English pool rules: how UK pub pool is played
The game on a pub table in Britain is not the game you see on American TV. Different table, different balls, different rules. In the UK it’s called English pool, English eight-ball, blackball, or just “pool” if you’re standing in the pub. These are the UK pool rules, as played in a pub and in the leagues.
This page is how a frame goes. There’s one thing that catches people out, and it’s near the bottom: the two-shot rule you probably grew up with is not in the modern rulebooks.
English pool vs American pool
| English pool | American pool | |
|---|---|---|
| Table | 6 ft or 7 ft (league standard) | 8 ft or 9 ft |
| Your balls | 7 reds or 7 yellows | 7 solids or 7 stripes |
| Numbers on them | None | Numbered 1–15 |
| Ball size | About 2 in, white often smaller | 2¼ in, all the same |
| Pockets | Tighter, rounded | Wider |
| The black | Racked on the spot | Racked in the middle |
Smaller table, smaller balls, tighter pockets. Shots are shorter and the table clogs up faster, so English pool is much more about safety play than the American game. Good players spend half a frame making sure you can’t do anything.
How a frame goes
- Break. The balls are racked in a triangle with the black on the spot. The breaker plays from behind the baulk line — the line across the bottom of the table.
- Pick a colour. After the break you’re reds or yellows. Which one depends on the rulebook, but normally it’s the first colour you legally pot.
- Pot your seven. You keep going as long as you keep potting your own.
- Then the black. Once all seven of yours are down, the black is yours to pot. That wins the frame.
Fouls
The usual ones, and they’re the same in every English pool rulebook:
- Potting the white.
- Hitting one of your opponent’s balls first.
- Hitting nothing at all.
- Potting one of your opponent’s balls, unless you pot one of yours too.
- Knocking a ball off the table.
- Touching a ball with anything except the tip of your cue on a proper shot.
- Playing out of turn, or playing before the balls have stopped.
- Jump shots and push shots.
Potting the black too early loses the frame, not just the shot. So does fouling on the shot you pot the black with. Those two are the ones worth remembering.
The bit that has changed: two shots
Ask anyone in a pub what happens after a foul and they will say “two shots”. For years that was right. In the current rulebooks it isn’t.
| Rulebook | Where you’ll meet it | What a foul gives your opponent |
|---|---|---|
| EPA International Rules | English Pool Association leagues, most UK competition | One visit, and the white in hand — play it where it lies or put it anywhere on the table |
| WPA Blackball | World and international events, IPA | One free shot, then one visit. The white can be moved into the baulk area |
| World Rules (1998–2022) | Older league books, lots of pubs | Two visits. No free shot, white stays put |
| Pub / BAPTO rules | Pub tables, house rules | Two visits and a free shot, white can go anywhere in the D |
So “two shots” is the old World Rules and the older pub rules. Both of the codes actually used in competition today give one visit instead — they just make it a much better one, by letting you move the white or play any ball you like first.
Ask before you rack. Two people playing different rulebooks will have an argument by the fourth frame, every time.
What a “free shot” means
Under blackball and pub rules, the shot right after your opponent fouls is a free shot. On that one shot you can hit any ball on the table, including theirs, and it isn’t a foul.
You can’t pot the black on it unless you’ve already cleared your own colour. And a free shot is one shot — if you pot one of your own balls you carry on as normal, and the free part is over.
Must the ball hit a cushion?
Depends on the book, and it changes the whole game.
- WPA Blackball: yes. After the white touches one of your balls, something has to be potted or a ball has to reach a cushion. So you can’t just roll gently up behind a ball and stop.
- EPA and older World Rules: no cushion requirement. “Rolling up” is a real and legal safety, and a good one.
If you learn on one and then play under the other, this is the rule that will foul you.
The black
- Pot it before your seven are down and you lose the frame.
- Foul on the shot you pot it with and you lose the frame — so no potting the black and going in-off after it.
- If the black goes down on the break, it’s normally a re-rack rather than a win.
You don’t have to say which pocket. Calling the black is an American rule, and a house rule in some pubs. It isn’t in the English rulebooks.
Where to practise the shots
No browser game plays proper English pool rules, and this one doesn’t pretend to.
Chalkwick is free pool in your browser — American 8-ball, 9-ball, or rules off entirely so it’s just a table. What crosses over is everything about the shots: the balls carry real spin, the cushions grip it, and the guide line shows you where a bounce is going. If you want to get better at safeties, banks and where the white ends up, that’s the useful half, and it’s free with no download and no account.
Questions people ask
What is pool called in the UK? English pool, or eight-ball. The world rulebook calls it blackball. “Pool” on its own means this game in Britain, not the American one.
How do you play pool in the UK, in one line? Pot your seven reds or seven yellows, then the black, without fouling. The rest of this page is the fouls.
Is killer pool the same game? No. Killer is a pub game for any number of players on the same table: everyone has lives, you lose one each time you miss a pot, and the last player standing wins. It uses the balls, not these rules.
Next
- Blackball rules — the world code, in detail: the free shot, the cushion rule and every way to lose a frame.
- How to play pool — the American game, if that’s the one on your table.
- 8 ball pool rules — solids and stripes, properly.