9 Ball Rack Position

tashworth19191

tashworth19191

Pool will make you humble
Silver Member
I was watching the 9 Ball Tournament of Champions on ESPN and they were racking with the 9 Ball centered on the Foot spot, instead of the 1 ball being on the foot spot.

What gives, is this a new place to rack???
 
Hi,

it's supposed to make the break harder by not allowing the wing balls to go in easily.
Of course nowadays the breaks are different with the 1 ball being the target into the side.

You can watch older Mosconi cups where they additionally had the kitchen rule, supposedly also being supported by Earl Strickland, too.

Cheers,
M
 
M.G. said:
Hi,

it's supposed to make the break harder by not allowing the wing balls to go in easily.
Of course nowadays the breaks are different with the 1 ball being the target into the side.

You can watch older Mosconi cups where they additionally had the kitchen rule, supposedly also being supported by Earl Strickland, too.

Cheers,
M
Click to expand...
Pool is dying and every body is trying to make it harder and harder.

Back then in the 2000's (2000-2007) World Pool Championship was played mostly on a beautiful Brunswick Metro with big ass pocket and easy rail cut, but people loved it and it was a million $ in total prize tournament, 100k for the winner. It was always full of excitement, even though pocketing ball never was a problem.

Right now China 8-ball (???????????????) tournament even has bigger prize and it is kind of a crappy game, play on a crappy weirdo table.

We need to get the WPC back on ESPN asap before people forgot what pool is.
 
@july9x: Kind of off-topic, don't you think? We do have lots of other "pool is dying" threads out there...

I do encourage people to try out the different racking, too.
It's kind of fun - and then try adjusting your break which I haven't had the chance yet.
 
tashworth19191 said:
I was watching the 9 Ball Tournament of Champions on ESPN and they were racking with the 9 Ball centered on the Foot spot, instead of the 1 ball being on the foot spot.

What gives, is this a new place to rack???
Click to expand...
The rack at nine ball has turned into a huge problem for the game starting in about 2000. If the rack is really tight, the wing balls are dead. If the rack is not tight, it is not fair to the breaker. A solution to this dilemma is to move the rack up the table so the wing ball is harder to make from a tight rack. I think the real solution is to move on to some other game, such as 10 ball, but some events have tradition keeping them with 9 ball, such as the US Open. The other large change to the break is that it alternates, usually.
 
Bob Jewett said:
The rack at nine ball has turned into a huge problem for the game starting in about 2000. If the rack is really tight, the wing balls are dead. If the rack is not tight, it is not fair to the breaker. A solution to this dilemma is to move the rack up the table so the wing ball is harder to make from a tight rack. I think the real solution is to move on to some other game, such as 10 ball, but some events have tradition keeping them with 9 ball, such as the US Open. The other large change to the break is that it alternates, usually.
Click to expand...

Could one postulate that the Sardo was the beginning of the problems with the 9-ball rack, since everyone was able to easily achieve a tight rack with the wing balls being dead?

The 80's were a little before my time. Was there a lot of complaining at tournaments with irregularity and triangle racks? Or were players just not as sensitive to the nuances of rack dynamics?
 
july9x said:
... Back then in the 2000's (2000-2007) World Pool Championship was played mostly on a beautiful Brunswick Metro with big ass pocket and easy rail cut, but people loved it and it was a million $ in total prize tournament, 100k for the winner. ...
Click to expand...

Are you talking about the WPA World 9-Ball Championship? That had a first-place prize of $100,000 only twice, in 2006 and 2007. And the total purse was never anywhere near $1 million; it peaked at $400,000 in 2006, and ranged from $250,000 to $368,000 the prior 6 years.


[data from AzB database]
 
Thanks for the responses. Makes sense now... But shouldn't the break rules change for the leagues also?
 
tashworth19191 said:
Thanks for the responses. Makes sense now... But shouldn't the break rules change for the leagues also?
Click to expand...

If the game was as easy now as everyone is letting on I would say yes...

Would be interesting seeing what the stats are from different events compared templates vs non...

I think AtLarge compared Chinese 8Ball and the Accu-Stats 8Ball invitational where we used the Accu-Rack Solo and it was pretty similar.. That tells me it's less about the break and the equipment and more about the levels of play we see of the world class players today....

World class is world class and they will always make the game look easy.. You fix the game where it is hard for them your 2nd and 3rd tier professionals might as well stay home....
 
AtLarge said:
Are you talking about the WPA World 9-Ball Championship? That had a first-place prize of $100,000 only twice, in 2006 and 2007. And the total purse was never anywhere near $1 million; it peaked at $400,000 in 2006, and ranged from $250,000 to $368,000 the prior 6 years.


[data from AzB database]
Click to expand...

Thank you for all the work you do as a "fact-freak" here on AZ :thumbup:

I believe you have prevented many threads here to reach double-digit page number - containing mostly speculations, rumours and wild guessing. Some posters miss that for sure :wink:
 
Regular rack (1 on the spot) everyone breaks from the spot, no kitchen no side rail from the spot.
 
The Renfro said:
That part I knew but the pocket sizes were considerably smaller I think...
Click to expand...

Chinese 8-ball is played on a 9-foot snooker table. Not only are the pockets smaller, they are rounded, so slightly off line balls bounce out instead of in. And the balls are full sized. When you see a break and run in Chinese 8-ball, that's a real accomplishment.
 
Danimal said:
Could one postulate that the Sardo was the beginning of the problems with the 9-ball rack, since everyone was able to easily achieve a tight rack with the wing balls being dead?



The 80's were a little before my time. Was there a lot of complaining at tournaments with irregularity and triangle racks? Or were players just not as sensitive to the nuances of rack dynamics?
Click to expand...


The amount of players that knew rack shenanigans was much smaller then & we had the presence of mind not to write a book about it like someone eventually did that led us here. Thanks again Joe.
 
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