i think we have been into this before, but the problem is there is simply no way to enforce pattern racking, so therefore it should not be illegal.
what you have to realize is pattern racking usually involves low balls and high balls, in other words the 1-5 you want in these positions to they hopefully go uptable, 6-10 in these positions so they stay downtable. now, if a guy racks the 2 ball where it will go uptable, then next rack he puts the three ball where he put the 2 ball last time, same difference pretty much, but nobody can accuse him of pattern racking. you see, you'd have to have some objective percentage of balls going into the same spots the over and over. if a player goes over this percentage, then he is pattern racking. since we could never do that, we have to realize that a clever pattern racker will get away with it and we need to forget it altogether.
see, put another way, the problem is you may have a guy penalized for pattern racking, but a player on another table is actually pattern racking even worse, but goes undetected. if you think about it more and more i think youll come to the conclusion that we cant look at this as cheating, because nothing is ever truly 100% random, that is an impossible goal.
I've thought about it plenty. I'm not sure I get the "nothing is ever truly 100% random" thing, but if you think about it it really is simple. The rules state the balls should be racked randomly. Knowingly breaking this rule to gain an unfair advantage is cheating. Knowingly breaking a rule to gain an unfair advantage is the definition of cheating, is it not?
I can only agree that if they change the rule to make it legal, then it would no longer be cheating.
I'm just surprised that it is condoned at the professional level. I don't mean that it isn't called and penalties levied by TD's because I realize that it can be extremely difficult to prove. I'm surprised and frankly a little disappointed that it is condoned by the players themselves, because proven or not they all know who is doing it.
I think this is short-sighted. If professional pool had the public perception that it was a sport played by men and women of honor and that the game instilled positive values, it might help attract a larger following and perhaps even in time some serious money to professional pool.
Look at golf. Sure guys sandbag and cheat at the game on the local muni's and country clubs, but at the professional level it just doesn't happen. If a player did cheat he would become an instant pariah among his peers.
I was watching a tournament a few weeks back with Strickland playing (I wish I could remember the event or who his opponent was). Earl clearly fouls on the 5 ball while trying to shoot the cue ball. Everyone saw it (the opponent, the crowd, the announcers, and the TV audience who were treated to slo-mo replays showing the foul). Everyone saw it - except the ref, who was out of position. Well, the ref goes to call it based on everyone's reaction and Earl protested saying something to the effect of "You were standing behind me, you didn't actually see it. And if you didn't actually see it with your own eyes you can't call it". Long story short, the ref didn't call it and Earl kept shooting. Justice was served though as he ultimately lost the game.
But I had to ask myself, WTF is that? That kind of behavior saddens me. I mean come on, this is how professionals in our sport behave? How many times have you been playing with a buddy and he heads off to the bar or bathroom. If you miss/foul while he is gone, do you keep shooting and when he gets back pretend you never missed? Or do you sit down and wait for him to get back and take his turn?
In professional golf, guys call penalties on themselves all the time when no one else saw it. They will also point out penalties they do see an opponent might unknowingly make A) So that the field is protected and B) To protect the offending player from getting DQ'd for signing an incorrect scorecard.
There is legal and there is illegal. There is also right and wrong.
