Harold Worst 7 Rail Draw Shot - Fact or Fiction? Can anyone replicate this shot today?

Bob Jewett said:
I don't think I've ever seen a player hit the same cushion with draw more than twice. Maybe with masse? In any case,

This is what I think of as a legitimate 7-cushion draw shot, and I would certainly bet against on any normal table. (This is from Virtual Pool, where you can dial the speed up to 11.)

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Thank you Bob for this diagram. I am probably one of the very few on here who saw Worst play. As Freddy so eloquently put it Harold was all that and more. He earned the respect of all the players of that Era, hustlers and tournament pros alike.

Harold was not too tall, maybe 5'10 or so, but he was sturdily built, well over 200 pounds I'm sure. There didn't seem to be anything he couldn't do on a pool table, and do it better than anyone else!

Freddy was one of my dearest friends and he liked to talk even more than me. I never found him to lie about anything other than his own pool skills🙄. As for me after looking at the shot diagrammed I'm of the mind Harold could do it.
 
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maha said:
even way back then they had stuff like silicone to make the cue ball fly. no one could do that on a regular pool table in a pool room with the house cue ball that had not been touched.

you dont think mike uses a special cue ball. and sayginer certainly doesnt use a house ball like all of us.

more than one person lost a bet about driving a golf ball half a mile. or throwing a peanut over a house.

i used to be able to scale a baseball card over a house. and a regular one of yours at that.
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A polished pool ball tends to die on the cushions. Billiard balls keep going on inertia.
 
JPB2 said:
I don’t think I’ll go looking for it in Freddy’s books, but givenWorst’s tournament records and how they talk about him I wouldn’t doubt it. Think of guys now with big strokes who have pulled off stroke shots and extreme masses. I mean like Sayginer. Worst’s stroke had to be at that level. So the specific shot and conditions I don’t know, but I wouldn’t doubt he did it. The conditions in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s weren’t totally primitive etc… even if they are better now.
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I watched Louie do some amazing things with draw. I'm sure he could have done this, or come damn close.
 
1000BallRunner said:
found a text version in the meantime from the Book - he actually says 7, not 6, pretty insane!! "U.J. Puckett had for years dazzled the crowd with his specialty shot, a five rail draw with the cue ball at least five diamonds away from the object ball ... Harold Worst watched Puck do the shot and then asked him if he could try it. Worst got down on the shot and got seven rails on the first try! Puckett never showed that shot at Johnston City again. I seen that with my own eyeballs. There was no stroke shot that Worst couldn't execute."
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Don't fish always get bigger with the telling??😂
 
Bob Jewett said:
I don't think I've ever seen a player hit the same cushion with draw more than twice. Maybe with masse? In any case,

This is what I think of as a legitimate 7-cushion draw shot, and I would certainly bet against on any normal table. (This is from Virtual Pool, where you can dial the speed up to 11.)

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If you use the side pocket, there's a shot there as well. Draw back into the corner then back up table. 7 would be a stretch for me. 5 maybe. 6??
 
Mensabum said:
If you use the side pocket, there's a shot there as well. Draw back into the corner then back up table. 7 would be a stretch for me. 5 maybe. 6??
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I have a 5 rail shot off the side tit I used to do that cut a ball down the long rail after 5 rails , I could have easily gotten 6 and made a billiard after, instead, . the way you described.
 
To really test (measure) a pure draw stroke, I think we need to draw in a straight line without side spin helping to carry the ball around the table. If someone could get 2.5 nine foot table lengths on normal cloth, I would be impressed.
 
Bob Jewett said:
Please try it and report back.
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Lol.
Tarp is out, haha.
Hope to have some time on rapide 300 later today, without pesky pockets.
The guys there have some weird trickshots too, maybe a many-rail path will be revealed.
Screenshot_20241029-194244.jpg
 
fjk said:
To really test (measure) a pure draw stroke, I think we need to draw in a straight line without side spin helping to carry the ball around the table. If someone could get 2.5 nine foot table lengths on normal cloth, I would be impressed.
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This ain't bad:
I've stood table-side when he performs this and the 'violence' of the strike is something else. Uber-powerful cue delivery combined with perfect tip-to-cb contact.
 
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garczar said:
This ain't bad:
I've stood table-side when he performs this and the 'violence' of the strike is something else. Uber-powerful cue delivery combined with perfect tip-to-cb contact.
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I'm thinking that loose grip helps. Shane has a weird cooked/ locked wrist quite often but can obviously do anything he wants with the cue ball. Still though, I am of the belief that a loose grip engages wrist action for more effortless juicing.
 
markjames said:
do i believe this- sure

did the mythic harold worst do it- sure

if you are freddy the beard
will your book have crazy stories- sure

is it possible to map the shot and
learn to make it a variety of ways- sure



but why? why?
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We were all kids having fun watching Georgie show off. It was a special time in the pool world. Used to lineup on Saturday mornings waiting for Artie to unlock the door at 10am.

We’d play straight pool for $.60 an hour a penny a minute. Great times!!! We would play all day long!
 
garczar said:
This is where the Beard mentions the shot: This also from Freddy "the Beard" Bentivegna: "As far as pool players go, we were all earthlings and Harold was from another planet. I watched Harold give Baby Face 130 to 100 [i.e., a 30-ball spot at straight pool] and win every game. I watched him shoot his way out of a Weanie Beanie trap when Worst gave Sonny Springer 8 to 6 and the break ... Harold had to be experienced to be believed. Harold had plenty of money and would play anybody, anything and bet all you wanted. So in my time at Johnston City, how many players picked on him to play even? Jacksonville's Sammy Blumenthal was the only one; they played snooker and Harold assassinated him. Previously, Sammy was undefeated in snooker for 20 years. U.J. Puckett had for years dazzled the crowd with his specialty shot, a five rail draw with the cue ball at least five diamonds away from the object ball ... Harold Worst watched Puck do the shot and then asked him if he could try it. Worst got down on the shot and got seven rails on the first try! Puckett never showed that shot at Johnston City again. I seen that with my own eyeballs. There was no stroke shot that Worst couldn't execute." Not in 'B with B' book.
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Gar - it is actually in the "Gospool of Bank Pool" - I was incorrect on the title of the book in possession.
 
jay helfert said:
Thank you Bob for this diagram. I am probably one of the very few on here who saw Worst play. As Freddy so eloquently put it Harold was all that and more. He earned the respect of all the players of that Era, hustlers and tournament pros alike.

Harold was not too tall, maybe 5'10 or so, but he was sturdily built, well over 200 pounds I'm sure. There didn't seem to be anything he couldn't do on a pool table, and do it better than anyone else!

Freddy was one of my dearest friends and he liked to talk even more than me. I never found him to lie about anything other than his own pool skills🙄. As for me after looking at the shot diagrammed I'm of the mind Harold could do it.
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The only thing to add to this Jay - is apparently Worst set up the shot at least 5 diamonds away - which is much further than the drawing here
 
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1000BallRunner said:
Gar - it is actually in the "Gospool of Bank Pool" - I was incorrect on the title of the book in possession.
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The anecdote about Puckett's 5-rail draw shot, which has already been posted, is on page 113 of "Gospool". There is no diagram and no indication of how the balls were placed. For example, we don't know if the cue ball was drawn straight back or if there was a near rail involved. No distances are given in the quote.

Unless we find someone who was there and still remembers it -- from the 1960s 👴-- I think the details will remain a mystery.

I did see an amazing draw shot, and since the setup was dead simple, it's easy to describe:

It's a spot shot. The standard test for spot shot draw it to draw the cue ball off the side rail and then across the table to the side pocket on the same side the object ball is pocketed. You use outside english to help the shot. The shot I saw, and which the shooter said he was going to try before he shot it, is almost the same. He drew the cue ball off that same side rail but then to the corner pocket at the head of the table. This was at the Blue Cue in Berkeley, probably in 1966, and it was the shorter desk guy who shot it. New Gold Crown with blue cloth.
 
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