I really loved this match! I had never seen Toby play before and I really love the way he played this game. I will look into accu-stats and see if there are more matches of his. And of course I will listen forever to Billy and Grady.
I don't read anything into his miss on the hill. We've all done it a million times. He was hitting them so well and the pockets were playing so large he just didn't expect he could miss and put a little too much attention onto the cue ball. Maybe it was a trace of hill nerves, maybe it was just a lapse in concentration, who knows? But everyone misses. I think he played a phenomenal match.
Couple of shots I wanted to talk about. At 1:26:26 he fires at a tough 5 ball with low inside english. Grady suggested a safety was better because he was a serious underdog to make that shot. But he didn't talk about what that safety was. I feel the shot there was to cut to 5 ball thinly to the left side rail and letting it trickle to the end rail. The cue ball path would be a rolling ball with some right spin to go end rail, side rail, other side rail, and hopefully in back of the 9 ball. The reason I like this shot is because I'm probably 50/50 to get the hook behind the 9 ball. Even if I miss the hook I'm leaving a length of the table bank at best and with the other balls on the rail by the side it's unlikely he's going to have a good return safe. If we ran it 100 times I think I'll win from there a good 70-75 times. But if I have to shoot that shot I think I'm a serious dog.
The other shot was at 55:33. They kept talking about how tying up a ball was no good because the 1-9 combination was on. They also talked about how there was no kick. But to me it looked like kicking to the end rail with a little low right and trying to come straight back at the one was the best shot. I think I'm an underdog to hit the ball but I will be close and can probably hit it a good 30% of the time. When I do I'm going to have enough speed and will likely split the balls somehow. There are a lot of loose balls to get behind or I could leave a bank or have other balls blocking a return shot. If I miss the one ball it is likely because I hit the 5 or the 6, so there remains a chance one of those balls interferes with the combination or disturbs the table lay. Now, if Toby had a sure fire way of moving the 9 or 1 AND creating some work then I'd be all for it, but it looked like he had to get lucky to disturb those balls anyway. I think his best chance was the one rail kick that no one talked about. Giving Miz ball in hand on big pockets is rarely the right choice. He actually got pretty lucky to break up the combination and leave the 4 tough and it still didn't stop Steve, so that shows how desperate his attempt was. Go ahead and kick at it.
Again, not picking on Toby because he is obviously a world class 9 ball player. Just wanting to have some constructive conversation about a few spots that came up.
