Deaf player finds peace

Instead of attending a specialized school for hearing impairment, Shane Van Boening went to public schools in South Dakota where he was picked on and bullied.

Van Boening was quiet and shy, and he focused on pool, his insecurity disappearing into the hours he spent striking cue ball after cue ball.

He hasn't stopped. A workaholic who constantly pushes himself, Van Boening is arguably the world's top player.

Nearly completely deaf since birth, Van Boening is playing in the PartyPoker.net World Pool Masters at the Riviera. The world's top 16 players are competing, which concludes with the semifinals and finals at 7 p.m. Sunday.

Van Boening, who is 97 percent deaf, was meant to play the sport, inheriting the gene from his billiards-loving family. As an 18-month-old, he watched grandfather Gary Bloomberg, a trick-shot artist, and became enamored by the different colored balls.

Bloomberg soon bought Van Boening a miniature pool table, and knew as soon as his grandson picked up the stick there was natural talent.

"If it wasn't for pool, I could've been in an institution like a deaf school where I had to speak sign language and wouldn't even know how to talk," said Van Boening, whose enunciation is sharp considering his impairment.

He realized he might have a future in the game when, at 16, pro Danny Harriman visited Rapid City.

"That was the turning point where I said to myself, 'If I can beat this guy, I can compete with anybody,' " Van Boening said. "(Harriman) told me, 'You're going to do well in the future.' "

Harriman has reminded Van Boening, 25, of that comment, but not many others envisioned such a future. Coming from relative obscurity, in 2007 he won the Predator World Tenball and the U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship.

Last year, Van Boening made $147,420 and was ranked No. 1 by AZBilliards.com. He is No. 1 this year as well, and has $34,750 in winnings.

But he belies the cliched reputation of a typical pool player. Van Boening doesn't drink or smoke, and doesn't want to do anything to derail excelling in a game that he sometimes practices 12 to 15 hours without stopping.

"I'll keep on playing until I miss," he said. "More likely, I'm not going to miss. I can play about 20 games without missing. If you miss a shot, you work on it over and over and over until you get it like 10 times in a row."

Then there are the games in competition in which Van Boening will turn off his hearing aid to completely concentrate on his shots. A fight broke out during a match two years ago and he didn't realize it until after sinking the winning shot.

Some opponents claim Van Boening's deafness is an advantage, and the issue even was raised during a meeting at last year's U.S. Open.

"A lot of pool players get jealous of that," Van Boening said. "They've got to hear all the distractions in the background.

"Nothing distracts me. I can't even hear the ball clink."

Van Boening is a role model for kids with hearing problems. He spoke to students at the Texas School for the Deaf in November about how the sport has allowed him to see the world. In two weeks Van Boening will leaves for invitation-only tournaments in China and the Philippines.

"They don't know much about what's out there in the real world," he said. "I give them advice: 'You can follow your dreams and do whatever you want to do.' "

But Van Boening doesn't want to be known simply as the deaf player. He views himself more like one of his heroes, Tiger Woods.

"When I was a little kid," Van Boening said, "I always wanted to be a champion and be the best pool player in the world."

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914.