Chameleon Rack at 2007 US Open

JAM said:
Finally, Corey says thanks, but no thanks. :o

So the Aramith balls ended up being the ball of choice for this televised semi-finals at the Glass City Open! :p

Hillbilly won the event, and Kid Delicious came in second. Kid Delicious ran a 6-pack on Corey Deuel, and poor Corey could only sit back and watch the show. :)

JAM
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Is the guy in the black shirt on the right a representative of that particular ball company...if so I wonder how he was feeling after that...
 
You know, the beef I have always had with racking isn't IF the balls are tight...thats easy to see. It's IF the balls are aligned and not TILTED. I say you could fix this with nothing more than any quality rack you choose and a carpenters pencil to draw a line around the rack. Just measure up equally from the bottom rail to the corners of the rack, draw a line around the entire rack, and there you go. You can see if the head ball is on the spot and the rack is inside the line from the kitchen, just check the gaps and break away...

Gerry
 
Gerry said:
You know, the beef I have always had with racking isn't IF the balls are tight...thats easy to see. It's IF the balls are aligned and not TILTED. I say you could fix this with nothing more than any quality rack you choose and a carpenters pencil to draw a line around the rack. Just measure up equally from the bottom rail to the corners of the rack, draw a line around the entire rack, and there you go. You can see if the head ball is on the spot and the rack is inside the line from the kitchen, just check the gaps and break away...

Gerry
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In Europe and Asia they do this in all the good poolrooms. The triangle area is marked as is the spot with a straight line extending down to the end rail.

I think Texas Express rules just about killed these markings as the only ball that ever gets spotted is the nine.
 
Does anyone else have experience with "rack spots"? I'm talking about the 9 tiny, clear spots installed in the 9-ball diamond configuration. I heard they are more common in Japan, but there is a local pool hall that has them. I love them. They give you a tight rack and never seem to interfere with the roll of the balls during the game.
 
John Barton said:
In Europe and Asia they do this in all the good poolrooms. The triangle area is marked as is the spot with a straight line extending down to the end rail.

I think Texas Express rules just about killed these markings as the only ball that ever gets spotted is the nine.
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yea John!...the rooms I play in are predominantly 14.1 rooms, and the rack NEEDS to be traced to see your breakers. This works perfectly for 9ball racking as well.

Gerry
 
I'll never forget the first time i saw the chameleon rack. It was at the DCC in 2006 and my buddy's team made it to the finals (and ended up winning the BCA team even). The tournament director ( a good friend of mine) told both teams that they had to use the chameleon racks for the final match. Both teams looked at the racks and laughed. The laughing stopped after it took the creator of the chameleon (who was the designated racker) about five tries before the balls were even remotely tight. Both teams were not happy to say the least. The next time I saw the chameleon used was at a Viking tournament earlier this year here in Columbus. I didnt hear a single player who was in the final six who didnt say how bad of a rack it was. I've tried to use one a couple times and can say whole heartedly that it is the most overpriced piece of junk i've used.
 
This thread is making me feel a lot better about my decision to go with the (mostly unpopular) Sardo rack.;)
 
shinobi said:
Hmm? You had me second guessing myself, but I just went to the main page:
http://www.billiardclub.net/

immediately saw a banner that said:
"US Open 9-ball Championship, Chameleon, Official Tournament Rack"

then a little further down the same page, another ad:
"Chameleon - Racks Every Game [picture of a chameleon] One Rack...All Games...No Hassles"

Where do you see "The Club Rack" mentioned? I noticed you said BSN, not BCN. We might be looking in two different places. Regardless, my recollection of "Chameleon Rack" was from actual matches I saw, not from any website.
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At the Open, the Chameleon rack was only used on the TV table. All other tables used the wooden racks from Diamond.
What they didn't tell you is that, on the TV table, with the Chameleon rack, all of the balls were tapped in, similar to the way they train the table for the Sardo rack. Of course, after some use, the indentations in the cloth change, the same as they do with the Sardo, and then they have trouble getting a tight rack. On the TV table, the balls were flopping apart, when the rack was removed.
I have seen the same problems with the Sardo racks and I believe it is caused by the tapping in of the balls. In the beginning, when the divots in the cloth are fresh, they all rack fine. You could probably get a tight rack without even using the rack. However, after using the table for a while, the divots start to change and the balls start flopping apart. It wouldn't matter if you are using the Chameleon rack, the Sardo rack or a plain wooden rack. When the balls are tapped in, I believe you will eventually have problems.
IMHO, they should use a good quality wooden rack and not let anyone tap on the balls.
 
Snapshot9 said:
I know were used on the WPBA tours from mid 1990's through about 2003, and I think they are okay. Several racks, including roller racks, will have brass reinforcements at the outside corners.

And here is the BCN link where I saw about the Club Rack:

http://www.billiardclub.net/showarticle.php?articleID=125
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Those were not the racks being used on the tables at the Open.
The racks I saw were the normal racks sold by Diamond, which are excellent racks.
Diamond does not seem to have a picture of their rack, on their web site, or I would post it here.
 
Snapshot9 said:
I know were used on the WPBA tours from mid 1990's through about 2003, and I think they are okay. Several racks, including roller racks, will have brass reinforcements at the outside corners.

And here is the BCN link where I saw about the Club Rack:

http://www.billiardclub.net/showarticle.php?articleID=125
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Hmm, I think it might be an old link, since it's talking about 2006 (not 2007)?

In any case, it does appear that Chameleon and Diamond racks were used, not this one. And general concensus seems to be that the Chameleon Rack isn't the most popular, heh.
 
My Question

is, what is the process for selecting an official rack for the US Open?

Does just being a sponsor get them into the Open, or does the Open have a qualification process the 'rack' has to pass before being the official rack?

Seems to me, that if the Chamaleon Rack was that bad at racking 9 ball to begin with, it would have never been accepted as the official rack.
 
Snapshot9 said:
is, what is the process for selecting an official rack for the US Open?

Does just being a sponsor get them into the Open, or does the Open have a qualification process the 'rack' has to pass before being the official rack?

Seems to me, that if the Chamaleon Rack was that bad at racking 9 ball to begin with, it would have never been accepted as the official rack.
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I'm sure the selection is based purely on sponsorship and money, as it is in any other pro tournament.
 
shinobi said:
This year, they used the Chameleon Rack at the US Open.

I watched many different matches. In different matches, different people were doing the racking. In at least one case it was Johnny Archer.

In every match, there were many poor (not tight) racks. It was obvious from the way the balls broke. A ton of movement on the 9, without it being kicked.

If Johnny Archer can't make a consistent tight rack with it, I doubt I can.

It was disappointing to see the rack being such a factor in this year's US Open.

Comments?
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I purchased one of the Chamelion racks at the US Open for our pool hall but the balls apparently are too old and too worn to rack tightly using the Chamelion rack. There is a short learning curve to racking the balls when the conditions are good but nearly impossible when the conditions are poor.

I think like the Sardo rack, it too works best on BRAND NEW CLOTH with new balls. :(

JoeyA
 
shinobi said:
Does anyone else have experience with "rack spots"? I'm talking about the 9 tiny, clear spots installed in the 9-ball diamond configuration. I heard they are more common in Japan, but there is a local pool hall that has them. I love them. They give you a tight rack and never seem to interfere with the roll of the balls during the game.
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they were using them at sometime billiards in shinjuku. they are fairly good for racking, you dont even need a triangle, just place the balls on the dots and it racks perfect every time. they actually made it easier to rack than anything ive ever used before (just about everything except the chameleon), but i wouldnt really trust slow rolling a ball over the rack area any more than i would with a tapped sardo table. i remember one instance where i was hooked because of a funny roll around the spots, but it could have been a piece of dirt or dimple in the cloth just as easily as it could have been caused by one of the spots.
 
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daniel said:
On this topic, what is a good quality rack? The room where I'm playin bought cheap ass wooden racks that wallow out in a week & its impossible to freeze the front balls. Just lookin for a decent conventional rack that doesn't weight 10 lbs.
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I love my Roll-a-rack, it has given me many good years of service. Whenever I've been in a place that had Diamond Racks, I've been impressed. That is 2 good ones at least.
 
shinobi said:
This year, they used the Chameleon Rack at the US Open.

I watched many different matches. In different matches, different people were doing the racking. In at least one case it was Johnny Archer.

In every match, there were many poor (not tight) racks. It was obvious from the way the balls broke. A ton of movement on the 9, without it being kicked.

If Johnny Archer can't make a consistent tight rack with it, I doubt I can.

It was disappointing to see the rack being such a factor in this year's US Open.

Comments?
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Me and my buddy actually talked about this while we were there. We were sitting in seats 98 and 99 which are right up in front and we watched the 7pm and 9pm games from wednesday through saturday. And we noticed that only one of the guys who were racking could get a half decent rack. But every once in a while he would get tired or take a powder and they would bring this other dude up there who didn't quite seem to have it together as well. All I know is that when Ronnie played Mekari, he maybe missed 2 racks with the good racker. But after the break we came back for the big show and they had the other racker who wasn't as good and Ronnie wasn't doing near as well breaking against Shane. From what I heard he even asked for the other guy to rack.
 
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