8-ball pool rules

Setting up

• Rack the balls: place the 15 coloured balls in a triangular rack, with the 8-ball in the middle. Make sure the balls are tight against each other.
• Position: the front ball of the triangle sits on the foot spot of the table.

The break

• One player breaks with the cue ball from behind the head string. In a legal break at least four balls hit a cushion, or a ball is potted.
• If the breaker pots a ball, they keep playing. If nothing is potted, it is the opponent's turn.

Solids or stripes

The first ball legally potted after the break decides your group: solids or stripes. From then on you only play your own group.

Shots and turns

• Always hit a ball of your own group first with the cue ball. If you do and you pot a ball, you keep playing.
• If you pot nothing or commit a foul, it is your opponent's turn.

Fouls

• Scratch: if the cue ball drops into a pocket, your opponent may place the cue ball anywhere on the table.
• Wrong ball: hitting an opponent's ball first is a foul.
• No cushion: if no ball hits a cushion after contact with the cue ball, it is a foul.

Winning

Once all your own balls are potted, you pot the 8-ball in a called pocket to win. You lose if you:

• pot the 8-ball before all your own balls are gone;
• pot the 8-ball in a different pocket than the one you called;
• commit a foul while potting the 8-ball.

Special situations

If a ball is knocked off the table, it goes back on the foot spot. Not the 8-ball: knocking that off the table means you lose the game.

See the 9-ball rules too