Cue Tips: Rack ’em up
Just when I thought it safe to go outside, I tried to make a rack of 8-ball, not worrying beyond placing the 8-ball in the middle of the third row and a corner ball different from other corner balls.
I find now that Corey Duel figured how to “pattern rack” an 8-ball rack. When you pattern rack 8-ball, one group becomes scattered more than the other group. The balls that don’t scatter, conveniently clump together. Therefore, Corey can start with his balls runnable, and his opponent’s — not so much, if at all. He already knows which balls he will have because he racked and decides which side of the table to break from. He controls where the cue ball hits the rack and the power of the hit to nearly guarantee a ball will go down, and the position where his cue ball will stop, with another shot.
That sounds like an advantage, which it is, and if you are a professional like Corey, you could run a rack start to finish several times in a row. Pattern racking isn’t allowed in tournament matches.
In 9-ball years ago, Jason Shaw famously snapped a picture by phone, of a 9-ball rack that Shane VanBoening had racked. It went viral on the internet showing certain gaps in the racked balls that resulted in a near guarantee that certain balls would pocket.
Jason leading, conceded the match saying, “There is no way he won’t run ten racks in a row with a rack like that.” Shane later countered with, “If a person learns how to rack for an advantage why shouldn’t they?” The photo, and views, rocked the Professional 9-ball world. Players called for refs only to rack and only using a template rack to save professional 9-ball. People have studied 9-ball racks to the point of being able to gain a significant edge, especially when not using a template rack.
Years ago when Shane started studying 8 and 9-ball racks, I read somewhere how he would break and re-rack for hours daily, for weeks. I had watched a match of him playing an 8-ball tournament where he was in a race to 11 maybe, but he trailed 8 to 2 when the other guy missed his shot. Shane stood and ran out the rack for that game win, with the winner also racking their own balls. Shane broke and ran the next eight racks in a row to win the match. I thought it was almost unbelievable, feeling the odds against such a thing happening would be close to astronomical.
Well, now I realize I was being naive, I am now sure that he likely changed his odds some by racking with gaps on certain balls. It was still phenomenal to watch, but I now realize that more than just a few of our modern-day players have learned to increase their odds of winning before the breaking of the rack, or even the pocketing of any ball. People are impressive in their inventiveness and innovation of our shared human spirit when competing with another human being.
My personal experience came from a man that happened to be driving through Fort Bragg six or seven years ago, while at the Tip Top Lounge. He explained, and then proved, he could keep me from getting a good break especially if he knew where I would break from. He suggested I develop more positions to break from successfully, or I would be taken advantage of by any half-good large city players for any do-re-me. He was exceptionally good at pool playing, he carried both heavy and light weighted cue sticks. Heavy for the break and for the long straight shots, and light for everything else that didn’t require massive spin. It was late and he was just stopping for a drink in the 45 minutes that we played.
I haven’t played anyone that good at pocket pool before, or since, oh, of course, I added positions for my break shots, I’m just sayin’, you would’ve too.
CUE TIP: WHEN YOU ARE PLAYING WITH SOMEONE
YOU DON’T KNOW FOR PRIDE AND MAYBE MORE » Switch your break position up. Don’t break from the same position every time. If you signal you break from the same position every time, the rack may get a gap that works against you. It is sad, but alas true. It is better to switch sides regularly. Line up and get ready on the left side for example. When they finish racking and step back, casually switch sides. Contact me at mcbohanon@ gmail.com.