World Pool Masters (22-25 May2021) Winner $25K

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Wow, what a fantastic runout by Koniar to take a 4-1 lead. SVB needs to bear down.
 
SVB just delivered one of the best shots of the entire tournament, using a paper thin cut on the one to open up the clustered two and three, following it with a runout, so he's got a 5-4 lead now.
 
It's all over. SVB 7 Koniar 4. Even in defeat, Koniar showed some solid form. SVB gets Fedor Gorst next.
 
Nice match coming up. The charismatic Naoyuki Oi against the stylist Kaci. Have to give Kaci the edge, but these are very good players.
 
BlueRaider said:
I know these are some heinous pockets but wow, a lot of misses in this match.
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I do agree with Allison Fisher's comment that the pockets shouldn't be forgiving. The ones right now at the WPM seem good enough for professional level. I've never agreed with the safety margin for cheating a pocket.

EDIT: I have seen the shots of the balls bouncing out of the pocket. Need to be looked at.
 
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Greg M said:
I do agree with Allison Fischer's comment that the pockets shouldn't be forgiving. The ones right now at the WPM seem good enough for professional level. I've never agreed with the safety margin for cheating a pocket.
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Tight pockets are one thing, but you certainly don't want to see them spit out cleanly hit balls that already dropped like what just happened to Kaci!
 
And Kaçi puts a four ball ball dead center (at 3-0 ahead of Oi) and it loops-the-loop and comes back onto the table.

Rasson needs to fix the pocket shape (drop pocket, not return). This is a very old problem.
 
Bob Jewett said:
And Kaçi puts a four ball ball dead center (at 3-0 ahead of Oi) and it loops-the-loop and comes back onto the table.

Rasson needs to fix the pocket shape (drop pocket, not return). This is a very old problem.
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that cost him several racks. might even lose the match. that would be very unfortunate. kaci is imo the best player so far
 
sjm said:
I don't ever recall a player for whom so many refused to give credit for his incredible all-around skills. I really don't get it.
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I give Filler plenty of credit actually and consider him to be in the top 3 players today. Me thinking his defensive execution is the weakest part of his game is like me saying Ronnie Coleman could have had bigger calves. Filler is top class in every department.
But yeah I consider Shane to be the more crafty of the two, and I understand that it’s possible that’s because of the larger body of work to pull from and I’ve simply seen more great and smart shots from Shane opposed to the young Filler. Shane’s had countless long battles with Alex and Dennis over the years and his kicking and kick safe game shows it. I know he’s not so much the talk of the town anymore but when he’s motivated, he’s truly a very crafty player.
 
CaleAYS said:
But yeah I consider Shane to be the more crafty of the two, and I understand that it’s possible that’s because of the larger body of work to pull from and I’ve simply seen more great and smart shots from Shane opposed to the young Filler. Shane’s had countless long battles with Alex and Dennis over the years and his kicking and kick safe game shows it. I know he’s not so much the talk of the town anymore but when he’s motivated, he’s truly a very crafty player.
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I don't want to say you are wrong, because I don't know what matches you've watched.

The truth, however, is that, in racks when Shane has had to fight for control of the table with Alex, his track record is very poor, and it's not very good against Dennis either. His offensive execution is above both, and that has been the key to his wonderful and legendary career, but you really need to rewatch his matches if you think Shane wins by beating the elite defensive players to the shot in tactical racks. It just isn't the case very often. Shane always beat everybody to the shot with his break, not with his tactical prowess, but the number of extra chances he always created with his break was usually more than enough to compensate for his very ordinary tactical skills. Shane's one of the best players of all time, but not for the reasons you imagine.

Finally, he's not even close to as crafty as Filler, who in turn is not even close to as crafty as Pagulayan. Shane plays fewer two way shots and doesn't do as good a job of object ball placement in his defense, and his decision making in defense is below Filler.

I think Shane is very similar to Jean Balukas in that both were able to mass produce nine ball titles without ever becoming truly elite at defense. With Jean, we always observed that she never needed to, and the same can be said of Shane until recently. Neither really had the motivation to fine tune their defensive skills. That said, the level of defense at the top level has been on the rise of late, and it's one of the reasons that Shane is more beatable than in the past and why he hasn't won any of the toughest events (US Open, International, China Open, All Japan Championships, WPA World Championships) for about five years now.

Sorry to be so argumentative, and perhaps we've sampled Shane at very different moments in his career, but I very strongly disagree with you.
 
sjm said:
I don't want to say you are wrong, because I don't know what matches you've watched.

The truth, however, is that, in racks when Shane has had to fight for control of the table with Alex, his track record is very poor, and it's not very good against Dennis either. His offensive execution is above both, and that has been the key to his wonderful and legendary career, but you really need to rewatch his matches if you think Shane wins by beating the elite defensive players to the shot in tactical racks. It just isn't the case very often. Shane always beat everybody to the shot with his break, not with his tactical prowess, but the number of extra chances he always created with his break was usually more than enough to compensate for his very ordinary tactical skills. Shane's one of the best players of all time, but not for the reasons you imagine.

Finally, he's not even close to as crafty as Filler, who in turn is not even close to as crafty as Pagulayan. Shane plays fewer two way shots and doesn't do as good a job of object ball placement in his defense, and his decision making in defense is below Filler.

I think Shane is very similar to Jean Balukas in that both were able to mass produce nine ball titles without ever becoming truly elite at defense. With Jean, we always observed that she never needed to, and the same can be said of Shane until recently. Neither really had the motivation to fine tune their defensive skills. That said, the level of defense at the top level has been on the rise of late, and it's one of the reasons that Shane is more beatable than in the past and why he hasn't won any of the toughest events (US Open, International, China Open, All Japan Championships, WPA World Championships) for about five years now.

Sorry to be so argumentative, and perhaps we've sampled Shane at very different moments in his career, but I very strongly disagree with you.
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No need to apologize for being argumentative. I appreciate your opinion more than any other on this forum, which I have actually told you in person, though I doubt you remember a brief conversation at a Paigow table.
 
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Bob Jewett said:
And Kaçi puts a four ball ball dead center (at 3-0 ahead of Oi) and it loops-the-loop and comes back onto the table.

Rasson needs to fix the pocket shape (drop pocket, not return). This is a very old problem.
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Wasn't the pockets fault, it went in hard and hit the backside of the 3 ball causing it to bounce back out. It happens on all tables from time to time
 
The only thing I'll say about Shane is that he rarely looks as relaxed as someone like Filler.
 
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