Return to my Billiard/Pool Pages
Go to my home page
© Copyright 2003, Jim Loy
Bar rules eight ball is not in the rule books. It is similar to other rules, except for these specific rules:
These rules are an invitation for abuse. You can take advantage of these rules to win, or almost never lose. Since there is no penalty for a table scratch, it is very tempting to intentionally table scratch, in order to give your opponent a bad leave. You can really mess things up, with no penalty. Your opponent will tell you that you are cheating (or unethical), and may ask you to step outside, but otherwise there is no penalty for table scratching. To avoid fights, people learn to disquise their misses as mistakes.
Another temptation is the intentional scratch, shooting the cue ball into a pocket. Since your opponent has to shoot from the kitchen, he/she may not have a makable shot, especially if all of his/her balls are in the kitchen. This too is considered cheating (or unethical), and may result in violence.
Yet another temptation is the intentional safety (legally hitting your own ball, but not meaning to make it). The above table scratches and actual scratches are also safeties, but this one is legal in the rule books, too. This is less unethical than the above temptations, and may actually be approved by some players. But to most bar players, a safety is cheating, and may also result in violence.
The theory behind bar rules is that the mindless shooting down of balls is good and smart, and any kind of strategy is cheating. We are told that there is no rule penalizing the above safeties, because pool is a gentleman's game, and players should refrain from using the rules to their advantage, and that we should just shoot down balls. Dream on. Every player with an ounce of brains will realize just how stupid the above rules are, because you are going to get beat by the player who says, "Oops, miscue." When shooting down a ball is the only way to lose, then almost nobody will shoot down that ball. Well that is actually done all the time, but if the player thought about it, he/she would not shoot down that ball.
The above rules, along with the gentleman assumption that safeties are unethical, encourage clever safety play. And violence. The endless arguments and occasional violence is why we have other rules in the rule books.