Pool Table Games

Impress your friends with your pool prowess by learning and practicing a variety of pool table games. Pool tables find homes in bars, houses and pool halls worldwide. Most bars generally charge about a dollar in quarters per game, while pool halls offer an hourly rate. Familiarize yourself with house rules (minor tweaks in a game's rules) whenever you play with a new group for the first time to avoid needless arguments later on.

Eight Ball

You may know eight ball as the classic "stripes versus solids" game. To set up, rack all 15 balls with the eight ball in the center spot. Generally one player will rack and the other will break, switching off with each game. One player aims to sink balls one through seven (solids) while the other goes after nine through 15 (stripes). Once you've made all the balls in your set, you go for the eight ball to finish the game.

Whether you're solids or stripes is determined by which ball you (or your opponent) sink first. As a general rule, you should call all of your shots except those that are obvious. If you make a shot without calling it or hit your opponent's ball first, the shot counts but you don't get to take a second shot. The game ends when one player sinks the eight ball. Note that the following conditions result in an automatic loss: sinking the eight ball prematurely, scratching on your eight ball shot, hitting your opponent's ball first on an eight ball shot or shooting the eight ball into a pocket other than the one you called.

Nine Ball

Nine ball is played using only balls one through nine. Rack the balls in a diamond shape with nine in the center and one in the front. You can sink the balls in any order, but you must hit the lowest-numbered ball on the table first during your shot. For instance, you could sink the two ball on your first turn so long as you hit the cue ball into the one ball and then into the two ball to the pocket. You win the game by sinking the nine ball. You don't have to call your shots, and when your opponent scratches you're free to place the cue ball anywhere on the table.

Cutthroat

If you've got three players, cutthroat is the ideal pool table game for you. You rack using all 15 balls and each player is assigned five balls: one through five, six through 10 or 11 through 15. Cutthroat basically plays out as a "last man standing" kind of game, as the first player to sink both of his opponents' balls wins.

If you're playing in a pool hall, at home or another venue with non-coin-operated tables, add this rule to the game: Whenever a player scratches, each of his opponents has a ball returned to the table.