woody_968 said:
Why would you be almost insured of pocketing the break ball? Wouldnt be any different than straight pool as far as pocketing the break ball would be concerned.
It would actually make high runs harder I would think. To run 100 in straight pool you would have to set up for a break shot eight times. If there are only 9 balls on the table you would have to do it thirteen times if I am thinking clearly. Not to mention the rack you are trying to break would be smaller, giving you less target area to hit. I dont think it would be as easy as you think.
the first point was one of comparison to 9ball. "you are almost assured of pocketing the break shot" meant that, in 9ball you don't know if a ball will drop on the break. in THIS game, you are assured of it unless you miss.
as to your second point. we are talking about pocketing any ball, not rotation, yes? in this case, running 8 balls is ridiculously easy, with 6 less balls to negotiate, 6 less balls means less traffic. 6 less balls also means that the balls will spread easily as you have eliminated 6 balls from the rack's mass. so you don't need to hit the rack on the button and the smaller target means nothing. theonly time the break on 8 balls is different, i would assume, is in trying to break from below the rack. FROM THERE, the rack is smaller, as you say, because you have eliminated the two corners. but from your standard break, you're still breaking into a big rack.
and i'd rather run 10 easy racks than 6 difficult ones. the NUMBERS of racks are meaningless to a good player. but making the racks easier to run is huge.
ps,,,there will be less cb scratching on the break because the cb will go through the rack better, instead of sliding off the rack and dropping in the pocket. and because the balls will spread better, you can break with a moderate stroke with great cb control instead of blasting.
a lot of runs end off the break because there's no shot afterwards. either too much traffic, the cb gets buried in the stack, or not enough balls get loose from the rack. this won't happen in an 8 ball rack.
