So, my only options are being afraid, or being afraid? LOL. I just can't stand intentional slug racks. The guy who slug racks you is the one who is afraid.
Break in the face
- Thread starter SeniorTom
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tomatoshooter
Well-known member
I don't like the unintentional ones either. I don't think many people give me slug racks, but I do believe that I am more meticulous than most with getting a tight rack.
If you read the text, though, the WPA rules specify only the 8 and the two corner balls at eight ball. The rest are supposed to be random.
tomatoshooter
Well-known member
It would probably be too cumbersome to do, but the non-breaking player should arrange the balls and the breaker should be the one that puts the final squeeze and lifts the rack.
I suppose you could practice enough and get a slightly more favorable result, but you could probably learn to get better results from the "random" patterns, or just get those results by luck. I just racked the balls in numerical order, except the 8, and got about as much of a mixture as any other time. I guess Corey Deuel developed a pattern to spread one group and leave a cluster with the other group:
With a "random" rack you could spot a cluster in the third and fourth rows and learn to exploit that much easier than the WPA suggested rack. Corey Deuel's rack was pretty far from random but I think the 8 ball rack is pretty hard to cheat without some severe grouping of balls.
tomatoshooter
Well-known member
That's my preferred random pattern. I know what you really mean, but I think you are a better bet to get a lopsided layout with almost any other arrangement, especially if you were to recognize "features" and adjust your break accordingly, cut break, second ball, from the middle, or from the side.
I think it would be a mistake to have a fixed pattern for certain players. Perhaps you can think of one.
If this happened to me I would have hit the floor immediately. When I came to in an hour and spent the night in the ER I would call Harry Platis. People would think twice about Face Breaks after paying medical bills and pain and suffering awards!
I thought the one ball on the spot was specified somewhere. Maybe According to Hoyle? Anyway, some rules are more interesting than others. The head ball can rest anywhere on the spot according to some rules. With the big spots that is what, 3/4" from center to edge of a spot? I have considered doing that but only with the rulebook with me!
I wish I had ten bucks for every time I have had discussions with players that claimed random meant they could arrange the balls how they want them. I might not be rich but I could eat steak three meals a day for a week. Nope, random means random!
When playing with the players that don't understand that I simply gather all the balls on the foot rail before putting any in the rack. Bring the rack to the group of balls, toss them in the rack and roll the rack out past where the balls go eight or ten inches, bring it back the same distance past the spot, then back to the spot. I don't know why I started doing it this way but a little pressure with the thumbs while doing this is going to get a rack of balls as tight as they are likely to get.
Getting older and grumpier by the day I think if I found myself owning a pool hall there would be a sign on the wall complete with a definition of "random". A few more things would be defined too, including respect the equipment. Damn I was glad when people quit twirling pool cues! I did it a few times with house cues to look like a moron. Problem was I felt like a moron too!
I do usually use the pattern talked about above in this thread. Yes it is pattern racking but as fair a rack as I know how to make.
Edit: One other thing, playing that we rack for the other guy I usually walk down to the first rack and look it over a minute or two which is ages. The other player always asks what the matter is. "Nothing, I am just looking for something to exploit." For some reason the word exploit has a nasty ring to it and they always rack very very carefully after that!
Hu
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So far as know there is no written rule that makes the foot spot larger than a single point. The sticker over the foot spot on some tables is not part of the rules.
However... on some tables that have a crater near the foot spot it's impossible to get the head ball tight on the spot. It is standard but unofficial practice to push the rack far enough ahead that the crater pushes the head ball back against the rest of the rack. That at least gets that ball tight.
However... on some tables that have a crater near the foot spot it's impossible to get the head ball tight on the spot. It is standard but unofficial practice to push the rack far enough ahead that the crater pushes the head ball back against the rest of the rack. That at least gets that ball tight.
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So let's say you do a random rack, and you end up with a majority of solids clustered together, do you then swap them around for a more even distribution even though the rule states "random"? I do, and I think almost all the players do, for 8 ball at least. I think the "correct", to my logic at least, way or racking 8 ball is to make a pattern of alternating stipes and solids in the rack, whatever pattern you pick, but not just random when you can get clusters of similar balls together. Due to the nature of the game, you get half and I get half, that ends up in a fair rack for everyone. The other games that don't care about who gets what, those can be random.
A while ago streaming music companies did their random shuffle play option, they were getting complaints that the randomizing was not that random, people were complaining they were getting clusters of songs from the same artists or that were too similar to the other songs. The companies had to make the random play actually LESS random to manually adjust the play, so the random selections FELT more random to the humans. That is similar to the 8 ball rack, if you do a random rack, you can easily end up with something less desirable by both players.
Spotify made its shuffle feature less random so that it would actually feel more random to listeners — here's why
One of the world's most popular streaming music services kept hearing one puzzling complaint from its users — and it had happened at Apple too.
www.businessinsider.com
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Oh the joys of opponent racks.
Haven't done that in a while.
Haven't done that in a while.
If I'm playing someone they will only get to do that once! Just saying
If a player acts like he/she is going to break before I am out of the way, it's going to be a problem. In my opinion, that is just common courtesy. Be a shame to have to crap rack someone for the sake of an extra 30 seconds.
Amen to that my friend. After that, it's Japanese lettuce inspection mode. For those that are wondering.
tomatoshooter
Well-known member
I like to give the one ball a break because he gets beat up playing nine ball. And I did see a ruleset that described the tolerance for placing the head ball as comparable to a dime. I can't remember the actual wording but it seemed a little vague as to whether it was +/- 11/16" (the size of a dime) or if the contact point rests within an area the size of a dime. I would think it would be the latter, the first would just be a weird way to describe something.
I don't like to slide the rack back and forth. It's extra wear on the cloth and hard slick spheres in a rigid rack aren't going to pack in any tighter. I just lift the rack, and then move it slightly past where the head ball came to rest, put it back down, and squeeze the tops of the front three balls so they slip slightly. I think squeezing the balls should stretch the cloth outwards slightly, so the cloth rebounds, holding the balls together.
When Accu-Stats did their 8 ball events, they did a fixed pattern, and blackball uses a fixed pattern. If you throw the balls in randomly, you will either come up with a reasonable distribution, or you will have clumps that can be exploited. It seems like the 4th row and the middle of the back row are really the balls that can be minimally disturbed if you are trying. and if you smash them, you should be able to get a reasonable spread. It's too hot to go outside today so I think I'm going to study the 8 ball break today. I don't think there are big gains in there, but there might be a little edge. Then again, if I break dry, I've given my opponent an edge.
DeeDeeCues
Well-known member
+/- 11/16 is a spot 1.375" in diameter, much larger than a dime. More than the diameter of a typical butt of a cue.