Think WPA will include a break box if they officially put 9 on the spot in their rules? Because if you're breaking from the side rail and still pocketing the wing ball, someone is going to control the CB and 1B to make the game too easy. The last EuroTour event looked like 9-on-the-spot without a break box and the pool was certainly boring.
Were they making the wing ball? I thought the wing was uncommon with a tight rack and nine on the spot.
The strong pros were. A lot like this. And then of course a little luck on whether another ball gets between the CB and 1B or not.
youtube.com
I'm surprised by that result. I wonder what they were doing to move the wing ball forward. That one went straight in.The strong pros were. A lot like this. And then of course a little luck on whether another ball gets between the CB and 1B or not.
✂️ 9 on the spot wing ball
38 seconds · Clipped by Matt Poland · Original video "Friday, A Last 32 match from the Dynamic Billard Sankt Johann Im Pongau open 2024, Table 2:" by EPBF
The tables are tapped. It clearly isn’t 1 on the spot. Might be a little lower than 9 on the spot, I couldn’t tell. But I assume it must be. The players are racking for themselves so there could be a little racksmithing involved. That or a certain sidespin or pop is making that happen.
The wing ball going straight in like that is rare when the 9-ball is racked with a template on the foot spot. But it is not uncommon for the wing ball to get kicked into that same pocket by other balls in the vicinity. In the 23 matches I tracked in the recent world 9-Ball championship, the wing ball was kicked in on about 11% of the breaks. My notes have it going in that pocket unmolested just once.
And it is fairly well known that with the nine on the spot, if you move the back ball back just a little so it is not supporting the balls in front of it, the wing ball can still be made straight in.
I think a big factor for the world 9-ball is the addition of the break box. But the WPA / EPBF event I was referring to, the Dynamic Billard Sankt Johann Im Pongau open 2024, I think you’d see without the break box that percentage changes. Especially with those tapped balls rather than a template.
Good point.