I would have to say that if a player -- to include any top pro -- wanted to hard break against me, my response would be: goferit (please).
Lou Figueroa
My question would be:
If Chris Gentile couldn't fade Danny's game breaking hard and wide open, are you implying you could have? You would have zero chance beating Danny with him breaking hard and wide-open.
I think I understand the point of what Mr. Stedyfred is trying to say. Just for fun, I practiced a hard break just to see if I could run the 8-and-out from there and believe me.... it's not a gimme-putt he way many of you are implying. In fact, if you DON'T run the 8-and-out from that opening salvo, you are now presented with a scenario where the guy who has EXPLOSIVE firepower no longer has to "move" against you and can now start lobbing balls in at will at a rate that's MUCH higher than yours.
So, just to clarify Stedy's original post --- if I was playing someone who never ever missed and banked like God, but had a more limited understanding of one pocket -- the answer for me would be: Of course I don't want them to break wide open because if I don't get the hell out of the rack, I'm going to get dominated from there because all of the finer knowledge aspects of one pocket disappear and I'm now faced with a cannonball-run-like shootout that I probably couldn't win.
It's a loaded question and the answer isn't "GOFERIT" with pros with elite-level firepower when you yourself do NOT possess such firepower. The proof was in the puddin' and Danny seemed to show that well against Chris.
Figgie--- do you think you could have beat Danny with him breaking open like that? Chris couldn't "lock-up" those games, so I'm curious if you still stand beside your conviction. I dunno... maybe you're a better pool player than Chris, for all I know.