Rack your own skewed 8-ball rack

[ndakotan]

Rules for our 8 ball league state that the balls are racked at the foot of the table with the 8 ball in the middle. The league plays "rack your own".

I've always been wondering if people are skewing the rack to their favor (and if it is possible to get an advantage from a skewed rack).

Last night, my opponent racked the balls with all of the stripes on the lower left side of the rack and all of the solids on the upper right side of the rack. He broke from the headstring, one diamond from the rail. He had a pretty easy layout, leading to an easy runout.

Other times, I see someone rack the balls above the footstring by half a ball or more. Oddly enough, you don't see many people racking below the footstring on rack your own, but it was pretty prevalent when it was "rack for your opponent".

THe other way people think they are racking to their advantage is by tilting the rack slightly and trying to use the second ball break to push the "higher" corner ball into the pocket.

While I don't believe these racks violate the rules, I do not agree with people using them. It should be a gentlemen's (or gentlewoman's) game, playing straight up.

Does anybody have any thoughts on whether these tactics (or any other) give the breaker an advantage (either in making a ball or getting a good layout)?

Does anybody think it is fair to do any of these things?

P.S. I don't mind losing to this guy, he is always a threat to run out. I think it's an asterisk on any win he has in the future though when he uses this technique.

Do other rule systems (BCA, APA, etc) do anything to prevent this?

Any thoughts?

 

[ctyhntr]

Link below for you to brush up on your APA and BCA rules. In both BCA and APA, first ball has to be racked to sit directly on the footspot.

BCA rules on 8-ball
http://www.billiards.com/article/official-bca-8-ball-rules

APA rules on 8-ball and 9-ball
www.poolplayers.com/8-9-ball-Rules.pdf

Get a copy of Joe Tucker's racking secrets DVD. I believe he covers 8-ball,9-ball, 10-ball, and straight pool. The better you're at reading slugracking, less temptation for your opponent to try put one over on you.

 

[Bambu]

Good topic, valid points you make. I agree with what you say, but its a matter of deciding between the lesser of 2 evils. Bottom line is that racking your own saves time because there's never any argument about the rack. Nobody blames you for a loose rack. Nobody inspecting your rack. If the balls dont spread well, you know its your own fault.

It's true that in that scenario, racking becomes a skill in itself. But, racking for your opponent presents other problems. Lots of guys in league play couldnt give you a decent rack if they wanted to, they just dont know how. So you either sit there all night looking like a jerk, or you just accept the loose rack. Then you are expected to turn around and give them a tight rack, along with a gazillion game spot. I dont play league anymore, but I prefer to rack my own in almost any situation.

 

[Pushout]

Rules for our 8 ball league state that the balls are racked at the foot of the table with the 8 ball in the middle. The league plays "rack your own".

I've always been wondering if people are skewing the rack to their favor (and if it is possible to get an advantage from a skewed rack).

Last night, my opponent racked the balls with all of the stripes on the lower left side of the rack and all of the solids on the upper right side of the rack. He broke from the headstring, one diamond from the rail. He had a pretty easy layout, leading to an easy runout.

I don't play 8 ball but, isn't it illegal to rack as above? I thought the balls were to be racked randomly? And, I always thought skewing to be tilting the rack.

 

[DJKeys]

In BCA, all that matters is that the front ball is on the foot spot, the 8 is in the middle and a stripe and solid are in the lower corners. APA doesn't even specify that. If you don't make a ball on the break, skewing the rack could be a problem. I break from the second ball, so I rack exactly the same all of the time. The balls are evenly distributed and I have a high contrast target with the 5 between the 10 and 12.

 

[sfleinen]

In BCA, all that matters is that the front ball is on the foot spot, the 8 is in the middle and a stripe and solid are in the lower corners. APA doesn't even specify that. If you don't make a ball on the break, skewing the rack could be a problem. I break from the second ball, so I rack exactly the same all of the time. The balls are evenly distributed and I have a high contrast target with the 5 between the 10 and 12.

DJKeys:

Yup, that's the same rules in my local traveling league -- 8-ball in the middle, the two wing balls (the extreme ends of the last row) cannot be same category (i.e. they have to be a stripe and a solid), the headball centered on the footspot, and the middle ball in the last row as close to centerline on the table as possible.

It looks as though the posting engine of this website scrunched your nice triangle layout and left-justified it. (And I see you edited the post and removed your nice rack layout. You might want to post your rack layout and have the rack laying sideways, with the headball pointing to the right, so the left-justification works in your favor.)

-Sean