Pool professional Kim Laaksonen from Turku had to visit Thailand for a couple of weeks in December. He is still there and no return ticket has been bought.
Billiards professionalstraight pool European champion Kim Laaksonen answers the phone on the way from the Cambodian border area to Thailand. He has been renewing his tourist visa in Cambodia so that he can continue his stay in Pattaya, Thailand.
“An eight-hour bus trip,” Laaksonen says.
Laaksonen has been in Thailand since mid-December. He arrived in Thailand from China, where he participated in the Chinese eight ball (Chinese eight ball, also known as heyball) World Cup – ranking 17th.
“This has dragged on a bit. I don't have a planned calendar.”
Protracted is probably the right term, because at first Laaksonen planned to go on a vacation trip of a couple of weeks. However, the games continued in Thailand, but the return flight was already booked for the end of January.
“I canceled the flight and now I don't have a return flight booked to Finland. Everything is still quite open. I may come soon, but I can stay a little longer,” says Laaksonen, and you can already tell from his speech that he is from Turku.
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“The direction changed, so to speak.”
Kim Laaksonen has been living in Pattaya, Thailand since mid-December.
Laaksonen “home club” is Turku's billiard club and home gym Pocket Bar & Billiard in Turku, but it is by no means the first time he is on a longer trip to Asia. Laaksonen lived in Thailand for six months “before the corona crisis”, as he himself states.
At that time, the owner of the local billiard hall sponsored Laakso, who was allowed to live in the hotel for free, and the competition trips to different parts of Asia were also paid for from the sponsor's purse. When Laaksonen was playing in Indonesia, the phone rang.
“A very close person, a cousin, died. I went to Finland for a funeral, and I was supposed to come back, but then the worst of the pandemic hit and everything went haywire.”
During her stay in Finland, Laaksose also had a child.
“The direction changed, so to speak.”
However, Laaksonen is now in Thailand again for a long time. When you ask him if he has commitments to, for example, Finland, the answer is short: “Not really.”
Why is Laaksonen in Asia?
“Work is work and you have to go where you can get mone
y.”
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“What can you say about that? Mistakes are made and we are all human.”
in Finland during his stay, Laaksonen was also accused of doping. The sample given by Laaksonen at the WC in 2020 contained benzoylecgonine, a metabolic product of cocaine, which is banned in sports.
Laaksonen lost the 9-ball championship gold he won in August with his cart and was suspended for three months. According to the Finnish Sports Ethics Center (Suek), Laaksonen had used cocaine outside the competition and it was not connected to the competition performance. That's why the suspension was short.
What do you think about the doping case now?
“What can you say about that? Mistakes are made, and we are all human. I hadn't taken anything during the Games. It was a few days before the Games”, says Laaksonen and does not want to talk more about the subject.
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“Then guys start coming from there who have the wrong handicap, so to speak.”
in Thailand Laaksonen plays constantly, at least three times a week in weekly competitions and also in some slightly bigger competitions where better prize money is available. He also goes to the capital Bangkok for challenge competitions, among other things.
Laaksonen's chances of succeeding particularly well in weekly competitions, for example, are challenging because of the handicapping system. Laaksosi has the highest possible handicap, which makes winning difficult.
“It's really hard to make it here when you have to give so much in front of you. The basic game is such that the guy needs two sets and I need six. In addition, it is enough for the opponent to bag a hit or a tie in the first ball, and he wins the set.”
Laaksonen states that the opponents are not so bad that you can spin them any way you want.
“The players here are not helpless. They know how to hit the ball. In practice, you need to play perfectly in order to succeed.”
Laaksonen emphasizes that, for example, weekly games are good practice.
“You have to play a hundred in the glass all the time. You can't afford to make mistakes anywhere else either, but even less so here.”
How has Laaksonen fared in Thailand in billiards competitions? A few times he has made it to the semifinals and quarterfinals.
“Then guys start coming from there who have, so to speak, the wrong handicap. They have a handicap that is too small for their level. Especially then you can't afford a single mistake.”
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“Many people think of billiards as a small shack where you play with a stick in your mouth.”
in Thailand 10-ball, 9-ball and 8-ball are played in Easter, but Laaksonen is actually aiming for the Chinese 8-ball.
“Financially, it will be at the level of snooker within five years”, assures Laaksonen.
The rules of Chinese 8-ball are roughly the same as in regular 8-ball, i.e. one player pockets solid colored balls and the other striped balls and finally a black cue ball is pocketed.
If you play to win 13 sets, the playing time is, for example, 2.5 hours and the hitting time per ball is 35 seconds. If time runs out, whoever is in the lead wins the match.
The big difference is the table: it is almost the same size as a snooker table, i.e. clearly bigger than a pool table. In addition, the bags are narrower in snooker style. In other words, the Chinese 8-Ball is more difficult than the regular 8-Ball.
The Chinese 8-ball also changes the image of pool billiards closer to “sophisticated” snooker.
“Many people think of billiards as a small shack where you play with a stick in your mouth. Snooker, on the other hand, has an image of vests and straight pants, although it's the same in pool.”
When Laaksonen has a good time in Pattaya, where according to him there are other Finnish pool players, we have to ask what kind of weather he went to renew his visa.
“It's about 37 degrees here and the humidity is probably 170”, Laaksonen laughs at his reasonable exaggeration.
I will tell you that at the time of the interview it was 17 degrees below zero in Helsinki.
“I really don't feel like coming there.”
Not interested in skiing?
“Never been interested.”
Kim Laaksonen celebrated the European championship last summer.
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A 31-year-old billiards professional from Turku.
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Last June, Laaksonen won straight pool EC gold in Tampere. In addition, he took bronze in the 9-ball. He has several EC medals from previous years.
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There are seven SM gold medals in the adult series.
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The Finnish Billiards Association and the Finnish Sports Journalists' Association selected Laaksonen as the 2023 billiards player of the year.
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