Snooker Best Shots German Masters 2023 Recreated

AgueFit
106 followers
Apr 15, 2023
This week we're looking for the best shot from the German masters,
both in terms of sheer difficulty and significance.
But as usual we're going to be working that out by attempting to recreate
all of these shots as accurately as possible in the fewest possible attempts.
I am going to have a go at the Neil Robertson fluke at the end of the video,
but we're beginning with the real contenders.
Like this long pot from Zhao Gedong,
To play this shot I'm using a lot of right hand side and backspin,
which makes it very difficult, so I was surprised to see it go in first time.
I was just about to decide whether or not this was good enough when the power went out.
I decided it probably wasn't, so after I believed I successfully dried everything out,
after somehow condensation had found its way into the electrics for the table lights,
I had a go again, and discovered this shot was actually a lot harder than it first appeared,
especially as I had to hit it about twice as hard to get the cue ball back where I needed it to go.
I was pretty happy to get it, even if it did take me 11 attempts.
Anthony McGill is next, powering the brown around the table in order to get back for a red in bulk.
This shot needs to be stunned to the cushion with a lot of left hand side
to avoid the blue and the pink as you come back down the table.
But on my first shot, it wasn't the blue and the pink that were the problem,
as I didn't quite get into the cue ball enough and caught the jaws,
so on my second attempt I struck it slightly lower and more or less found the perfect line.
It was just a little bit too hard in the end, but not by very much.
Jack Lasowski gets this really fine cut along the top cushion now
that I'm pretty confident he played.
He doesn't manage to finish in position, but it certainly dug him out of a lot of trouble.
I don't think Jack had a lot of choice on this shot, as this is all you can see of the red,
and I think this one will probably be marked down a little bit
because he didn't end up getting in position in any way.
But you could have said the same thing about the first shot,
and the fact that you have to play the first red past the second makes it equally difficult.
It was such a thin shot, I never really knew if I was hitting it too thick or too thin
as it went down the table, so I was really happy to get it after 4 attempts,
but then the power went again.
I was getting fed up with this, so decided to solve the problem
by rerouting the table lights through the mains.
So finally, once again, we have power.
Right, that's my electrician work done for today,
and we can now look at a crucial pink for Jimmy White
that put him 2-0 in front of Jack Lasowski.
Although this was as good as it got for Jimmy,
it was certainly a great pot in the middle pocket.
What I mean by that is Jimmy ended up losing the match 5-2,
but it does mean he's still competing with some of the best players in the world right now,
so I was happy to get this one first time.
Jack Lasowski's next, opening up two reds on the top cushion off the black,
but he's doing it by accurately powering the cue ball off the side cushion
for a perfect cannon.
This shot needed to be played with a lot of topspin,
and I'm not sure if it needed it or not,
but I was also playing it with a small amount of left-hand side.
I got very close to getting on a red on my second attempt,
but ended up finishing on the second one.
The problem I was having with this one was the small amount of left-hand side.
If I put a little bit too little on and went high,
and a little bit too much, it went low.
It was very difficult to get accurately.
I actually found it a little bit easier when I put my hand on the cushion,
and ended up nicely on a red.
Tom Ford perfectly plays this double on the green
to help him win a crucial frame against Kyron Wilson.
This was a pretty bold shot for Tom to play at this stage of the match,
but I didn't feel like I was going to have too much trouble recreating it,
as I only had to get the double and get the cue ball back round the table.
But unfortunately, I discovered if I played the shot with topspin,
it kept it too close to the cushion.
This meant I got in position quite nicely,
but I was trying to get round the pink and the black.
I found it a real challenge to get enough side on the cue ball,
and that's why I miscued,
and I only just about got this off the middle jaw in the end.
But Tom wasn't done with doubles,
as next up he manages to find this cocked hand double off the black.
I'm sure this isn't going to be too difficult to play.
No, I actually believed the exact opposite,
and thought this was going to be a real challenge to play,
and would take me around about 20 shots,
as you have to hit the black so thin with a lot of power to get it to the pocket.
This was certainly one of the most annoying shots I had to play,
as I just couldn't see the correct angle to play the shot.
And when I got used to it a little bit,
I just kept hitting it in the same place every single time,
just low of the middle pocket.
No matter what I did, it seemed to go in exactly the same place.
I kept trying to hit it a bit thicker,
and it kept ending up there.
Eventually, I just about found the right angle
on my eighth attempt to pod it off the far jaw.
But which was the cheekiest of these doubles?
This or the last one?
Cue the music.
Even though the shot on the green was fairly straightforward,
it helped him win the match,
so he earns three cheeky chillies for that.
Whereas the shot on the black was completely unnecessary,
but it was a lot harder shot.
So because of that, it earns four cheeky chillies,
and he's this week's winner.
Although he would have been either way.
Louis Heathcote finds this excellent positional shot off the green next,
in a crucial deciding frame against Karyu Peng.
This is a difficult enough shot to play before you consider the context of the match.
I'm looking to play the shot in exactly the same way,
get the cannon,
and hopefully end up on a red somehow.
It may have been this shot was intended to be played direct initially,
but I'm looking to play it in exactly the same way off the top cushion.
And I was really happy to get it on my third attempt.
Didn't get on the red in the same way,
but was happy enough with it.
Zhao Gedong looks like he doesn't know what to do here,
and ends up taking this excellent long red into the green pocket as a result of that.
I think he would have been playing this with the knowledge
that the pink, yellow, and brown were likely to cover the red
if he left it over the pocket.
However, I'm also looking to try to do what he did,
which is also cannon the pink towards the pocket.
I'm not sure if this is going to be possible,
but that's what I'm going for.
And to do that, I was having to play this shot with a small amount of left-hand side.
It was an incredibly tough shot to play.
I kept getting very close, but not quite potting it.
The small amount of side spin made it really difficult to line up
as it went across the table.
So I was happy to get it in just seven attempts,
even if I did miss the pink.
Luca Brussels also lining up a swerve shot,
although his looks incredibly awkward as he's very close to the bulk cushion,
and there's a number of other balls a little bit in the way.
I really didn't expect this shot to be too difficult,
but the fact that it was close to the bulk cushion,
and you couldn't swerve that much,
otherwise you'd hit the two reds on the left-hand side,
made it a little bit more of a challenge.
I didn't end up hitting it thick enough to get on the black properly on my third attempt,
but could still pot it from this position, so that's okay.
On the next shot, Chris Wakeland's really close to the blue,
but he still manages to pot it into the corner pocket,
and retain excellent position on the pink.
Any side spin you play a shot like this with makes a huge difference to the pot.
The right-hand side I'm using here makes the blue cut slightly more,
so I had to allow for that perfectly to pot it and get position on the pink,
so that's a good first time.
We've got a Sijai Wee shot coming up next,
This one was certainly one of the best safety shots of the tournament,
as he uses a lot of right-hand side to spin the cue ball around three cushions,
and tuck it in behind the yellow.
To do the same thing is going to need a lot of accuracy,
and I usually think with shots like these are deceivingly difficult to get right,
because in a normal game of snooker,
you'd be fairly happy getting the cue ball near the bulk cushion,
or close to the yellow or green.
However, to get this shot right,
I've got to land the cue ball in a very, very small area of the table,
or I simply won't get the snooker.
So when I got tight in behind the yellow after just four attempts,
I was really pleased with this one.
For our next shot, Tom Ford has what is really quite a straightforward yellow,
but he's finished a little bit awkward on it,
and this is crucial because this was the shot that really got him into the final.
And that's why I really wanted to include it,
but under no pressure myself,
I wanted to also get it in just one attempt,
and I was pretty happy to do so.
We've got Neil Robertson escaping from a snooker now,
not quite in the way he intended.
I wanted to see if this shot was even possible,
so I decided to give it a go anyway,
even though it's just a fluke.
To play this one, you need to screw the cue ball into the cushion
to make it straighten up,
and as it turns out, this is really difficult to do.
I found it very difficult to get a lot of backspin on the cue ball
without making it bounce, which made it break wider.
This was taking so many attempts that if I put them all in,
this video would have been about 10 minutes longer.
So I decided to fast forward to around about 30 attempts,
where I was beginning to get closer to this shot.
The problem I was having now was hitting the cue ball into the table like this
was putting a few holes in it,
so I kept having to move the position.
However, I was delighted to actually finally get this.
I don't know how long that took.
Well, the camera recorded 10 minutes of video,
and after painstakingly reviewing every single shot,
I can confirm it took 36 attempts.
So for the results, third place goes to Louis Heathcote
with this excellent positional shot in a deciding frame.
He did really well to get on a red here.
Second place goes to Zhao Gedong,
as this shot was difficult to even get the cue ball back safe,
let alone pop the red in the first place.
But first place goes to Jack Wazowski,
as it was difficult to even hit the reds on this positional shot,
but he absolutely nails it.
So this has been how I fix my table lighting,
as well as me playing some of the best shots from the German masters.
And if you want to see more of me recreating shots from other tournaments,
have a look at these two videos.
And remember, don't just watch, play.
And make the commitment to becoming a better player
by subscribing to the channel and visit the website.
See you later.
