Pattern racking?

[Paul Schofield]

cheating

A really good cheater appears extraordinarally honest and accomodating and gives in easily in a conflict when it matters little. All of this is to gain trust. Then when it really matters, he cheats. His integrity is never questioned because he has always been honest. In other words a good cheater never pattern racks an entire match untill the hill-hill game and then he pattern racks. How do you deal with this if you do not have a random racking process in place? I call your attention to the "Random Racking Process". Read it and think about it.

http://www.goldcrownbilliardseriepa.com/noconflict.html

 

[Marie's husband]

A really good cheater appears extraordinarally honest and accomodating and gives in easily in a conflict when it matters little. All of this is to gain trust. Then when it really matters, he cheats. His integrity is never questioned because he has always been honest. In other words a good cheater never pattern racks an entire match untill the hill-hill game and then he pattern racks. How do you deal with this if you do not have a random racking process in place? I call your attention to the "Random Racking Process". Read it and think about it.

http://www.goldcrownbilliardseriepa.com/noconflict.html

This is a very good "no conflict" rule, so what if a player does move a ball after the rack has been randomly set up by his opponent?

 

[Paul Schofield]

foul

This is a very good "no conflict" rule, so what if a player does move a ball after the rack has been randomly set up by his opponent?

That would be a foul and in this case would be loss of game, the same as if a player was to just pick up a ball with his hand during a game.

 

[TheBook]

I thought the spirit of the rule was that there is no particular way the balls *must* be racked, just that you need the 8 in the middle, and a one of each set in the corners. The rest can be random, but perhaps Bob could clarify this.

My biggest reason for racking this way was, as I said earlier, the ability to see where a particular ball comes from when it drops. Obviously the wing balls do go in, but in the rack I left, I also see the 11 and 12 fairly often depending on where I break from. If I had to make things random, how would honestly know if I was random or had simply picked and memorized 7 or 8 other racks?

The way you rack is ok for practicing but here is your quote
"Once you do it a few times it's second nature and in BCA it's a completely legal rack as the 8 is in the center, and there is a solid in the bottom left, and a stripe in the bottom right."

If you read the BCA rules (the link that was provided) what you are doing is not random. You are placing the balls in the same pattern every time. That is not random. Random is collecting all the balls in the rack, move the 8 ball to the center and make sure that there is a stripe and solid in the rear corners. That is random.

 

[Lance Link]

What about the "J" rack ??

There are always at least a few people in league or at tournaments that insist that the balls be racked with a "J" of one or the other (nevermind 'opposites in the corners' or 'two of the same on the inside' as far as they're concerned)...

I found a racking pattern that, once you get it down a few times, it's second nature to rack them this way. Each solid is next to it's colored counterpart, opposites in the corners, AND the "J" rack...

____ 1
___ 9 2
__ 3 8 10
_ 11 4 12 5
7 15 14 6 13

(Man, that was tough to make...)

Opposites in the corners, the "J" rack starts with the 10,12,14,15,11 (you can see it better when REAL balls are racked lol), and the colors are next to each other. And you always know where they were in the rack.

I rack them like this in league, and in all the years I've played, I only had one person ask me why I racked them the same way every game. My answer was that (when I play at home), I know where the balls were in the rack, and can learn where and why balls end up where they do. My opponent simply said, "Oh, that's cool", and after our game, asked me to draw the rack for him on paper at the end of the night (presumably so he could do the same rack in his practice sessions).

It's also helpful to know which balls were where in the rack when there is a question of how many balls made it to a rail on a soft break...

"Oh no, I'm not playin' you guys. I saw 'The Color Purple' !!!"

 

[Snapshot9]

Racking

Noone, and I mean noone, has proved that racking by a pattern, gives an advantage over random racking. I pattern rack in 9 ball all the time, not to try to gain an advantage, it's just where I like the balls to go.

I, also, put the stripes in certain positions in an 8 ball rack.

Even the people that think they are gaining an advantage are just GUESSING at it. Too much has been made out of pattern racking.

My opponents can rack them anyway they want, I will still run the rack. I don't have a problem getting shape.

 

[Ghosst]

The way you rack is ok for practicing ...

I was not referring to tournament play and wasn't aware I had to spell out everything in that regard. I play BCA rules every single time I play, tourney or $20/rack. If I missed that I had to be completely random then the entire thread (post, whatever you call it on a forum) is irrelevant.

I asked a while back how this was cheating, and received a response I decided was fair enough and was happy with that. I read some "interesting" replies between then and now, although I let them go because if someone has already decided I'm cheating then that's their own choice. There is nothing deceitful in my racking the same way every time for my opponent although some have decided I have ulterior motives by doing them what they would call a favor. And again, fair enough, you choose to believe what you will.

I know who I am and if people choose to believe that I'm setting them up for a bigger fall later then that is up to them. People who know me know what I am like. I don't expect everyone, or even anyone, to believe that until they play me 50-100 times. If you choose to think everyone is out to get you, it's probably what will happen, with or without me involved. If I give you an "unfair advantage", then that's just me being sneaky, I guess...