Why is there no standard pattern for racking 9 ball?

[jjr183]

ring game racking

Whenever you play a ring game where a couple of balls other than the nine is worth some cheese, those balls need to be racked directly behind the one since these are the least likely ones to go in. If you forget and he makes one of those money balls on the break as well, not only do you lose some extra cash, but all the other players (except the breaker of course) get mighty irritated.

I also heard that Nick Varner used to rack with the 2 below one of the corner balls so it would stay down table. Since the one usually goes uptable, this would result in a tricky opening for the breaker if he were to pocket a ball. If no ball was pocketed, he also probably thought that he had the advantage since he is such an excellent safety player.

You could keep doing this in such a way so that the rack would require a lot of up and down positioning, maximizing cue ball movement and the likelihood of making a position error.

I think that maybe they had the two racked at the back during last years US open to encourage runouts as the two most likely would go two rails uptable with the one from that position.

 

[Cuebacca]

fwiw

There was a similar thread about this, whether or not pattern racking is cheating. Some argued that the intention of the rule was not to mean literally random, but rather that there is no required position for any ball but the 1 and 9. I reasonable argument for sure.

However, check Bob J's post (#35), where he clearly states that the intention of the rule was to prevent pattern racking:

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=48579

 

[tigerallenyim]

I think when a "neutral" person is racking for the players, a set pattern would be interesting to see. However, if I am racking for my opponent, then I am taking note of where he/she is breaking from, and am arranging the balls in order to make sure that they will have to criss-cross the table as much as possible to get out!!

yeah you can rack according to the player from which he/she breaks from, but this does not necessarily mean ur chances of winning the rack. Moreover, if u attempt to rack the balls in a certain way in which the runout is difficult, then the racking player may have to face this same fate, should the opponent miss.

I just stopped using this sort of strategy simply beacause i really don't think it works:
Been playing 9-ball APA for about more than a couple years and noticed that no one, whether an APA opponent, my captain, or even hustlers notice that I have racked the same set of 9-ball for well over those years. No one has seemed to take advantage of it either.

My 2 cents.

 

[SixSence]

I don't know why there is no standard order to all nine balls, but I like it being random. It makes the game more surprising, less predictable, and less repetative. The only reason there's order to the 1 and 9 is that you need to hit the one first for a legal shot and the nine needs to be the hardest ball to make on the break. Other than that, I think it should be completely random. Although, nothing being perfect, it allows players to put the balls in their own not-so-random random order. Gotta take the good with the bad.

 

[Pushout]

I think 8-ball is the best pool game!

Straight pool is FAR, FAR, FAR, better.

 

[poolpro]

Exactly what arsenius said. Can you imagine what a Corey Duel would do if he knew exactly where the balls were going on all the breaks? The game would be too boring.

You know what you have a very good point there! This is kinda what happened with straight pool. The players got so good that it became unbearable for most people to watch a player makes a six inch slight cut shot in and move the cue ball less that a foot away about 150 times.

I do love and respect straight pool, I am just saying that it wouldn't be the first time that the players high level of skill could actually hurt the sport.

 

[hemicudas]

Gambling came first

In the beginning there were no 9 ball tournaments, only gambling. Losers of the previous game wanted to rack the balls as fast as possible and get the taste of the loss out of their mouths. Racking the balls randomly was the fastest way to start the next game with a more positive attitude.

Also, the day after 9 ball was invented, spot, was invented. The ball or balls being spotted were not going to be placed on a corner, ie you got the 5 ball. Racked in order the 5 ball would be on one of the corners. The person giving the spot would rack that ball in a safer place and the guy getting the spot would want the same thing when racking for the better player, thus your, racking in order, would have been thrown out the window on the second day of playing the game.