Murphy's successful shot at snooker, essentially (6)
I believe the answer is:
potato
'murphy's' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'successful shot at snooker essentially' is the wordplay.
'successful shot' becomes 'pot' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'essentially' means to look at the middle letters.
The middle letter of 'snooker' is 'o'.
'pot'+'at'+'o'='POTATO'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for potato that I've seen before include "The staple food is strangely too apt" , "Starchy vegetable" , "The vegetable is too apt, oddly" , "Murphy (informal)" , "Spud (6)" .)