Last night I pulled out the True Rack and while I don't know if your pool room is like my pool room, skeptics were everywhere.
Instead of starting at the bottom of the food chain, I went straight to the two high rollers gambling on table #5 and asked them since they were playing 9 ball if they would like to try out a new rack. I purposefully told them that I had never used the rack before. The big dog grabbed the True Rack out of my hands and looked at it rather curiously. The red one is a bright candy apple red and shines even in a dimly lit pool room.
Player A, without any instruction from me, immediately racked the balls and we all checked for "tightness" in the rack, including the breaker. It appeared that every ball was touching the ball next to itself. The breaker gives it his best effort, makes two balls on the break and runs out. The big dog, Player A hands the rack to me and says, "He makes too many balls on the break with that rack".
Over the night, I tried the True Rack many times, racking on a new 9 foot table which has minor problems with the balls racking properly. Occasionally, I would find a ball or two within the rack that had a slight separation and it was almost always due to an indentation in the cloth, where a slight dimple was located. The True Rack didn't resolve the issue of balls rolling off because of indentations in the table/cloth by itself. If you then moved the one ball slightly getting it out of the dimple area, the balls racked quite well.
A few others tried it out and were inspecting the rack and remarked that the rack "Sure, racks 'em tight".
A couple of other points. The True Rack is easy to use if you know how to rack. If you're a novice to the game, perhaps you should utilize one of those enclosed racks like the Delta 13. The True Rack is a HEAVY RACK, made of machined aluminum. In fact, in close quarters, in a fight, I would take the True Rack over a pool stick any day. I don't know if I want to assign that much weight and bulk (although it folds down to a very slim size of 1" x 12 15/16". It is very precisely made and with a little effort you can get a perfect rack on a regular table with regular balls.
My next test will have to be on a bar table with well, you know, the mishapened balls and the old worn out cloth.
Just thinking down the road, I might want to have my name engraved on this rack. Being it was the first time I used the rack and wasn't used to carrying it around with me, I left it one the drink table next to the pool table when I finished my round. Because I play at Buffalo Billiards in Metairie, LA and everyone there is a gentleman or a lady, it was promptly returned to me. :wink:
I believe that people who want a good tight rack and don't want to leave impeding rack material on the table when breaking, might find this as an acceptable substitute.
Also, another benefit to this rack over others, like the wood rack from Diamond Billiards (which isn't half bad) is that you can "open" the rack since it has only two sides. The smooth aluminum finish and the fact that you can "open" the rack, allows you to easily remove the rack from the balls. With a wood rack and many other racks, you have to be constantly worrying about disturbing the balls when you remove the rack; not so with the True Rack.
Anyway, where I really want to use this rack is at the Best Weekend Bar Table in America, which is of course at White Diamonds in Lafayette, LA. They have a tournament every three or four months and the Calcutta OFTEN goes well over $30-$40 THOUSAND DOLLARS. Players from all over the U.S. come to this tournament for a piece of the large pie.
What separates many players is the fact that SOME PLAYERS simply rack better than other players. If you can't rack the balls tightly with a cheap rack, you could do a lot worse than owning one of these. I'm going to get my cell phone number or name engraved on this one.
NOTE: Rating above may change when True Rack is tested on Bar Table with older balls. Also, this is on a scale of 1-10. The only reason it did not go higher is because I didn't have a chance to test it on the bar table and that it was so heavy. (Granted, the weight of the True Rack helps in keeping the balls from sliding the rack around unnecessarily.)
JoeyA
Instead of starting at the bottom of the food chain, I went straight to the two high rollers gambling on table #5 and asked them since they were playing 9 ball if they would like to try out a new rack. I purposefully told them that I had never used the rack before. The big dog grabbed the True Rack out of my hands and looked at it rather curiously. The red one is a bright candy apple red and shines even in a dimly lit pool room.
Player A, without any instruction from me, immediately racked the balls and we all checked for "tightness" in the rack, including the breaker. It appeared that every ball was touching the ball next to itself. The breaker gives it his best effort, makes two balls on the break and runs out. The big dog, Player A hands the rack to me and says, "He makes too many balls on the break with that rack".
Over the night, I tried the True Rack many times, racking on a new 9 foot table which has minor problems with the balls racking properly. Occasionally, I would find a ball or two within the rack that had a slight separation and it was almost always due to an indentation in the cloth, where a slight dimple was located. The True Rack didn't resolve the issue of balls rolling off because of indentations in the table/cloth by itself. If you then moved the one ball slightly getting it out of the dimple area, the balls racked quite well.
A few others tried it out and were inspecting the rack and remarked that the rack "Sure, racks 'em tight".
A couple of other points. The True Rack is easy to use if you know how to rack. If you're a novice to the game, perhaps you should utilize one of those enclosed racks like the Delta 13. The True Rack is a HEAVY RACK, made of machined aluminum. In fact, in close quarters, in a fight, I would take the True Rack over a pool stick any day. I don't know if I want to assign that much weight and bulk (although it folds down to a very slim size of 1" x 12 15/16". It is very precisely made and with a little effort you can get a perfect rack on a regular table with regular balls.
My next test will have to be on a bar table with well, you know, the mishapened balls and the old worn out cloth.
Just thinking down the road, I might want to have my name engraved on this rack. Being it was the first time I used the rack and wasn't used to carrying it around with me, I left it one the drink table next to the pool table when I finished my round. Because I play at Buffalo Billiards in Metairie, LA and everyone there is a gentleman or a lady, it was promptly returned to me. :wink:
I believe that people who want a good tight rack and don't want to leave impeding rack material on the table when breaking, might find this as an acceptable substitute.
Also, another benefit to this rack over others, like the wood rack from Diamond Billiards (which isn't half bad) is that you can "open" the rack since it has only two sides. The smooth aluminum finish and the fact that you can "open" the rack, allows you to easily remove the rack from the balls. With a wood rack and many other racks, you have to be constantly worrying about disturbing the balls when you remove the rack; not so with the True Rack.
Anyway, where I really want to use this rack is at the Best Weekend Bar Table in America, which is of course at White Diamonds in Lafayette, LA. They have a tournament every three or four months and the Calcutta OFTEN goes well over $30-$40 THOUSAND DOLLARS. Players from all over the U.S. come to this tournament for a piece of the large pie.
What separates many players is the fact that SOME PLAYERS simply rack better than other players. If you can't rack the balls tightly with a cheap rack, you could do a lot worse than owning one of these. I'm going to get my cell phone number or name engraved on this one.
NOTE: Rating above may change when True Rack is tested on Bar Table with older balls. Also, this is on a scale of 1-10. The only reason it did not go higher is because I didn't have a chance to test it on the bar table and that it was so heavy. (Granted, the weight of the True Rack helps in keeping the balls from sliding the rack around unnecessarily.)
JoeyA
Design
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