How would you play this?

[cleary]

Thank you all for your responses....

Maybe it was the fact that Im a C player, playing an A player even, 7-7 in a race to 9. But I froze when this shot came up. As cuetable said, this is a hard shot for some of us to pocket and to get shape makes matters worse. In practice, I can make the 9 from the other side of the table, but in a close race, I want to be within a few feet. Anyway I look at this, everything seems very risky to me. Im going to try things out and see what Jude comes up with on Sunday.

Thanks.

 

[Jude Rosenstock]

Thank you all for your responses....

Maybe it was the fact that Im a C player, playing an A player even, 7-7 in a race to 9. But I froze when this shot came up. As cuetable said, this is a hard shot for some of us to pocket and to get shape makes matters worse. In practice, I can make the 9 from the other side of the table, but in a close race, I want to be within a few feet. Anyway I look at this, everything seems very risky to me. Im going to try things out and see what Jude comes up with on Sunday.

Thanks.

It was actually kinda funny - when we set it up, it was obvious draw wasn't going to work. That is to say, it was obvious when you're behind the cueball. One decent player in the room had to come over and see for himself since from the chair, he thought it could be done.

I tried it several ways and found the two that were most acceptable were slow-rolling it or going four rails. The four-railer is perfectly reasonable with a touch of inside just to kill the angle a little. You have to be comfortable with the shot in order to execute it. Any cold feet and you should immediately opt for the slow-roll.