The most popular American pocket billiard games is hands down – 8-ball.

8 ball pool rooms; Prizes, chips and points; How to play American 8 ball pool In the game you have 15 numbered balls from 1 to 15, plus a cue white ball. The first 7 numbered balls (1-7) are known as solids, while the last 7 (9-15) are known as striped, and the black ball as the 8 ball.

The rules of the game are pretty simple. The first person to make all of their assigned groups (Solid or Stripes) of balls and then make the 8-ball in a designated or “called” pocket wins the game. Let’s break down some basic terminology before we move on.

Basic Definitions

We’ll go over some basic definitions so everyone is on the same page.

Cue Ball = White ball

Object Balls = 15 colored and numbered balls

-Solids = Numbered 1 through 7

-Stripes = Numbered 9 through 15

-8 Ball = Black ball numbered 8

Rail = The bank or walls within the box of the pool table (think of 4 walls in a room, but called Rails)

Scratch = When a player accidentally makes the cue ball into a pocket or commits a foul

Example: You are Solids but you accidentally hit a Stripe ball first

Pockets – There are 6 holes in which you can make the Object balls in called “Pockets”

• The 4 pockets in the corner are called Corner Pockets
• The 2 other remaining pockets on the sides are called Side Pockets

Cue/Cue Stick/Pool Stick – The main playing stick you use to strike the object balls

Quick Summary of 8-ball game

The pocket billiard game 8-ball is played with 15 object balls (labeled 1 through 15) and a cue ball (the white ball). Played with two players, whoever pockets their group of balls first (you can be SOLID – 1 through 7, or STRIPES – 9 through 15) and then pockets the 8-ball will win the game.

This is a call shot game, so you must call which ball you intend to make and the pocket it will go in. Failure to make it in the intended pocket forfeits your turn and it is now your opponent’s turn.

Universal Rules

(Regardless if you are playing bar rules or league rules – they are the same)

Most of the rules in all formats have some universal rules that are the same across the board. It may alter slightly from format to format.

• A player must sink their appropriate balls (Solid or Stripes), then pocket the 8-ball in the “called” pocket to win the game.
• The first player to make the 8-ball, wins the game.
  • A player cannot shoot the 8-ball until all of their appropriate balls are pocketed first.
• If you make the 8-ball on the break without scratching, you instantly win.

8 Ball Game Pigeon Rules And Regulations

How to Rack

You must “rack” or place the balls in a triangle at the “Foot” of the table with

• The 8-ball in the center
• A stripe ball in one corner of the rack
• A solid ball in the other corner of the rack and
• The first ball on the rack on the “Foot Spot”.

The rest of the balls don’t really matter where they go.

The Foot Spot usually has a black sticker or designated marked area.

What’s a “Tight Rack” or “Frozen”?

A Tight Rack – This means all the balls in the rack are touching without any space between the balls. This can also be called “Frozen”.

Be sure to make the rack “Tight” or “Frozen” which refers to each of the balls touching each other with no gaps. This ensures that the rack spreads better with energy transfer from your break is at a maximum.

Where to Break

The player who is breaking must break with the cue ball behind the “Head String”. This is also known as the Kitchen.

• This is also where the 2^nd diamond is, so you can break from anywhere behind the 2^nd diamond and there may be a sticker or spot to help you identify this area.

Image Correction: The Head Spot is supposed to be labeled the Head String*

If you want to know some common tips on how to improve your break, click here to go to my post about 5 ways to improve your breaking!

Common Bar Rules

These are common bar rules that I have come across. The rules in your bar may be different and that’s okay too. FYI (For your information, they may vary so please confirm with your opponent on all rules before proceeding with the game, it will save you future headaches later).

After the Break:

• Whatever you make is what you are (You made only solid balls on the break, you are solids for the remainder of the game)
• If you make the 8-ball and don’t scratch, you automatically win the game
• If you scratch or the cue ball flies off the table, your opponent must shoot from behind the Head String (in the Kitchen)
  • The object ball they decide to hit from here must be beyond that head string too so you are hitting towards the longer side of the table

No “Ball-in-Hand”

• After a foul or table scratch has occurred, you just lose your turn and the cue ball stays where it is
  • In other League formats, this would result in a Ball-In-Hand which means you can place the cue ball anywhere. A lot of bar players feel this is too much of an unfair advantage, I will leave that up to you guys to decide for yourselves!

Call Your Shots!

• A Player must call every single detail of how the ball is going to be pocketed or else the turn ends and it’s the opponents turn (Leave the cue ball where it stops naturally)
  • This means if you make the Orange 5-Ball but it hit off of the Green 6-Ball but you didn’t say something along the lines of “5-Ball off the 6-Ball”, your turn is over even though you made your ball.
  • Another example of this is if you call your Orange 5-Ball in the Corner Pocket but it misses, bounces and goes into the Side Pocket by accident. Sorry, you didn’t call the side pocket so – you got it, your turn is over!

Make the 8-Ball Clean

• Just like Calling Your Shots, you have to call which Pocket the 8-ball will go into
  • No caroms allowed, only “Clean” shots so it can’t hit off another ball
  • You can bank it off a rail

Carom – When you hit the ball you’re trying to make off of another ball and your original ball goes into a pocket

League Rules (APA vs. BCA)

The two most popular and well-known Billiard/Pool Leagues today are APA and BCA.

APA stands for American Poolplayers Association (Largest American billiard league with over 260,000 Members) and BCA stands for Billiard Congress of America. We’ll go over some of the biggest differences between the rules for APA and BCA. I will have a link below if you want to read all the rules for either league format.

With APA and BCA being the most popular, we will go over their most popular rules, differences and similarities.

These are obviously not all the rules or differences between APA and BCA, but I wanted to go over the main ones. If you want to know the official rules for both APA and BCA, check out the links below to their official websites:

Major Differences:

So there are some slight differences between APA and BCA. The biggest takeaway I noticed are two rules:

1. After the break – In APA, you are what you make. In BCA, it is “Open” and gives the player more options.
2. If you scratch on the 8-ball – You lose in APA, but in BCA you do not.

If you are interested in how to find a nearby bar or league, check out my post that goes into detail called How to Find a nearby Bar, Tournament or Pool League.

Summary

Bar Rules or BCA Rules appear to be fairer to most players while APA is very forgiving because “Lucky” or “Slop” shots still count. There can be an argument made that since APA is the largest league for Amateurs and players need the handicap. This is a big debate between a lot of pool players and it’s common for players to complain about.

Be sure to choose the best format and rules for you to enjoy billiards. Most of the general rules are similar but there are slight tweaks.

Eight-ball (also spelled 8-ball or eightball, and sometimes called solids and stripes, spots and stripes^[1] or highs and lows) is a pool billiards played on a billiard table with six pockets, cue sticks, and sixteen billiard balls: a cue ball and fifteen object balls. The object balls include seven solid-colored balls numbered 1 through 7, seven striped balls numbered 9 through 15, and the black 8 ball. After the balls are scattered with a break shot, a player is assigned either the group of solid or striped balls once they have legally pocketed a ball from that group. The object of the game is to legally pocket the 8 ball in a 'called' pocket, which can only be done after all of the balls from a player's assigned group have been cleared from the table.

The game is the most frequently played discipline of pool, and is often thought of as synonymous with 'pool'. The game has numerous variations, mostly regional. It is the second most played professional pool game, after nine-ball, and for the last several decades ahead of straight pool.^{[citation needed]}

History[edit]

The game of eight-ball arose around 1900 in the United States as a development of pyramid pool, which allows any eight of the fifteen object balls to be pocketed to win. The game arose from two changes made, namely that the 8 ball must be pocketed last to win, and that each player may only pocket half of the other object balls. By 1925 the game was popular enough for the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company to introduce purpose-made ball sets with seven red, seven yellow, one black ball, and the cue ball, which allowed spectators to more easily see which suit each ball belonged to. (Such colors became standard in the later British-originating variant, blackball). The rules, as officially codified in the Billiard Congress of America's rule book, were periodically revised in the years following.^{[2]:24, 89–90[3][4][5]}

Standardized rules of play[edit]

American-style eight-ball rules are played around the world by professionals, and in many amateur leagues. Nevertheless, the rules for eight-ball may be the most inconsistent of any billiard game as there are several competing sets of 'official' rules.

The non-profit World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA), which has continental and national affiliates around the world (some of which long pre-date the WPA, such as the Billiard Congress of America) promulgates standardized rules as Pool Billiards – The Rules of Play.^[6] These are used for amateur and professional play.

Meanwhile, many amateur leagues – such as the American Poolplayers Association (APA) and its affiliate the Canadian Poolplayers Association (CPA), the Valley National Eight-ball Association (VNEA) and the BCA Pool League (BCAPL) – use their own rulesets which have slight differences from WPA rules and from each other. Millions of individuals play informally, using informal 'house rules' which vary not only from area to area but even from venue to venue.

Equipment[edit]

8 Ball Plus Rules Game Pigeon

The regulation size of the table's playing surface is 9 by 4.5 ft (2.7 by 1.4 m), though exact dimensions may vary slightly by manufacturer. Some leagues and tournaments using the World Standardized Rules may allow smaller sizes, down to 7 by 3.5 ft (2.1 by 1.1 m). Early 20th-century 10 by 5 ft (3.0 by 1.5 m) models are occasionally also still used. WPA professional competition generally employs regulation tables, while the amateur league championships of various leagues, including ACS, BCAPL, VNEA, and APA, use the seven-foot tables in order to fit more of them into the hosting venue.

There are seven solid-colored balls numbered 1 through 7, seven striped balls numbered 9 through 15, an 8 ball, and a cue ball. The balls are usually colored as follows:

• 1 and 9: yellow
• 2 and 10: blue
• 3 and 11: red
• 4 and 12: purple
• 5 and 13: orange
• 6 and 14: green
• 7 and 15: maroon
• 8: black
• Cue: white

Special sets designed to be more easily discernible on television substitute pink for the dark purple of the 4 and 12 and light tan for the darker maroon of the 7 and 15 balls, and these alternative-color sets are now also available to consumers.

Setup[edit]

To start the game, the object balls are placed in a triangular rack. The base of the rack is parallel to the end rail (the short end of the pool table) and positioned so the apex ball of the rack is located on the foot spot. The balls in the rack are ideally placed so that they are all in contact with one another; this is accomplished by pressing the balls together toward the apex ball. The order of the balls should be random, with the exceptions of the 8 ball, which must be placed in the center of the rack (i.e., the middle of the third row), and the two back corner balls, one of which must be a stripe and the other a solid. The cue ball is placed anywhere the breaker desires behind the head string.

Break[edit]

One person is chosen by some predetermined method (e.g., coin toss, lag, or win or loss of previous game or match) to shoot first, using the cue ball to break the object-ball rack apart. In most leagues it is the breaker's opponent who racks the balls, but in some, players break their own racks. If the breaker fails to make a successful break—usually defined as at least four balls hitting cushions or an object ball being pocketed—then the opponent can opt either to play from the current position or to call for a re-rack and either re-break or have the original breaker repeat the break.

Game Pigeon 8 Ball Hack

If the 8 ball is pocketed on the break, then the breaker can choose either to re-spot the 8 ball and play from the current position or to re-rack and re-break; but if the cue ball is also pocketed on the break then the opponent is the one who has the choice: either to re-spot the 8 ball and shoot with ball-in-hand behind the head string, accepting the current position, or to re-break or have the breaker re-break.

Turn-taking[edit]

A player (or team) continues to shoot until committing a foul or failing to legally pocket an object ball (whether intentionally or not); thereupon it is the turn of the opposing players. Play alternates in this manner for the remainder of the game. Following a foul, the incoming player has ball-in-hand anywhere on the table, unless the foul occurred on the break shot, as noted previously.^[6]

Selection of the target group[edit]

The table is 'open' at the start of the game, meaning that either player may shoot at any ball. It remains open until one player legally pockets one or more object balls (excluding the 8) after the break. That player is assigned the group, or suit, of the pocketed ball – 1–7 (solids), or 9–15 (stripes) – and the other suit is assigned to the opponent. Balls pocketed on the break, or as the result of a foul while the table is still open, are not used to assign the suits. If a player pockets balls from both suits on an open table, they may claim either suit as their own.

Once the suits are assigned, they remain fixed throughout the game. If any balls from a player's suit are on the table, the player must hit one of them first on every shot; otherwise a foul is called and the turn ends. After all balls from the suit have been pocketed, the player's target becomes the 8 for the remainder of the game.

Pocketing the 8 ball[edit]

Once all of a player's (or team's) group of object balls are pocketed, the player attempts to sink the 8 ball. In order to win the game the player first designates which pocket the 8 ball will be pocketed into and then successfully pockets the 8 ball into that pocket. If the player knocks the 8 ball off the table then the player loses the game. If the player pockets the 8 ball and commits a foul or pockets it into another pocket than the one designated, then the player loses the game. Otherwise (i.e., if the 8 ball is neither pocketed nor knocked off the table) the shooter's turn is simply over, even if a foul occurs. In short, a world-standardized rules game of eight-ball, like a game of nine-ball, is not over until the 'money ball' is no longer on the table. The rule has been increasingly adopted by amateur leagues.

Winning[edit]

A player wins the game if that player legally pockets the 8 ball into a designated pocket after all of their object balls have been pocketed. They may also win if the opposing player illegally pockets the 8 ball or knocks the 8 ball off the table. Because of this, it is possible for a game to end with only one of the players having shot, which is known as 'running the table'.

Fouls[edit]

Fouls in eight-ball are:

• The shooter fails to strike one of their own object balls (or the 8 ball when it is the legal ball) with the cue ball, before other balls are contacted by the cue ball. This excludes 'split' shots, where the cue ball strikes one of the shooter's and one of the opponent's object balls simultaneously.
• No ball comes into contact with a cushion or is pocketed, after a legal cue ball contact with the (first) object ball.
• If an attempt is made to pocket a ball, and the ball hits the pocket, bounces out and lands on the ground, the ball is placed in the pocket and the game continues.
• The shooter does not have at least one foot on the floor (this requirement may be waived if the shooter has a relevant disability, or the venue has not provided a mechanical bridge).
• The cue ball is pocketed.
• The cue ball is shot before all balls have come to a complete stop from the previous shot.
• The cue ball does not strike any ball.
• The cue ball is struck more than once during a shot
• The cue ball is jumped with an illegal jump shot that scoops under the cue ball.
• The cue ball is clearly pushed, with the cue tip remaining in contact with it more than momentarily.
• The shooter touches the cue ball with something other than the tip of the cue.
• The shooter touches any ball with their body, clothing, or equipment, other than as necessary to move the cue ball when the player has ball-in-hand.
• The shooter knocks a ball off the table.
• The shooter shoots out-of-turn.
• The shooter shoots the black 8 ball without designating the pocket to opposite team members or the match referee in advance.
• The shooter deliberately pockets the opponent's balls while shooting the 8 ball.
• On the break shot, no balls are pocketed and fewer than four balls reach the cushions, in which case the incoming player can demand a re-rack and take the break or force the original breaker to re-break, or may take ball-in-hand behind the head string and shoot the balls as they lie.

Derivative games and variants[edit]

Blackball[edit]

The British version of eight-ball, known internationally as blackball, has evolved into a separate game, retaining significant elements of earlier pub versions of the game, with additional influences from English billiards and snooker. It is popular in amateur competition in Britain, Ireland, Australia, and some other countries.

The game uses unnumbered, solid-colored object balls, typically red and yellow, with one black 8 ball. They are usually 2 inches (51 mm) or 2¹⁄₁₆ inches (52 mm) in diameter, the latter being the same size as the balls used in snooker and English billiards. Tables for blackball pool are 6-to-7-foot (1.8 to 2.1 m) long, and feature pockets with rounded cushion openings, like snooker tables.

The rules of blackball differ from standard eight-ball in numerous ways, including the handling of fouls, which may give the opponent two shots, racking (the 8 ball, not the apex ball, goes on the spot), selection of which group of balls will be shot by which player, handling of frozen balls and snookers, and many other details.

Internationally, the World Pool-Billiard Association and the World Eightball Pool Federation both publish rules and promote events. The two rule sets differ in some details regarding the penalties for fouls.

Eight-ball rotation[edit]

The hybrid game eight-ball rotation is a combination of eight-ball and rotation, in which the players must pocket their balls (other than the 8, which remains last) in numerical order. Specifically, the solids player starts by pocketing the 1 ball and ascends to the 7 ball, and the stripes player starts by pocketing the 15 ball and descends to the 9 ball.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'Scottish Pool Association'. Archived from the original on 13 April 2014.
2. ^Shamos, Mike (1999). The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Billiards. New York: Lyons Press. ISBN1-55821-797-5.
3. ^Jewett, Bob (February 2002). '8-Ball Rules: The Many Different Versions of One of Today's Most Common Games'. Billiards Digest: 22–23.
4. ^Hickok, Ralph (2001). 'Sports History: Pocket Billiards'. Archived from the original on 5 December 2006. Retrieved 13 December 2006.
5. ^Shamos, Mike (1995–2005). 'A Brief History of the Noble Game of Billiards'. Billiard Congress America. Archived from the original on 27 January 2007. Retrieved 13 December 2006.
6. ^ ^abPool Billiards – The Rules of Play(PDF). World Pool-Billiard Association. 1 January 2008. Archived from the original(PDF) on 19 November 2011. Retrieved 21 March 2012.

External links[edit]