FWIW, I have done this several times. The difference this time is that I will be breaking it down into 2 (two) 12 hour blocks. The other times I have done this, I have done it for 24 hours straight. I have reached the 10,000 ball mark all but 1 time. This is more about the Amato family than it is about what I am doing.
I have heard a lot of people say that the racking will be a huge part of this - which definitely is true - but the biggest factor is the way the balls spread off the breaks. You can rack the balls as quickly as possible, but if the balls don't spread well, you will spend most of your time breaking up clusters instead of pocketing balls. This is where (in my experience) you lose the most time.
The table I will be doing this on is the IPT Diamond table that was purchased when Rodney Morris was the house pro at Capone's. Right now it still has the slow Gorina cloth on it, but Rocky said he might put some new Simonis on it, which will help a lot. I'm not too worried about the cloth or the speed because after about 5-10 racks I'll get used to it anyway. My main concern is losing momentum by taking the break between days 1 and 2. I am averaging about 1:30 - 1:45 per rack and I know I can go much faster than that - I have put 15 balls down in 54 seconds recently. I can't go that fast for very long, so I pace myself at 1:45 - 2 minutes per rack.
I would like to thank everybody that has expressed interest in helping with this effort by either donating raffle items, or pledging money. The past few times we have had fundraisers for the Amato family, Brandon has been in the hospital or unable to attend. I believe that when pool (as a community) reaches out to help others in this fashion, we show our TRUE colors and we smash the negative stereotypes associated with our game. Like I said, its not about what I am doing - its about the Amato family - and about our response to the calling.
