How to Prevent Racking Balls on Wrong End?

C

ChrisinNC

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I guess you know when you don't have what would be considered a serious player's poolroom when virtually every day, someone that comes in here proceeds to rack the balls on the wrong end of the table.

Despite having the master spot at the head of the racking end, having a crosshair with a sharpie drawn on that end, having the headstring line drawn with a sharpie on the breaking end, and having the ball rack on the hook on the correct end of the table, it still happens all the time. All I can guess is they think the spot is there to put the CB on to break from.

Does anyone ever see that happen in your poolroom? I find it very frustrating, as it's generally quite embarrassing for the customers, to have to politely tell they are breaking from the wrong end. Is there anything else I can do, short of writing "break end" on the rail or on the cloth behind the headstring with a sharpie?
 
I always walk over and tell them personally which end to break from...
....it’s no big deal to me.
We have mostly ball returns at our room, so I tell them to rack where the balls come out.

If they seem a bit embarrassed, I tell them how on my first shot in a pool hall, I scooped
whitey onto the floor.
 
Did you try hollering and waving your wiener around?

That always stops it. Stops all the racking as a matter uh fakt.
 
I've never seen anyone break from the wrong end but I do find new people looking for the rack on the Diamond tables. I don't recall seeing anyone embarrassed about it though, maybe it's the way approach and respond to them?
 
chrisinnc said:
i guess you know when you don't have what would be considered a serious player's poolroom when virtually every day, someone that comes in here proceeds to rack the balls on the wrong end of the table.

Despite having the master spot at the head of the racking end, having a crosshair with a sharpie drawn on that end, having the headstring line drawn with a sharpie on the breaking end, and having the ball rack on the hook on the correct end of the table, it still happens all the time. All i can guess is they think the spot is there to put the cb on to break from.

Does anyone ever see that happen in your poolroom? I find it very frustrating, as it's generally quite embarrassing for the customers, to have to politely tell they are breaking from the wrong end. Is there anything else i can do, short of writing "break end" on the rail or on the cloth behind the headstring with a sharpie?
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it is usually only the mexicans that do this. At least from what i have always seen.
 
who cares where they rack from its their table they are renting it. and those kind of players dont hit hard enough to make marks dow n the other end. so no big deal.
 
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I don't see that much but.....
I do see people wander into the pool hall and walk around the 9ft tables a few times looking for the coin op.
Don't know how many times I've directed them up the font counter where they can rent by the hr.
 
Not seen that much but searching for the table light, well, that happens a lot more often for newbies.

And surprisngly, race....ethnicity.........religion......sexual preference......well, none apply nor even matter.

Even wealthy caucasian players demonstrate this nuance, not just pool players of color. Tsh...Tsh...Tsh.
 
HUKIT said:
I've never seen anyone break from the wrong end but I do find new people looking for the rack on the Diamond tables. I don't recall seeing anyone embarrassed about it though, maybe it's the way approach and respond to them?
Click to expand...
I always try to handle it as discreetly and politely as possible - no big deal. Now if they set a drink cup/glass on the rail of the table, then I usually flicker the lights on the table, which tends to immediately get their attention. When they look back up to the control area, I simply pick up a cup and they get the message without having to call them out in front of the entire poolroom. I've learned the hard way, some people are very sensitive and you can lose customers by not handling situations like that very discreetly.
 
There are places where the tables are so worn out it is actually better to rack at the wrong end. Else you wouldn't get a halfways decent rack because of all the divots on the right side. I prefer not to play on such tables but sometimes I have to.
 
I don't see much of an issue with this, aside from when they are breaking towards something breakable, like glass door. One of the places I play in all the time actually rotates where you break from to even out the wear, they have the triangle hook drilled to be on either side.

One thing does give me a chuckle is in places where there is a bar table and normal tables, people talking their coins to the tables and looking all over for a coin slot.

Once I saw a table playing with half rack or normal balls and half rack or snooker pool balls without noticing anything odd even though half the balls were like 30% smaller.

We were using that table for a 9 ball tournament, when we got done they were given the table and grabbed balls from the snooker ball tray that was in the area to make up the missing half. Took me about 15 minutes to figure out why half the snooker balls were missing when I went to bring them back LOL
 
I never knew.

I did not know it mattered what end players broke from, but maybe it does for a pool hall. Could some one enlighten me as to the pros and cons of breaking from both ends?

I have a spot on both ends of my table and about every 3 months or so I switch ends that I break from, my thinking is to spread out the wear and tear.
 
HUKIT said:
I've never seen anyone break from the wrong end but I do find new people looking for the rack on the Diamond tables. I don't recall seeing anyone embarrassed about it though, maybe it's the way approach and respond to them?
Click to expand...
Yeah, we have one Diamond 7-foot Smart Coin-Op. Whenever we find a ball rack is missing from one of the 9-foot tables, it's usually always found in the area of the Diamond table, as they can't find that slot where the ball rack is kept on the Diamond's, so they go steal a ball rack off one of the 9-foot tables.

We also occasionally have customers that you give them a tray of balls, tell them what number table they are playing on and where it's located, and turn on the light on that table. A few minutes later you notice they've gone to another table not lit up and proceeded to start playing in the dark on the table not lit up, right next to the lit up table they were supposed to be on.
 
I see it happen from time to time at the poolhall near me... I watch them take the balls out of the return and roll them up table and then grab the rack near the return and go to the other end to rack them.

I don't say anything...
 
I usually just tell the houseman i am racking em there coz the spot on the table died 8mos ago, and the cloth is so saturated with chalk and the mismatched balls make it impossible to rack at the foot end of the table.

An put your damn wang away. Gotta remember to say that. Nothing makes em smile more.
 
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I've seen it a bunch of times. Usually confused newbies, but the one thing they do know is where more room is. Sometimes the proper racking area is closer to their seats, so they feel that racking on the other side of the table is more convenient for them. Problem is, it's usually not more convenient for you, on an opposite table, as they're more in your way, and more in the way of their wayward breaks.

What to do? As I often say, same as martini shakers, strangulation seems best.

All the best,
WW
 
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