Break Stats -- 2019 Diamond Las Vegas Open (9-Ball), July 2019

Here are some aggregate break statistics from the 2019 Diamond Las Vegas Open 9-Ball event played July 17-20 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada with free streaming on CueSports International's YouTube channel.

This was a double-elimination event with 106 players. All races were to 7 until the final match, which was to 9. Niels Feijen won the event.

Conditions -- The conditions for the streamed matches included:

The stats are for all 16 matches (170 games) that were streamed by CSI, listed here in the order in which they were played. These 16 matches were 7.6% of the event's total of 210 matches played

Wed. July 17

Thurs. July 18

Fri. July 19

Sat. July 20

Overall results


Here's a breakdown of the 170 breaks (for match winners and losers combined).

Legal, made at least one ball, and no foul:

Illegal, made at least one ball, and no foul:

Fouled (includes 1 break that was both fouled and illegal):

Legal, dry, and no foul:

Illegal, dry, and no foul:

Therefore, whereas the breaker won 63% of all games (107 of 170),

Break-and-run games -- The 62 break-and-run games represented 36% of all 170 games, 58% of the 107 games won by the breaker, and 52% of the 120 games in which the break was successful (made a ball, legal, no foul).

With alternating breaks, B&R "packages" of the normal type are not possible. But we can still look at the breaks of a given player and see how many he or she ran on his or her own successive breaks, and we can call these "alternate-break packages." The 62 break-and-run games consisted of 1 alternate-break 4-pack (by Feijen), 5 alternate-break 3-packs (two by Aranas and one each by Morra, Chang, and Fortunski), 12 alternate-break 2-packs, and 19 singles.

9-balls on the break -- The 62 break-and-run games included 4 9-balls on the break (2.4% of the 170 breaks).

Miscellany from the data for the 2019 Diamond Las Vegas Open 9-Ball event
[This relates only to the 16 streamed matches, not to all matches in the event.]

• The most balls made on a single break was 4 -- done thrice, once by Faraon (B&R), once by Kaçi (a win, but not by B&R), and once by Fortunski (B&R).

• The average number of balls made on all breaks was 1.1. On successful breaks (legal, made at least one ball, and did not foul), the average was 1.5.

• 58% (98 of 170) of the games ended in one inning – 36% (62) won by the breaker (B&R) and 21% (36) won by the non-breaker. Just 5% (8 of 170) of the games lasted more than 3 innings.

• 48% (81 of 170) 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:

• In the 15 races to 7, the loser won an average of 3.3 games. Two matches went hill/hill and three matches were whitewashes.

• The average elapsed time for the 15 races to 7 was 58 minutes, averaging 5.6 minutes per game. 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 7 that was longest in elapsed time, at 79 minutes, was Rizzi d. Tkach 7-5. The match highest in average minutes per game, at 7.2, was the Finals -- Feijen d. Fortunski 9-7.

• The match that was shortest in elapsed time, at 36 minutes, was Chang d. Filler 7-1. The match that was lowest in average minutes per game, at 3.9, was Faraon d. Appleton 7-4.

• Breaking fouls averaged 1 for every 21.3 games, other fouls 1 for every 6.8 games, and missed shots about 1 for every 2.3 games.

• About 33% of the games involved one or more safeties.

Illegal breaks (violation of the 3-point rule) were quite low in this event compared with others that I have tracked. Just 5% of the breaks were illegal in the streamed matches for this event; in other events it has averaged about double that.

And illegal breaks on otherwise successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul) numbered just 1 here, remarkably low. [Actually, a second "wet" illegal break occurred, but the players seemed unaware of it; so I did not count that one.]

I think all of the other events I've tracked that used a 3-point rule also used a breaking template, whereas here they racked with a regular triangle. It's not clear to me whether that should have had any effect on breaking legally.

spartan said:

... I think the golden breaks in this event must be one of highest. It may anecdotal but I do not recall seeing 2 golden breaks in matches I watched in an event before

Click to expand...

With a racking template, the 9-ball generally remains close to where it started, and golden breaks are more rare. With a regular triangle, as in this event, the 9-ball tends to move around more often. Turning Stone, for example, has always used a regular triangle and no break box, and 9's on the break have been 2.0% or more quite a few times.

Also note that with such small numbers, a couple of additional or fewer 9's on the break changes the percentage quite a bit.

spartan said:

There was one match (I forgotten which one) where JJ and other commentator said it was illegal break but breaker continued shooting
I would think to properly implement this, need table ref not zonal ref.
Also if I am not mistaken, in Matchroom events where they use regular triangle, they have ref to do racking and no rerack allowed.
:wink:

Click to expand...

Yes, that illegal (but wet with no foul) break was by Deuel in Game 2 of his match with Kaçi. They seemed to not be aware, and played on. So I didn't count that one in the stats, because the game would have changed entirely (Kaçi undoubtedly would have chosen to shoot) had they called the illegal break.

AtLarge said:

Illegal breaks (violation of the 3-point rule) were quite low in this event compared with others that I have tracked. Just 5% of the breaks were illegal in the streamed matches for this event; in other events it has averaged about double that.

And illegal breaks on otherwise successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul) numbered just 1 here, remarkably low. [Actually, a second "wet" illegal break occurred, but the players seemed unaware of it; so I did not count that one.]

I think all of the other events I've tracked that used a 3-point rule also used a breaking template, whereas here they racked with a regular triangle. It's not clear to me whether that should have had any effect on breaking legally.

Click to expand...

I imagine one significant factor in the small number of illegal breaks in this event compared with other events using a 3-point rule was the fact that there was no break box in this event. Many of the events producing much higher rates of illegal breaks used a narrow break box.

Cron said:

It looked like Corey was aware of it, he just stood there and chalked very still for a length of time that seemed to suggest "You going to call it?". If you believe in karma, then how he was shooting from that point on would be no surprise.

Click to expand...

Could be. Unfortunately, karma doesn't often show up immediately in the form of 7-0 shellackings.

[but I'll still give him the benefit of the doubt]