Pool - How to Play?

As we know that there are three types of cue sports snooker, billiards and pool and in each type the colour and size of the balls differs. Normally the diameter of the ball is 2.5 inches which is used in pool.

With the traditional cue ball in white, there are two types of object balls. The two sets include seven striped number balls and seven solid coloured number balls. There is also a ball having number eight in white and the rest in black. This ball is called as a black eight-ball.

There are other balls whose colour is in yellow, blue, red, purple, brown, orange and green. Unlike pool, billiards require only three balls. One is the traditional white ball, one is a red object ball and one is either yellow or white with a black or red dot. Among these, two are cue balls.

There are different variants of pool having different sets of rules. These variants are as follows −

• Eight-ball Pool
• Nine-ball Pool
• Three-ball Pool
• One-pocket Pool

Let us now take a look at the rules of each of these variants of Pool.

Eight-Ball Pool

Eight-ball pool is a favourite cue ball sport played in United States of America. It is commonly played in pubs in the United Kingdom. It is also a famous sporting event and competitively played in leagues both in the western part of Africa and the eastern part of North and South America.

First the balls are arranged in a triangular shape by a triangular rack with a full rack of fifteen balls. The striker has a cue ball. The aim of the striker is to legally pocket eight balls before his opponent does. The strategy, style, rule in eight ball game varies from tournament to tournament and from country to country.

Nine-Ball Pool

Nine-ball Pool is the mostly played as a professional sport. There are nine balls on the table numbered from 1 to 9 and there is a cue ball for the striker. Nine ball sport is played on rotation basis. The serving player means the player who has the strike must make legal contact to the ball which has the lowest number. The game is won by the player who legally pockets all the nine balls.

Three-Ball Pool

In a three-ball pool match, the serving player continues to serve till all the balls are pocketed. The player who pockets all the balls in fewest attempts emerges as winner. This game can also be played by two or more players.

One-Pocket Pool

In one-pocket pool, only two players are involved. One-pocket is a strategic game and one of the trickiest game. Here each striker is assigned with only one corner of the table and he can pocket the ball only in that corner. The winner will be that player who pockets majority of the balls normally 8 balls.

One-pocket ball is one of the trickiest games in pool, as an accomplished opponent normally likes to place the balls near his own pocket without pocketing them. So, the other contestant has to be defensive in his approach.

Bank Pool

Bank pool is normally played with nine balls. Sometimes it is also played with a full rack means 15 balls. If there are nine balls then the player pocketing five balls wins and in a full rack the player who pockets eight balls is victorious. The ball racked in nine ball or fifteen ball is not racked in particular order. In recent days, bank pool is becoming very popular among the players because it can be played with either nine balls or fifteen balls and it can be a match of long duration.