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9-Ball needs to be fixed
- Thread starter wrldpro
- Start date
Railbird-2026
New member
Simply fix. Put a spot down where the cue ball has to be and then in different places each day. Everybody breaks from same spot.RANDOMLY place EVERY ball except the 9 in a RACK... NOT a template.
The 9 is placed in the center of the rack.
Place the HEAD ball on the SPOT.
The HEAD ball is the front ball which does NOT have to be the 1 ball.
The HEAD ball has to be the first ball contacted by the cue ball on the break.
The cue ball is confined to a break box in the center behind the head string.
At least three balls must contact a rail on the break and at least two balls must come up table past the side pockets.
Everything is played using the normal 9-ball rules after the break.
Well if there was interest like in major sports, pro commentators could hype the drama to a froth. (still not much content)My issue with sets, and this is true of tennis as well, is that we can watch a person win fewer games and win the match. That, in pool, is weird to me.
0-4, 4-3, 3-3, and win the shootout. The winner lost 7-10, in games, and split 1-1-1 in sets.
In the first post of this thread, wrldpro commented that "...the 1 ball goes in the side pocket over 90% of the time." I assume he means the side pocket on the opposite side from the breaker. Last night, to show that the percentage isn't that high, I posted the successful break rate for the matches I tracked in 11 Matchroom-produced events held this year and last year. They all used the Matchroom break box and 4" corner pockets. The aggregate successful break rate was 78%.
GideonF then said, logically, that the percentage might even be higher late in the events, after less-skilled players are eliminated and the remaining players would "have a feel" for the tables. I explained that the matches I tracked in those events are either from the single-elimination stages, with the matches on the feature table, or from events that have no weak players (Mosconi Cup, Reyes Cup, Premier League).
But today I took a look at what the percentage would be for matches from the Last 16 and later rounds in 7 of the 11 events, plus matches involving the final 10 players in the two Premier League events, plus all of the matches in the most recent Mosconi Cup and Reyes Cup. This cut the total number of games down from 2,159 to 1,427, about a one-third reduction. So here are the results.
This is a pretty small difference. And it doesn't directly address wrldpro's comment about how often the 1-ball goes in the side pocket. In some successful breaks the 1-ball is not pocketed at all (91 times out of the 1,125 successful breaks) or is pocketed but not in the side pocket opposite the breaker (10 of the 1,125). Also, the 1-ball is pocketed in the side pocket on some fouled breaks (52 of the 1,427). So the number directly corresponding to what wrldpro said (how often the 1-ball goes in the side pocket) is 1,125 - 91 - 10 + 52 = 1,076 games out of 1,427, or 75.4%.
So, the 1-ball was pocketed in the side pocket on the opposite side of the table from the breaker:
GideonF then said, logically, that the percentage might even be higher late in the events, after less-skilled players are eliminated and the remaining players would "have a feel" for the tables. I explained that the matches I tracked in those events are either from the single-elimination stages, with the matches on the feature table, or from events that have no weak players (Mosconi Cup, Reyes Cup, Premier League).
But today I took a look at what the percentage would be for matches from the Last 16 and later rounds in 7 of the 11 events, plus matches involving the final 10 players in the two Premier League events, plus all of the matches in the most recent Mosconi Cup and Reyes Cup. This cut the total number of games down from 2,159 to 1,427, about a one-third reduction. So here are the results.
Successful breaks from the original group of matches -- 78.1% (1,687 of 2,159)
Successful breaks from the smaller group of matches -- 78.8% (1,125 of 1,427)
This is a pretty small difference. And it doesn't directly address wrldpro's comment about how often the 1-ball goes in the side pocket. In some successful breaks the 1-ball is not pocketed at all (91 times out of the 1,125 successful breaks) or is pocketed but not in the side pocket opposite the breaker (10 of the 1,125). Also, the 1-ball is pocketed in the side pocket on some fouled breaks (52 of the 1,427). So the number directly corresponding to what wrldpro said (how often the 1-ball goes in the side pocket) is 1,125 - 91 - 10 + 52 = 1,076 games out of 1,427, or 75.4%.
So, the 1-ball was pocketed in the side pocket on the opposite side of the table from the breaker:
- on 75% of all breaks (1,076 of 1,427)
- on 91% of successful breaks (1,024 of 1,125)
- on 73% of fouled breaks (52 of 71)
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