Pool format
Nine-ball: rules and how to play
Lowest ball first, every time. The 9 wins it, whenever and however it goes down.
| Players | 2 |
|---|---|
| Length | 5–10 minutes a game |
| Equipment | Nine balls, diamond rack |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
The object of the game
Legally pocket the 9 ball.
Setting up
- Rack the 1 through 9 in a diamond, 1 at the front, 9 in the middle.
- Break with the cue ball hitting the 1 first.
- A legal break needs the 1 hit first and either a ball pocketed or four balls to a rail.
The rules
Always hit the lowest ball first
The cue ball must contact the lowest-numbered ball on the table before anything else. After that, any ball that drops counts and you keep shooting.
Combinations are legal
Hit the 1 into the 9 and you have won. This is why nine-ball swings so hard and why a weaker player always has a puncher's chance.
Fouls give ball in hand
Any foul hands the cue ball to the opponent, placeable anywhere. In a game this short that is usually decisive.
Push out
The player shooting after the break may call a push out — move the cue ball anywhere without needing to hit the 1 — after which the opponent chooses who shoots next. Often skipped in bars; worth knowing exists.
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.
Nine on the spot
Rack the 9 on the foot spot instead of the 1 to make a break-and-run harder.
Race to a number
Games are so short that nine-ball is almost always played as a race — first to five, seven, nine.
How a night of this actually runs
It takes 2 and runs about 5–10 minutes a game, which is the number that decides whether it suits your room more than any rule in it does. You need nine balls, diamond rack, 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?
Too fast and too swingy to carry a whole night on its own, and brilliant as the game inside a format. A nine-ball race pairs well with a bracket; it does not pair with a twenty-person rotation.