Q: Mr. Ortmann, when and where were you born?

Oliver: June 11th, 1967 in Gelsenkirchen (Northwest Germany).

Q: Where do you live today?

Oliver: Hamburg, Germany

Q: When were you first introduced to pool? By whom?

Oliver: My parents had a pub when I was 6 years old in 1973. They had an 8-foot bar table. That was my start.

Q: Do you have a coach?

Oliver: No, never had one.

Q: What’s in your cue case?

Oliver: Playing cue: Kruger KR.50P Platinum, spare shaft, Kruger Break/Jump Cue, Kruger Jump Cue, towel, talcum powder, chalk, and sandpaper.

Q: What is your regular practice routine? Where do you play?

Oliver: I practice inside the company’s warehouse where my own practice room is also located. I don’t have a regular practice routine. It always depends on the next tournament and how big the tournament is.The bigger it is the more time I invest in it. I have a billiard supply company called www.ortmann-billiards.com, so I have to plan my time carefully. So I practice alone most of the time to get the most out of it. Mostly straight pool, rotation, 9 Ball, 10 Ball and of course specific situations like long shots, cuts etc...

Q: There is a lot of pressure in pool….how do you get your head in the game before a match?

Oliver: Listening to music, watching TV etc. Nothing special. Just relaxing.

Q: Besides playing pro billiards, do you have a job?

Oliver: Yes, my billiards supply company: www.ortmann-billiards.com.

Q: What kind of music do you like?

Oliver: I like many different kinds of music. I love hard rock as well as classic music. It always depends how it sounds.

Q: What are your favorite pastimes besides pool?

Oliver: Poker with friends, spending time with my girlfriend, watching movies, cinema.

Q: You have traveled the world. What is your favorite cuisine?

Oliver: Asian kitchen like Japanese and Thai, but also Indian and Lebanese kitchen.

Q: What do you normally eat for dinner at home?

Oliver: We cook a lot. We like to cook things what we never had before, always new stuff. But we also try to cook with healthy stuff as much as possible like salads, fruits etc.

Q: What is the worst place you have ever had to sleep while on the road?

Oliver: When I played the IPT Qualifier in L.A. I stayed in a motel. I hate those motels anyway, but I thought it was a hotel the way it was named. Anyway in the middle of the night a water pipe broke underneath the wash basin and my room was flooded in one minute. Nobody could help me because there was nobody at the reception desk. That was a nightmare...

Q: Who is your idol in pool?

Oliver: I don’t have an idol in pool but I think that Efren is/was the best player in the world.

Q: Where do you hope to be in 5 years?

Oliver: On the business side of course. I’m working on expanding [my company]. On the pool side I don’t think too much about my future for the next 5 years. I spend more time about thinking where the pool sport will be in 5 years. If the sport could gain more respect and more support, we wouldn’t need to hope. Anyway, I’m not tired yet, so I will try to stay successful as long as I can…

In Hind Sight with The Machine: His Thoughts on Facing Mr. 400

Q: With regards to the IPT Straight Pool Challenge when you played John Schmidt in Hollywood, how did you feel going into the match?

Oliver: Actually I felt pretty good and was very confident to win. I know that John is a great straight pool player, and possibly the best American straight pool player, but I knew that if I could get control over the nap cloth it would be tough to beat me. And that never happened. Including the fact that I was a little tired and didn’t really feel well, I couldn’t find my rhythm at all and couldn’t find the ways of the cloth.

Q: Do you think that jetlag played a role in the outcome of the match?

Oliver: Not in this one straight pool match, so I won’t use it as an excuse for my loss. In a whole tournament it can kill your game, because your body needs a couple of days to relax.

Q: When the cue ball was frozen to the 2 ball, did you feel it was a bad roll or a careless mistake?

Oliver: Well, on Simonis cloth for example the cue ball obviously would have gone somewhere else. Those rails slide much more and that’s why the cue ball came out too short from the second rail and stopped at an object ball. I was just trying to play my game without thinking too much about the different reactions of the cloth in order to stay focused. But obviously I should have thought about it a second longer. So it was a careless mistake after all.

Q: At one point, you missed what seemed to be a routine 3 ball in the corner. What happened?

Oliver: At that 3 ball I was not concentrating enough. I played the ball with a lot of right english because of the position. Surprisingly, the cloth took the english immediately and the cue ball didn’t slide as much as usual. The cue ball made a small curve to the right and I missed it. My fault.

Q: Did you sense that the match was over after this?

Oliver: A race to 125 is very short and thought that this could be it. I still had a chance to win it, but another scratch on the break killed me…in this match John was the better player and he deserved to win.

Q: Can you explain a little bit about your overall experience of the IPT Ultimate 8Ball Challenge Match?

Oliver: I was treated absolutely great the whole time. Everything was very organized but relaxed. I had a fantastic time in Hollywood and my stay with the IPT crew was absolutely great and we had a lot of fun outside the studio, outside the pool business. Great city, great people, great fun. That’s what it was. It was more like spending your time with family. I really enjoyed the time after the match at dinner, etc. It was fun to realize the difference between a live studio and what you see on TV. It’s amazing what [production crews] can do. They did a fantastic job. The table was in a very small studio including 50-60 people watching the match. It was pretty tight so the cameraman was almost leaning on the ball with the camera. We are used to playing in front of cameras, but that situation was unusual for pool players. But I loved it, and would do it again right now.