Eight-Ball pool is the most popular game of billiards in the world. The highest-paid professional billiards players play 8-ball. Eight-ball is the game played in most bars and taverns in the world.
Local establishments have their own weekly or monthly billiards tournaments. Other establishments allot sizable amounts of floorspace to their billiard tables and shooting billiards is a large part of a person's bar or tavern experience. In most of these places, eight-ball is the game of choice. Here are the basics of 8-ball billiards.
The Billiards Table
The standard billiards table is rectangular in shape, with two long rails and two short rails. There are six pockets on a billiards table, one in each corner of the table, accounting for four of the pockets, as well as one in the middle of each long rail, accounting for the final two pockets.
Between the pockets are 3 diamond shapes along the rails, for a total of 18 diamonds along the outer rails of the table. These rails help mark off certain key portions of the billiards table, such as the "kitchen".
The top of a standard billiards table is covered in green felt. The rails of the table are lined with cushion, allowing the balls the bounce off the rails of the table. These cushions are also covered in green felt.
The Cue Stick
The cue stick is a long, tapered stick used to strike the cue ball in billiards. The cue can be either one long piece of wood, or two pieces joined in the middle. Typically, more expensive pool cues are two-piece sticks. Expensive cues are made of maple, while inexpensive ones are made of ramin.
The handle has a larger circumference than the tip of the billiards cue. The tip of the cue is made of a different material, usually leather for expensive cues and plastic for inexpensive ones. The tip is what actually comes in contact with the cue ball. Through the use of chalk on the leather tip, players can place different spins on the cue ball, as needed.
The mechanical bridge is sometimes used for precarious shots. This is a long stick with a metal bridge on the end, used to balance the cue stick when making a shot in the center of the table or over balls which would otherwise be an impediment. The mechanical bridge is sometimes called the rest, the rake or, more derisively, the ladies cue.
The Billiard Balls
Eight ball is played with 16 different balls. One of the balls is the white cue ball, while another one is the black eight-ball. The other fourteen balls are divided in two halves.
In North America, balls are divided between solids and stripes. The solid balls are one solid color, except for the dot containing that ball's number. The solid balls are numbered one through seven.
The striped balls have a wide colored stripe around the ball surrounding the number dot, with two poles of white at either end. The striped balls are numbered nine through fifteen.
In the United Kingdom, the striped and solid patterns are replaced with standard colors. There remains a cue ball and a black eight-ball, but the rest of the balls are divided evenly among unnumbered red and yellow balls. A game quite similar to American eight-ball is played in the U.K. This game goes by the name Blackball.
Racking the Balls
To begin a game of 8-Ball, one player racks all fifteen balls but the cue ball in the ball rack. The ball rack is a triangular shaped wooden rack.
Once all fifteen colored balls are placed in the rack, the balls are pressed towards the front of the rack, so that all of the balls remain in tight contact with one another. The balls must be placed where the cue ball is in the center of the rack, while either of the lower corners of the rack contain a striped and a solid ball.
Finally, the top or apex of the triangle should be placed on the dot on the end of the table opposite the kitchen. The "kitchen" is the area of a billiards table behind the head string. The head string is a real or imaginary line which runs across the table between the 2nd diamond on one long rail and the 2nd diamond on the other long rail.
The Break
The player who breaks the rack in a game of 8 ball can shoot the cue ball from anywhere behind the head string, from inside the kitchen towards the rack. The object is to break the balls of the rack up, hopefully firing one or more balls into a corner pocket.
The person who breaks is chosen through an agreed-upon method, either by a coin toss, by lagging for the break or by the winner of the previous game. To make a regulation break, at least four balls should hit the wall cushions or at least one balls should be pocketed. If this doesn't happen, the opponent can ask for a re-rack and be allowed to break the rack. That same opponent can opt to play from the existing set of broken balls.
If a ball falls in a pocket off of a break, then it is still that player's turn. The breaking player can then choose to shoot at either striped or solid balls, regardless of which kind of ball was pocketed.
If the eight-ball goes in the hole off the break, the breaker can opt for a re-rack or place the eight-ball on the spot and continue play. If the cue ball is pocketed off the break, the opponent can opt for a re-rack or take a turn shooting from anywhere in the kitchen.
8 Ball Pool Strategy
During a game of eight-ball, a player will take one side: solids or stripes. The point of the game is to pocket all of ones balls, either stripe or solid, while placing the cue ball where one's opponent will have a difficult time pocketing his or her balls. After a player has pocketed all his balls, then that player ends the game by pocketing the eight-ball. If the eight-ball is pocketed before the rest of the balls are pocketed, the player who pocketed the eight-ball immediately loses.
Winning and Losing at Eight Ball
There are several ways to win, besides the two most common ways. If a player pockets the cue ball while pocketing the eight-ball, that player loses. If a player knocks the cue ball off the table while pocketing the eight-ball, that player loses. If the cue ball is pocketed or knocked off the table at some time before the eight-ball shot, then it is the other player's turn and play continues as before.
If the 8-ball is knocked off the table, the offending player loses.
Other Fouls in 8 Ball Pool
There are other fouls committed in eight-ball which do not end the game. For instance, the cue ball must strike a player's ball first, or else that shot is a foul and the striking player loses his or her turn. If the cue ball is pocketed on any shot, this is a foul.
A player must have one foot on the floor or the shot is a foul. A player must wait until all balls from the previous shot come to a stop before shooting again, or else a foul has been committed.
If the cue ball is struck twice or is pushed instead of hit by the cue, then it is a foul. If the shooter touches the ball with anything but the tip of the cue, or if a player goes out of turn, then a foul has happened. If a shooter knocks any ball off the table or touches any ball besides the cue ball, a foul has occurred.
If, after a shot has occurred, no ball either comes in contact with a cushion or goes into a pocket, a foul has occurred.
Taking Turns
Each player takes turns shooting until a winner is decided. If a player does not pocket a ball on his turn, then it is the other player's turn. So long as a shooter continues to pocket balls of his sort without committing a foul, then that shooter continues his or her turn. This continues until the eight-ball is pocketed, which is why the game is called eight-ball.
8 Ball Tournaments and Variant Rules
Tournaments usually require multiple games to determine a winner. These tend to be the winner of a majority of games in a series of games between two opponents.
Local tournaments might be single elimination. Local bars might have their own "house rules", which can be quite different from one establishment to the next. Since eight-ball is the most widely-played billiards game in the world, it has the most variants rules of any billiards game.
