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.
The object of the game
Eight-ball is played with a cue ball and fifteen object balls. One player takes the solids (1 through 7), the other the stripes (9 through 15). Your aim is to pocket every ball in your group and then legally pocket the 8 ball in a pocket you have called.
The 8 is not yours until your group is gone. Pocketing it early, or scratching on it, loses the game outright — which is why the last two balls of a rack are where most matches are actually decided.
The rack and the break
Rack all fifteen balls in a triangle with the apex ball on the foot spot and the 8 in the centre of the third row. The two corner balls of the back row should be one solid and one stripe. Beyond that, most league rules do not require a particular arrangement.
The table is open immediately after the break: neither player owns a group yet, regardless of what went down. Groups are decided by the first ball legally pocketed after the break — so a player who pockets a stripe and a solid on the same shot has still not chosen, and a good breaker can shoot again with the whole table available.
How a turn works
You keep shooting as long as you legally pocket a ball from your own group. Miss, and the turn passes. Most league rulesets play call shot: you nominate the ball and the pocket, and a ball that falls anywhere else does not count as a made shot even though it stays down.
A safety is a legal shot played deliberately to leave your opponent with nothing. It ends your turn even if a ball drops, and declaring it matters — an undeclared ball that falls is treated as a made shot.
Fouls
The common fouls are failing to hit one of your own balls first, failing to drive any ball to a rail after contact, pocketing the cue ball, and knocking a ball off the table. Under most league rules the penalty is ball in hand: your opponent may place the cue ball anywhere.
Ball in hand is heavier than it first looks. At the level most league players shoot, conceding it with a clear table usually concedes the rack — which is why safety play matters more in eight-ball than beginners expect.
How League Night scores it
Eight-ball is scored by racks. Each rack won is one point toward the match, and by default a match is a race to 5. Your league, or whoever creates the match, can set a different race.
The scoring pad records a rack at a time, along with break and run, table run, scratch, scratch on break, foul and safety. Those do not change the score in eight-ball; they are recorded because break-and-run and table-run feed the Gamify payout sheet, and because a foul count is worth having when you review a match afterwards.
Other games
Nine-ball·Ten-ball·Straight pool (14.1 continuous)·One-pocket·Bank pool·K-Ball