I heard that when the "5-rack 1P shootout" first came to San Francisco, lots of people lost at 20. Varner went to 35 or so depending on the table. I've heard that Hopkins could go to 40. I've also heard of a 72 in practice on a 9-foot table.
The break is the thing. Beanie would hit the second ball on the same side as the pocket he picked. Draw the cue ball to the side rail and to the middle of the table. I should add, some guys would do it and didn't select the pocket till after the break. That would result in a lot more balls.
Going to 12 or 15 you can get away with just a not so hard break right on the nose trying to stay at the middle of the table with the cueball hoping to get at east 3 or four balls.
Here is the thing, if you have done it hundreds of times or watched it done hundreds or thousands of time you notice a pattern of bad things that can happen no matter what you do or who you are.
Some are:
After the break you just plain have no makable shot to the pocket.
Balls double up and you have to make a combo to start.
A ball rolls up to the cueball blocking anything.
The cueball gets kicked up table leaving a tough long shot to start.
You can scratch and so on.
Another thing is, to bet on this you have to bet per-set of five racks.
What I mean by that is, you make a bet, say $50.00 that a guy can't get a certain number in the 5 racks. If he doesn't do it you win.
You don't bet say $250.00 that he can do it once in five tries. They are not the same bet.
The reason is if he does it once in five tries you lose $250.00.
If he does it once in five tries betting per set you have won $200.00 and lost $50.00
and are ahead $150.00. You will probably bust him. He will also begin to dog it after a while, this can wear down a player after a while especially if they get bad rolls or repeatedly lose needing only 1 or 2 ball.
I have to tell you, I have had guys who kept coming close really chase their money.
Another thing, just adding or taking away one ball can change the outcome over time.
To win money you can't handicap it so tough the guy can't win at all you have to be fair. The reason they do it in the first place is they just can't, at least till they try it and maybe get hooked, sense how hard it really is. Surprisingly there is an ego thing to it also. I have noticed If player 1. is trying a certain number, player 2. will want to do the same or close. He won't if his buddy it shooting 16 say "I'll try it if I can go to 11."
Even if you lose you can't really get robbed. No one going to a fair number is going to do it a dozen times in a row, but if things go bad they can lose a dozen times in a row. It is also kind of addictive they hate to quit, it fun to do even if losing.
There used to be a guy in Miami called Brownie who hung around the Congress who was a proposition guy and ball spinner and the one pocket prop. was one of his favorite bets to give. I am sure some on here knew him. He, by the way, is the guy who was betting with Beanie as I mentioned in my other post.