The endless woes of the rack will never end, it's just not a perfect world.
But with this said, add this factor to the game - what should we do to overcome those that purposely choose to "Cold Rack" their opponent? I call this phase One of the cheater's guide to winning.
Yes we can check the rack, but the imposing player will then move on to phase Two of the guide, and stall the breaker as long as possible.
Then phase Three kicks in, and they say, well, you rack 'em! Which immediately leads to phase Four, they don't like your rack either. Now we finally call over the tournament director who racks the balls that neither player can check, and the game finally get's under way.
Meanwhile, the cheater has accomplished his goal, in breaking the concentration and flow of the game for the breaker.
We have all been around, and yes I am the first to know that a player must learn to overcome this weekness - letting the actions of your opponent disrupt your concentration and affect your play, but being from old school poolrooms, this is what I remember -
It was a gentlemen's game, and if the gentlemen lost to a cheater, he would grasciously leave the room, and know he must become stronger; also knowing that he HAS another day.
The cheater would leave "On top of the world...", and would end up laying somewhere out back of the room in a buddle of mud, with a couple of guys standing over him.
If you escaped unscathed it was probably because of a car and a clean quick getaway, but you are only lucky if you never do what you just did again. If you choose to use the same tactics the next time you match up, the odds of that mud puddle would double against you - if you were to win.
This follows the order of playing cards before there were cars. You couldn't make a clean getaway, and go off to some far away place to hide. So if you tried to cheat, you'd be shot on the spot.
I am not condoning retaliation, I am only saying that in this very real world there are people that will still do great harm to you if you're caught cheating them.
think about it...
What inspired me to write this was my thinking about this forum and the discussions about handicapping. On my way to a tough weekly open tournament (that I have played in for the better part of 30+ years), I win two matches only to get cold racked TWICE by some kid less than 20 years old (and who can flat play) and say to myself, what are our youth learning about playing pool?
Now that this old American-Irish poolplayer has thought about it, maybe the mud-puddle approach isn't such a bad idea. I sometimes wish it was the fifities and sixties again, we would have a better game.
Forget the hadicap, play the game straight. See how far you can go. As to my knowledge, there is no person who cannot reach the top of their level, and then work towards the next. I grew up with the "C","B", "A", semi-pro and then a pro rating. And when cheaters came around, they didn't stick around for very long.
Seems like a solid approach to improving...
But with this said, add this factor to the game - what should we do to overcome those that purposely choose to "Cold Rack" their opponent? I call this phase One of the cheater's guide to winning.
Yes we can check the rack, but the imposing player will then move on to phase Two of the guide, and stall the breaker as long as possible.
Then phase Three kicks in, and they say, well, you rack 'em! Which immediately leads to phase Four, they don't like your rack either. Now we finally call over the tournament director who racks the balls that neither player can check, and the game finally get's under way.
Meanwhile, the cheater has accomplished his goal, in breaking the concentration and flow of the game for the breaker.
We have all been around, and yes I am the first to know that a player must learn to overcome this weekness - letting the actions of your opponent disrupt your concentration and affect your play, but being from old school poolrooms, this is what I remember -
It was a gentlemen's game, and if the gentlemen lost to a cheater, he would grasciously leave the room, and know he must become stronger; also knowing that he HAS another day.
The cheater would leave "On top of the world...", and would end up laying somewhere out back of the room in a buddle of mud, with a couple of guys standing over him.
If you escaped unscathed it was probably because of a car and a clean quick getaway, but you are only lucky if you never do what you just did again. If you choose to use the same tactics the next time you match up, the odds of that mud puddle would double against you - if you were to win.
This follows the order of playing cards before there were cars. You couldn't make a clean getaway, and go off to some far away place to hide. So if you tried to cheat, you'd be shot on the spot.
I am not condoning retaliation, I am only saying that in this very real world there are people that will still do great harm to you if you're caught cheating them.
think about it...
What inspired me to write this was my thinking about this forum and the discussions about handicapping. On my way to a tough weekly open tournament (that I have played in for the better part of 30+ years), I win two matches only to get cold racked TWICE by some kid less than 20 years old (and who can flat play) and say to myself, what are our youth learning about playing pool?
Now that this old American-Irish poolplayer has thought about it, maybe the mud-puddle approach isn't such a bad idea. I sometimes wish it was the fifities and sixties again, we would have a better game.
Forget the hadicap, play the game straight. See how far you can go. As to my knowledge, there is no person who cannot reach the top of their level, and then work towards the next. I grew up with the "C","B", "A", semi-pro and then a pro rating. And when cheaters came around, they didn't stick around for very long.
Seems like a solid approach to improving...
