Everything about Nine-ball totally explained
Nine-ball is a contemporary
pocket billiards (pool) game, with historical beginnings rooted in the
United States and traceable to the 1920s. The game may be played in social and recreational settings by any number of players (generally one-on-one) and subject to whatever rules are agreed upon beforehand, or in league and
tournament settings in which the number of players and the rules are set by the sponsors. During much of its history, nine-ball has been known as a "
money game" in both professional and recreational settings; but today, in major tournament settings, it's respected and remains the dominant game (although
ten-ball is gaining momentum).
In recent years, nine-ball has become the game of choice in championship tournament matches in the United States, basically because a series of games (the "match") proceeds quickly, lends itself well to the time constraints of
television coverage, and tends to keep the audience engaged. The sports network
ESPN has been, for several years, a major catalyst for the popularity of nine-ball and a major sponsor of championship play.
Rules and governing bodies
The general rules the game is played under are fairly consistent and usually don't stray too far from the format set forth in the
Billiard Congress of America (BCA)
BCA World Standardized Rules for Nine Ball
, which have merged with those of the
World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA), to form the World Standardised Rules, although amateur league play may be governed by similar but slightly different rules promulgated by the
American Poolplayers Association (APA) and other organizations.
The rise of "Texas express" rules
For much of its history nine-ball rules allowed participants to "" multiple times during a game
(see "The push-out", below, for the modern push-out rules), meaning any player could call a "push-out", and then hit the cue ball to any area on the table without being penalized by normal rules, such as failure to contact the lowest-numbered ball on the table. However, once a push-out was called and executed, the incoming player had the right to shoot or give the inning back to the opponent. If the player shooting the resulting shot fouled, the other player would have ball-in-hand; hence this manner of play was called the "two-foul" version. "One-foul" became popular in the 1970s, as play turned more aggressive for the early televised matches. This newer version of nine-ball awarded ball-in-hand on any cue ball foul. A now-standard rule variant, which started to sweep the sport of nine-ball in the mid-1980s, restricted the push-out option to once per game and only to the inning immediately following the break. This change profoundly affected the way the game was played. By about 1990 this new push-out rule had become ubiquitous and it and any additional rules appended to it were collectively referred to as "" rules, so called because of the supposed US state of origin and the speeding up of the game. Today, Texas express push-out rules dominate the way nine-ball is played and is the variant incorporated into the official rules maintained by the WPA and its affiliates like the BCA.
European alterations
As of the 2000s, the rules have been somewhat in flux in certain contexts, especially in Europe. The
European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF), BCA's WPA-affiliate counterpart in Europe, has done away with standardized racking techniques, and instead relies upon in the cloth to position the balls, with no
physical ball rack required; these indentations are carefully created using a "", such that the divots are slightly closer together than they'd be expected to be, thus creating ball-on-ball pressure as the balls settle
partially into the divot pattern, into which they can't quite fit. This results in an especially tight rack, without any possibility of cheating by carefully manipulating the ball positions while racking. This innovative racking technique is now the official rack of the EPBF Euro-Tour.
Another Euro-Tour innovation is a new requirement that the break shot be taken from a "", not unlike break shot zone used in
snooker and
blackball, consisting of the middle 50% of the . This change defeats the common break-from-the-side-rail technique for pocketing the 9 ball on the break and winning the game instantly. While 9 ball breaks are still possible, they're much more difficult under the new rule.
Six-ball
Six-ball is essentially identical to nine-ball but with three fewer balls, and racked in a three-row triangle, with the 6 ball (or more often the 15 ball;
see below) as the, placed in the center of the back row. According to
Rudolph "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone, the game arose in early 20th century
billiard halls that charged by the rack instead of by the hour, as nine-ball players had already paid for the 10–15 balls and didn't want to waste them.
This explanation of the game's origin may be particularly plausible because six-ball remains popular today as a diversion or practice round among nine-ball-playing players, using coin-operated tables that deliver a full set of fifteen balls.
Seven-ball
Seven-ball is a similar game, the primary differences being there are only seven object balls, racked in a hexagon, and the game is won by pocketing the 7 ball. Seven-ball is with the 1 ball at the apex on the and the 7 ball (the ) in the center of the hexagon. This game isn't particularly common, and is primarily known because of
ESPN's
Sudden Death Seven-ball which aired in the early 2000s. Though hardly necessary, specialized equipment for the game can be purchased, including a unique black-striped seven ball and a hexagonal rack.
Ten-ball
Ten-ball is a more stringent variant of the game, using ten balls (racked in a triangle with the 10 ball, the in this case, in the center), and in which the money ball
cannot be pocketed early for an early win. Due to its more challenging nature, and the fact that there's no publicly known technique for reliably pocketing specific object balls on the break shot, there have been suggestions among the professional circuit that ten-ball should replace nine-ball as the pro game of choice,
especially since the rise of the nine-ball soft break, which is still legal in most international and non-European competition.
Regardless of the future of the nine-ball versus ten-ball debate, there are already hotly contested professional ten-ball tournaments.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Nine-ball'.
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