The *exact* rules for games of the BCA are copyrighted, and should not be reproduced in electronic form without permission. See Section 6 for information on ordering copies and the BCA's Web page (address below, under World Wide Web) for on-line excerpts.
In almost every pool game, a shot that does not pocket a ball is required to have at least one ball contact a rail after the cue ball contacts a ball.
(or 14.1 continuous pocket billiards)
Rack all 15 balls on the foot spot, cue ball behind the head string. The break must send two balls and the cue ball to a rail. Failure to do so is -2 points, and the opponent has the choice of accepting the table or having the breaker break again.
You need only name the ball and the pocket in calling a shot. How it gets there is immaterial, and anything else that goes down counts.
Scoring: 1 point for sunk balls, -1 for fouls (i.e. scratching, not driving a ball to a rail, etc.), -2 for not driving 2 balls and the cue ball to a rail on the break, and -15 for 3 fouls in a row (tacked on the the -1 for the 3rd foul). After the third foul the offender must break as in the start of the game.
When one object ball is left, rerack the other fourteen with the front ball missing, and continue play.
Same as straight. Each player gets ten turns; a turn is shooting until you miss, foul, scratch, or run twenty. Rebreak each turn, respot any balls that go in, and start with ball in hand in the kitchen. There is no penalty for scratching on the break. Unlike straight pool, a blast break to get the balls well spread out is the optimum strategy.
Tournaments are played in Equal Offense regularly through the Internet. You need a team of five players and a terminal near enough the table to be able to relay results in realtime to the other teams. More about Internet Equal offense can be found at http://www.netins.net/showcase/bcahome/ieo/ieo.htm or from the BCA.
Rack the lowest numbered nine balls in a diamond, with the one ball at the foot spot and the nine in the middle. Any ball that goes in, counts as long as the lowest numbered ball on the table is hit first. The winner is the player who makes the nine on a legal shot.
If a player fails to hit the lowest numbered ball first, the opponent has ball in hand.
On the first shot after a legal break, regardless of who the shooter is, the player can call "push", and merely push the cue ball somewhere, without restrictions on driving a ball to the rail or hitting the lowest numbered object ball. Opponent can either accept the table and shoot, or force the player to shoot. From then on, normal ball-in-hand for failure to hit the lowest-numbered object ball applies.
After a foul, no balls are spotted except the nine (when necessary). On a coin-op table, substitute the ten-ball for an escaped nine. Three consecutive fouls by one player, loses the game.
Each player chooses one of the two corner pockets at the foot of the table. Whoever makes eight balls in their pocket first wins. If you make a ball in your pocket and one in your opponent's, you each get credit for a ball. If you make a ball in an unassigned pocket, it gets spotted either when you miss or when there are no other balls left on the table. If you foul, you spot any ball made on the shot plus a penalty ball. If you make a ball in your opponent's pocket and scratch, it does not count for him, but is spotted along with a penalty ball. You only shoot again if you make a ball in your own pocket.
You know, stripes and solids :
Basically, the answer to any question about American 8-ball is "It's a house rule." If you'd like to post a comment on 8-ball rules, please quote your source - e.g., the BCA, Nippon Billiards Association, this little bar in Los Angeles, or whatever. Some common house rules are: You must take the balls that are sunk on the break, you must call the exact path the balls will take (e.g. combinations and banks), and if you sink the 8-ball on the break you win the game. This last, and some others, presumably reflect the fact that most bars are outfitted with pay tables, in which, once an object ball is sunk, it cannot be recovered without paying for a whole new game. None of these are Billiards Congress of America (BCA) rules.
Here are some of the actual BCA rules:
1. Table is open after break, no matter how many of either stripe or solid balls are sunk.
2. Call shot- your inning ends when the called ball does not go into the called pocket. Any balls not called remain pocketed. Note- you do not have to call combinations, caroms, or banks-- only the ball and pocket.
3. Foul penalty-- No balls are spotted except the eight, and no previously sunk balls are pulled), and opponent gets ball in hand, anywhere on the table, not just behind headstring. Jumped balls are spotted. If you call a safety and still sink your own ball, your inning ends. Scratch on break is still cue ball behind headstring.
4. Same penalty, ball in hand, applies on foul on 8 ball, when it stays on the table.
5. Sinking the 8 ball on the break is not a win or loss; breaker has choice of spotting the 8 or rebreaking.
It's not clear what happens if the breaker makes all seven stripes on the break. It seems that he would be required to take solids, since groups haven't been decided yet, and he must pocket all the balls of his group before calling and shooting at the eight.
The rules in Britain are slightly different, emphasizing tactics rather than shooting skill. The most significant difference is that after a foul, the opponent takes two consecutive innings. Also, on pub tables, the cue ball is *smaller* than the object balls (on American bar tables it is larger) and lighter.
A common three player game, better socially than as a test of skill. Each player takes five balls, 1-5, 6-10, and 11-15, and the last player with a ball on the table wins. According to the 1988 BCA rule book, if you have the cue ball in hand behind the headstring, and all of your opponent's balls are behind the headstring, you can have the one closest to the headstring spotted. (I've been told this is a rule in all BCA games; is this true?)
A social game. Each player takes a rack of three balls and tries to put them in in four or less shots, including the break. Winner is who puts them in in least shots. If no one does it in four or less, the game rolls over to another round.
This game uses 21 object balls and a cue ball. Fifteen object balls are red and worth one point. The other six object balls are Yellow, Green, Brown, Blue, Pink, and Black. Highest score wins, and the game ends when all balls are pocketed (or when a foul is made on the final black). You alternate hitting reds and colors, and each time a color goes in it is respotted, until all the reds are off the table.
The balls are placed as in the fig: (red on spot in American snooker, pink on spot otherwise).
-------------------- -------------------
| | |
| | r | Reds: 1 point each
| . (3) r | Yellow: 2 points
| . | r r | Green: 3 -"-
| . | r r | Brown: 4 -"-
| . (4) (5) (6)r r r (7)| Blue: 5 -"-
| . | r r | Pink: 6 -"-
| . | r r | Black: 7 -"-
| . (2) r |
| | r |
| | |
-------------------- ------------------
The ball on for the first shot of each inning is a red if any are left. After all reds are gone, the colors become on in ascending order of value. After a cue ball scratch, it becomes in-hand from the D (you may shoot at any ball on). The penalty for all fouls is the value of the ball on (but at least four points). Penalties are added to opponent's score. The striker must attempt to hit the ball on, no deliberate misses are allowed.
The International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF) publishes the official snooker rules used in amateur competitions worldwide. The rules were rewritten for clarity late in 1994 and approved by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) in 1994 and the IBSF in 1995. The new rule booklet can be ordered from your national Snooker association, if it is a member of the IBSF, or directly from the EASB at
EASBfor 5 pounds and P&P. The BCA book has the IBSF rules too, but the 1995 book has the old version before the major rewrite with some minor differences, notably the new foul-and-a-miss rule. Also, on the Internet, the 1995 BCA version of the IBSF rules is at http://www.tky.hut.fi/~sbo/pub/English_documents/Rules/Snooker.txt as well as the Snooker referees' test paper from 1987.
Freya Broad
27 Oakfield Road
Clifton
Bristol BS8 2AT
UK
Played with two white balls and a red ball, on a table without pockets. One of the white balls has two dots on it, and the two players each use one for their cue ball. If your cue ball hits both object balls, you score a point. Variations are three-cushion and one-cushion - in each case, you must hit the required number of rails before hitting your second object ball. Tournaments are now played with a set consisting of a yellow, red, and white ball, which makes the game easier to follow.
For more info:http://interactive.line.com/~ira/billiards.html
