How to play 8-ball pool

Pot your seven balls, solids or stripes, and then the black eight, before the other player does. Put the eight down too early and the rack is theirs.

Set a table up

Players: 2
What you need: A pool table, a cue, fifteen numbered balls and a white cue ball
How long: A rack takes five or ten minutes

What eight-ball is

Eight-ball is played on a table twice as long as it is wide, with a pocket in each corner and one in the middle of each long side. You strike the white cue ball with a cue, and the cue ball knocks the numbered balls into the pockets.

It is the game the pool halls in Kathmandu, Pokhara and every other city fill up for after office hours, and the one most people mean by pool. Two play, taking turns at the same table.

Here you can play bots at four levels, a friend online, or two people passing one phone.

The rack at the foot of the table, and the cue ball behind the head string.

The table

The table here is a seven-foot one, the size a hall has in the corner: 198 by 99 cm of cloth inside the cushions. The six pockets are about two balls wide at the mouth, a little wider in the middle than at the corners.

A line across the near quarter of the table is the head string, and the space behind it is the kitchen, where the cue ball goes for the break. A spot a quarter of the way from the far end is the foot spot, where the rack stands.

The rack

Fifteen balls go in a triangle, the front ball on the foot spot.
The eight goes in the middle of the third row.
One back corner holds a solid and the other a stripe. The rest are placed any way.
The breaker puts the cue ball down anywhere behind the head string. The break goes back and forth from rack to rack.

A shot

Aim the cue ball so that it meets the object ball on the side away from the pocket. The object ball goes off along the line from where the two touch through its own centre.

Pot a ball of your own group on a fair shot and you shoot again. Your turn lasts as long as you keep potting.

A ball of the other player's group that you pot stays down and counts for them, and unless you potted one of yours as well, your turn ends.

The dashed circle is where the cue ball has to be when it touches: the ghost ball.

Solids and stripes

Balls 1 to 7 are solids, all one colour. Balls 9 to 15 are stripes, white with a band of colour. After the break the table is open, and you may hit any ball but the eight first.

The first ball potted fairly after the break decides the groups: its player takes its group and the other player the other. Balls potted on the break do not decide it.

Fouls

It is a foul to put the cue ball in a pocket, to miss every ball, or to hit a ball of the other group first. Once the groups are set, the eight counts as the wrong ball until your group is down.

It is also a foul when the cue ball hits a ball and then nothing goes into a pocket and no ball reaches a cushion. A break is a foul unless it pots a ball or drives four balls to a cushion.

After any foul the other player has ball in hand: they put the cue ball down anywhere on the table before they shoot. Balls potted on a foul stay down.

Hit a ball full with topspin and the cue ball follows it. Here it follows it into the pocket, which is a foul.

The eight

When your seven are all down you play the eight, and the eight has to be the first ball you hit. Pot it on a fair shot and the rack is yours.

Pot the eight before your group is cleared and you lose the rack. Pot it on a foul, the cue ball following it in, and you lose the rack as well.

An eight that goes down on the break comes back to the foot spot and the breaker plays on. A match is a race: the first to win the agreed number of racks wins it.

The eight goes in any pocket once your group is down.

Playing here

To aim, press on the table and the cue points from the cue ball towards your finger. Move your finger and the cue follows. Move it slowly to aim finely: a slow drag turns the cue at a quarter of the speed.

To shoot, pull the power bar under the table back as far as you want and let go. The cue draws back on the table as you pull. Let go near nothing and the shot is called off.

The aim guide runs from the cue ball to the ghost ball, where it will touch the ball it hits.

The four buttons beside the power are where the cue meets the cue ball. High gives topspin, so the cue ball follows the ball it hits. The middle rolls it naturally. A touch low stops it dead on a full hit, and low gives backspin, so it comes back.

With ball in hand, the cue ball pulses. Drag it to where you want it and then aim. On the break it can only go behind the head string.

On a computer the mouse works the same way. A and D or the arrow keys turn the cue, W and S set the power, and Space shoots. On a sideways phone the table lies across the screen, where it is biggest.

A few tactics

Think about where the cue ball will stop, not only about the pot. Your next shot starts there.
Do not hit harder than you need. A gentle pot drops as surely as a hard one and leaves the cue ball near the middle.
Take the group with fewer balls in trouble. A ball stuck on a cushion or against another is hard to pot later.
When there is no pot, play safe: hit your ball softly and leave the cue ball where the other player has nothing to hit.
Do not clear your group and leave the eight behind a cushion. Plan the last ball so the eight is easy.

Settings

Every setting is on the game's page before you start. These are the defaults, and what changing each one does.

Setting	Standard	What it changes
Who is playing	Against a bot	Play a bot, a friend online, or two people on this phone
Difficulty	Medium	How many shots a bot looks for, how it plays for position, and how steady its aim is
Race to	3 racks	One rack for a short game, five for a long one
Aim guide	To the ball the cue ball hits first	Shows where both balls go after the hit, or nothing at all
Speed	1×	Plays the shots and the pauses faster

Words

Cue ball: The white ball, the only one you strike with the cue.
Solids: Balls 1 to 7, all one colour.
Stripes: Balls 9 to 15, white with a band of colour.
Break: The first shot of a rack, into the triangle.
Kitchen: The quarter of the table behind the head string, where the cue ball goes for the break.
Ball in hand: Putting the cue ball down anywhere you like, after the other player's foul.
Scratch: Putting the cue ball in a pocket.
Ghost ball: Where the cue ball has to be at the moment it touches the ball, to send it the way you want.
Rack: The triangle of balls, and one game of eight-ball from the break until the eight goes down.

Every rule on this page is the one the app plays by. Change any of them on the game's own page before you start.