Corey's 10-Ball soft break

Sloppy Pockets

Sloppy Pockets

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
With all the talk of push-out after the break that's happening on other threads, I was wondering what some folks think of Corey Deuel's soft 10-Ball break that he was using to good effect at SBE? Commentator Mary Kenniston seemed quite indignant about it, but it is legal, and best of all, it is an elective rather than a mandatory strategy.

Personally, I think it lends itself to the kind of finesse and complexity of safety play that is usually thought to exist primarily in 14.1. By breaking the 1-ball out of the stack and hiding the CB at the same time, it forces the opponent to play a safety from the beginning instead of just getting up there and running out following a dry break.

Anyway, I'm glad to see that Corey hasn't lost his ability to think outside the box. I wonder what CJ thinks about it.
 
Her issue was not really with the soft break but the clear pattern racking that was occurring as every break had certain balls end up in the same area repeatedly. No one wants to watch the same patterns play out rack after rack.
 
I think they ought to be able to break how they want too. You don't see breaking to hard being illegal.

Was it to speed up the matches for tv? What channel was pool on again? It's been so long I forgot. :rolleyes:
 
It's interesting to think about.

I saw Corey do that a couple times (I only watched for a few minutes) and it didn't make any sense to me at the time, but I don't know what the score was when he did it.

After thinking about it for a bit, the only scenario I can come up with, where it would make sense would be when you are in a match where you are just not able to pocket a ball on the break. Maybe your opponent is now on the hill and you are breaking and you don't want to just give him a wide open table. Here breaking safe may seem enticing, but still I would think the breaker would be at a disadvantage from this position.

Other than that I can't see it being a very effective technique. Bottom line is, if you can't pocket a ball on the break at ten ball -- you aren't going to win a professional tournament.
 
It Was Boring But Not Illegal. It Is The Opposite End Of The,Spectrum From Shanes Break And i Would Think Pro At That Level Would Have Be ABle To Execute A Perfect Rolout Every Time To CouNter ThAt Break. Just Like Nine It Shows How Important The Break Is.
 
PoolJunkie216 said:
Her issue was not really with the soft break but the clear pattern racking that was occurring as every break had certain balls end up in the same area repeatedly. No one wants to watch the same patterns play out rack after rack.
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The soft break didn't really help his chances. Warren was able to push out and hook him nearly every time.

And PJ is correct, how boring was it to see the same layout after each soft break! 1 ball above side pocket, 8-9-10 cluster at foot spot, 6-7 in lower right corner. Same look each time.
 
is this where he hits em real soft and plays the 1 in the side?
I dont understand the pattern racking comments, the 1,10,2,3 have set positions that leaves 6 balls that you have to rack "random", there isnt a whole lot of different places to put em.
 
Still thinking about this....

The only way I think this could work would be if you figured out how to put the 1 ball right in the jaws of a pocket and leave the cue ball locked up so well that the incoming player couldn't even roll out anywhere. This would bring the breaker back to the table in control, but facing a very difficult layout.

If anybody could figure out how to do this it would be Corey. Doesn't sound like that's what he did though.
 
Sloppy Pockets said:
... I was wondering what some folks think of Corey Deuel's soft 10-Ball break that he was using to good effect at SBE? ...
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Deuel did not use that soft break in the first set (which Kiamco won 8-6), but he used it in all 8 of his breaks in the second set (which Kiamco won 8-7).

Deuel won 3 of his soft-break games and lost 5.

A key factor in that second set was in Game #8, when Kiamco missed the 1-ball and slopped in the 10-ball for the win.
 
the idea is to play the one in the side and putting the 2 on the corner you play shape on the 2 to break the stack. If you dont make anything on the break your opponent is hooked on the 1 behind the stack,its pretty ingenious
 
AtLarge said:
Deuel did not use that soft break in the first set (which Kiamco won 8-6), but he used it in all 8 of his breaks in the second set (which Kiamco won 8-7).

Deuel won 3 of his soft-break games and lost 5.

A key factor in that second set was in Game #8, when Kiamco missed the 1-ball and slopped in the 10-ball for the win.
Click to expand...

AtLarge, you are my hero! I love the information you provide for us!

Thank you!

Ken
 
jamesroberts said:
is this where he hits em real soft and plays the 1 in the side?
I dont understand the pattern racking comments, the 1,10,2,3 have set positions that leaves 6 balls that you have to rack "random", there isnt a whole lot of different places to put em.
Click to expand...

In this event, the only balls that had set positions were the 1 & 10. Everything else was supposed to be random although with Corey it clearly was not.
 
jamesroberts said:
the idea is to play the one in the side and putting the 2 on the corner you play shape on the 2 to break the stack. If you dont make anything on the break your opponent is hooked on the 1 behind the stack,its pretty ingenious
Click to expand...

That's what it seemed to me he was trying to do. He almost seemed annoyed one time when the 1-ball actually went in the side. It wasn't really effective against Kiamco (heck, what is?), but leave it to Corey to eventually figure it out.

As far as it leaving boringly similar layouts, most folks feel the same about straight pool breaks. In fact, the perfect break in 14.1 leaves the opponent with a rack that looks almost untouched, except he's frozen to the short rail with a legal safety to attempt.
 
Even if Corey didn't pattern rack he would have hooked Warren on the 1-ball. I'm also sure that regardless of where he put the 2 he would know where it would go on his soft break to play position if he did pocket the 1.

I heard the same comments about Dennis O. in the final match against Shaw at the Swanee 9-ball. He had 5 break&run using a pattern rack. Shaw noticed it and attempted to rack the exact same way but wasn't as successful as Dennis.

If you're against it get a neutral person to rack. There were so many people there I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to find a person to handle that task.
 
I thought it definitely worked to Corey's advantage. It seemed to really take warren out of his game (he was drained) and for a while, i thought Corey was going to win the match. Unfortunately for him, i think he dogged the 9 ball to give Warren the match.

I didn't really see as much of a problem with it as other people. After the first couple shots/safes/push, they were running down to the 8, 9, & 10 and attempting a break out.

I did think Corey was overly aggressive the first set. He tried a few shots that were not high percentages and sold out when he missed.
 
jamesroberts said:
is this where he hits em real soft and plays the 1 in the side?
I dont understand the pattern racking comments, the 1,10,2,3 have set positions that leaves 6 balls that you have to rack "random", there isnt a whole lot of different places to put em.
Click to expand...

I thought it was pretty dang smart of Corey to come up with a soft break that worked to his advantage playing 10-ball. I though it was interesting to watch for a short amount of time than I lost interest. But he was pattern racking. You are right about the 2 & 3 had to be on the corners, but near the spot the 8, 9, & 10 were always in a cluster and the 6 & 7 dropped to the bottom rail so one of those two balls were used to break out the cluster of the 8-9-10. Unfortunately Corey was having a hard time making the one in the side or it would have really favored him.

Let's face it, no matter what you think of Corey, he is a genius when it comes to understanding the rack. I love watching new things and applaud his efforts - but it just got a little boring after a while for me.

Dave
 
jamesroberts said:
is this where he hits em real soft and plays the 1 in the side?
I dont understand the pattern racking comments, the 1,10,2,3 have set positions that leaves 6 balls that you have to rack "random", there isnt a whole lot of different places to put em.
Click to expand...
hell no! He rolled the CB into the side rail and then spun it to the bottom rail from there.

I saw his Kiamco match and neither made a ballon the break, really.
 
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