Pattern Racking

zpele

zpele

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
So lately I have been hearing a bit about pattern racking being done by the pros in rack your own formats using the magic rack.

Does anyone know the patterns that are best used when doing this?

What about the best pattern to use when racking for your opponent?
 
No problem I said that because you will find much more informations searching.
 
To make it simple, there are #2 ideas to pattern racking.

Either for yourself, assuming your making balls and want an easy pattern to get out...

Or....

For your opponent to make it difficult to get out. We used to call these travelers racks ;) where the idea is that each sequential ball ends up at opposite ends of the table so you have to constantly get shape back and forth the whole rack.

Their are many patterns posted around but patterns are easy to figure out. Just rack some balls in order thru the rack, break a few and make note of where the balls 'generally' end up. Now you know roughly where each spot in the rack ends up on the table after a break. Now you just rack the balls in the spots of the rack you want them to end up in the table. Its not rocket science and its not at all anything new.

So thats the jist. Hope it helps.

For the record most people HATE the idea of pattern racking so you might want to keep it quiet that your trying to learn it. ;)
 
RRfireblade said:
To make it simple, there are #2 ideas to pattern racking.

Either for yourself, assuming your making balls and want an easy pattern to get out...

Or....

For your opponent to make it difficult to get out. We used to call these travelers racks ;) where the idea is that each sequential ball ends up at opposite ends of the table so you have to constantly get shape back and forth the whole rack.

Their are many patterns posted around but patterns are easy to figure out. Just rack some balls in order thru the rack, break a few and make note of where the balls 'generally' end up. Now you know roughly where each spot in the rack ends up on the table after a break. Now you just rack the balls in the spots of the rack you want them to end up in the table. Its not rocket science and its not at all anything new.

So thats the jist. Hope it helps.

For the record most people HATE the idea of pattern racking so you might want to keep it quiet that your trying to learn it. ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I was asking because I had heard a discussion at my poolhall from a few people that played against Shane in the latest tournament of rack your own with the magic rack and they were talking about how he uses pattern racks. Does anyone know what types of patterns he uses?
 
zpele said:
Thanks for the info. I was asking because I had heard a discussion at my poolhall from a few people that played against Shane in the latest tournament of rack your own with the magic rack and they were talking about how he uses pattern racks. Does anyone know what types of patterns he uses?
Click to expand...

Look at a youtube video and freeze frame it before he breaks.

JC
 
zpele said:
So lately I have been hearing a bit about pattern racking being done by the pros in rack your own formats using the magic rack.

Does anyone know the patterns that are best used when doing this?

What about the best pattern to use when racking for your opponent?
Click to expand...

I watched how Orcullo racked himself in the US Open 10 Ball finals and this is what I saw.

1
8 9
7 10 6
3 5 4 2


it works for fine for me too, but controlling the rock is critical.
 
zpele said:
So lately I have been hearing a bit about pattern racking being done by the pros in rack your own formats using the magic rack.

Does anyone know the patterns that are best used when doing this?

What about the best pattern to use when racking for your opponent?
Click to expand...
FYI, lots of info (including a video) on this topic can be found here:

Enjoy,
Dave
 
The thing with pattern racks, is according to the official BCA rules they are illegal.

"The object balls are racked as tightly as possible in a diamond shape, with the one ball at the apex of the diamond and on the foot spot and the nine ball in the middle of the diamond. The other balls will be placed in the diamond without purposeful or intentional pattern."

Even before this pretty specific wording, the rules stated, 1 here, 9 there, rest placed in a random order.

If I play anyone for money and they start counting on their fingers before they rack, see ya. If they do it in a tournament I'd have a talk with whoever is running it.
 
hang-the-9 said:
The thing with pattern racks, is according to the official BCA rules they are illegal.

"The object balls are racked as tightly as possible in a diamond shape, with the one ball at the apex of the diamond and on the foot spot and the nine ball in the middle of the diamond. The other balls will be placed in the diamond without purposeful or intentional pattern."

Even before this pretty specific wording, the rules stated, 1 here, 9 there, rest placed in a random order.

If I play anyone for money and they start counting on their fingers before they rack, see ya. If they do it in a tournament I'd have a talk with whoever is running it.
Click to expand...


Some tournaments allow pattern racking in a self rack format. So theres nothing you can do about it, except fight fire with fire. Its just a matter of keeping up with the Joneses, like jump cues. For 9 ball I like:

1
23
695
87
4
 
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Bambu said:
Some tournaments allow pattern racking in a self rack format. So theres nothing you can do about it, except fight fire with fire.
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Interesting. Aside from the APA I've never heard of a tournament where pattern racking was expressly covered in the players meeting or otherwise posted as being legal.

Unless expressly stated to the contrary, it's illegal in any event played by World Standardized rules, BCA rules (which is the same thing) or BCA Pool League rules.
 
DogsPlayingPool said:
Interesting. Aside from the APA I've never heard of a tournament where pattern racking was expressly covered in the players meeting or otherwise posted as being legal.

Unless expressly stated to the contrary, it's illegal in any event played by World Standardized rules, BCA rules (which is the same thing) or BCA Pool League rules.
Click to expand...

I thought it was a little weird myself, but I wasnt gonna complain. I guess they figure its gonna speed up the tournament.
 
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