Does the magic rack seem like it's fallen out of favor lately?

[SakuJack]

I carry mine in my pool bag. I roll it up in a piece of transparency paper and then put a rubber band around it. Never lose and always have it when needed. It does have a small bend to it. Does not affect play. But I will roll it up the other way the next time. Never have a problem with it.

Yup, I used to roll mine around the butt of my jump cue - I take a set of balls with me when I go to play now, so it fits easily in the case for them.

I found if you only keep it rolled when you're out with it, and then leave it flat inside of a large textbook or something at home, it held its shape almost perfectly.

The tables where I play are so full of divots that the magic rack makes things a LOT easier. It's a must, in my opinion.

 

[CreeDo]

Just wanted to add:

Bran, that dog in your signature is awesome.

 

[hang-the-9]

If you're talking about Pro or A+ level players, I can see why they may not want to use the Magic Rack for 9 ball.

Too easy to make a ball and play soft breaks with pattern racking if those are allowed.

Then you have a game of 9 ball that looks like straight pool with 8 or 7 balls.

For lower level players, especially those that play league in several rooms, you really can't be without one unless you don't care about how god of a rack you get.

Yesterday I was trying to use a regular rack with 10 ball, but the table had so many divots in the rack area I could not get even close to a tight rack. Got out the Magic Rack, and a second later I had a tight rack.

Only issue I find is that if the balls are really off-size, you will NEVER get them frozen unless you have a template for different sized balls, while with a regular rack you can actually play around with ball locations and maybe moving the rack around a tiny bit where you can get a more solid rack than you could with a Magic Rack.

 

[hang-the-9]

I never cared for them mainly because of the disruption of the game after the break if a ball happens to be on it or so close that you can't pick it up.

James

In almost every case where there is a ball on the rack, I was able to just tell my opponent we will move the ball. Lift it up a millimeter, slide rack out, done. I don't think I actually remember anyone saying I can't move the rack from under a ball when we needed to as it could mess with the other guy as well if it's left on the table.

 

[CreeDo]

Only issue I find is that if the balls are really off-size, you will NEVER get them frozen unless you have a template for different sized balls, while with a regular rack you can actually play around with ball locations and maybe moving the rack around a tiny bit where you can get a more solid rack than you could with a Magic Rack.

That is one advantage to Renfro's accu-rack. All the holes are on little "arms" that don't touch each other.
You can move the arms a little bit and the slot the ball sits in allows it to move a little towards
the center (but not sideways away from the rack).

So you can get all the balls frozen even when they're different sizes. Whereas a magic rack
you'd be stuck with a "magic slug". Usually you just end up putting the smallest ball at the back.

 

[TSW]

I like it because it saves time on racking. In a short race, I can't afford to give my opponent a free 9 on the break. So on some tables I'll spend an inordinate amount of time rolling those back two balls to get them frozen, while also trying to keep the rest of the rack reasonably tight. With a new magic rack, it's 20 seconds and done.

That said, the magic rack breaks really easily. I've owned two and, each time, it stops giving a tight rack within a month. I would like to see someone make paper templates that come in a pack of 50 or 100, so you just tear off a new one when the old one wears out.