Pool format
Eight-ball (bar rules): rules and how to play
The game everyone already knows, and the one with the most house rules per square foot of any game in this list.
| Players | 2, or 4 in pairs |
|---|---|
| Length | 8–15 minutes a game |
| Equipment | Standard 15-ball rack |
| Difficulty | Beginner |
The object of the game
Pocket all seven of your group — stripes or solids — then legally pocket the 8 ball in a called pocket.
Setting up
- Rack fifteen balls with the 8 in the centre, a stripe and a solid in the back corners.
- Break from behind the head string. Most bars require four balls to hit a rail or a ball to be pocketed for a legal break.
- Groups are decided by the first ball legally pocketed after the break — unless the house plays "table is open until a called shot".
The rules
Pocket your group, then the 8
Stripes or solids, all seven, then the 8 into a pocket you call out loud. Pocketing the 8 early, or in the wrong pocket, loses the game immediately in almost every bar in the country.
Keep shooting while you keep pocketing
Legally pocket one of yours and you shoot again. Miss, foul, or pocket an opponent's ball and the table passes.
Fouls
Scratching, failing to hit your own ball first, and no ball hitting a rail after contact are all fouls. What happens next is where bars differ wildly — see below.
House variants
This is a folk game with no governing body, so the version below is the common one and these are the variants you will meet. The only real mistake is not saying which you are playing before the first break.
Ball in hand vs. behind the line
League rules give ball in hand anywhere on the table after a foul. Traditional bar rules restrict the incoming player to behind the head string, shooting away from it. Ball in hand is a far bigger punishment and makes the game much more tactical.
Slop counts
Most bars: a ball in a pocket counts however it got there, except the 8. League play: every shot is called. Decide before the break, because this one causes more arguments than every other rule combined.
Scratch on the 8 loses
Many houses play that scratching while pocketing the 8 loses the game outright. Others only lose it if the 8 also went down. Common enough both ways that it has to be stated.
How a night of this actually runs
It takes 2, or 4 in pairs and runs about 8–15 minutes a game, which is the number that decides whether it suits your room more than any rule in it does. You need standard 15-ball rack, and it sits at a beginner 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?
Fine for two people and a poor tournament format for a crowd, because half your field is sitting down after one game. Use it inside a bracket, not as the night itself.