Racking your own balls

[mnhighrunlist]

I noticed in a recent John Schmidt / Darren Appleton 14.1 match that they racked their own balls. This just got me wondering what are the advantages / disadvantages of this and could it work in a league environment? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

-Dennis

 

[Bob Jewett]

I noticed in a recent John Schmidt / Darren Appleton 14.1 match that they racked their own balls. This just got me wondering what are the advantages / disadvantages of this and could it work in a league environment? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

-Dennis

When I rack for my opponent and he breaks with power and the balls react as if they were glued together (in spite of my best efforts to rack tightly), I feel bad. "Rack your own" eliminates that problem. It is standard in many nine ball and ten ball tournaments for players to rack their own. Usually the non-breaker is allowed to check the rack.

 

[Lexicologist71]

It eliminates the "You gave me a bad rack, Jerk". Tough to argue effectively with yourself. (generally)

 

[DogsPlayingPool]

I agree for the reasons stated - it avoids accidentally giving your opponent a bad rack.

In Straight Pool there are no real problems with rack your own. Obviously pattern racking is a non-issue. So is rigging a ball to wire it since it doesn't do any good unless the break ball is made - in which case the shooter gets to continue anyway.

I suppose the situation could come up where a player gives himself a rigged rack because he intends to use it to play a safety after the break shot, but frankly even in these situations it is almost always more predictable and reliable to play a safety off a good tight rack, so I doubt this is an issue either.

 

[mnhighrunlist]

Thanks for your input. Our 14.1 league has decided to go with the "rack your own" starting this weeks league play.

-Dennis