My idea for eliminating break/rack issues...

So the prevailing idea is that the randomness of the rack quality should trump the competence of the breaker? I can't get my head around why the magic rack is a problem. It seems the most fair. A random arrangement of the balls is the exact opposite of fair, because then the match may be decided by who randomly gets the worst slugs, rather than who breaks better. I'm really not following the logic. Making the corner ball on the break easily and frequently shifts the emphasis of the contest on the perfection of the runout game. Most people like watching good players run out. Everything speeds up, the matches are exciting. I'm failing to see the down side.

KMRUNOUT


Sent from my iPhone using AzBilliards Forums
 
justadub said:
Several years ago, when the racking stuff started getting sillier and sillier, someone here on AZB proposed the "bucket rack", a similar idea to yours, having the balls all get dumped out of a bucket... :p

After a bit of searching, the earliest thread where Derek Disco proposed the bucket break can be found here
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?214645&p=2789411#post2789411

JCIN had often joked about doing a TAR match with break-bucket rules, tho I don't think it got into the planning stages, lol
Click to expand...

I figured someone had thought of it before. Genius is so lonely.:grin:

When I practice, I'm too lazy to rack, so I put the balls near the rack area and then sweep them around with my hand.. I don't practice breaking enough, I guess.:rolleyes:

One other thing.....this would really speed up a tournament.


Jeff Livingston
 
chefjeff said:
I've read and heard all the arguments from all the different players about how to make the rack and break fair and allow the good players to run out and the bad players to not, etc. etc. But nothing so far has fixed all the problems of skewing the rack, reading it and changing strategy, soft hits, etc.

Here's my idea:

Hang a bag with a trap door on the light. Fill the bag with the balls. Shake the bag. Pull the trap door draw string and let the balls fall on the table. The incoming player takes it from there.



Jeff Livingston
Click to expand...

That would work. So might a bowling style ball setter (robot Sardo).

But a really simple option is for one player to rack with the other watching and a 30 second time limit. Then they flip a coin to see who breaks the rack.
 
KMRUNOUT said:
So the prevailing idea is that the randomness of the rack quality should trump the competence of the breaker? I can't get my head around why the magic rack is a problem. It seems the most fair. A random arrangement of the balls is the exact opposite of fair, because then the match may be decided by who randomly gets the worst slugs, rather than who breaks better. I'm really not following the logic. Making the corner ball on the break easily and frequently shifts the emphasis of the contest on the perfection of the runout game. Most people like watching good players run out. Everything speeds up, the matches are exciting. I'm failing to see the down side.

KMRUNOUT


Sent from my iPhone using AzBilliards Forums
Click to expand...

A better breaker has an advantage over a lesser breaker. This applies when the break is "random" and has applied since day one. It's one of many advantages that players have over other players. It's one element of the game of pool. When it determines the outcome of every game the game dies - yes most people like seeing good players run out but I'm not convinced that most people want to see run outs happening every game because the game then becomes one dimensional. The whole notion of hitting the cue ball "as hard as you can with control" as an effective breaking strategy is grounded in the random nature of the break - rigging the rack so that you make a ball and get a run out pattern 99.99% of the time is fundamentally opposed to the notion that the better breaker uses his or her breaking advantage when he or she is actually breaking.
 
how about a rotating drum? like in bingo, but with a slanted rib to randomly spit balls out of the end of the drum onto a ramp that tilts slightly side-to-side as the drum spins to randomize the direction the ball rolls to some extent. easy on the cloth and very random.
 
Play straight pool. If not, my suggestion would be more along these lines:
https://youtu.be/kGp3PrC1CKI?t=140

Seriously, we need to play less 9 ball. Thats the main cause of the problem. Play10 ball, rotation, straight pool and sigh..even one pocket, why not 8 ball?
 
Last edited:
Maybe something called a "referee".

My 9yo nephew is playing soccer, they have a referee and two line judges.
 
Yep

Straightpool_99 said:
Play straight pool. If not, my suggestion would be more along these lines:
https://youtu.be/kGp3PrC1CKI?t=140

Seriously, we need to play less 9 ball. Thats the main cause of the problem. Play10 ball, rotation, straight pool and sigh..even one pocket, why not 8 ball?
Click to expand...

We have a winner, only have to bug around with the rack once, this may be why the nine ballers don't like the game - it eliminates the agruing and drama of all the rack issues. Its funny that I never see any 14.1 players wearing those hustlin' shirts either. I guess birds of a feather is relevant.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top