8-ball is played with fifteen object balls and the cue ball. Balls 1 to 7 are the solids, 9 to 15 are the stripes, and the black 8 belongs to nobody. Each player claims one group of seven, clears it, and then pockets the 8 to win. That much everyone agrees on. The details below follow the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) rules, which are the standard for tournament play. Pub, bar and league rules vary a good deal, and the places they most often differ are flagged as they come up.
The rack and the break
The balls are racked in a triangle with the apex ball on the foot spot and the 8 ball in the centre of the triangle — the middle of the third row. One back corner holds a stripe and the other a solid; the rest go in at random.
The breaker plays from behind the head string, the line across the table a quarter of its length from the top cushion (the area behind it is often called the kitchen). The break shot is not called, and it is legal only if the breaker either pockets a ball or drives at least four object balls to a cushion. A soft break that does neither is a foul, and the incoming player can either take the table as it lies or have it re-racked and choose who breaks again.
Two break outcomes need their own rules:
- The cue ball goes in. It is a foul. Any object balls pocketed stay down, the table is open, and the incoming player gets the cue ball in hand behind the head string.
- The 8 goes in. Under WPA rules this is not a win. The breaker can have the 8 spotted and carry on shooting, or re-rack and break again. If the cue ball also goes in, the choice passes to the opponent. Many bar rules treat the 8 on the break as an instant win instead.
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The open table
After the break the table is open, whatever went down on it. A player who breaks in two solids and a stripe has not claimed solids; nobody owns anything yet.
While the table is open, a player may hit a solid first to pocket a stripe, or the other way round, because neither group is anyone's yet. Under WPA rules every shot after the break must be called — the ball and the pocket — though an obvious shot does not have to be announced aloud. Banks, kicks and combinations are not obvious and should be called.
Groups are decided by the first called ball legally pocketed after the break — never by the break itself. If a player calls the 12 in the corner and makes it, they have stripes, even if two solids fell with it.
If the shooter misses the called ball, the table stays open and the turn passes. If the called ball goes in but the shot is a foul — the cue ball is pocketed, say — the table also stays open.
Shooting your group
Once groups are set, a legal shot has two parts. The cue ball must first strike a ball of your own group, and after that contact either a ball must be pocketed or any ball, cue ball included, must reach a cushion.
You keep the table for as long as you pocket the ball you called. Extra balls that drop on a legal shot stay down, whichever group they come from: an opponent's ball knocked in counts for them, not against you. Under WPA rules every foul gives the incoming player the cue ball in hand anywhere on the table. Many bar rules instead give the opponent two visits, or limit ball in hand to the kitchen.
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The 8 ball
When your seven balls are gone, the 8 becomes your object ball. You call it into a specific pocket like any other ball, and a legal pot wins the game. It is also the only ball that can lose the game outright. Under WPA rules you lose if you:
- Pocket the 8 before your group is cleared, on any shot after the break.
- Pocket the 8 on the same shot as the last ball of your group.
- Pocket the 8 in a pocket other than the one you called.
- Commit a foul — a scratch, or hitting the wrong ball first — on the shot that pockets the 8.
- Drive the 8 off the table.
What does not lose the game under WPA rules is a foul when shooting at the 8 that leaves it on the table. Scratch while trying for the 8 and miss it, and your opponent simply takes ball in hand. Many bar rules make any scratch on the 8 a loss, pocketed or not, so it is worth agreeing this before the first rack.
| Situation | WPA rules | Often in bars |
|---|---|---|
| 8 pocketed on the break | Re-spot the 8 or re-rack | Breaker wins |
| Penalty for a foul | Ball in hand anywhere | Ball in hand behind the head string, or two visits |
| Scratch on the 8, 8 stays up | Foul only | Loss of game |
| Calling shots | Every shot after the break | Often only the 8 |
What the open table is for
Leaving the table open after the break is deliberate. It lets the next player choose the group with the better spread — fewer balls in clusters or frozen to a cushion — rather than inheriting whatever happened to fall. And the loss conditions explain why clearing your group fast is not automatically good: once your balls are gone, the opponent's become blockers around the 8, and you have nothing left to play safe with.
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