I remember a recent thread about clearing a pool table from the break-off shot. Naturally, I cannot now find it, but I think I’ve found the source: it may be from this TENA advert, which is amusing in its own right. The shot is, of course, completely fake.
It’s probably possible to calculate how much force you’d need to move all 15 balls to the nearest pockets and whether or not it is possible for a human to impart such force without breaking his cue stick or launching the cue ball off the table.
Back in the 1980’s, a radio station in San Diego had a DJ at a grand re-opening event for a store that sold billiards tables and bar room supplies. The store also had Hooters girls there for some reason.
The DJ was inviting listeners to come to the store and look around and take a challenge: Anyone who could sink 3 balls of a full rack on the break shot would win a 3-day cruise to Acapulco. Tickets for the winner and guest(s)* plus all expenses would be covered by the store.
I had nothing to do that Saturday. I went and hung around the store mainly to listen to the music and oggle the girls. Different people would come in, look around, try the challenge, maybe buy accessories. [Perhaps they sold a couple pool tables or bar stools or such that day, as well; I don’t recall.] I even tried the challenge a few times, since it didn’t cost anything.
It couldn’t be done. I think there’s just too much inertia in the 15:1 weight ratio.
I figured I had good focus both from my martial arts background and a lot of summer nights playing pool in my next door neighbor’s enclosed patio. I couldn’t do it – even when they relaxed the rules and said they’d include the cue-ball as one of the 3 if two other balls could be sunk on the break.
I saw huge muscle-bound guys try brute-forcing their breaks; all they’d manage to do is send the cue-ball ricocheting off the table. I was quite amazed that nobody plunged a cue through the felt (at least while I was there).
The contest requirement was just to sink 3 balls. Any time you see footage of all the balls going down on the break, you gotta know it’s fake.
—G!
*On one of my attempts, one of the girls offered to set up the rack for me and I quipped, “Will you come with me on the cruise if I win, then?” Another girl quickly interjected, “Nope! Ya gotta take us both. We’ll all three share the cabin.” The DJ looked over at me and sarcastically said, “Darn!” and all I could do was nod in agreement and wipe my chin.
I’ve sunk three balls off the break on a 9-ball table. I’m not a great player, so it’s possible.
Three balls on the break of a 15 ball rack is certainly possible, although rare. When I played semi-regularly I might do it once every couple hundred breaks (I really didn’t keep track and that was 35 years ago). Since this was a contest, maybe the fix was in - trick balls? Unusually tight pockets?
Here’s five balls made on an 8-ball break. Note that 8-ball is the only common game where you would make a massive break on a full rack of 15 balls (in the opening break in straight pool you try to move the fewest balls as legally possible to the rail (2)). If you watch the video past the break, notice that the player runs out the table playing the solids even though he sunk 5 stripes on the break.
Here’s six balls made on a 9-ball break. Watch past the break and you will see the player who broke choke and lose the game.
Sinking three off a 9-ball rack is only dealing with half the balls.
Years after that promo event, when I was playing regularly for quite a while, I was sinking multiples off an 8-ball rack (not including the cueball) at least once a night.
I think the “trick” of that contest was in
- psyching out contestants that it was a difficult break*
- using especially heavy balls (aren’t the coin-op balls weighted heavier so a cueball scratch is returned until the last colored ball is sunk?)
- using an especially light cueball (if my memory about coin-op balls is reversed from the actual practice – i.e. the cueball is made especially light while the rest are standard weight)
- setting up a particularly loose rack (the promo event was years before the Sardo tight-rack was invented)
- some combination of the above
–G!
- After I’d been playing regularly for a while, I came to realize it doesn’t take an especially hard or strong stroke to sink 3, 4, or even 5 balls on the break; it just takes moderate power and a decent follow to keep the cueball knocking things around. But a psyched-out player will try to overpower the shot and that just sends the cueball flying off the table.
ETA: Cribbage is a variant in which a big scatter on the break is helpful.