Guide · 8 min read
Nine bar pool formats, ranked by how well they fill a room
The best format for a bar is not the best format for pool. It is the one that keeps the most people in the building for the longest.
The ranking
| # | Format | Players | Keeps the room? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Three strikes | 3–24+ | Excellent — nobody leaves early |
| 2 | Scotch doubles | 4, 8, 12 | Very good — pairs stay together |
| 3 | Golf pool | 2–8 | Good — everyone plays every lap |
| 4 | Three-ball | 2–8 | Good — rounds are two minutes |
| 5 | Cutthroat | 3 or 5 only | Good, when the number works |
| 6 | Speed pool | 1–8 | Good as a side event |
| 7 | Last pocket | 2 | Fair — needs a bracket round it |
| 8 | Eight-ball bracket | 8–32 | Poor — half the room is out in 20 minutes |
| 9 | Nine-ball race | 2 | Poor for a crowd, great for two |
Why three strikes wins
It is the only format on this list that scales to any number of people without either splitting into brackets or leaving somebody out.
It also degrades gracefully. Twenty-four turn up? Fine. Nine? Fine, play five lives. Someone arrives late? They play next one. A bracket cannot do any of that without being rebuilt.
And critically: the skill gap matters less. A beginner in a bracket plays one match against the best player in the room and goes home. A beginner in three strikes is in the rotation for an hour and might outlast them, because everyone only gets one shot at a time and luck has somewhere to operate.
When to use the others
Scotch doubles when you have a mixed-ability crowd or a lot of couples. Pairing a strong player with a beginner is the fairest handicap there is, and the strong player has to live with what the beginner leaves them, which is funnier than it sounds.
Golf pool when some of the room has genuinely never played. It needs no knowledge of pool whatsoever and everyone is involved on every lap.
Three-ball as a warm-up while people are still arriving. Rounds take two minutes and the number of players does not matter.
Speed pool as a tiebreaker or a halftime event. It is the most watchable game on the list by a distance.
An eight-ball bracket when you have under eight people and want a clean result in forty minutes.