Can The 9-Ball Be Made On The Break Consistently?

Tips From Matt - Fly The 9-Ball At The Hole

pool break, pool question, billiards break, 9-ball, consistent break
Demolish that pool break from this direction!. Photo (c) Matt Sherman, licensed to About.com, Inc.
by Matthew Sherman
Matthew Sherman is an experienced pool and billiards instructor and the author of "Picture Yourself Shooting Pool."
Updated March 08, 2017

Making The 9-Ball On The Break, Always?

An interesting pool break question today, about scoring the 9-ball on the break, from a devoted website reader. The fellow writes in to ask:

“...Thank you for all of your help with pool, Matt, I'm a pool fanatic myself and I'm constantly searching for an edge.

I'm writing you today because I want to learn something and hopefully you can assist me with it. The 9-ball on the break consistently?

I have run across a couple of players back home in the Dallas, Texas area that could make the 9-ball on the break a lot, in fact they did it to me with me racking 8 times in a row until I said I quit... what can you do for me?”

The Answer Will Surprise You But My 9-Ball Tip Will Help

First off, mathematically speaking, the other players are cheating!

I’m in my 40th-plus year of pool playing, (I know, I know, I don’t look too old according to my About.com photo; you’d be amazed at what proper lighting can accomplish in the photography studio) and I’ve yet to see anyone breaking in more than 3 or 4 times running, in person or on video site like YouTube, to instantly win multiple games of 9-Ball.

Giving a player very liberal odds of 1 in 4 at chances to sink the 9-Ball on breaks, (we’re closer to 1 in 30 or 1 in 35 for a professional 9-Ball tournament, by the way) it would still be a nearly 400,000 to 1 chance against 8 successes in a row. Move to the 1 in 25 opportunity range or higher and you’ve just witnessed a 1 in 1 Trillion (with a "T") event!

So, What Happened, Since You Saw It Done 8 Times?

Were the racks you were preparing tightly placed as per my instructions at this About.com expert site? I can see how the nine would be disappearing far more often from loosely racked balls.

...Or there may have been a rare grooved track on the cloth of the table and/or pocket conditions that helped the 9-ball sink with ease. Or they could have been cheating, perhaps by manipulations with miniaturized equipment inside controlled-motion gyroscopic spy billiards balls, like Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 used in Get Smart, episode 18, “The Dead Spy Scrawls”...

**
Maxwell Smart: You see, I happen to be an expert at this game. As a matter of fact, I happen to be the pool champion of the entire East Coast. Would you believe it? The entire East Coast.

"Willie" (Mosconi!): I find that hard to believe.

Maxwell Smart: Would you believe the West Coast?

Willie: I don't think so.

Maxwell Smart: How about Stubensville, Ohio?

**
I will give you a fresh tip, though, on getting that 9-ball moving out of the pack when you hit it from a tightly racked, fairly racked 9-Ball game break.

1. Place your cue ball for the break approximately ½ diamond from the head spot along the head string (see the accompanying diagram and use "A" if you're right handed and position "B" if you're a left handed shooter).

2. Let ‘er fly at the pack. This break is designed to fly the balls around at speed, and on certain tables I can break in two to three or even four balls of the rack with a high degree of consistency.

3. Per your request, this break also gets the 9-Ball rolling to one of the four corner pockets (the left half of the table for right-handed shooters and vice versa).

I added some more 9-Ball break tips below also. Thanks for raising the question!

**
Maxwell Smart: Well, I'm your man, Chief. This is my assignment.

Chief of Control: Max, this is extremely dangerous, you'd be on the spot, walking a tightrope. Possibly facing a violent death.

Maxwell Smart: And... loving it!