The Box Game

Hello everyone!  Occasionally, I like to make up pool games for fun and as a practice aid.  One of these games I call, The Box Game.  It's pretty easy and will help you with position play.

Arguably, the best position (in most cases) to be on the table is in the middle of the table.  Obviously, is some instances, the middle of the table isn't going to work out for some shots, but most of the time, the middle of the table is a good place to be.  So this game will help you with position play to the middle of the table.

As with most of my games I create, it can be played either alone or with multiple players.

For solo practice.  Rack all the balls like you would for 8-ball, order of the balls doesn't matter.

Break the balls like you would for 8-ball.  Spot any balls pocketed.  If you leave the cue ball in the middle of the table in the blue box as indicated on Figure 1 (see below), give yourself 2 points.  If the cue ball ends up outside the blue box, but still contained within the red box (see Figure 2 below), then give yourself 1 point.  The goal here is to break the balls with a good spread, leaving the cue ball in the middle of the table to have a good shot on the remaining balls.

For each ball pocketed after the break, if the cue ball ends up in the red box after coming to rest, give yourself 1 point.  If the ball is pocketed and comes to rest in the blue box, give yourself 2 points.

The maximum score is 32 (15 balls x 2pts = 30 + 2 bonus pts for leaving cue ball in blue box after break = 32pts)


For multiple players.  Rack all the balls like you would for 8-ball, order of the balls doesn't matter.

Player 1 breaks the balls as in 8-ball.  Spot any balls pocketed.  If Player 1 pockets a ball, their turn continues after any pocketed balls are spotted.  If Player 1 leaves the cue ball in the middle of the table in the blue box as indicated on Figure 1 (see below) after the break, give them 2 points.  If the cue ball ends up outside the blue box, but still contained within the red box (see Figure 2 below) after the break, then give them 1 point.

For each ball pocketed after the break, if the cue ball ends up in the red box after coming to rest, give the shooter 1 point.  If the ball is pocketed and comes to rest in the blue box, give the shooter 2 points.

Player 1 continues shooting until a miss occurs.  After a miss, the next player shoots until they miss or all the balls have been pocketed.

The player with the highest score wins that round.  An alternative could be to play similar to 14.1, such as, play to 100, 150, or any number.

The maximum score is 32 (15 balls x 2pts = 30 + 2 bonus pts for leaving cue ball in blue box after break = 32pts)

Figure 1. The Inner Box.  Box is formed by drawing a line from the diamonds closest to the pockets on both the ends and sides of the table.

Figure 2.  The Outer Box.  Box is formed by drawing a line from the diamonds closest to the pockets on the end rails and the middle diamonds on the side rails.

*Note:  If half or more of the ball appears to be across the line, it is considered inside the box.

The Action Report #37. Rematch of Corey Deuel and Shane Van Boening

For those of you that don't know, online streaming of pool tournaments and matches are blowing up right now (and really over the past few years).  There are several options now for viewing tournaments and specialty matches online.  The Action Report has been putting together challenge matches between some of the top professionals in billiards.  TAR #1 was a matchup of a relatively unknown Shane Van Boening and Corey Deuel.  The match was race to 100, 10-ball, $10,000 per man.

TAR #37 is a rematch of Shane Van Boening and Corey Deuel.  It is an all-around format with the games being Friday, November 1, One Pocket, race to 8, Saturday, November 2, 8-ball, race to 30, and Sunday, November 3, 9-ball, race to 30.

One Pocket:  Friday, November 1, TAR #37 started with a One Pocket race to 8 games match.  From what the commentators said before the 8-ball match started, nether player really shot spectacular in the One Pocket challenge.  With Corey a heavy favorite to win the One Pocket round, it ended up going hill-hill and Corey won 8-7.  I did not watch this event to see how worthy the match was, but in my opinion, when two top players go hill-hill in a match, that's a battle.

8-ball:  Saturday, November 2, Corey and Shane squared off on the second challenge match, 8-ball race to 30.  The commentators predicted Shane to be the heavy favorite in this challenge and I agreed with them.  Shane crushed the balls on the break every rack while Corey opted to soft-break trying to make the head ball in the side pocket, which he did several times.  Corey even broke left-handed a few times (apparently he's been having some arm/elbow issues in his right arm).

After a delay waiting on Corey to finish his Bonus Ball match, they got right to it.  Shane won the lag and broke the balls wide open, but came up dry.  Corey ran out the first game to take the early lead.  Neither player really ran away from the other, except a few strings of break and runs by Shane.  I believe he put together a 3-pack on at least one occasion and a 4-pack once or twice.  Shane was really flustered by Corey's soft-break.  Multiple times Corey left a cluster of balls for Shane to deal with which looked more like a One Pocket table after the break, compared to Shane's thunderous break style.

It was also interesting to see how the players racked the balls.  Toward the end of the challenge, the commentators noted that after the break by Corey especially, there would be a cluster of solids together and the stripes would be together.  In this challenge, the players racked their own using a triangle rack and the only stipulation was that the 8 had to be in the center of the rack, with a stripe and solid on the bottom corners.  The commentators suspected Corey knew exactly what he was doing by racking the balls in a manner that would leave him the solids after making the 1-ball in the side pocket.

I expected Shane to really run away with this one, but due to several dry breaks where Corey would then run out, some easy misses, and the soft-break bothering him, Shane never really took control.  As expected, though, Shane did come out on top by a score of 30-24.

9-ball:  Sunday, November 3.  The final night of this challenge was 9-ball race to 30.  It looked like Shane was going to run away with it.  At one point during the match, Shane was up 22-7 and also put together a 5-pack and a 6-pack early in the match.  Corey started catching back up after the intermission getting the score to 23-18 before Shane took advantage of some misses and safety battles.

Corey had a more consistent soft-break, making the corner ball in the corner pocket, but kept getting the 3-ball froze to the 9-ball.  Shane broke fairly soft, but didn't always leave himself a good shot on the 1-ball.

The commentators and myself were amazed at the consistency that both players were making a ball on the break and leaving themselves (especially Corey, who is good at racking and breaking with the soft-break style) the same pattern almost every time.

Shane wins by a score of 30-18.

Final thoughts:

Overall, I don't think either player on any of the three nights were at the top of their game.  Corey should have and did win the One Pocket night.  Shane should have and did win the 8-ball night and it was a complete toss up, maybe with Shane a slight edge, on who would win the 9-ball match.  Both players are capable of running multiple racks of 9-ball, but it was Shane who did that the most.  Corey only put together a 3-pack.  Corey's soft-break wasn't really working for him tonight.

It was a good matchup.  Shane will face Darren Appleton in TAR #38. (*Edit:  TAR38 will feature Dennis Orcollo vs. Darren Appleton)

I will be live tweeting the match between Corey Deuel and Shane Van Boening tonight and tomorrow night.  The Action Report has set up a rematch of these 2 players from TAR #1.  This is race to 8 One Pocket (Corey won 8-7 last night, Nov. 1).  8-ball race to 30 (Nov. 2) and 9-ball race to 30 (Nov. 3).

www.theactionreport.com for live stream

Live tweets:  twitter.com/onthe9billiards

Magic Rack Review

I bought a set of the latest innovation in a long line of products to rack pool balls, the Magic Rack.  Many companies over the years have tried to produce products that will change the way pool balls are racked.

One of these products that comes to mind is the Sardo Tight Rack.  This machine allows you to place the balls under it and upon pressing down on the handles, it aligns the balls tightly.  Releasing the pressing down force, the balls stay racked allowing you to slide the machine away from the rack, supposedly producing a tight rack of pool balls consistently.  I have never used this device, but would see it used at professional tournaments.  The downside to this device is that it is quite bulky...not to mention expensive.

And along comes the ultra lightweight Magic Rack...

The set I bought are made by Cue Sports International and came with both a 9/10 ball rack and a 8 ball rack.  This product is made of very thin plastic with precision-cut diamond shapes where the balls are to be placed.  These cutouts allow a perfect rack of balls with minimal effort.  The thin plastic will not affect the path of the balls, unless the ball is rolling very slowly and catches an edge just right.  Even a fairly slowly rolling ball will not change course in most cases.  A medium to fast rolling ball will not be affected at all, no matter where it comes in contact with the magic rack.

I have been using my Magic Rack on my newly recovered table.  So far I like the consistency of the racks and the ease of placing the balls.  Sometimes the balls don't all touch, but usually a tap with my fingers on either side of the balls not touching will make them fall into place for a very tight rack.

When playing 9-ball, breaking the balls from the side with a medium-firm hit will consistently pocket a ball.  I usually get a wing ball to fall, with the 9-ball sitting within the Magic Rack.  One complaint I have heard is this fact.  Because the balls are racked virtually perfect every time, it's an unfair advantage, especially in 9-ball since a ball will fall pretty consistently.  This, of course, allowing the pros to run out racks.  A simple solution to this is to rack the 9-ball rack with the 1-ball off the spot or the 9-ball on the spot.

Another great feature of this Magic Rack is because the plastic surrounds the point of contact with the cloth, table wear is next to nothing.

Here is a picture before I recovered my table and before I started using the Magic Rack.

As you can see, without using the Magic Rack, having the balls placed directly on the playing surface will result in spots being worn on the cloth.  Had I kept playing, racking the balls directly on the cloth, I would have at some point actually worn holes through the cloth.

This is a picture I took after recovering my table and exclusively using the Magic Rack for games of 9-ball and 10-ball.  I have probably played somewhere between 100-125 games of 9 & 10-ball up to this point.

There are some burn marks on the cloth, probably where I either jumped a ball or dropped a ball on the table.  Other than that, there is no visible wear from breaking the balls like you would normally see about this time on a newly recovered table.  Note:  Keeping your cloth and balls clean will help reduce table wear.

Pros:  

• Inexpensive
• Lightweight
• Easy, consistent tight racks
• No table wear (yet)
• Portable

Cons:

• Slowly rolling balls will sometimes be affected when rolling over the Magic Rack
• The Magic Rack cannot be removed after racking the balls, so occasionally after the break, a ball will fall on or within the Magic Rack.

Final thoughts

Overall, I like using the Magic Rack since it does give me tightly racked balls consistently and easily.  I also like the fact that so far there is no table wear.  I hope this continues to be the case.  I will also look forward to seeing how this thin piece of plastic holds up over time.  

The Decider Results. Shane Van Boening vs. Earl Strickland

Well, it's all over except Earl's rants.  Shane Van Boening swept Earl Strickland in all 3 days of pool in Helena, Montana.

Day 1 was a race to 30 in 9-ball.  Shane Van Boening won by a score of 30-20.

Day 2 was a race to 30 in 8-ball.  Shane strung together 8 racks to finish off Earl 30-22.

Day 3 was a race to 30 in 10-ball.  Shane beat Earl by a score of 30-27.

Here are some stats compiled by Pool-Trax.net

Day 1 - 9-ball

Day 2 - 8-ball

Day 3 - 10-ball

I personally did not watch this event, seriously considered purchasing the PPV live stream, but decided against it.  I would have liked to have watched Shane Van Boening run those last 8 racks on Day 2!!  Maybe it will be up on YouTube sometime.

I really like these one-on-one matchups against top professional players.  I hope many more of these types of events can be held.  Earl Strickland thinks the pros should play on 10 foot tables.  Apparently 8-ball is easier for the pros.

What do you think?

The Decider. Shane Van Boening vs. Earl Strickland

Two of the top professional pool players in the world, Shane Van Boening and Earl Strickland, are facing off this weekend in Helena, Montana in a 3-day match-up of 9-ball, 8-ball, and 10-ball.  The competition is taking place on a 7 foot Diamond bar box table and is being live streamed by POVpool.com.

Yesterday, Shane and Earl played a race to 30 in 9-ball.  Shane Van Boening won the match by a score of 30-20.  Today, the action took place at 1 p.m. Pacific/4 p.m. Eastern and once again, Shane Van Boening came out on top by a score of 30-22.  Shane found his break towards the end of the match and strung together 8 racks to finish off Earl.

Tomorrow, (August 4, 2013) the action starts again at 1 p.m. Pacific/4 p.m. Eastern with another race to 30, this time in 10-ball.

If you would like to tune in and watch live, go to http://povpool.com/decider-tickets/

Welcome!

Hi! Welcome to the Onthe9 Billiards blog!

I will give you tips on how to improve your pool game, pro and amateur tournament updates, billiard news, some product reviews occasionally, and lots of other billiard related stuff!

Today starts the US Open 10 Ball Championship at the Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.  10 ball is quickly becoming more popular with the professional players as it presents a more challenging game than 9 ball.  Sure, 10 ball is just one more ball and is similar to 9 ball in that the balls must be pocketed in rotation, but there are a few key differences that make it more challenging.

With the balls racked similar to 8 ball with the 10 ball in the middle of the rack, it makes it more difficult to pocket the 10 ball on the break.  If, however, the 10 ball is made on the break, it is spotted and the player continues his turn at the table.  Also, all balls must be called before pocketing them.

See the BCA rules for 10 ball here:  http://home.bca-pool.com/associations/7744/files/10ball.pdf

Be sure to visit all the Onthe9 Billiards sites for more great billiard happenings!

Google Calendar

Facebook

Twitter

Google+

YouTube