Is Mika Currently The Best Rotation Pool Player On The Planet?

[JCIN]

Mika is one of the elite players of this generation. Anyone on that level can and does beat the other elite players on any given day. He treats the game very seriously and IMO that is the big difference between him and many other players who have a similar level of talent.

That said if I had to bet my last cent on someone playing a game of rotation pool in an action setting it would be on Alex.

Tournaments are tournaments and one roll in a race to eleven can make all the difference. See Donnie Mills match against Mika this year and Shane's match against him in Galveston. Donnie doesnt get a scratch on the final break and Mika doesnt 3 rail a ball in on Shane it could be a third and second place finish instead of two titles.

That is not to take anything away from Mika in anyway. It's just a statement on how short races and long races differ. I want to see Mika play a long race. I think it would be exciting as hell.

As for Mika as a person, before I knew him he was professional towards me and after I got to know him he is a great guy with a unique sense of humor. To perform at his level you have to have a great deal of confidence. Some people see that as arrogance or whatever. All the top guys have it. Some express it differently than others is all.

 

[Ratta]

Someone shown up a bit before, that Mika is the guy with greatest talent/ability in *pocketing*. <--if we forget about *good technique* and *perfect stroke* there is just Reyes and Ortmanns in my opinion- most horrible shotmakers i ve ever seen. against ortmann i think u could use a complete piece of chalk without gettin at the table cuz u think so many times that your turn is *comin*....but then he goes on

just my opinion

 

[Eric.]

As good as Hatch plays, I know it's hard to believe, for those that don't know, that Hatch is a decent sized underdog to 20-30 players or so in the world. Probably 10, 20 or more in Asia alone.


Eric

 

[watchez]

Alive? I think that Dennis Hatch is the best rotation player. I have seen him watching the match at a table next to him get down in a shot make it, watcht he table next to him, get down in his shot make it. And continue doing that and run out racks. He dosn't need to think, its just there.

Hands down no one can beat Dennis Hatch in a race to 100(in a rotation game), and that is the TRUE test.

Maybe Hatch should offer to play SVB 10 ball.

I think Hatch is a great player but when he won in Vegas last year, he won despite not playing very good. IMO

 

[corvette1340]

Alive? I think that Dennis Hatch is the best rotation player. I have seen him watching the match at a table next to him get down in a shot make it, watcht he table next to him, get down in his shot make it. And continue doing that and run out racks. He dosn't need to think, its just there.

Hands down no one can beat Dennis Hatch in a race to 100(in a rotation game), and that is the TRUE test

lol, have you lost your mind? I'll tell you what, get in touch with Dennis and you can stake him against Orcullo, Yang, Alcano, Corteza, Alex, or Shane.

 

[UrackmIcrackm]

Alive? I think that Dennis Hatch is the best rotation player. I have seen him watching the match at a table next to him get down in a shot make it, watcht he table next to him, get down in his shot make it. And continue doing that and run out racks. He dosn't need to think, its just there.

Hands down no one can beat Dennis Hatch in a race to 100(in a rotation game), and that is the TRUE test.

Dennis is a very strong player, no disagreement from me on that point. I do disagree with your thoughts on how good his game is, especially the last part of your quote. My intial reaction was "you don't get out much, do you?". Then I looked at your location and see that you're from NY. I've found that there tends to be a "Dennis is the be all, end all" mentality from a lot (not all) of the people from the NY region. There seems to be a tendency to "blindly follow Hatch" in that regardless who Hatch is playing, those folks think he's the favorite and that simply isn't the case.

Hatch is a monster player, but he is not on the same level as the Filipinos, Taiwanese, and a few Europeans.

As good as Hatch plays, I know it's hard to believe, for those that don't know, that Hatch is a decent sized underdog to 20-30 players or so in the world. Probably 10, 20 or more in Asia alone.

I'll tell you what, get in touch with Dennis and you can stake him against Orcullo, Yang, Alcano, Corteza, Alex, or Shane.

I have to echo the sentiment of these other guys.

 

[horton129]

I've heard this so many times, yet every time I've actually seen Dennis play in a tournament he faltered. Then I heard that he's not a great tournament player, but he's killer at money matches. But every time I've actually seen his money matches (such as against Yang) he lost.

Is it possible that Dennis is their sucker bet and they've discovered they can keep reeling him in just by telling him he is the best? :grin-square:

But seriously I'm sure he's an incredible player, just by coincidence I may have only ever seen his bad days.

Losing to Yang by a few match in a race to 50 is not a bad day, it can still make you the best PI money player out there (Yang is just that good).

 

[Mr441]

Alive? I think that Dennis Hatch is the best rotation player. I have seen him watching the match at a table next to him get down in a shot make it, watcht he table next to him, get down in his shot make it. And continue doing that and run out racks. He dosn't need to think, its just there.

Hands down no one can beat Dennis Hatch in a race to 100(in a rotation game), and that is the TRUE test.

You may be right about that. I wouldn't bet against Hatch no matter who he's playing for the cash.

Also, unkown to most people, he's a monster straight pool player...he ran 365 balls when he was 20 years old! I don't know why he doesn't play in any 14.1 events.