Guides6 minute read

Pool rules, plainly

Eight-ball as it is really played here — and why the rules in your head may not be the rules at your table.

Agree the rules before you break

That sentence prevents almost every argument that happens on a pool table. Eight-ball is played to at least three meaningfully different codes in Australia — world rules, various state association rules, and whatever the pub you learned in used — and two people can each be completely certain and both be right about a different one.

We do not impose a house code on our pool tables; the two of you choose one. So: decide between yourselves, out loud, in about eight seconds, before the first shot.

A legal rack: the apex ball on the foot spot, the eight in the middle of the third row, and a solid and a stripe in the two back corners.

What every code agrees on

The rack. Fifteen balls in a triangle, apex on the foot spot, the eight dead centre of the third row, one solid and one stripe in the back corners.
The break. From behind the head string. Most codes require four balls to hit a cushion, or a ball to be potted, for the break to be legal.
Choosing your group. The table is open after the break. You take solids or stripes by legally potting one — not by calling it before you break.
Keep going while you pot. Pot one of yours legally and you shoot again. Miss and it is the other player’s turn.
Hit your own group first. The cue ball must contact one of your balls before anything else. Hitting theirs first is a foul everywhere.
The black is last. Clear your seven, then the eight. Potting the eight before your group is cleared loses the frame in every code we know of.
Potting the cue ball with the black loses. Even on a legal black shot.

What they disagree on

Four things, and they are the four things people argue about. Settle whichever of them matters to you before the break.

Four rules that differ between eight-ball codes
The question	One answer	The other
What happens after a foul?	Ball in hand — your opponent places the cue ball anywhere. (World rules, and most organised competition.)	Two shots — your opponent gets two visits, and the cue ball comes back to the D or stays where it lies. (Common in pubs and clubs.)
Do you have to nominate the black pocket?	Yes, and it must go in the nominated one.	No — any pocket counts.
Do you have to hit a cushion after contact?	Yes, unless a ball is potted. Failing to is a foul.	No such requirement.
What if you pot the black early?	You lose the frame immediately.	The black is respotted and play continues, in a few local codes.

Fouls, in any code

Potting the cue ball.
Hitting an opponent’s ball, or the black, before one of yours.
Hitting nothing at all.
Knocking a ball off the table.
Touching a ball with anything but the cue tip.
Having both feet off the floor when you play.

What the other player then gets is the thing that varies — see the table above.

Nine-ball, briefly

The other game you might be offered. Nine balls, and you must hit the lowest-numbered ball on the table first every time — but any ball that goes in counts, and whoever pots the nine wins immediately. It is faster than eight-ball, more luck-driven at beginner level, and much harder at the top.