8-Ball Rules: Racking your own break

C

Coincidence

New member
In my pool leagues (M8 bar league) the opponent racks, which I hate, I would much prefer to rack for my own break. In many videos I've noticed many people racking for themselves in tournament play.

In the UPA Official 8-Ball Rules I found:
2.2 RACK YOUR OWN: When there is no official available, each breaking player shall be responsible for providing himself/herself a legal and solid rack.
Click to expand...

The M8 rulebook specifies the oppenent should rack:
3.2 The breaker's opponent normally racks the balls, but the opponent may designate anyone they wish to rack.
Click to expand...

I don't have any experience with other leagues or rule sets, is this a fairly common deviation? If not, and the "opponent racks" rule is atypical I want to bring it up with M8, and possibly petition to change the rule to allow the option of racking for yourself.
 
Coincidence said:
In my pool leagues (M8 bar league) the opponent racks, which I hate, I would much prefer to rack for my own break. In many videos I've noticed many people racking for themselves in tournament play.

In the UPA Official 8-Ball Rules I found:


The M8 rulebook specifies the oppenent should rack:


I don't have any experience with other leagues or rule sets, is this a fairly common deviation? If not, and the "opponent racks" rule is atypical I want to bring it up with M8, and possibly petition to change the rule to allow the option of racking for yourself.
Click to expand...

In the videos, I'd guess they're playing by BCA rules. In such, an 8-snap is not a win, so racking your own isn't so risky. If there's any question to the rack, I'll be breaking 2nd ball. If the 8 counts on the break, I'd expect the opponent to rack - similar to 9.
 
BCAPL = rack your own. CSI events = rack your own.

WSR is silent, leaving it up to the administration of the event.

B
 
I am just getting sick of sloppy racks, I hadn't even considered that people could try to set up their own rack for an 8 ball break. I'm not sure how one would even do that, but cheaters always find a way. Anyways, thanks for the replies.
 
Last edited:
Hate sloppy racks too - Shanghai is pretty humid, so balls often don't spread well anyway - I'm trying to get in the habit of checking the rack before breaking rather than trusting my opponent

I'd always been lead to believe that it was illegal to rack your own balls - even though I've seen it in televised matches... so this is educational...

Another thing that irritates is when the 'spot' has pretty much disappeared from the table and rackers don't rack between first and second diamond... maybe that's just a Shanghai thing...

Bob
 
The non-racking player should always have to approve of the rack and should be able to insist on a good rack before breaking. I don't see the problem.
 
I know players who rig racks for their opponents when there is an eight ball breakpot and they're buddies. They either split it or make a 70/30 kind of deal. When the pot gets to a couple hundred bucks, shady people start gapping racks.

It really does make the 8 move a lot more, sometimes right into the side pocket like it was a dead ball.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top