Barbox 8-ball Soft Breaking

C

cuetechasaurus

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Some guy came by the poolhall a few days ago and sat at the bar while I was practicing on the tightest 9-foot table in the room. He approached me and asked me if I would like to play him some cheap 8-ball on the barbox. I said sure, so we played $5 per game. He won the flip and he broke the balls really soft. Basically he broke them so that there is just one huge cluster on one side of the table. No balls went past the side pocket. I had a shot but knew I couldn't run out, so I played a soft safety, left him no shot. He kept playing safe back, and he would untie balls in the process every time. Finally when the rack looked runnable, he would either lock me up real good, or just run out.

He beat me 5 games in a row before I won a game. He broke real soft every time, never made a ball. I was totally stumped on what to do. All I could see was to play a soft safety, but he would totally control the game. When I won a game, I broke them hard and ran out. I lost the next game, and the soft breaking continued. After losing 2 more games I quit. This guy was one hell of a player. Some of the safeties he played I never even knew were possible. He played almost flawless. The only thing that bugged me was the soft breaking.

We weren't playing by bar rules, we were playing standard ball in hand, and if you scratch on the break it's behind the line, basically like BCA rules. I want to know if there is a rule about how many balls need to touch a rail on the break. Or if there is a strategy to neutralize what he was doing. Thanks
 
cuetechasaurus said:
Some guy came by the poolhall a few days ago and sat at the bar while I was practicing on the tightest 9-foot table in the room. He approached me and asked me if I would like to play him some cheap 8-ball on the barbox. I said sure, so we played $5 per game. He won the flip and he broke the balls really soft. Basically he broke them so that there is just one huge cluster on one side of the table. No balls went past the side pocket. I had a shot but knew I couldn't run out, so I played a soft safety, left him no shot. He kept playing safe back, and he would untie balls in the process every time. Finally when the rack looked runnable, he would either lock me up real good, or just run out.

He beat me 5 games in a row before I won a game. He broke real soft every time, never made a ball. I was totally stumped on what to do. All I could see was to play a soft safety, but he would totally control the game. When I won a game, I broke them hard and ran out. I lost the next game, and the soft breaking continued. After losing 2 more games I quit. This guy was one hell of a player. Some of the safeties he played I never even knew were possible. He played almost flawless. The only thing that bugged me was the soft breaking.

We weren't playing by bar rules, we were playing standard ball in hand, and if you scratch on the break it's behind the line, basically like BCA rules. I want to know if there is a rule about how many balls need to touch a rail on the break. Or if there is a strategy to neutralize what he was doing. Thanks
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I think he may have had you in a little bit of a trap for a while. He was playing a game you were not familiar with. I may have just thrown away my first turn and smacked them open and see what happens next.

I will tell you a funny story about soft breaking. I'm at bottle club that was owned by Bill Steigall and this was a real action place. We would make the 200 mile drive over almost every weekend there was so much happening there. This one night Buddy Hall is playing a guy called M.B., a lot of these southern guys don't have names, I've know guys for like 30 years and I don't know their real names.

M.B. was a real high roller he played $1000 a game 9-ball all the time and he told you what the bet was, if you didn't like it then don't play. M.B. was such a loser though, players would come from all over to get him. I'm sure there are people on here from the Tampa area who remember him or have heard of him. Anyway, Hall is giving him something like the 2,3, and the break, M.B. was a real bad player and he needed that kind of weight.

They are playing for like $500. a game and Hall is beating him. All of a sudden M.B. decides to soft break and send the cueball behind the rack and mixing in with the balls snookering Hall on the one leaving a difficult kick. (They didn't play push out after the break). He wins the game and begins doing it every rack and starts beating Hall.

After a while Hall tells M.B. "You aren't allowed to break like that anymore". Instead of M.B. saying something like "If you don't like it quit", after all this is a guy who never wins and for a change he has a game he may win at. He just says "OK" and begins hard breaking and goes off.
 
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Playing 14.1 and practicing the shots in the book 99 critical shots will help with these situations quite a bit!

I played a guy who is semi-pro - always seems to be able to run out from the most impossible situations. I broke softly to leave a cluster. Thought that would slow him down. Well didn't slow him down a bit! He ran the table on me!

I have played 14.1 a bit and can sometimes run out with the rack still mostly intact. Not usually, but sometimes. Just seeing someone play 14.1, and reading 99 critical shots, I know what is possible. So I no longer look at a clustered mess as impossible. I now look at it as possibly containing hidden opportunity. Wired shots, carom shots, balls situated for a good breakout on something else, etc.

I actually like it when someone breaks with everything clustered. They say "Want to re-rack and break?" I say no, I'll play this! It is a challenge.

If no 14.1 playing going on in your area, accu-stats has some 14.1 videos...
http://www.accu-stats.com/Qstore/Qstore.cgi?CMD=007&DEPT=000004&BACK=A0001A1

Book 99 critical shots...
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q="99+critical+shots"
 
I, too, greatly enjoy the type of game that results from a soft break in 8-ball... Like Colin said, it's a challenge... Besides, you will most certainly encounter clustered layouts in your 8-ball career, so experience pays.

To me, the soft-broken 8-ball game becomes a little more like straight pool or even one-pocket. I love the quiet safety and ball-positioning game. I've seen top amateur games go this route, with both players chipping balls downtable while staying behind or frozen to the side of the stack.

Stuff like this (playing stripes):

image001.png
 
cuetechasaurus said:
Some guy came by the poolhall a few days ago and sat at the bar while I was practicing on the tightest 9-foot table in the room. He approached me and asked me if I would like to play him some cheap 8-ball on the barbox. I said sure, so we played $5 per game. He won the flip and he broke the balls really soft. Basically he broke them so that there is just one huge cluster on one side of the table. No balls went past the side pocket. I had a shot but knew I couldn't run out, so I played a soft safety, left him no shot. He kept playing safe back, and he would untie balls in the process every time. Finally when the rack looked runnable, he would either lock me up real good, or just run out.

He beat me 5 games in a row before I won a game. He broke real soft every time, never made a ball. I was totally stumped on what to do. All I could see was to play a soft safety, but he would totally control the game. When I won a game, I broke them hard and ran out. I lost the next game, and the soft breaking continued. After losing 2 more games I quit. This guy was one hell of a player. Some of the safeties he played I never even knew were possible. He played almost flawless. The only thing that bugged me was the soft breaking.

We weren't playing by bar rules, we were playing standard ball in hand, and if you scratch on the break it's behind the line, basically like BCA rules. I want to know if there is a rule about how many balls need to touch a rail on the break. Or if there is a strategy to neutralize what he was doing. Thanks
Click to expand...

Sounds like someone i know LOL, i do the soft break all the time on a bar box table cause if i hit them just right everything will be well open with no clusters but if not racked good it leaves a hugh cluster, and if racked good or bad a hard break seperates everything then they all join back up again leaving clusters idk if it is because its a smaller table or what, I also love these type of games plucking out your balls here and there leaving your opponent with no shot then just wait until everything is lined up then let the pockets eat'em up. I would of loved to see the games your guys played.
 
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