I'm new to this, so please bear with me.
The nine balls rules say that when racking, the "object balls are racked in a diamond shape, with the one ball at the top of the diamond and on the foot spot, the nine ball in the center of the diamond, and the other balls in random order, ...."
As an engineer my antennae go up when I hear the term "random." In billiards, what does this really mean? Is it that the order is simply inconsequential, place them any way? Or must they truly be random? And if so, how is the randomness determined and implemented?
It seems to me that a knowledgeable opponent might have a preferred order, and rack them that way: not random!
One way to do this fairly would be to pull balls out of a bag to be placed in the rack in a predetermined order.
What do you think?
The nine balls rules say that when racking, the "object balls are racked in a diamond shape, with the one ball at the top of the diamond and on the foot spot, the nine ball in the center of the diamond, and the other balls in random order, ...."
As an engineer my antennae go up when I hear the term "random." In billiards, what does this really mean? Is it that the order is simply inconsequential, place them any way? Or must they truly be random? And if so, how is the randomness determined and implemented?
It seems to me that a knowledgeable opponent might have a preferred order, and rack them that way: not random!
One way to do this fairly would be to pull balls out of a bag to be placed in the rack in a predetermined order.
What do you think?