Thorsten Hohmann blog

Roy Steffensen

Roy Steffensen

locksmith
Silver Member
Thorsten Hohmann just updated his blog. this time it is about the Derby city Classic

http://thorstenhohmann.blogspot.com/2008/02/derby-city-classic.html

In the beginning of the blog he says:

To be honest - it is a bit controversial in my opinion. I wanna promote pool as a professional sport. Clean, serious but fun, no smoking, no gambling. The Derby City Classic promotes the exact opposite what I am fighting for. Action and Gambling. Sometimes it is even hard to distinguish between a gambling match and an exhibition match, I know. And I have to admit, it is cool when you are here and weather it is day or night, the place is always packed with people playing for money. But will it change the image of Pool for the better ? Will parents send their kids to the pool room to learn a new sport if they see what's going on here ? I don't know the answer. I just wanna share my thoughts. What do you think ?


So, what do YOU think?

Toastie: Keep up with the blogs! Wish more players did that!!!
 
I am a "split" person on this issue... I love the gambling and the challenge-matches, and I gamble pretty often myself.

However, I do believe that what Thorsten is fighting for is the right thing to do to make pool grow, and to make it easier to recruit young players.
 
Hey Roy, thanks for the link ! It's nice to see a blog that has some serious insights and thoughts on the image of pool etc. Very interesting...
 
People gamble on everything. Plenty of money changes hands at the golf course. In most cases it is done more dicreetly than the DCC does it. Most people know that the DCC is about the gambling just like Vegas is about the gambling. It is adult entertainment not necessarily representative of the game as a whole. It is important for the game to reduce gambling or at least make it much less visible in other places but in certain settings it probably does not harm the image of the game significantly.
 
I agree with Thorsten, in the respect that the image of professional pool should do without action and gambling.

However, I say keep the DCC exactly the way it is for the gamblers. Though, I wouldn't promote it publicly to the masses.

jsp <~~~ wishes more professionals were molded like Hohmann and Souquet
 
I like Thorsten's blog too. I especially liked the WPC items.

I like to see pool played for something that matters. Keep gambling, folks.

Me me me me.
 
Anyone who isn't already involved in pool would have no idea about what Derby is like unless they went there. When they broadcast matches from there on the internet, BCN or whatever, its the regular matches and not the gambling match-ups with Hennessee going off or anything.

Its still looks like professional pool when they're playing the finals. I just watched the Bank finals with Matlock from a couple years ago and it just looks like top caliber pool. Scott Smith on the mic always gives it that professional "air" too, so I don't see any problem with kids watching it.

Mosconi spent his whole life trying to put down the hustler or gambling aspect of pool and it did him no good. People LIKE this part of pool.
 
bud green said:
Mosconi spent his whole life trying to put down the hustler or gambling aspect of pool and it did him no good. People LIKE this part of pool.
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I have to object to your conclusion. Sure some people may like this part of pool, but look at the status of pool today here in America. Glorifying the gambling aspect of pool hasn't worked, nor would I think it will ever work. But if you're satisfied with the status of pool today, then of course I have no argument.
 
jsp said:
I have to object to your conclusion. Sure some people may like this part of pool, but look at the status of pool today here in America. Glorifying the gambling aspect of pool hasn't worked, nor would I think it will ever work. But if you're satisfied with the status of pool today, then of course I have no argument.
Click to expand...

Perhaps pool would be even beneath where it lies now without the gambling glorification.

I suppose if the players only dressed and behaved a little better, big sponsors would jump right on pool, right? At least that is what Danny DiLiberto was told in 1967. And then again in 1977, 1981, 1985, 1991, 1994, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2007. I may have missed a year so don't quote me.
 
I see Thorston's point, but pool is much like golf and poker. Gambling is a part of the sport and it always will be. The top players are in a catch 22, they want respectibility and corporate sponsorship, but they do not make enough in tournaments alone to make a living. Pool needs both, events like the US Open and WPC, just as well as events like the DCC.
 
Gambling is a part of the sport, yes. I think it's America's perception that is problematic. For some reason, golfers gambling or guys at a poker table is acceptable. But somehow pool is seedy.

Meanwhile, in the Philippines they're gambling high every night. Gambling seems to be like a badge of honor amongst the pool elite: who took down so-and-so for the cash. I mean, look at Efren. He's a big gambler, and a national hero.
 
A lot more people gamble on a game of pool than don't. Almost every game of pool I've played in a bar (thousands) if there wasn't a set limit on the table already the guy I was going to play would almost always ask if I wanted to play for a drink, a drink and a few bucks, or $1 to $20.

Pool is gambling and always has been...don't try to change it. It's an American way of life and your screwing with my livelyhood. Johnnyt
 
bud green said:
Anyone who isn't already involved in pool would have no idea about what Derby is like unless they went there. When they broadcast matches from there on the internet, BCN or whatever, its the regular matches and not the gambling match-ups with Hennessee going off or anything.
.
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Maybe I"m misunderstanding your post, bud, but when TAR was broadcasting on the internet, out of over 200 hours of internet broadcast, most of it was non-marquee. That is to say, it wasn't the TV personalities that the casual fan may know. Hennessee filled up some 20 hours of broadcast, albeit matching up with Shane.

Fred
 
Follow the money (Or lack thereof)

Just like all the tortured debates over the IPT (or lack thereof), this question only ever occurs in Pool because there is no independant money in the sport, both for tournament funds and sponsorship. If the DCC had a seven figure prize purse much more attention would focus on that than the action games.

Gambling is only relevant to Pool in the absence of any other means to make a living. Of course gambling still exists on the periphery in other games that are seen as legitimate professional sports (E.G. Golf) but it is not relevant at the top professional levels due to the income possible from legitimate competition and sponsorship.

Until or unless this happens, gambling will remain central to the mens' Pro game in the USA. (The WPBA notably already has bans in place on gambling during a tour stop)

If, like myself, you personally don't much like gambling this is a shame, but denying reality does not change it unfortunately.
 
The TAR broadcast was a great thing but mostly people who play a LOT of pool and go to pool websites had any idea it was even on.

Most of what people will see from the Derby City Classic will be on videos, Accu-Stats PPV, youtube stuff maybe that all pretty much looks like any stuff you might see on ESPN. Nothing any parent needs to worry about.

Willie seemed to have no respect for most "hustlers", called one pocket a "gimmick" game, and just seemed to be a sour puss to a lot of people. Pool became popular for awhile again after "The Hustler" and "The Color of Money", both gambling stories. I just don't get why he was so negative about that aspect of pool.
 
jsp said:
I have to object to your conclusion. Sure some people may like this part of pool, but look at the status of pool today here in America. Glorifying the gambling aspect of pool hasn't worked, nor would I think it will ever work. But if you're satisfied with the status of pool today, then of course I have no argument.
Click to expand...

I tend to agree with you. I like the gambling aspect too and do my share of stake horsing.

But, among the NUMEROUS problems contributing to the lack of mass audience popularity of pro pool, the FACT is that major advertisers just have not and will not "buy into" pool in any major way and without major advertising/sponsorship there will never be large prize money and LIVE TV broadcasts. (what would happen to TV ratings of golf tournaments if they were broadcast weeks after the fact?)

And speaking of golf, $5-10 Nassau bets have nothing to do with $5-10 THOUSAND dollars bet on often all night, smokey, drug abused, booze abused pool matchs.

THAT is the image of the sport...like it or not.

Budweiser may put up a few bucks for local tour events and give away neon beer signs to saloons with pool tables...but when they advertise on TV, we see the magnificent Clydesdales pulling $50,000.00 wagons!

But without hijacking the thread, I think that there are SO many issues that pro touring pool in America will never achieve much more popularity than it now has and so we might was well acept that and keep gambling in the loop. Because, if gambling was banned, that would drive possibly the last nail in coffin of the game.

regards,
Jim
 
i may be new to az but keep seeing posts talking about the gambling side of pool and sponsers and i always think about the end of every world poker tour show when they toast the winner with their primary sponser any guesses ... beer
 
i dont see beer companies have a problem with gambling.and as far as drugs i am sure there is no drug abuse by cardplayers, just ask stu unger oops my bad he is dead because of drugs.
 
pern13 said:
i may be new to az but keep seeing posts talking about the gambling side of pool and sponsers and i always think about the end of every world poker tour show when they toast the winner with their primary sponser any guesses ... beer
Click to expand...

The televised poker phenomenon was largely a shooting star. While still drawing larger TV audiences than pool...unfortuantely, that's not saying much.

Compared to the meteoric rise in popularity in 2003, TV ratings have dropped like a stone.

And the stock in World Poker Tour Inc. that promotes many of the major tournaments has dropped like a BOULDER...from $25 to $1.50 in the past couple of years.

Regards,
Jim
 
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