Break Stats -- 2018 Freezer's Ice House 10-Ball Challenge, July 2018

Here are some aggregate statistics from the 2018 Freezer's Ice House 10-Ball Challenge, played July 13-15 at Freezer's Ice House (a pool hall) in Tempe, Arizona with free streaming on YouTube by povpool.

This was a 96-player, double-elimination event, with all races to 8 except the final match (to 13). The winner was Warren Kiamco, beating Omar Al Shaheen in the final match.

The conditions for the streamed matches included:

The stats are for 17 streamed matches (206 games), which represented a bit over 9% of both the total matches and the total games played in the event. The streamed matches I watched are listed here in the order in which they were played.

Fri. July 13

Sat. July 14

Sun. July 15

Overall results

Here's a more detailed breakdown of the 206 games (for match winners and losers combined).


Break-and-run games -- The 48 break-and-run games represented 23% of all 206 games, 40% of the 119 games won by the breaker, and 32% of the 150 games in which the break was successful (made a ball and didn't foul). The 48 break-and-run games consisted of 1 eight-pack (Kaci), 2 three-packs (Dominguez and Orcollo), 5 two-packs, and 24 singles. Except for Kaci's perfect 8-pack match, no one broke and ran more than 3 games in a row in these streamed matches.

10-Balls on the break -- One 10-ball was made on the break (0.5% of all breaks); it was spotted.

Miscellany from the data for the 2018 Freezer's Ice House 10Ball Challenge
[This relates only to the 17 streamed matches I tracked, not to all matches in the event.]

• The most balls made on a single break was 3, done 13 times.

• The average number of balls made on the break was 1.1 (this includes dry and fouled breaks). On successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul), the average was 1.5.

• 45% (92 of 206) of the games ended in one inning – 23% (48) won by the breaker (B&R) and 21% (44) won by the non-breaker. Thirteen percent (26 of 206) of the games lasted 4 or more innings.

• 32% (66 of 206) of the games were run out by the player who was at the table following the break. These run-outs were:

• The player who made the first ball after the break:

• The loser won an average of 4.0 games in the 16 races to 8. Three matches went to hill/hill; 2 were shutouts.

• The average elapsed time for the 16 races to 8 was 75 minutes. The average minutes per game for all 17 matches was 6.2 minutes. The elapsed time was measured from the lag until the winning ball was made (or conceded), so it includes time for racking and timeouts.

• The race to 8 that was longest in elapsed time, at 111 minutes, and highest in average minutes per game, at 8.5, was Orcollo d. De Luna 8-5.

• The race that was both shortest in elapsed time, at 31 minutes, and lowest in average minutes per game, at 3.9, was Kaci's perfect 8-pack match against Pagulayan. (Edit: I watched a recording of this match today, and it was about 30.4 min. from lag to final concession, or 3.8 min./game!)

• Breaking fouls averaged 1 for every 18.7 games, other fouls 1 for every 3.3 games, and missed shots about 1 for every 1.5 games.

• About 41% of the games involved one or more safeties.

Here's a comparison of some of the results from the streamed matches of 4 high-level 10-Ball events played since mid-May.

- July 2018: Freezer's Ice House 10-Ball Challenge -- Diamond table with 4 1/8" corner pockets. Racking template.
- July 2018: Big-Dog 10-Ball Championship -- Diamond table with standard pro-cut pockets. Triangle rack. No touching the 1-ball while racking.
- June 2018: WPS Rasson 10-Ball Masters Championship -- Rasson table with 4¼" corners and "more difficult than normal" pocket facings. Racking template.
- May 2018: Asian Culture Day Pro 10-Ball -- Diamond table with standard pro-cut pockets. Racking template.


Successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul):

Breaker won the game:

Break-and-run games, on all breaks:

Break-and-run games, on successful breaks:

Runouts by the player at the table following the break:

Games won by the player at the table following the break:

Games ending in one inning (by B&R or on non-breaker's first visit):

Approx. % of games involving safeties:

Average number of balls made on all breaks and on successful breaks:

Average number of minutes per game:

pt109 said:

I was anxious to read these stats, sir.

What made the field play so well?
The table was not loose by any means.
Could it be a result of a better climate control system?....dry tables play better.

And who would’ve thunk that Kaçi would’ve had the fastest match?
....not for just this tournament, probably for all four.
Six months ago, he was like watching ice melt

Click to expand...

Yes, it was kind of surprising given the 4 1/8" pockets at Freezer's. And commentators talked at times about how wet the table was (slow bed, boingy cushions), and how conditions changed from match to match. Evidently it was an abnormally rainy week in Tempe and the streaming table was close to the door.

But we are seeing quite a bit of consistency in the stats on some of the measures.

As for Kaci, I think his pace in general is faster now than what we saw 1 to 1½ years ago.

In his "perfect" match, I don't recall that Kaci had to do any deliberating over shots at all until he was partially hooked for the 1-ball in the last game. Everything else was just see and do rather quickly, without staying down prior to the shot as long as he used to. It was a true outlier occasion, with his breaks all pocketing balls (1 ball twice, 2 balls thrice, and 3 balls thrice = 17 balls on 8 breaks) and leaving starting shots. No one else in the 17 streamed matches came even remotely close to a lengthy B&R package. Quite a special half hour.

Edit -- But I wish Alex had not conceded the 10-balls (at least 7 out of 8, as Kaci shot one of them).