Nobody doesn't like the Magic Rack

Update 7/11/2010: All of the following still applies, except that it is not good for straight pool because so much play is in the area of the rack. It definitely can make a ball roll off-line when slow rolling. Now, here's the review I wrote two months ago:

In the history of pool, it seems that more creative energy has been given to ways to rack the balls consistently tight than any other aspect of the game. Remember the Sardo rack? Now there was a Rube Goldberg contraption if ever there was one. And what about the Laser Rack? That attempted to solve the problem with getting the rack straight, but didn't do anything about getting a tight rack. And of course the Delta-13 aluminum rack is a great product; it produces a more consistently tight rack than anything else I've used so far.

But I've just seen the future, this weekend at the Mezz 10-ball tournament at Hard Times Bellflower, CA. That rack was used exclusively for the entire weekend, and while there might have been some justifiable anguish with the tight pockets (sub 4"), there seemed to be general agreement that the Magic Rack was a good thing.

I just love it when someone comes along and invents something which is so simple, so obvious, that you wonder how come it wasn't invented a long time ago. When you compare the Magic Rack with the Sardo rack, you would think that the Sardo rack is some sort of weird joke. It's just a super thin slip of plastic, triangle shaped, with cutouts for the balls on the perimeter. You place the balls by hand on the triangle and the balls nestle in for a perfectly tight rack. And it's perfectly silent, unlike the very noisy Delta-13. And it does such a great job that tournaments move along much more quickly because it's so easy. Spectators are spared the boredom of watching players go through all the contortions of trying to get the balls to behave.

Want to know what other players think of it? Check out this thread on Billiards Digest Forum.

Where can you get one? It's so new that you can't yet order from their website,

but you can send an email to info@mezzusa.com.

Of course, as usual, this is NOT a paid endorsement.

(top)