Racking fairly

[pete lafond]

I was told at age 19 by Arthur "Babe" Cranfield when racking balls your hands and fingers should never be ahead of any ball and definitely never on top of any ball. He also stated that dragging the rack forward causes friction which helps the balls to stay together (not sure if this really is the case though).

Anyway, I have paid attention to players as they rack and honestly most everyone is fair. After all who would want to win by cheating. What I have noticed though is some players have their hands on top of the back balls and I noticed that it makes it easier to create gaps this way. Yes having the top 3 balls are important though in reality for consistency all should be tight.

Is there a rule on racking? If there isn't, I would like to see one that requires hands and finger to be behind the balls with the rack dragged forward. Much easier to see the ball movements as they rack and as they let go before pulling the triangle.

 

[mosconiac]

I try to rack fair, but its not always possible. I slip my fingers between the rack and puch on the entire rear row of balls when racking 8-ball and pinch the three rear balls together with both hands resting on the rack when racking 9-ball.

This still doesn't ensure a prefect rack because the sides of the plastic racks that are so common can deflect allowing the balls to get loose. I concentrate on getting the forward 6 balls tight and accept that the rear 3 or 9 balls (depending on the game being played) may not be perfect.

The first guy that I regularly played for $$$ would openly rig the rack. I was young & dumb so instead of demanding a re-rack, I just accepted it as a challenge and tried to beat him by overpowering his rack. He would spin the two balls behind the 9 until the gap around the 9 was "just right". It was common that no balls would be touching the 9!

 

[gwberry]

I actually have a question based on reading Joe Tucker's book on Racking Secrets... He states that the order of the balls around the 9-ball will affect the odds of running out from the break. Certain orders will make the spread "hard to run", others will make it easier.

Do you agree with that? If so, is it fair (legal, ethical) to fix the rack order on your opponent when you are racking? Further, if the rules are rack your own, can you try to adjust the order to make everything as easy as possible? Finally, if you are a referee racking for the players, so you ALWAYS rack in the same order (so everyone has the same rack to break) or do you let random chance decide who will get the easy racks and who will get the hard racks.

 

[scottycoyote]

i too read tuckers racking secrets and I will arrange my racks certain ways depending on whom im playing. This year at the us open i think the only racking rules were the 1 on the head spot and the 2 at the back, the rest you could do as you please.
When im playing someone whos decent I will rack it 1, 35, 698, 42, 7. According to joe this makes the balls spread so the shooter will have to go up and down the table as much as possible. If im shooting someone who blasts alot at the 9 ball......ill rack 1, 87, 695, 43, 2. This seems to keep the small balls from ending up in front of the 9 for an easy blast or combo. I dont think its unethical to rack the balls in a certain order as long as its a tight rack.

 

[Cuebacca]

I was told at age 19 by Arthur "Babe" Cranfield when racking balls your hands and fingers should never be ahead of any ball and definitely never on top of any ball. He also stated that dragging the rack forward causes friction which helps the balls to stay together (not sure if this really is the case though).

I try to minimize my rack-dragging. It seems to cause excessive wear on the cloth in the rack area. If Babe was right, I guess that explains why it takes me an average of forever to get a good tight rack. Or then again, maybe I'm just trying too hard to be courteous. LOL.

 

[worriedbeef]

yeah i don't think it's unfair either to arrange them in a certain order. as long as they are touching it's fine. after all. the knowledge and information is out there for everyone to use themselves if they so wish.

as to actually racking the balls (9-ball), i just push them from the back, and push the front two inwards as well cus they can squeeze out.

 

[Pushout]

i too read tuckers racking secrets and I will arrange my racks certain ways depending on whom im playing. This year at the us open i think the only racking rules were the 1 on the head spot and the 2 at the back, the rest you could do as you please.

Why the 2 at the back?? Years ago, we would go 5 or 6 miles to another pool room, where the only stipulation was that in a ring game the 5 was racked at the back. Where I played, we always racked the 5 behind the one, as the five banked on the break from the back.