Solution to pattern racking disputes

B

bdorman

Dead money
Silver Member
I suggest the following rule to eliminate disputes about pattern racking:

The breaker racks the balls in any order he/she wants. He leaves the triangle on the rack, and his opponent has the option of exchanging the position of any two balls (except the 1 and MoneyBall, of course). Breaker then tightens up the rack and breaks.

Your opponent can pattern rack the balls any way he wants. You can destroy his pattern by simply exchanging the position of two balls.

Think of it in a 10-ball game: the 1- and 10-balls are in fixed positions. If you tell me (I'm breaking) to exchange the location of just two balls -- I've lost control of position of 40% of the balls.

No additional equipment necessary, no software, blah, blah, blah.

Try it yourself. Rack the balls in your favorite pattern. See if you can destroy the pattern by just exchanging the position of two balls. It's easy.
 
Interesting and I like it in theory, but there's already a mountain of folks building up that are complaining about the time taken for racking. Not sure this would help.
 
Yeah I think a better solution would be your opponent just putting the balls in how they want and then letting the other rack. Why rack, inspect, then re-rack?
 
bdorman said:
I suggest the following rule to eliminate disputes about pattern racking:

The breaker racks the balls in any order he/she wants. He leaves the triangle on the rack, and his opponent has the option of exchanging the position of any two balls (except the 1 and MoneyBall, of course). Breaker then tightens up the rack and breaks.

Your opponent can pattern rack the balls any way he wants. You can destroy his pattern by simply exchanging the position of two balls.

Think of it in a 10-ball game: the 1- and 10-balls are in fixed positions. If you tell me (I'm breaking) to exchange the location of just two balls -- I've lost control of position of 40% of the balls.

No additional equipment necessary, no software, blah, blah, blah.

Try it yourself. Rack the balls in your favorite pattern. See if you can destroy the pattern by just exchanging the position of two balls. It's easy.
Click to expand...

This is a great idea, but most of us know the things that are wrong with pool and how they can be fixed. Either the players don't want things changed or the promoter says it cost too much to change it or having more staff. Meanwhile pool is spinning further and further down the drain. Johnnyt
 
Is it that big of a problem?

bdorman said:
I suggest the following rule to eliminate disputes about pattern racking:

The breaker racks the balls in any order he/she wants. He leaves the triangle on the rack, and his opponent has the option of exchanging the position of any two balls (except the 1 and MoneyBall, of course). Breaker then tightens up the rack and breaks.

Your opponent can pattern rack the balls any way he wants. You can destroy his pattern by simply exchanging the position of two balls.

Think of it in a 10-ball game: the 1- and 10-balls are in fixed positions. If you tell me (I'm breaking) to exchange the location of just two balls -- I've lost control of position of 40% of the balls.

No additional equipment necessary, no software, blah, blah, blah.

Try it yourself. Rack the balls in your favorite pattern. See if you can destroy the pattern by just exchanging the position of two balls. It's easy.
Click to expand...

Is that really worth the time? I don't know, but I think that the only problem with Pool is the lack of MONEY and the lack of national tournaments. Get the Money up and increase the number of events and guys will take their lumps and try again at the next one.
 
how about loser racks and that;s it. no whining and/or making excuses; just play and if you win well good for you, and if you don't well at least you are picking up a skill; racking that is.
 
Really Simple

This was brought up in another thread.

Simple solution is.

In a race to 11 there are only 21 possible games.

There are countless combinations of racks possible.

Have a sheet with 21 possible racking patterns and list them 1 through 21.

Each rack must be racked according to the rack pattern that is set in stone for that particular rack.

Done and simple to implement.

Don
 
Poolshootindon said:
This was brought up in another thread.

Simple solution is.

In a race to 11 there are only 21 possible games.

There are countless combinations of racks possible.

Have a sheet with 21 possible racking patterns and list them 1 through 21.

Each rack must be racked according to the rack pattern that is set in stone for that particular rack.

Done and simple to implement.

Don
Click to expand...

Your answer to pattern racking is more pattern racking?
 
Not at all

Paul Schofield said:
Your answer to pattern racking is more pattern racking?
Click to expand...

There are countless combinations of racks possible. Picking 21 combinations out of the thousands that are possible that are the toughest should be no problem.

All you have to do is before the start of daily matches for a tournament is shake some peas and draw the numbers out one at a time.

In nine ball there are on two balls that must be in the same position at the start of each rack.

Every match that day would have to follow the sheet and rack accordingly to the game number.

While this is a form of pattern racking it is fair to all players because they all have to shoot from the same racking pattern and there will be no two alike.

And with thousands of possible racks available a tournament could be run easily without seeing the same rack pattern twice.

Don
 
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Thank you for thinking about it and taking the time to reply.

King T said:
Is that really worth the time? I don't know, but I think that the only problem with Pool is the lack of MONEY and the lack of national tournaments. Get the Money up and increase the number of events and guys will take their lumps and try again at the next one.
Click to expand...

This idea addresses pattern racking, not money. If you're pattern racking against me, it doesn't make any difference if we're playing for $20 or $20,000.

Paul Schofield said:
You are suggesting that a player be allowed to pattern rack his opponents pattern rack?
Click to expand...

I don't think the placement of two balls is going to MAKE a pattern, but it sure will BREAK one.

Poolshootindon said:
Simple solution is.
Have a sheet with 21 possible racking patterns and list them 1 through 21. Each rack must be racked according to the rack pattern that is set in stone for that particular rack. Done and simple to implement.
Click to expand...

Unless we forget to bring the sheet ("I thought you were bringing it!") or our sheets are different (that would never happen; everyone knows pool only has one rule book, right?). Why introduce ANY additional physical elements?

Nullus said:
Interesting and I like it in theory, but there's already a mountain of folks building up that are complaining about the time taken for racking. Not sure this would help.
Click to expand...

And I'm one of them! The "extra time spent racking" is when the racker is trying to get the rack tight. Drives me nuts! Once you've exchanged the position of two balls, I've got 20 seconds to get a tight rack.
 
Mathematically with the 1 and 9 balls being set there are 5,040 different ways to rack 9 ball.
 
Opps I forgot

bdorman said:
Thank you for thinking about it and taking the time to reply.



This idea addresses pattern racking, not money. If you're pattern racking against me, it doesn't make any difference if we're playing for $20 or $20,000.



I don't think the placement of two balls is going to MAKE a pattern, but it sure will BREAK one.



Unless we forget to bring the sheet ("I thought you were bringing it!") or our sheets are different (that would never happen; everyone knows pool only has one rule book, right?). Why introduce ANY additional physical elements?


And I'm one of them! The "extra time spent racking" is when the racker is trying to get the rack tight. Drives me nuts! Once you've exchanged the position of two balls, I've got 20 seconds to get a tight rack.
Click to expand...

I forgot we are talking about pool players. If that's to difficult for players to figure out then all hope may be lost.

Don :confused:
 
Johnnyt said:
How many with the 2 racked n the back also? Johnnyt
Click to expand...

Fixing the 2-ball in the back reduces the number of possible racks to 720. (BTW, this is the number of possible racks in 10-ball when the 2 and 3-ball must be placed on the outside corners)

If you fix the position of another ball (now you've got 4 fixed balls and 5 variable balls) there are only 120 combinations.
 
I like it, But

bdorman said:
I suggest the following rule to eliminate disputes about pattern racking:

The breaker racks the balls in any order he/she wants. He leaves the triangle on the rack, and his opponent has the option of exchanging the position of any two balls (except the 1 and MoneyBall, of course). Breaker then tightens up the rack and breaks.

Your opponent can pattern rack the balls any way he wants. You can destroy his pattern by simply exchanging the position of two balls.

Think of it in a 10-ball game: the 1- and 10-balls are in fixed positions. If you tell me (I'm breaking) to exchange the location of just two balls -- I've lost control of position of 40% of the balls.

No additional equipment necessary, no software, blah, blah, blah.

Try it yourself. Rack the balls in your favorite pattern. See if you can destroy the pattern by just exchanging the position of two balls. It's easy.
Click to expand...

Bdorman..

I can see it now. Racker is over the balls placing them in the rack thinking "humm if I put the 2 ball here and the 6 ball here maybe the other player will exchange them with the 5 and 8 balls, which is really what I want.

HeHe my devious plan may just work after all. But maybe he/she will only swap the 2 and 5 balls that I have so cleverly placed. Rats. Foiled again".

Don :D
 
My solution would be to just establish a standard, non-negotiable rack order that everyone uses, every time. Just take the monkey business completely off the table (pun intended)
 
Nobody in bowling is saying "hey, the game would be so much better if one of the players could randomly have the pins set up in the shape of Florida instead of the basic triangle"
 
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