Guide · 6 min read
Three strikes vs Killer: the same game with two names
They are the same game. If you learned one and then read rules for the other, here is exactly what changes and what does not.
Same game, different vocabulary
Americans count strikes upward to three. British and Irish players count lives downward from three. It is the same quantity measured from opposite ends, and it is the only difference that matters for the core game.
Wikipedia files it under Killer, describing "a multi-player folk variant of straight pool in which each player is assigned a set number of lives and takes one shot per inning to attempt to pot a ball, or else lose a life". Swap "lives" for "strikes" and that is word for word what an American bar is playing.
The American name borrows from baseball, along with on deck. The British name is just descriptive.
The rules that genuinely differ
| Rule | Typical US bar | Typical UK pub |
|---|---|---|
| Scratch | Costs one — the missed shot | Often costs two |
| Potting the black | Usually nothing special | Often gains a life |
| Two balls in one shot | Nothing special | Sometimes gains a life |
| Buying extra lives | Rare | Common — another coin, another life |
| Starting lives | Three | Three, sometimes two for speed |
| Free break | Standard | Standard |
None of these is wrong. They are house rules, and the only real mistake is not saying which set you are playing before the first break.
The buying-lives rule, and why it is interesting
In a lot of UK pubs, a player who is out can put another coin in and buy their lives back. It sounds like it would ruin the game and it mostly does not — the pot grows, people stay in the room, and there is usually a cutoff ("no buy-backs after the third rack").
It is worth stealing, with one caveat: decide the cutoff before anyone needs it. A buy-back negotiated at the moment somebody is eliminated is a different conversation entirely.
Which name should you use?
Use whichever your room already uses. If you are starting something new in an American bar, "three strikes" explains itself to anybody who has watched baseball. In a British or Irish venue, "Killer" needs no explanation at all.
We built this site around the American name because of the domain, and the rules page covers both. Nobody has ever been confused for longer than one sentence.