked to find out. It wasn't useful.

Meanwhile the match played itself out. I won 8 out of the next 10 games to tie things up at 9-9. Then Thorsten made a blunder. He had a little nip shot where he had to avoid a double cue. He nipped it and fouled, he didn't get a rail. I took ball in hand and ran out the last two racks to win 11-9.

I learned a lot from this match, but the most important thing was the necessity of only focusing on what is beneficial to achieving your goals. I have tried to make this point in other ways, maybe this story will help. Oh, I later found out who was watching: Everyone. I received many compliments from many top players over the next couple of days, including one that has stuck with me for many years. Later when I was watching the finals of the tournament Tony Robles sat next to me and told me the set I put on Thorsten was the best played set of the tournament. Wow.

It was also my first magazine mention (paragraph four). Not much of one, and I'm not sure being called a 'super unknown' is a great breakthrough moment, but it's a fitting record of a cool moment in my pool journey. http://www.azbilliards.com/upsets-galore-day-1-of-billiard-factory-world-summit-of-pool/
 

book collector

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
It was 2007 and I was playing in my third pro tournament, the World Summit of Pool in Vegas. I got a soft draw in my first match and won 11-2. My second match was scheduled for 9PM against Thorsten Hohmann.

Thorsten was playing really strong at this time. He had recently won a world championship as well as some huge IPT event. These days he's cooled off a bit along with Mika, but back then it was like drawing Fedor.

There were a couple of things leading up to this that helped prepare me. One, I had played a pro event the month before, a Seminole event in Florida. I had played Alex Pagulayan in a race to 8. I wilted and shot straight up in the air. I remember feeling super disappointed with how I failed to even put up resistance. So I had a strong hankering to make Thorsten earn it and not repeat that performance. The second thing occurred while I was watching some round one matches at the World Summit. I saw Alex playing John Schmidt. John played terrible. Not only was he hooking himself, fumbling open racks, playing safeties that sold out, and finding every way to dog it, but he was melting down. Banging his cue, throwing chalk, swearing, shaking his head. This was shortly after he won the US Open 9 ball. I remember thinking "I may play this bad some days, but I don't lose my head like that. If he can win the US Open, I can win the US Open!" These were my thoughts going into my match with Toastie.

The moment came. We started playing. Thorsten played great as expected. He was a perfect pool machine and got me down 7-1 in a race to 11. It was an exhibition of pool greatness. I knew my chances of winning were grim to begin with, at this point they were essentially nil.

I took my break and went to the bathroom. I don't remember exactly what went through my mind, but I remember deciding I wanted to perform in a way that would leave me satisfied when I was flying back home to Minneapolis. I didn't want that weak feeling I had after playing Alex. I wanted to be fully present and engaged until the last 9 ball fell. With that I went back to the table.

Dead stroke is a funny thing. It sneaks up on you and you never know when it will come. Well, at that moment I fell into the deepest trance of my entire life. I was so detached it felt like an out of body experience. My body was at the table playing pool. My mind was somewhere else entirely.

You know where my mind was? I was in an imaginary factory. I was a quality inspection worker at a conveyer belt. I had on blue overalls and a yellow hard hat. I was wearing worn leather gloves. And I had a job to do. You see, I was sorting thoughts. This conveyer belt kept spitting out different thoughts. Those thoughts took the shape of small metal contraptions. My job was to pick them up, inspect them, and then sort them into one of two spots. If they passed the inspection I would place them on another conveyer belt that would take them to the packaging area for deployment. If they failed the inspection I would through them in this trash heap where they would be shredded for scrap at the end of the day.

One by one those thoughts would roll by. One might be "I need to make sure I don't cross the shot line on the 5 ball or I won't be able to get up table for the 6". Hm. Looks useful. Looks like a keeper. Then I'd think "I wonder what my chances are of winning from here?" Uh oh. I don't think that fits with my task at hand. Into the trash heap with you!

This continued as the match went on. I just kept sorting thoughts. I started wondering who was watching. After all it was a late night match and all the other tables had concluded, but the stands were still full. That meant everyone was watching me. Who were they? Were there pros in the stands? I'll never know, because when that thought rolled down I tossed it in the trash bin. I never looked to find out. It wasn't useful.

Meanwhile the match played itself out. I won 8 out of the next 10 games to tie things up at 9-9. Then Thorsten made a blunder. He had a little nip shot where he had to avoid a double cue. He nipped it and fouled, he didn't get a rail. I took ball in hand and ran out the last two racks to win 11-9.

I learned a lot from this match, but the most important thing was the necessity of only focusing on what is beneficial to achieving your goals. I have tried to make this point in other ways, maybe this story will help. Oh, I later found out who was watching: Everyone. I received many compliments from many top players over the next couple of days, including one that has stuck with me for many years. Later when I was watching the finals of the tournament Tony Robles sat next to me and told me the set I put on Thorsten was the best played set of the tournament. Wow.

It was also my first magazine mention (paragraph four). Not much of one, and I'm not sure being called a 'super unknown' is a great breakthrough moment, but it's a fitting record of a cool moment in my pool journey. http://www.azbilliards.com/upsets-galore-day-1-of-billiard-factory-world-summit-of-pool/

Great story! Thorsten at that time was playing like a machine.
Some champions do what you said John did , they can play awesome one day but if it's going bad , they have flaws. Hohmann never showed any flaws back then , he just played hard as the street game after game.
 

boogieman

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that ping.
Goosebumps.. what a great post! A lot to think about here and implement into my own game. It's pretty interesting how we can apply the same messages learned at pool/sports to everyday life. Sometimes it just clicks and we become something greater than we once were. Thanks for the story man!
 

bbb

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
great story demetrius
way back then you were choosing productive vs destructive thoughts
its the concept some are missing in your other thread
its not whether talent is real
its whether believing in talent as necessary for your pool success
your inspector would throw that concept in the trash
i hope i got that right
 
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cscott67

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Focus and attitude......

Congrats on the achievement and the effort to focus on only what matters in the moment. Doc
 

ChrisinNC

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Great story! Thorsten at that time was playing like a machine.
Some champions do what you said John did , they can play awesome one day but if it's going bad , they have flaws. Hohmann never showed any flaws back then , he just played hard as the street game after game.
Even the top pros are human. If he was up 7-1 and cruising against a player he didn't even know, and before he knew it he was in a dogfight knotted up at 9-9, it's easy to see why he was the one who was out of his comfort zone and feeling the heat. We've all been there after giving up a big lead and it's a far worse feeling than not showing up at all out of the gate and getting blown out. That you were able to close out the match strong from that point is awesome, and something I'm sure you'll never forget.
 

pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
Tin Man....I call those times ‘sanity windows’...most of the time we’re a little crazy...
...pre-occupied with what we want or what we fear...
..then you have a day when you see what works.

Good luck in the upcoming one pocket.
 
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Tin Man

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
thank you

great story demetrius
way back then you were choosing productive vs destructive thoughts
its the concept some are missing in your other thread
its not whether talent is real
its whether believing in talent as necessary for your pool success
your inspector would throw that concept in the trash
i hope i got that right

Thank you all for the replies!

Yes, I still play a lot. Unfortunately I won't be at Peoria in October, but I will be at Big Dogs in December, and I am signed up for Turning Stone in January. I'm also playing the VG10 in about a week, that is the Virtual Ghost event with a lot of top international players being covered by Cue It Up Podcast.

Hey bbb, yes, you said it best as always. I just replied on that other thread as well. Lot of people really excited about assigning a lot of importance to things out of their control. No problem here, doesn't bother me who agrees or not. Concern about whether they get what I'm saying doesn't help me on my task at hand, so into the trash pile with it! I've got a job to do! ;)
 

sjm

Older and Wiser
Silver Member
Great story. Thorsten was at the very top of his game in 2007, having won the 2003 World 9-ball, the 2005 European Championship, and the 2006 World Straight Pool title. It's easy to get distracted when facing someone with such a strong competitive resume.

The way you blocked out and ignored the potential distractions gives good guidance for anyone who wants to succeed at anything. Staying focused is much more difficult than most people realize and only a few are able to do so. Well played, sir!
 

ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
Gold Member
Silver Member
the zone

First off, a great accomplishment. Worth a sincere if very belated CONGRATULATIONS! My understanding is that Thorsten spent a couple years in the military shooting pool eight hours a day as his job. That and being one of the few in pool that realized that physical fitness mattered in the long run back then made him a monster. Beating him any way was an accomplishment. Coming back from what would seem an impossible hole, truly amazing.

What happened was more than dead stroke, you fell into the zone. Some think that is mystical crap, I know it is real although it varies a bit person to person and I have been told of some real disasters when somebody was very close to the zone but not in sync. One of the most practical people I know of told me of an out of body experience when he competed after a day and night with zero sleep. He shot the worst stage I have ever seen him shoot. I asked what happened. He said he was about twenty feet up in the air watching some idiot on the firing line shooting without even aiming and he was that idiot! Most people I would dismiss saying that but he was serious and a very serious person. I started to seek an out of body experience but after reading about the real dangers I decided that satisfying curiosity wasn't worth the risks.

The zone I have experienced many times and still seek in competition. I used it to set a record that people had been chasing for fifteen years. Nice to be "perfect". My record can be and has been matched, it can never be beaten.

I don't experiece anything like your quality control guy in the zone but I do get much more information than normal and effortlessly sort it into needed input and of no importance at the moment. I do retain the knowledge and consider it later, it is set on the side, not lost.

I have been in dead stroke and the equal in other pursuits without being in the zone, never in the zone without being in dead stroke. Someone did tell me about all of this extra information coming pouring in while he was trying to compete and completely blowing the event unable to deal with what was happening to him.

The zone you entered is generally considered the highest level of the zone. I don't know if it is or not but we seem to function at the very limit of our abilities. When our competitors are playing at some lower level than 100% of what their mind and body are capable of they have to be much more capable than we are to win. You at 100% were far stronger than Thorsten at whatever percentage of his absolute best he could muster at the moment. An interesting thought, from your other writings I think you are better pool player today. Today's Tinman plus the zone should indeed be able to win major events. The more often you get into the zone the easier it gets too. I entered it twice on demand in a split second to set the record I mentioned earlier.

Hu
 

fastone371

Certifiable
Silver Member
It was 2007 and I was playing in my third pro tournament, the World Summit of Pool in Vegas. I got a soft draw in my first match and won 11-2. My second match was scheduled for 9PM against Thorsten Hohmann.

Thorsten was playing really strong at this time. He had recently won a world championship as well as some huge IPT event. These days he's cooled off a bit along with Mika, but back then it was like drawing Fedor.

There were a couple of things leading up to this that helped prepare me. One, I had played a pro event the month before, a Seminole event in Florida. I had played Alex Pagulayan in a race to 8. I wilted and shot straight up in the air. I remember feeling super disappointed with how I failed to even put up resistance. So I had a strong hankering to make Thorsten earn it and not repeat that performance. The second thing occurred while I was watching some round one matches at the World Summit. I saw Alex playing John Schmidt. John played terrible. Not only was he hooking himself, fumbling open racks, playing safeties that sold out, and finding every way to dog it, but he was melting down. Banging his cue, throwing chalk, swearing, shaking his head. This was shortly after he won the US Open 9 ball. I remember thinking "I may play this bad some days, but I don't lose my head like that. If he can win the US Open, I can win the US Open!" These were my thoughts going into my match with Toastie.

The moment came. We started playing. Thorsten played great as expected. He was a perfect pool machine and got me down 7-1 in a race to 11. It was an exhibition of pool greatness. I knew my chances of winning were grim to begin with, at this point they were essentially nil.

I took my break and went to the bathroom. I don't remember exactly what went through my mind, but I remember deciding I wanted to perform in a way that would leave me satisfied when I was flying back home to Minneapolis. I didn't want that weak feeling I had after playing Alex. I wanted to be fully present and engaged until the last 9 ball fell. With that I went back to the table.

Dead stroke is a funny thing. It sneaks up on you and you never know when it will come. Well, at that moment I fell into the deepest trance of my entire life. I was so detached it felt like an out of body experience. My body was at the table playing pool. My mind was somewhere else entirely.

You know where my mind was? I was in an imaginary factory. I was a quality inspection worker at a conveyer belt. I had on blue overalls and a yellow hard hat. I was wearing worn leather gloves. And I had a job to do. You see, I was sorting thoughts. This conveyer belt kept spitting out different thoughts. Those thoughts took the shape of small metal contraptions. My job was to pick them up, inspect them, and then sort them into one of two spots. If they passed the inspection I would place them on another conveyer belt that would take them to the packaging area for deployment. If they failed the inspection I would through them in this trash heap where they would be shredded for scrap at the end of the day.

One by one those thoughts would roll by. One might be "I need to make sure I don't cross the shot line on the 5 ball or I won't be able to get up table for the 6". Hm. Looks useful. Looks like a keeper. Then I'd think "I wonder what my chances are of winning from here?" Uh oh. I don't think that fits with my task at hand. Into the trash heap with you!

This continued as the match went on. I just kept sorting thoughts. I started wondering who was watching. After all it was a late night match and all the other tables had concluded, but the stands were still full. That meant everyone was watching me. Who were they? Were there pros in the stands? I'll never know, because when that thought rolled down I tossed it in the trash bin. I never looked to find out. It wasn't useful.

Meanwhile the match played itself out. I won 8 out of the next 10 games to tie things up at 9-9. Then Thorsten made a blunder. He had a little nip shot where he had to avoid a double cue. He nipped it and fouled, he didn't get a rail. I took ball in hand and ran out the last two racks to win 11-9.

I learned a lot from this match, but the most important thing was the necessity of only focusing on what is beneficial to achieving your goals. I have tried to make this point in other ways, maybe this story will help. Oh, I later found out who was watching: Everyone. I received many compliments from many top players over the next couple of days, including one that has stuck with me for many years. Later when I was watching the finals of the tournament Tony Robles sat next to me and told me the set I put on Thorsten was the best played set of the tournament. Wow.

It was also my first magazine mention (paragraph four). Not much of one, and I'm not sure being called a 'super unknown' is a great breakthrough moment, but it's a fitting record of a cool moment in my pool journey. http://www.azbilliards.com/upsets-galore-day-1-of-billiard-factory-world-summit-of-pool/


Great read Mr. Tin. I look forward to more stories, you have a great writing style and interesting stories.
 

pwd72s

recreational banger
Silver Member
Great story...something to always remember. Hell..put it in your obituary...
 

Tin Man

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
Hahaha. Thank you guys. I appreciate the feedback. I will make sure to share a few other good stories. Don't worry, I'm not always the hero in the story!
 
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