Racking etiquette vs. sharking

cyrex

cyrex

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Heya Keith,
I would really appreciate it if you could give some advice on how to handle racking. Such as, if you're racking.. I've noticed that some players will really pick the rack apart in order to make you work harder to try and knock the edge off your concentration. How do you handle this? Could you call a ref to rack or make the other guy rack and check it? Basically, what's the counter-move to someone trying to 'shark' you in this way? Also, if your playing seriously outside of tournament conditions.. and someone is giving you loose racks would you then just make it a 'rack your own' rule? Do you just knee em in the groin and walk out?? What would The Earthquake do?? Thanks.
 
cyrex

As Tempting as kicking someone in the balls maybe, and it might teach them to not do it again, i would say no.

If someone has that much of a problem with the way i rack, and i always give the tightest rack possible, even though sometimes the rack or table might not let it happen. If they have a problem, tell them we can rack our own. So then he cant complain.

Or if you cant do that have a 3rd party come over and check the rack.


dave
 
I feel the same way...I had a guy once look at the rack after I got it nice and tight. He took his cue and poked the rack and said "You need to get 'em tight!" real arrogantly. Well needless to say I just sat there and did nothing...Finally he went over and racked them hisself...LOL....

It took everything I had to keep from shoving my cue up his Uh-huh sideways....
 
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The last 8-ball tournament I played I was in the finals of the winner side and I lost the flip so I had to rack. The guy I was playing broke from the side trying to hit the second ball in the rack square. He rose up when he was coming through and mishit the cueball a little, barely nicked the second ball and then came into the third ball down in the pack!!! Of course the rack didn't break up worth a crap. Then he looks at me at says, "Thanks for the good rack". The rack was perfect but being the good sportsman that I am I kept my mouth shut even though I really wanted to say something. Like I wanted to play a crappy rack like that with all the balls tied up. He ended up winning that game and we were playing loser breaks so when he got up and racked he gave me a completely loose rack. I should have known to check it. We were playing on bar boxes so I had been making 2, 3 and 4 balls on the break and I barely got 5 or 6 balls out of the pack on his rack. Now I was really mad and tried to get him to rerack them. He wouldn't because he said it was "payback". How immature is that. This is a 50 year old man we're talking about here. Now I'm pissed so after the jerk missed I ran out on him. Now it is his break and I'm thinking I should give him a crappy rack but I didn't because I knew I would feel guilty about it later. So I get the rack perfect. He then goes up and checks the rack for about 2 minutes and after seeing that I was getting annoyed says something like "I shouldn't have to check it". He breaks and runs and I lose (race to two). This all happened because he broke the balls like a 3 year old girl in the first game. He went on to win the tournament. I wanted to break a beer bottle over his head but I just took my 3rd place money and left. My advice would be if your playing in a tournament either ask to rack your own balls or have someone else not involved in the match do it (referee, tournament director, whatever).
 
Alot of local tournaments are doing that now because of a-holes
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There's still some integrity issues that need addressing in the pool world....
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Hey i am all about racking your own, when playing a tournament or gambling.

Cuz then you can only blame yourself for having a shytty rack.

I will say, that if i am playing someone who has a stronger break than me, i do, kinda try to mess with the rack lol, Still giving a tight rack, but offsetting it by a little bit, or racking it a bit low of the spot.

But on the flip side, if your opponent, is good enough, it doesnt matter if you give him a weak rack or whatever, he will still crush it and run out.

dave
 
crappy racks

Yeah, we just got back from the USPPA Pro-Am and it's a 'rack your own tournament' with the winner breaking. Racking issues definitely came up couple times and was a problem. The officials try to get the players to resolve their issues as much as possible but in the end they had to come in and rack after every game. By then it was already a big distraction. Seems like the best answer is to just let the other player complain and waste their energy trying to
'fix' the rack.
 
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