How to Play 8 Ball Pool

Pot all seven balls in your group (solids 1–7 or stripes 9–15), then legally pot the 8 ball before your opponent does.

The fifteen object balls are racked in a triangle with the 8 ball in the middle. One player breaks from behind the head string. Groups aren't assigned yet — the table is 'open'.

1. 1Break. Strike the rack hard from behind the line. If you pot a ball on the break you keep shooting; if not, your opponent comes to the table. Pot only solids or only stripes on the break and that group is yours.
2. 2Claim a group. The first ball legally potted after the break decides your group: pot a solid and you're on solids, pot a stripe and you're on stripes.
3. 3Hit your own ball first. On every shot the cue ball must hit one of your own balls first. Once your group is cleared, it must hit the 8 first.
4. 4Keep your turn. Pot one of your balls legally and you shoot again. Miss, and it's your opponent's turn.
5. 5Fouls give ball in hand. Potting the cue ball (a scratch), hitting the wrong group or the 8 first, or missing every ball is a foul. Your opponent gets ball in hand and can place the cue ball anywhere.
6. 6Finish on the 8. Once your group is cleared, pot the 8 to win. Pot the 8 early, or scratch while potting it, and you lose the frame.

8 Ball Pool is played slightly differently from place to place. These are the variants you're most likely to meet:

• •WPA / tournament rules. Players must call the pocket for each shot, a ball must reach a cushion after contact on every shot, and the break has its own legality rules.
• •UK blackball. Played with red and yellow unnumbered balls on a smaller table; a foul usually gives the opponent two visits instead of ball in hand.
• •Bar rules. Often 'slop counts' (any pot counts, called or not) and scratching on the 8 is a loss. Rules vary from table to table.

How 8 Ball Pool works in Multiplayer Games:

• •No calling pockets — any of your balls potted legally counts.
• •No 'must hit a cushion' rule: the only fouls are missing everything, hitting the wrong group (or the 8) first, and scratching.
• •Any foul gives your opponent ball in hand anywhere on the table.
• •Pot only one group on the break and it's yours; pot both and the table stays open.
• •Potting the 8 before your group is cleared, or scratching while potting it, loses the frame.

• •Before every shot, decide where the cue ball should stop — position for the next ball matters more than the pot itself.
• •Leave awkward balls of your opponent's group in front of pockets: they act as blockers.
• •Break clusters early, while you still have other easy pots to come back to.
• •If there's no good pot, play safe: hide the cue ball behind your balls so your opponent has nothing to hit cleanly.
• •Use spin sparingly. Top and back spin are for positioning; side spin makes pots harder.

• •Rushing to pot easy balls and leaving yourself stuck behind a cluster at the end.
• •Forgetting that the cue ball must touch your group first — a lovely pot after the wrong first contact is still a foul.
• •Going for a thin cut on the 8 when a safety would win the frame next visit.

Break

The opening shot into the racked balls.

Open table

Before groups are decided — any object ball may be hit first.

Scratch

Potting the cue ball. A foul.

Ball in hand

After a foul, the incoming player places the cue ball anywhere.

Safety

A defensive shot that leaves your opponent nothing easy to pot.

Cut

Hitting the object ball off-centre to send it at an angle.

Eight-ball grew out of earlier American pocket billiards games in the early 1900s and became the most widely played pool game in the world. Its rules were never fully uniform: bars, leagues and countries all developed their own house rules, which is why you'll hear arguments about 'calling pockets' or what happens when the 8 drops on the break.

Today the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) publishes the standard international rules used in professional play, while casual and mobile versions — including ours — keep things simpler so a frame flows quickly.

We checked these rules against:

1. World Pool-Billiard Association — Rules of Play (2025)
2. Encyclopaedia Britannica — Eight ball
3. Wikipedia — Eight-ball

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