Pool rules
How each game is played, and how League Night scores it.
League Night scores seven game types. Each guide below covers the object of the game, the rack, how a turn works and what counts as a foul — plus how the scoring pad handles it, which is the part general rules sites cannot tell you.
Eight-ball
The league standard: claim a group, clear it, call the 8.
Eight-ball is the game most league nights are built on. Two players split the fifteen object balls into solids and stripes, clear their own group, and finish by calling the 8 into a nominated pocket.
Scored to 5 racks by default
Nine-ball
Lowest ball first, and the 9 ends it whenever it falls.
Nine-ball is the fastest of the rotation games. You must always contact the lowest-numbered ball first, and the rack ends the moment the 9 is legally pocketed — which can happen on any shot, including the break.
Scored to 7 racks by default
Ten-ball
Nine-ball with the luck taken out: everything is called.
Ten-ball is the rotation game serious players reach for. The structure is nine-ball's, with one ball added and one rule changed: every shot must be called, so nothing slops in.
Scored to 7 racks by default
Straight pool (14.1 continuous)
Every ball is a point, and the rack never really ends.
Straight pool is the classic points game. Any ball in any called pocket scores one point, and when only one ball is left the other fourteen are re-racked so a run can continue indefinitely.
Scored to 100 points by default
One-pocket
Two players, two pockets, and the most patient game in pool.
In one-pocket each player owns a single corner pocket and only scores in that one. Eight balls wins. It is the most strategic game on a pool table and by some distance the slowest.
Scored to 8 balls by default
Bank pool
No straight-ins. Every ball has to come off a rail.
In bank pool every scoring shot must be banked — the object ball has to strike at least one rail before it drops, and it has to be called. It strips the game down to one skill and tests it repeatedly.
Scored to 5 balls per game by default
K-Ball
Rotation, call pocket, and no safeties allowed.
K-Ball is a rotation game played for points: all fifteen balls, lowest first, one point each, re-racked whenever the table is cleared, to a set total. Safeties are forbidden, which makes it the most relentlessly offensive game on this list.
Scored to 100 points by default