Pool glossary
Bar box
A coin-operated seven-foot table.
What it means
The small coin-op table found in most bars — seven feet, tighter than a nine-footer in every dimension, with a ball return that keeps the cue ball separate so it can be returned after a scratch.
Where the word comes from
Trade slang. "Box" for the coin mechanism.
How it sounds at a table
"It plays short." "It's a bar box, everything plays short."
What it means in a three-strikes night
The format and the table were made for each other. A bar box is small enough that an average player can pocket something on most visits, which is exactly what a one-shot-per-turn game needs — on a nine-foot table with the same crowd, strikes pile up fast and the night ends early. If you are running three strikes on a big table, consider five lives.
The mistake people make
Pricing a night as if the table is free. A coin-op table at a dollar a rack through twelve racks is a real cost; either feed it from the house cut or say up front that players feed it.
Terms that come up alongside it
Written out rather than linked only, because looking up one term usually means you are standing at a table and do not want four more taps.
- Rack
- Both the triangle and the balls arranged in it. A rack is the frame used to set the balls up, and also the arrangement itself — "a new rack" means a fresh set of fifteen.
- Break
- The opening shot that scatters the rack. The break is the first shot on a fresh rack.
- Three strikes
- The format: one shot a turn, three misses and you are out. A multi-player elimination format in which players take one shot each in a fixed rotation, lose a life for failing to pocket, and are eliminated at three.
- House cut
- The share of the pot the venue keeps. A percentage of the entry money retained by the bar, usually to cover table time, a prize, or the cost of running the night.
Where it comes up
Bar box matters most in three-strikes pool, where a single turn is one shot and the cost of getting something wrong is a life rather than a visit to the table. If you are learning the game, the guide to running a night puts most of this vocabulary in context, and the format pages show which games the term applies to and which it does not.