Stu brings up a good point, there is a balance between too easy and too tough with break rules. We don't want to see a wired ball, soft break, and easy layouts with the entire matches and tournaments coming down to who can control the 1 on the break the best. On the other hand we don't want to see the game become like straight pool, where the break becomes a liability and they start playing safety breaks after getting a few racks up to help protect their lead.
Where we differ, and where we all will differ, is where each of us feels that balance should be.
Personally I think a 27% BNR stat is just fine. That's how it was for many years prior to template racks. I remember when 30% BNR was reserved for tournament winners, and other pros were at 20%. I also like the more strategic play and post rack challenges. I hated watching 9 ball become about mastering the opening break and then mopping up open layouts.
I am concerned, however, about the breaker not having any edge at all. I wonder if that is due to the high frequency of scratches by cutting the rack so much.
I remember that Pat Flemming did some stats in the 90s and showed that the breaker had a very small advantage, I want to say it was in the low 50% range. No one believed it but it was over many, many racks of pool analyzed. But those were head on breaks where scratches were rare. That means not every dry break will result in a loss. With a higher number of scratches I can see how the number of losses due to a scratch could equalize the number of successful breaks.
My big fear is that matches come down to who gets lucky enough to dodge scratches on these wild cut breaks.
I am still happy to see this change. I think it's a needed adjustment to a game that had become too break-heavy. I think we give the pros a few tournaments to adjust and see if they can alter their run out percentages or reduce their scratches a bit. If so this might be spot on. And while I hate tinkering with the game, I personally feel this change is many years overdue.
As for 10 ball, that break is more solved than 9 on the spot 9 ball. I thought that was a known thing. 10 ball hasn't been considered harder than 9 ball for the top players for many years because with templates and a pop break they average 2 balls a break with ridiculous control over the spreads. No, we have to stick to 9 ball.
Just my humble opinion of course.
