Pattern racking

Roy Steffensen

Roy Steffensen

locksmith
Silver Member
Well, the Donny Mills-Shane Van Boening match is finally over, and I have to say that I HATE pattern racking, it's the most BORING thing I've ever seen.

I can't stand it, and I hope that people never agrees to play it again. It's not what 9-ball is about.

Pattern racking is illegal, according to the official rules by WPA (world pool association, www.wpa-pool.com) all balls is supposed to be racked randomly. If players start doing this shit all over, it will finally kill 9-ball for good. No one wants to watch people break soft and play the same balls in same pockets with same position over and over again.

Thank god that no tournament (yet) allows pattern rackings.

I also have to add that I was really dissapointed to see that there was a column in the latest magazine of InsidePOOL (the one with Borana on the cover) about pattern racking, where the writer (bob?) encouraged people to start using pattern racking in 9-ball.

I am extremely happy that Shane changed his break and finally turned this around. I didn't see the end of the match, but I guess that he was still pattern-racking though, but the tables will atleast not look the same again and again when breaking harder. Different table layouts makes it more entertaining for the spectators, and demands more skills from both players.

I will never ever buy a PPV for a rack your own 9-ball match again. It was real BORING, and a pain in the ass, and the reason I watched as much as I did, I watched like 4-5 h total, was because I had bets on this match.

The only thing that made me smile from this match is that I won $ 1 on Shane.

Then again, I have to applaud TAR for putting this up. It was a great production, and I loved to be able to adjust the screen. Thanks TAR.

This is in no way dis-respecting Donny Mills. He is extremely skillful, and I doubt that anyone is as successful as him breaking. 82 of 83 wing-ball percentage is just sick. That truly is art! What I dislike is only the boring, illegal pattern racking.
 
Roy Steffensen said:
Well, the Donny Mills-Shane Van Boening match is finally over, and I have to say that I HATE pattern racking, it's the most BORING thing I've ever seen.

I can't stand it, and I hope that people never agrees to play it again. It's not what 9-ball is about.

Pattern racking is illegal, according to the official rules by WPA (world pool association, www.wpa-pool.com) all balls is supposed to be racked randomly. If players start doing this shit all over, it will finally kill 9-ball for good. No one wants to watch people break soft and play the same balls in same pockets with same position over and over again.

Thank god that no tournament (yet) allows pattern rackings.

I also have to add that I was really dissapointed to see that there was a column in the latest magazine of InsidePOOL (the one with Borana on the cover) about pattern racking, where the writer (bob?) encouraged people to start using pattern racking in 9-ball.

I am extremely happy that Shane changed his break and finally turned this around. I didn't see the end of the match, but I guess that he was still pattern-racking though, but the tables will atleast not look the same again and again when breaking harder. Different table layouts makes it more entertaining for the spectators, and demands more skills from both players.

I will never ever buy a PPV for a rack your own 9-ball match again. It was real BORING, and a pain in the ass, and the reason I watched as much as I did, I watched like 4-5 h total, was because I had bets on this match.

The only thing that made me smile from this match is that I won $ 1 on Shane.

Then again, I have to applaud TAR for putting this up. It was a great production, and I loved to be able to adjust the screen. Thanks TAR.

This is in no way dis-respecting Donny Mills. He is extremely skillful, and I doubt that anyone is as successful as him breaking. 82 of 83 wing-ball percentage is just sick. That truly is art! What I dislike is only the boring, illegal pattern racking.
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Your right that part sucked
 
Roy I think the point of the match was to see if SVB can outrun Donny's gaff...not gaff in the typical sense but he did more than break well...you add the same break, the same rack with balls in the same order, and literally the same runout pattern to win a game thats a gaff. So IMO while I agree with you in the longrun, i think this match was just to see how svb did against what clearly are the nuts. Imagine if he played Corey and corey broke like that...SVB would have lost conservatively by what, 30 or 40 games? Yeah keep it banned please.
 
I didnt care for it much either!! All I can say about the match is once Shane quit trying to do that and started busting the balls, the game changed dramatically!!! All of a sudden Shane put a package together.
 
It was boring I agree.......but like mikey said Shane knew in the beginning what the game was going to be.....pattern racking!!! Shane didn't expect for DM's gaff to be as solid as it was...he proved by making the wing ball 82 of 83 times. Didn't win the match but, hey, he showed something that none of us had ever saw before. And hopefully won't see again!!!


Gary
 
sorry to burst everyone's bubble, but donny wasn't playing for our enjoyment...he was playing to win and he tried the best way he could to do so. what may seem boring to some, is a plan to win to others. jmo.
 
By the way, both players were pattern racking, shane's soft break just wasn't working as well as Danny's, so he went back to what he did best...break'em hard.

Donny's Pattern:

1
7 4
5 9 3
6 8
2

Shane's Pattern:

1
7 3
8 9 6
5 4
2

My own personal pattern rack against opponents is:

1
8 3
6 9 4
5 7
2

To me it's more about understanding where each ball in the rack is expected to travel based on the speed of the cue ball during the break. So even if my opponent pattern racks against me, I can at least come close to determining where the balls where lie after the break.
 
What might be interesting, is, you still rack your own, to prevent slug racking, but your opponent puts the balls in any order in the rack he wants at the beginning of each game. That would definitely change things up. You could call it Progressive Racking or something. What do you think TAR ?
 
irock said:
What might be interesting, is, you still rack your own, to prevent slug racking, but your opponent puts the balls in any order in the rack he wants at the beginning of each game. That would definitely change things up. You could call it Progressive Racking or something. What do you think TAR ?
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The problem with that is you can still slug the rack to your advantage just as you can to your opponent's disadvantage.

A better alternative would be to neutral rack by the referee or other third party. The incoming player can examine the rack and if he doesn't like it he can give the break to his opponent.
 
As far as patern racking killing 9-ball? It was already killed when they changed it to the one foul BIH Texas crap and other changes IMO. 9-ball was never really a true game of skill like 14.1. It was a game made up to gamble on. Fast games, a lot of luck, and pretty easy to play the lemon card with. It was made for the hustler.

The rack has always been a problem with 9-ball. Nine on the break, wing-ball goes most of the time, slop, and NO call pocket leaves too much luck in it, especialy for the average players. Want to see who's best? Then play 15-ball rotation, 1-hole, and 14.1 for big money.

I patern racked for about 3 months playing the 9-ball ghost. When I learned "Racking Secrets" by Joe Tucker my 9-ball ghost runout game got a lot better. But one thing I noticed was when I didn't patern rack or had to shoot someone elses racks I missed more balls because I was lost on getting the perfect position on the strange patrens. So I stopped using it in practicing. It becomes like Missisippi 9-ball. After you beat it a few times it's pretty easy because you know just where to play position.

I bet if Cory or Donny were asked if their shot making went down when they had to shoot someone elses paterns in a tournament or action match...(and they were truthful) they would say their runout percentage goes down a bit or a lot when runnig racks that they didn't rack themselves. Johnnyt
 
BlaineBarcus said:
FYI....every good player pattern racks
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And people wonder why pool cannot advance as a sport.

In bowling, they don't allow the bowlers to rack their own pins.

It should be the same in pool.

Rack mechanics, pattern rackers, call it what you will, but this ain't pool, as far as I'm concerned.

The break is an important skill set of any pool player's arsenal, but when the break becomes important because of pattern racking, it doesn't seem to showcase a pool player's true strength.

Of course, Donnie Mills and SVB are excellent pool players, and I am not saying that they are not.

What I am saying is that pattern racking and bird-breaking is, well, for the birds. :grin-square:
 
Yes, there are WPA rules about illegal pattern racking, but enforcing them is another matter. There's always the option to have a few variations of your pattern, so who can claim with 100% certainty that you're doing something illegal? It's grey area.
Even when referees rack the balls, sometimes they put the 2 ball or whatever in the same position many times in a row by accident. Good breakers spot this and then take advantage if possible. If referees spend many hours at various matches, they will pattern rack a little bit by accident without even realizing, unless they are extremely careful about it.
 
predator said:
Yes, there are WPA rules about illegal pattern racking, but enforcing them is another matter. There's always the option to have a few variations of your pattern, so who can claim with 100% certainty that you're doing something illegal? It's grey area.
Even when referees rack the balls, sometimes they put the 2 ball or whatever in the same position many times in a row by accident. Good breakers spot this and then take advantage if possible. If referees spend many hours at various matches, they will pattern rack a little bit by accident without even realizing, unless they are extremely careful about it.
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I like the idea, though, of the referee racking at all times. Though this is not cost effective in most tournaments, it would eliminate a lot of problems. In fact, the tournament may run smoother and quicker, eliminating those rack arguments. :wink:
 
> I consider myself a pretty astute student of the game,and combining such sources as Mike Sigel and Bert Kinister's observations about strategic rack order,and my own hard-won experience,there is no chance I would post my own personal racking order here :grin:. I only pass info like that on face to face,and only if I'm getting equal value knowledge in return :cool:.

I can tell you this though. Making exception for anomalies with the ball set or the rack,I rack the balls for my opponent in the same order playing 9-ball regardless of opponent skill,table condition or size,tournament,goofing off or gambling,unless rules are enforced against it. I make adjustments based on opponent's break and table characteristics,or weight being involved.

In the nearly 15 years since I started doing it,I haven't had a single player in my little area even mention they noticed,much less complained about it. I've only had a handful EVER anywhere that noticed it,and no one has ever complained. My last comment on the subject is this. I will NOT put the 2 in the very back or on the corner :thumbup2:.

It's a harbinger of things to come for SVB. He said in his TAR interview the game plan was to get in Donny's face so to speak and beat him at his own game,soft breaking and just out-playing him. He was smart enough to abandon the game plan when he saw the match being hotly contested in a spot where he's had all of his TAR opponents to date simply OWNED,except for Alex's once-in-a-lifetime comeback. It's like a football coach that stuck to the running game until he was down 10 points,then going to the no-huddle and putting up 28 points in the 4th quarter.

He should be quite proud to have taken the game he was offered,and made an obviously world-class player not like it in his own house,for all to see,simply by getting back to the thing that got him where he is,the big break. Tommy D.
 
IMO any time you let the players gegt there hands on the balls there will be shenanigans! :)

You ever watch old video of say McCready or Earl racking?.....those killers threw the balls in the rack with almost a carefree attitude.....smashed em open and ran out.

Now the players look at the balls in their hands first, then "place" them in at will.....this is no good IMO. The rules say RANDOM!.....which in itself is a real "grey" word.

We all know, or should know a few patterns good for us, and a few bad for them. I learned it from a study Nick Varner did about 15 years ago where they broke and charted 1000 racks and wrote an article about it. I think it might have been in BD or Snap magazine maybe?

G.
 
As I said before, Donny has the rack and break down, call it gaff or not. But as I also said before, watching him play was about as exciting as watching paint dry.

Would I pay again to watch DMs play; no. I wouldn't mind watching Shane play again though. He was definitely on in the second half.
Bill
 
Jason Robichaud said:
Can we translate this to spot. How many games do you think Shane gave DM by allowing the pattern racks.
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wow, good question........I'd guess maybe 25% + of the wins could be attributed to the pattern.....considering he wouldn't lose EVERY rack he didn't pattern.
 
Ironman317 said:
sorry to burst everyone's bubble, but donny wasn't playing for our enjoyment...he was playing to win and he tried the best way he could to do so. what may seem boring to some, is a plan to win to others. jmo.
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BlaineBarcus said:
FYI....every good player pattern racks
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These guys are both right. Watch most any strong player in a tourney, they put the balls in there specific favored order for the current situation.

I do not have any speed but still have a pattern, the pattern concept was explained to me by a top player. I do not get the repeatable results of Donny but I place the balls in a certain order for a reason, typically I am playing rack for the opp and I want the guy to go up and down the table as much as possible. The same top player explained to me about patterns to keep balls together or other patterns to spread numerically close balls to oppositte ends of the table. Donny racked, and broke very repeatably. so he had very short cue ball paths and repeating patterns.

Maybe in a tourney we need a match racking layout per game when you get your table it would say on game 1 rack like this, game 2 rack like that and so on 21 rack louts on a paper for a race to 11. Seems far fetched but it would take the patterns out.

Pattern racking has less effect when the breaker breaks hard, the chaos of the balls hitting each other provides alot of randomality.
 
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