Yeah, that was a bummer. Why would they let 2 rules slide for the final matches? If someone broke out a jump cue everyone would be up in arms!
I absolutely hate the soft break in 9 ball. Almost tuned out! That's one of the many reasons why I wanted Rodney to win. He was absolutely pounding the rack and he called the rule on Shaw.
Atty, that's interesting. It almost seems as though there is an unwritten rule among pros not to complain about rules violations (pattern racking and soft breaks), like you're a whiner if you do. There just seems to be no integrity about breaching the rules like in golf for instance. But the fact is, even though pool is match play, you still have an obligation to protect the filed from cheating. If a guy pattern racks against you then he probably will do it against anyone else he plays as well unless he's called out and put on notice. Problem is that even if my opponent is doing it, I'm not going to do it back because it's against the rules. So it puts the honest player at a disadvantage.
And BTW, the MR rack is more conducive to pattern racking than the triangle.
I wish Rodney had gotten into the final. It would have been interesting to see if he would have put up with what Dennis was doing.
Last year a guy tried to do it to me at the Swanee. I told him to knock it off and I didn't feel bad about it.

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