Who Has Run 5 Racks Or More

seeing all these world champion posters made me want to post. Granted, some of these guys are known players but cmon, there has to be at least 50% fish stories in this thread.
 
uwate said:
Wow, folks on this board runout from everywhere.

:rolleyes:

I'm with the previous poster, many of these 5 and 6 pack posters probably would play the 9ball Ghost and go bust.

One key bit of info that may keep your eyes from rolling is that most all of the responders did not say " I run x-packs all the time", rather they said "once I ran an x-pack". My best is a 2-pack ... if I could do that whenever I wanted, I'd want to do it three times in a row to make a 6-pack :) Unfortunately many times out I won't even run a 1-pack. Too bad I don't gamble eh ?

Dave
 
uwate said:
seeing all these world champion posters made me want to post. Granted, some of these guys are known players but cmon, there has to be at least 50% fish stories in this thread.

Yeah, but you have to remember that we are talking about high runs and not average runs. Maybe I'm gullible but I've come to trust most of the posters on here and I don't doubt it for one second.

Koop - still a long way to go before I run a 5 pack.
 
drivermaker said:
OK, here's a good comparison. SJM, you ran 7 racks in 9-ball and just over 90 in straight pool, so maybe the equivalent would be 8 or 9 racks of 9-ball for a 100 run in straight. What do you think? (all in all, I guess you can't make any direct comparisons)

There's no doubt that 5 pack runs in 9-ball are far more common than 100 ball runs in 14.1, just by the small sampling of players here on this forum. It's not even close.
Just to be argumentative :p I have a couple of points.

1. Most people here have played many more hours of 9-ball than 14.1

2. I suspect many of these 5 rack runs include golden breaks or early combinations.

3. Drivermaker is always wrong!!! :D

I think realy running 35+ balls in rotation is tougher than running 100 in any order, at least for a player who is familiar with leaving a ball to open the pack.

Here are some other ways to look at it:

If running 20 is equivalent to running a rack, then how come top 14.1 players can average way over 20 per visit while top 9-ball pros cannot average 1 rack run per visit. Anyone have some stats?

In a 9-ball match over 2 hours, you really see a 5 pack. Yet in for top 14.1 players a 100 is much more likely. At least based on the stories you hear about many 14.1 players backing themselves to make 100 from a few attempts.

Flaming torch handed to DM! :p
 
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uwate said:
seeing all these world champion posters made me want to post. Granted, some of these guys are known players but cmon, there has to be at least 50% fish stories in this thread.


When you get to know the characters on here over time...I really don't think it's fish stories. I think it's just the nature of 9-ball. When you combine some pretty decent players to begin with...getting hot on the break...combined with a little luck in the spreads...it CAN damn well happen.

And as DaveK said, it's not like it happens all the time. It's happened over our pool playing lifetimes...which for many has been a hell of a long time.
 
Colin Colenso said:
Just to be argumentative :p I have a couple of points.

1. Most people here have played many more hours of 9-ball than 14.1

2. I suspect many of these 5 rack runs include golden breaks or early combinations.

3. Drivermaker is always right :D


I don't think you're argumentative at all...I think you're right on the mark and made some very good points. :p :D
 
uwate said:
seeing all these world champion posters made me want to post. Granted, some of these guys are known players but cmon, there has to be at least 50% fish stories in this thread.

What are you using as a scale for your statement? Players play ten's of thousands of games of 9-ball over the years, unless they can't play a lick, I would expect at one time or another they would put together a 4 or 5 racks. Where do you play, like I said before, I would sit behind my bar in the pool room and the better players would run 3, 4, racks all the time. Even the weaker players would do it now and then. One of the other poster who expressed the same sentiment as you, also said he needs a 100 tries to run out even once. I am not surprised a guy who can't even run out 1 % of the time has no idea how easy it is to run out an open table. You need to get around better players and remember most on here are talking about their best ever.
To be honest I think most of the posters who didn't replay are being modest and not wanting to say how many they have run and the real number on the board who have run 4 or 5 racks at one time is actually higher.
 
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DaveK said:
I too was a bit confused at first, but there is a Sierra Desert (or High Sierra Desert perhaps) in Nevada if google can be trusted. So the answer to your (rhetorical :p ) question is "no" ;)

Dave


Yeah, I think what you're talking about is actually the region of the Mojave Desert near the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
 
My scale is 22 years of playing pool and seeing first hand how many times six packs occur. I am no novice to the game either, its not like I havent put in my time playing pool. Even with a fantastic break working, I personally have only seen top regional players and above execute six packs. I'll put one caveat on that say my statements exclude the bar boxes. On a 4 1/2x 9 footer, I would venture to say that it might be harder to run 6 racks of nineball (unless we are talking about something really ridiculously improbable like 4 or 5 cosmos with 9's on the break and/or dead combinations in this six pack) than it is to run 100 balls in straight pool.

As Bill Stack says on every post: JMO ICBW
 
Originally Posted by Colin Colenso
Just to be argumentative I have a couple of points.

1. Most people here have played many more hours of 9-ball than 14.1

2. I suspect many of these 5 rack runs include golden breaks or early combinations.

3. Drivermaker is always frightened of the truth

drivermaker said:
I don't think you're argumentative at all...I think you're right on the mark and made some very good points. :p :D

Scratching Head!! :confused: Something is fishy here :mad:
*Prepares Claws*
 
uwate said:
My scale is 22 years of playing pool and seeing first hand how many times six packs occur. I am no novice to the game either, its not like I havent put in my time playing pool. Even with a fantastic break working, I personally have only seen top regional players and above execute six packs. I'll put one caveat on that say my statements exclude the bar boxes. On a 4 1/2x 9 footer, I would venture to say that it might be harder to run 6 racks of nineball (unless we are talking about something really ridiculously improbable like 4 or 5 cosmos with 9's on the break and/or dead combinations in this six pack) than it is to run 100 balls in straight pool.

As Bill Stack says on every post: JMO ICBW

If you consider the posters are talking about a life time best, the odds you would be present to witness peoples lifetime bests would be remote. I would say if you began asking the players you know what their life time best is you may find every body you know who plays has run a 4 or a 5 at one time or another. So you personally not seeing it does not mean it didn't happen. Just plain logic tells you that. Go ahead and poll the players in your area and report back.
 
i ran 5 and it was completely and utterly unrpresentative of my supposed skill level. it is an indictment of the game that i could ever accomplish this silly feat.
 
macguy said:
So you personally not seeing it does not mean it didn't happen.
I'm glad someone finally mentioned that. I didn't see Alex win the World Championship last year, so I guess it doesn't count. I don't see the reason in everyone going to the U.S. Open this year, I'm not going, so that won't be counting either. Maybe they should put asterisks next to all of the titles that Earl Strickland has won too, because I wasn't there to see those either? JMHO, FWIW, and the rest of those thingamajigs that make it okay to speak my mind. :D
 
kristi got skills....she rocked me a while back and then i went on tilt and played her friend holly and she busted me up too. got some respect for women shooters since that night. i was young and cocky until that night out in jersey.
 
Also, if you read my post you will see that I said I once ran 5 racks in a row in 8 ball, BUT that over 20 years ago and I haven't came close to that since then.
 
Another factor that people aren't taking into account.

SOME PEOPLE BREAK LIKE @#$T!!!
They don't even try to study the break, or learn the dynamics of it at all, they just get up there, and blast away.
They think that a HUGE BREAK-should equal-many balls made, and a shot on the 1.

Be interesting to see how many of the skeptics in this thread are that way because they have not accomplished those records for themselves, and might be upset by that fact.

WHAT ABOUT THIS!!!
Interesting example.
I was in a weekly tournament last night. Race to 8, alternate breaks.

Well in 1 of my matches, i broke and ran out every time i broke the balls. I won the match 8-2. 5 racks total. Now does THAT count? lol

The other guy broke the balls WAY WAAAAY harder than i did, and his break yielded nothing for the most part.

Another thing, before the match, he went to the bathroom, and i took that time to set up a couple of break tries, and after a few tries discovered that the left side was the side that was making the wing ball, and kept that in mind.

He broke from near the spot, with the full on smash break, and i broke from the left wing...maybe middle speed.

This guy didn't move from that spot in the entire match.
You think HE'S ever gonna run any packages?
 
does this count.

i normally practice by throwing the balls in pretty much you should run out from here areas. i ran 11 racks. :eek:
 
If It were on a 9 foot table and it was 8-ball... Id say I only ran 2 racks in a row....
But in 9 ball.. I was playing one day, broke 4 times called the nine each time and put the 9 ball in the top left corner. The next game I broke again, put 3 balls in and ran out from there If that counts... If so.. I raise my hand.

The best day I've ever had though.. I was a monster... There were 2 other friends I was playing with that day, and we were doing nine ball.. I won every single game that day, and didn't let either one of them take a shot... for the entire time.. I didn't RunOut, but I did break and combo the nine in for every game. Id give that day a good 13 games, until we left.
Other than that... I probably never got close to running 3 racks of 9 in a row... I always seem to choke up a little, or my friends are being pricks and jumping around to get me to miss.
 
I've run 5 racks once that I remember.

I won the lag and ran to 5-0 making all 45 balls. I don't think I garbaged any in except a cross side bank that often goes two rails. The table racked tight. I don't break hard but know all about the break. I missed a long 1 ball in the sixth rack. This was at Orange Ball Billiards in Rockville, MD last year.

My high run in straight pool is 41 but will be over 100 within a couple years now that I'm playing every week.

I also don't doubt most of the posts in this thread. I've helped run the Tiger Planet Pool tour for the last 6 years. We regularly see runs of 5 or more in every event except Cambridge with the Gabriel tables. Some I remember in the last couple years:

Mike Davis 6+ in the final against Shawn Putnam in Sterling.
Mark Ford 5+ in Salisbury first round
Larry Nevel ran a set to 9 after playing safe in the first game - also 6+ later in the same event against Lee Holt
Ryan McCreesh 6 against Keith McCready in Richmond.
Brian O'Donnell ran out the set to 9 from 3-2 down to Max Eberle
Jerry Slivka ran 10 and out (10 games and switch the order) in a 3 man ring game

Andy
 
I watched all 237 games of the COM tapes between the best two players in the world. The most consecutive "break and runs" were 4...There may have been one 5-pack if I lost count somewhere, but I doubt it....and this was a match between the best two players in the world.

I personally would consider a 5-pack equal to a hole in one in golf....anything more than a 5-pack a double eagle on a real par 5....All three are pure luck......It's skill to get close, but pure luck that it actually goes in...same for a 5-pack....

Same for running 100 ball in straight pool...Its skill to get close...but it is going to take some luck somewhere to pull it off...

That being said.... my max is 4 consecutive racks from the break during practice.

I do remember (one) fine day in (one) match in a weekly event where I won the toss and broke and ran 3 racks, came up with no shot on the break, played safe and then ran out that rack plus the next for a 5-0 win...and a complaint that I sould be raised...LOL...(I lost my next match)

I would gladly NEVER run any more that 3 racks if I knew I could play like that one match for the rest of my life.
 
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