Well, for what it's worth I actually thought about most of the shots submitted, and frankly I didn't like any of them. I also considered just getting really conservative and just bunting the one about halfway up the lower side rail on
Efren's side of the table, then floating the cue ball to the end rail. I kind of wish I had shot that now, because I really feel like it would have brought the situation back to neutral. I rejected it at the time though because it just seemed too negative.
So I guess I had eight or nine possible shots and they were all
wrong, lol. That being the case I finally decided to just shoot at the one. My policy going into the tournament was to be aggressive, because bottom line you're not going to beat great players unless you make great shots, and this is most definitely a makeable shot, albeit a very difficult one. Besides, if you're going to get beat, you may as well get beat shooting at your pocket.
Obviously the worst thing that can happen is to catch it thick so you have to play it to favor missing it all together (which is what I ended up doing), but if you do happen to miss it you just playing 2-1 with two balls on the spot, a spot which we've all won plenty of games from.
BUT if you do hit it good, well you just went up 1-0 (and breaking) against the GOAT. That alone makes it well worth the risk, if you ask me. It's not like you'll be playing him again next Thursday