Question About Making the 9 on the Break

[LastTwo]

Hi, I've noticed there are two ways the 9 can go in on the break. One way is it gets kicked into a pocket by another ball, and the other way is it just drifts right into the hole, without any other balls hitting it. Now, I played in a tournament recently, and it was race to 3 double elimination, rack your own. I lost in the first round to this one guy, he made the 9 on the break the first game, the next game I broke (the format was loser breaks) and he ran out to a 4-9 combination, and the third game I broke, ran to the 3 ball, missed and he got out. When he made the 9 on the break the first game, the 9 ball just drifted right into the corner pocket. Now after this early 3-0 loss, I fought my way back to the semi-finals, and played this guy again. In this match, in the second game he broke, the 9 drifted in the same exact way, but this was on a different table. We both made it to 2-2, he broke, and made the 9 the same exact way again to win the match. I should have checked the rack before he broke, but I didn't think of it. My question is, if the 9 just drifts into the corner pocket off the break, with no ball hitting it in, is that because of the way the balls were racked? If the 9 ball got kicked in, I wouldn't have even made this thread, but since the 9 just went straight into the corner, I got suspicious. Anyone know?

 

[mjantti]

If the rack is tight, 9-ball won't usually move an inch after the break. If you can watch matches where Sardo rack is used, you'll see that 9-ball won't move much after the break unless being hit by another ball. If the 9-ball heads straight into one of the foot pockets, it's usually because the rack hasn't been tight behind the 9, either in purpose or by accident. It could've been that since it was rack-your-own, your opponent might have done it in purpose thus gaining an advantage over his break. When I rack to my opponent, I want to make a tight rack both above and below the 9. Above the 9 because it's good sportmanship, and below the 9 because I don't want him/her getting too much speed on the 9-ball...

I was once practising on a table with extremely worn cloth. I racked quite tight and noticed that the balls found their "holes" on the cloth and settled nice and tight. Just happened to make three 9-balls from the break in a row and every time straight from the rack to the same pocket with same speed. I was shooting with medium speed. On the 4th break the 9 headed same way but stayed in the jaws of the same pocket. After racking again I noticed that there were noticeable gaps between the balls behind the 9...

 

[sjm]

Hi, I've noticed there are two ways the 9 can go in on the break. One way is it gets kicked into a pocket by another ball, and the other way is it just drifts right into the hole, without any other balls hitting it. Now, I played in a tournament recently, and it was race to 3 double elimination, rack your own. I lost in the first round to this one guy, he made the 9 on the break the first game, the next game I broke (the format was loser breaks) and he ran out to a 4-9 combination, and the third game I broke, ran to the 3 ball, missed and he got out. When he made the 9 on the break the first game, the 9 ball just drifted right into the corner pocket. Now after this early 3-0 loss, I fought my way back to the semi-finals, and played this guy again. In this match, in the second game he broke, the 9 drifted in the same exact way, but this was on a different table. We both made it to 2-2, he broke, and made the 9 the same exact way again to win the match. I should have checked the rack before he broke, but I didn't think of it. My question is, if the 9 just drifts into the corner pocket off the break, with no ball hitting it in, is that because of the way the balls were racked? If the 9 ball got kicked in, I wouldn't have even made this thread, but since the 9 just went straight into the corner, I got suspicious. Anyone know?

As Mjantti has suggested, there was probably space between the nine and at least one of the two balls lying directly below it. This causes the nine to leak. Seems to me, you learned a tough lesson the hard way. Even in "rack your own" format, you reseve the right to check opponent's racks, and it's a right you'll someties have to exercise to be successful.

 

[TATE]

If the one of the two balls directly behind the nine are not touching the nine (they will also not be frozen to each other), you break with the cue ball about a foot off the spot on the same side as the ball not touching - and the nine goes toward the corner.

Here's the rack (exaggerated) :

START(
%AN7O5%BK7P3%CK8N9%DL6N4%EM8O9%FL8P5%GJ8O5%HM7N8%IL7O4%Ph6U7
%WD5D3%XL8O3%[P4P0%\g7U8
)END

WEI

This was covered in Tucker's book "Racking Secrets". I have noticed that many players just rack poorly - so they give these racks to you too.

Chris

 

[Barbara]

If the rack is tight, 9-ball won't usually move an inch after the break.

You're exactly right!!

However in this case with the 9 just drifting into the corner pocket, one of the two balls in the row behind the 9 wasn't frozen to the 9.

Barbara