I was sitting next to John when Danny shot that ill advised shot. In stead of playing it to his hole he needed to send it into those two or three ball he had by his second diamond and get a natural carom towards his hole and hide the QB behind those two balls in the middle of the table.
Danny shot about three different shots that opened balls up for Tony and just plane gave away games.
There were a lot of times that I disagreed with his shot choice, but didn't feel strongly enough about it to question his judgment. However, there was more than a handful that I still think were definitely wrong, even though a couple of them I remember worked out OK, either because of execution so extraordinary that I still don't think he should count on it, or simply because of a good roll.
Like Tony he can perform some amazing stuff, but I think Tony's judgment on when and how to duck is a little bit better. One thing that might have played an important role in the outcome is that Tony played all but one of his matches on Table 1, and it seemed to play a little softer than the others that I watched play on (2,3 and 4.) Of course softer might benefit
Danny as much as Tony, both of them being extra-aggressive.
One shot in game 8 in Danny and Tony's last set (with Danny up 4 games to 3) was interesting and possibly decisive. Danny moved a ball into the jaws a 1/2" from dropping, slightly toward the high side. From somewhere near the angle of the spot, Tony shot a kick-cross takeout off the bottom rail; the ball hit the point perfectly and went into Tony's pocket 100 miles an hour. I can't guess whether Tony made a specific attempt at hitting the point that way, or just made a good crossing hit and got lucky.... maybe both.
One advantage that Danny
may have over several of the others, based upon what I've seen, is that he reads the stack extremely well, maybe as well as Corey.