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.  

2013 Mosconi Cup Teams

The 20th Mosconi Cup Tournament kicks off December 2, 2013, in Las Vegas, Nevada.  This year will be an epic showdown.  Some of the top names in Men's professional billiards will be doing battle.  Team Europe has won five of the last six Mosconi Cup titles and the last three in a row, so the USA will be looking to bring the title back home.

Team USA

Johnny Archer (Captain)
Buddy Hall (Vice-Captain)
Shane Van Boening
Dennis Hatch
Rodney Morris
Earl Strickland


Team Europe

Johan Ruysink (Non-playing captain)
Darren Appleton
Karl Boyes
Niels Feijen
Mika Immonen
Ralph Souquet

The Mosconi Cup game is 9-Ball with various singles and doubles matches.  Assuming they follow the same rules as 2012, the rules and format can be seen here.

The tournament will be streamed live over the internet and tickets for the event can be purchased through Ticketmaster.  For more information, visit http://www.matchroompool.com/mosconi-cup

My thoughts on this year's tournament.  I believe this is the year team USA will bring the title back to the United States.  Team Europe has a really strong team, but when it comes to 9-ball, there isn't many better than Johnny Archer, Shane Van Boening, and Earl Strickland.  Not to mention the co-captain is the legendary Buddy Hall.  There's no doubt team USA is strong with Earl Strickland having recently won at Turning Stone, Johnny Archer's record-breaking 17th appearance in the Mosconi Cup Tournament and professional veteran, Rodney Morris who won the 2013 US Open 10-Ball Tournament back in July, Dennis Hatch who was on the last USA winning team in 2009 (MVP that year), and Shane Van Boening who seems to win just about everything he enters and arguably one of the best players in the world right now.

So I look for Team USA to win the Mosconi Cup in 2013.

Appreciating good equipment

I recently attended an event where a game night was organized.  The event organizers, unskilled in knowing quality equipment (or maybe they didn't realized what they were getting), had a pool table brought in and set up for the night.  I, of course, was all excited that I would get to play pool and show off my skills.  I was very disappointed when I got down to the room where the event was to be held.  Upon entering the room and seeing the pool table I got really excited because it wasn't a bar box, which I was expecting.  But looks can be deceiving.

Knowing that I played pool pretty well, I was immediately handed a "pool cue".  I have pool cue in quotes because it resembled a pool cue...that is about where the distinction ends.  I don't believe I have ever seen a cue stick with a brand new, FLAT cue tip.  Luckily, I keep a Cuetech cue in my vehicle for billiard emergencies such as this and was able to use it instead.

The table was some brand I had never heard of and although from a distance it looked like a nice table, sometimes a freshly washed car looks new until you get up close.  The first thing about the table I noticed was that the cloth looked funny.  I inspected it and sure enough, it was crap.  The next thing I noticed was that no matter where you hit a ball, it would end up on one side of the table (we fixed that with a couple stacks of napkins).  Something else wasn't right and after tapping a ball down on the playing surface, yeah, it had a wood bed instead of slate.  The last thing that made this table terrible was the rails.  It was about like hitting balls against cardboard wedges.

Upon arriving back at my house, one of the first things I did after unpacking was to hit a few balls on my table and the world was right again.

So if you have a nice, well constructed, and properly set up table at home or where you play pool, know that there are some really terrible tables out there and be grateful that you have nice equipment to play on.  It makes a huge difference playing on nice, well maintained equipment.

The Baltimore Bullet Movie Review

The Baltimore Bullet starring James Coburn, Omar Sharif, and Bruce Boxleitner with cameos by pro players Lou Butera, Irving Crane, Willie Mosconi, Allen Hopkins, James Rempe, Steve Mizerak, Mike Sigel and Jimmy Mataya.  Released in the 80's (1980), this movie definitely fits the era.  It screams of cheesy one-liners, campy humor, and a terrible soundtrack.

The Plot...6/10:

The Baltimore Bullet is about two pool hustlers, Nick Casey "The Baltimore Bullet" (James Coburn) and Billy Joe Robbins (Bruce Boxleitner) hustling on the road and trying to set up a big game.  There are a few poorly choreographed fights, women, and complete nonsense along the way (all key ingredients for an 80's movie).  For me, about mid-way through the movie, I almost turned it off.  The middle portion of the movie strays pretty far from pool playing as Nick and Billy Joe are on the road to hustle up some cash so they can play "The Deacon" (Omar Sharif).  Watching movies like this really makes me appreciate more modern films.

The Pool Scenes...5/10:

The early scenes are just Nick and Billy Joe hustling and there are not any considerably long scenes.  Later in the movie, Nick and Billy Joe enter a pool tournament playing straight pool, although they spend more time showing what is happening off the table than on.

The Actors 7/10:

Overlooking the fact that this is a cheesy 1980 movie, the actors aren't too bad.  I had heard the name James Coburn before, but wasn't familiar with any of his movies.  The other actors I had never heard of.  The acting wasn't too terrible and the script was probably in line with the 80's.

My Movie Rating...6/10:

I certainly wouldn't call this a "must watch" pool movie.  In fact, I wouldn't recommend it at all, unless you were in the mood for a cheesy ridiculous 80's movie that happens to have a pool theme.  However, if you care to spend nearly 2 hours watching this movie, it can be seen in full on YouTube at this link.

Pool on YouTube: An invaluable training tool

Sometime in the last couple of years or so, YouTube started allowing users to upload videos longer than 15 minutes.  This has created a treasure trove of billiard videos you can use as a training tool.

Not everyone is fortunate enough to attend professional tournaments and watch the pros in action or live in an area where the pros hang out.  So the next best thing (that's free) is to watch billiard videos on YouTube.  Just for fun, I searched for "Billiards" on YouTube.  The search says there are about 350,000 videos related to that search term!  I narrowed it down some by applying filters of "Upload in the last year", "HD quality", and "Long 20 ~ minutes".  That returns a little over 2,000 videos.

So how can you use billiard videos on YouTube as a training tool?  I'll give you my list of what I watch for, then break each down a little.

1.  Pattern play
2.  When to play safe
3.  How the pros escape trouble
4.  Commentary
5.  How the pros approach/think a shot

1.  Pattern play.  This, for me, is one of the most important things I like to watch.  After the break, look at the layout of the table.  Where are the trouble balls?  Are some balls tied up?  How will the pros break those up?  Try to play the rack out in your mind.  Watch how the pros play the rack out.  Did they play out the rack how you thought it out?  Also watch how they set themselves up for the next shot.  Invaluable stuff.

2.  When to play safe.  A lot of times when I'm watching the pros play, it's interesting to see when they play safe and when they go for a shot.  Watch what factors play into when they play safe.  Is the next ball tied up?  Is it early in the match or a hill-hill, do or die situation?  Also, watch how they play safe.

3.  How the pros escape trouble.  This is also interesting to watch.  Most of the top pros have such precise cue ball control they can really lock their opponent up.  Does the pro jump over the ball, kick at the next ball, or play an intentional foul, further tying up balls?  If they kick to escape trouble, is it a 1 rail kick? 2 rail kick, or more?  Try to figure out why they played that particular shot.

4.  Commentary.  All of the tournament matches will have commentators calling the match.  Most of the commentators are former or current pros, or have been around pool a long time in some fashion.  For the most part, the commentators will give you a good idea of what the shooter is thinking and how he or she will play the shot.  Not only will you get insight into the match, but maybe some good stories too!

5.  How the pros approach/think a shot.  Every player approaches the shot a little differently.  Some walk around the table really studying the layout, some use their cue to point where the cue or object ball will go or where they are attempting to have the cue ball stop.  And some players like Earl Strickland just bang the balls in.

Watching the pros play, how they play the rack, when they play safe, and listening to the commentary is an important training tool.  Check out some of these videos on YouTube, take notes, practice some of the layouts to see how you do, and improve your game!

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/