8 ball pool rules: the complete guide
The 8 ball pool rules are what most people mean when they say “a game of pool”. Pot your seven balls, then pot the black, and win. Simple to describe, and there are a handful of rules underneath it that decide most games between people who have never read them.
Here’s the lot. If you only want the basics, the first list is enough for a game tonight.
8 ball pool basic rules, in six lines
- Rack fifteen balls in a triangle, black in the middle. One player breaks.
- The first ball you pot after the break decides your group: solids (1 to 7) or stripes (9 to 15).
- Pot all seven of your group, then pot the black to win.
- Miss, or foul, and it is the other player’s turn. After a foul they can put the white anywhere.
- Potting the black early, or potting the white with it, loses the game on the spot.
- Everything else on this page is the detail under those six lines.
Setting up
Fifteen numbered balls plus the white cue ball.
- 1 to 7 are solids — one block of colour.
- 9 to 15 are stripes — a white ball with a coloured band.
- 8 is the black.
Rack all fifteen in a triangle at the far end, with the point aimed at the person breaking. Three things must be true:
- the 8 ball goes in the middle of the triangle
- the two back corners must be one solid and one stripe
- the balls must be pressed together so the break doesn’t just nudge them
The break
The breaker plays the white from behind the line at the near end of the table.
For the break to be legal, either a ball must go down or at least four balls must reach a cushion. If neither happens, it’s a foul and your opponent re-racks or takes the table.
Potting the white on the break is a foul, but not a loss — your opponent takes ball in hand.
Potting the 8 on the break is usually re-racked rather than a win or a loss. This is the rule that varies most between pubs, so agree it before you start.
Solids or stripes
Here’s the bit that surprises people: the break does not decide your group, even if you pot something.
After the break the table is open. Whoever pots the first ball on a normal, legal shot takes that group. If you pot a solid, you’re solids for the rest of the game and your opponent has stripes.
While the table is open you may hit any ball first except the black.
Taking your turn
You keep shooting as long as you keep potting your own balls. Pot one, shoot again. Miss, and it’s the other player’s turn.
On every shot after your group is decided, the white must touch one of your own balls first.
Every foul, in one list
A foul gives your opponent ball in hand — the white goes wherever they want it.
- Potting the white. A scratch. The most common foul there is.
- Hitting the opponent’s ball first, or the black, before one of yours.
- Hitting no ball at all.
- No ball reaching a cushion after contact, and nothing potted. This exists to stop people tapping the white an inch and calling it a shot.
- Knocking a ball off the table.
- Touching any ball with your hand, sleeve, or the cue tip.
- Both feet off the floor when you shoot, in formal play.
Potting one of your opponent’s balls is not a foul in most rules. It just counts for them, which is bad enough.
The black, and the four ways to lose on it
Once all seven of your balls are down, the 8 is yours.
You win by potting the black on a legal shot.
You lose immediately if you:
- pot the black before clearing your own group
- pot the black and the white on the same shot
- knock the black off the table
- commit any foul on the shot that pots the black
Some rules also require you to call the pocket for the black and lose if it goes in a different one. This is another one worth agreeing before you start.
If you pot the white on the black, do you lose?
Yes. Potting the black and the white on the same shot is a loss in every eight ball rulebook, bar rules included. It does not matter which ball dropped first. If the black stays up and only the white goes in, that is an ordinary foul: the black is respotted if it moved off the table, and your opponent gets ball in hand.
Three habits that win games
- Look at the whole table before you pick a shot. Which of your balls is hardest? If it needs a particular position, play toward that one early while you still have easy balls in reserve.
- Do not pot your last ball without a plan for the black. People clear their group beautifully and then find the 8 buried at the far end with the white in the wrong place.
- Play safe when you have nothing. A hopeful long pot that misses usually leaves an easy table. Rolling the white behind one of your opponent’s balls is often the stronger move.
Play a game now
Chalkwick is free 8-ball in your browser, no download and no account. It racks correctly — black in the middle, a solid and a stripe in the back corners — and it tells you when your group has been decided and what you’re on.
There’s also a practice mode with no turns and no fouls, which is where to go if you just want to find out what the ball does before playing a real frame. And three opponents: one who plays occasionally, one who plays weekly, and one who owns the table.