Pool glossary
Shot clock
A time limit on a single shot.
What it means
An agreed maximum time to play, usually thirty or forty-five seconds from when the table is clear. Exceeding it is a foul.
Where the word comes from
Imported from other timed sports; standard in televised pool.
How it sounds at a table
"Thirty seconds." "On what?" "On you."
What it means in a three-strikes night
Keep one in your back pocket and use it in exactly two situations: when the field is down to the last two and they have started trading defensive shots, and when one particular player is taking two minutes over every visit. In a twenty-player rotation, each extra thirty seconds per shot adds roughly three hours to the night. That is not an exaggeration; it is four hundred shots times thirty seconds.
The mistake people make
Introducing it mid-night aimed at one person. Announce it as a general rule at the start, or introduce it only when the field is down to two.
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.
- Safety
- A shot played to leave your opponent with nothing. A safety is a deliberate defensive stroke: rather than trying to pocket a ball, you aim to leave the cue ball somewhere your opponent cannot do anything useful from.
- On deck
- The player whose turn is next. The person who shoots after whoever is at the table.
- 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.
- Rotation
- Two meanings: the order of play, and a rule that you hit the lowest ball first. In a multi-player game, the rotation is the running order — who shoots after whom, and how it wraps round.
Where it comes up
Shot clock 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.