The Basic Rules of 8-Ball Pool

Hello. Today, I will be talking about the basic rules of 8-Ball Pool. It is the easiest and most widely played type of billiards.

In 8-Ball, all 15 balls are used in the game. "...the only requirements are that the 8-ball must be in the center, one corner ball must be a solid, and the other corner ball must be a stripe. The remaining balls should be distributed randomly, although this is not a requirement" (Alciatore 6).

As you can see, this is the correct setup for 8-Ball pool, according to the book.

I have duplicated the setup seen in the picture. The 8-ball is in the center, and there is a striped ball in one corner, and a solid ball in the other. The rest of the balls are randomly placed.

In 8-Ball, the main objective should be to pocket all of one of the groups (solids or stripes), then the 8-ball (Alciatore 6). This means that if the first ball you strike is a striped ball, you need to pocket the other striped balls before the opponent pockets the solid balls.

Overall, I feel that I've learned a lot about billiards from reading the book. Now that I can properly set up for a game, I feel confident that I can execute games smoothly with my friends.

My question to you is: Would you put the other balls in numerical order, or random? This also means you can arrange them according to their patterns, which may alter the outcome of the game.

Alciatore, David G. The Illustrated Principles of Pool and Billiards. New York, Sterling Pub., 2004.