Pool format
Bowlliards: rules and how to play
Ten frames, ten balls, two innings a frame, scored exactly like ten-pin bowling. Strikes and spares included.
| Players | 1–6 |
|---|---|
| Length | 20–40 minutes |
| Equipment | Ten balls, and a bowling scoresheet |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
The object of the game
The highest bowling score after ten frames. A perfect game is 300.
Setting up
- Rack ten balls in a triangle.
- Break, then take your first inning — shoot until you miss.
The rules
Two innings a frame
Clear all ten in your first inning and that is a strike. Clear them across both innings and that is a spare. Otherwise you score the number of balls you pocketed.
Bowling scoring, exactly
A strike scores ten plus the next two innings' balls. A spare scores ten plus the next inning's. The tenth frame gets the usual bonus innings.
How a night of this actually runs
It takes 1–6 and runs about 20–40 minutes, which is the number that decides whether it suits your room more than any rule in it does. You need ten balls, and a bowling scoresheet, and it sits at a intermediate level — so think about whether the weakest player in the room will still be enjoying it an hour in.
Compared with three strikes, the format this site is built around: that one takes any number of players, keeps everybody in the room for roughly two hours, and needs nothing but a rack and a way to count lives. Most of the games on this site are better as the game inside a night than as the shape of the night itself.
Is it any good in a bar?
A genuinely clever crossover and an excellent solo practice game. As a group format it suffers from the same problem as straight pool: one person shoots while everybody waits.