A NOTE ON NINE BALL

THE OBJECT OF the pool game called nine ball is simple—pocket the nine ball, and you win. The balls must be played in numerical order, one through nine. To make a legal shot (as opposed to a “foul”) all you must do is cause the cue ball to hit the lowest-numbered ball on the table. This is referred to as a “good hit.” Thus, you can win the game at any time by hitting the lowest-numbered ball in such a way as to cause it to sink the nine. This is called a “combination shot.” Since there are so few balls in the game, good players can often “run out,” in other words, sink every ball in numerical order up to and including the nine. But let’s say your opponent runs balls one through eight, playing brilliantly, but he/she misses the nine. If you then make the nine, you win. Sinking that ball is all that matters.

These are the general rules. There are some subtleties. There is, for instance, the “one-foul, ball-in-hand” rule. A foul results when a player scratches or fails to make a good hit. The penalty for a foul is serious, often decisive: the other player gets to place the cue ball anywhere on the table before he starts shooting. From that start, even mediocre players often run out.

You can try to cause your opponent to foul by driving the lowest-numbered ball into a strategically disadvantageous position, say, behind a cluster of higher-numbered balls. Since now he cannot hit the lowest ball directly, your opponent must bank the cue ball off one or more rails to make a good hit. Even if he succeeds, you have forced him to make a purely defensive shot.

Nine ball is all about cue-ball control. The point isn’t just to pocket that lowest ball, because doing so means nothing. The point is to pocket it and move the cue ball around the table in such a way as to leave yourself a good shot on the next lowest, and the next, and so on up to the nine or to an easy combination on the nine. It takes several years of experience to learn how to “play position” and many more to execute it consistently.

Finally, a word about the handicapping system in nine ball: in order to give a lesser player a chance against a better player, the lesser is given a “spot.” The spot comes in the form of a second “pay ball.” The spot is agreed upon before the match begins. Say the lesser player gets the seven ball as his spot. He now has two ways of winning, either by sinking the seven ball or the nine ball. From the better player’s perspective, this is called “giving weight.” If no spot is involved—if the players’ ability, or “speed,” is equal—the game is said to be played “head up.”