Pool format
Straight pool: rules and how to play
Call every ball, score a point each, and play to a target — usually 50, 75 or 100. The purest scoring game in pool.
| Players | 2 |
|---|---|
| Length | 30–90 minutes |
| Equipment | Full rack, and a way to score |
| Difficulty | Advanced |
The object of the game
Reach the agreed score before your opponent.
Setting up
- Rack all fifteen. Break safe — the opening break must send two balls and the cue ball to a rail, or it is a penalty.
- Agree a target. Fifty is a reasonable bar length; the professional game plays to 100 or more.
The rules
A point a ball, any ball
Call a ball and a pocket. Make it and you score one and keep shooting. Group does not matter — any ball on the table is available.
Re-rack on fourteen
When only one object ball is left, the other fourteen are re-racked with the apex spot empty, and the player continues using the remaining ball to break the new rack. That continuation is what the "continuous" means, and it is how runs of a hundred happen.
Fouls cost a point
Minus one and the turn passes. Three consecutive fouls costs fifteen and a re-rack.
How a night of this actually runs
It takes 2 and runs about 30–90 minutes, which is the number that decides whether it suits your room more than any rule in it does. You need full rack, and a way to score, and it sits at a advanced 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 beautiful game and a terrible bar tournament. One player can hold the table for twenty minutes while everybody else watches, which is precisely what a bar night must not do.