How Was 9 BALL First Discovered?

CJ Wiley

ESPN WORLD OPEN CHAMPION
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"How was 9Ball discovered?" ..... I think the story goes like this....Once upon a time in a far away land there were three wise men that found out about a game that was the key to unlocking the kingdom of wisdom.....these 3 men broke into the King's chambers one night and stole this game...it was a game with 9 balls in numeric order and one white ball.....the wise men felt "enlightened" in the presence of the game and then felt fear that someone would find out about their game and seek to kill them and take the sacred game....the first wise man said "we must hide this game on the highest mountain where no man will ever find it".....the second wise man said "no, these humans love to climb mountains and one day they will climb to the top of the highest mountain and find the sacred game....the third wise man said "let's hide the game in the deepest ocean, where no one will ever find it"...the first said "men are very crafty and may someday build swimming machines that will go to the bottom of the ocean and find the sacred game"......then all three had the same idea and brightened at their burst of wisdom......"I know" said the wise men together "we'll hide the game on a rectangular table with 6 pockets, no one will ever think to find the sacred game there!!!" ....... I think that's the story of the development of 9Ball, but of course, like Dennis Miller says "I could be wrong" ;-) ... I'm not sure about 10Ball, that's a totally different story, I think it involved 4 drunk guys in a bar that got mad because the corner ball kept going in on the break........LoL - C J Wiley www.cjwiley.com
 
Cjs, you're as right as rain. Although I don't know very much about 9 ball, a friend of mine told me that exact same story and I believed him. He told it to me while I was visiting him in the county lock-up. He's doing a year for fraud. Anyway, did you know that One Pocket was orininally played on a table with only one pocket?
An inventor by the name of Silas Abernathy, built a table with one pocket so that he could while away the hours playing his new game. One day a friend dropped by and asked Silas if he could play, to. Wanting to impress his friend, Silas said, "Sure, and I see you brought your own cue, eh?" Silas was from Minnesota.
Well, it wasn't long before he realized that two people playing on a table with only one pocket wasn't going to work very well so he broke out his trusty key-hole saw and created another pocket.
The rest, as they say, is history. :smile:

P.S. The first liar doesn't have a chance around here, eh?
 
I don't know when 9-ball was first thought of and played, but I wonder
if it was after the time when bowling used 9 pins set up in a diamond
Pattern. In bowling they had so much gambling on the game of 9 pin, that a law was made outlawing 9 pin. So what they did was add a pin and set the pins in a triangle pattern to get around the law. That's the history of how bowling became the game it is today, sometimes referred to as ten pin.
If anybody knows if this had anything to do with the game of 9-ball or if 9-ball came before this, I'd like to hear. I don't remember what year bowling added a pin. Funny 9 seems to be a big gambling number in both sports.
 
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I don't know about 9 ball specifically, but I've often wondered if pool wasn't invented by the devil. What other game causes more swearing, lying, cheating, conning, greed, ill will towards others, anger, disappointment, sorrow, ect. Golf comes close, but I think pool has it beat.


p.s. I love pool, and it has a lot of great sides to it too. But, boy, it sure has more than it's share of bad sides.:eek:
 
I think 9 Ball was discovered shortly after the game of 6 Ball was invented.

Someone realized that some dastardly thief stole 6 balls from the box and left them with 9.

My theory and I am sticking to it.
 
Trouble in River City

I don't know about 9 ball specifically, but I've often wondered if pool wasn't invented by the devil. What other game causes more swearing, lying, cheating, conning, greed, ill will towards others, anger, disappointment, sorrow, ect. Golf comes close, but I think pool has it beat.


p.s. I love pool, and it has a lot of great sides to it too. But, boy, it sure has more than it's share of bad sides.:eek:

That's the reputation it got....after this song :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qam1fbQmA_s
 
Quoting my wife after watching me practice for a few minutes, "Gods lat name is not Damnit."

She was laughing while she said it:D
 
Cjs, you're as right as rain. Although I don't know very much about 9 ball, a friend of mine told me that exact same story and I believed him. He told it to me while I was visiting him in the county lock-up. He's doing a year for fraud. Anyway, did you know that One Pocket was orininally played on a table with only one pocket?
An inventor by the name of Silas Abernathy, built a table with one pocket so that he could while away the hours playing his new game. One day a friend dropped by and asked Silas if he could play, to. Wanting to impress his friend, Silas said, "Sure, and I see you brought your own cue, eh?" Silas was from Minnesota.
Well, it wasn't long before he realized that two people playing on a table with only one pocket wasn't going to work very well so he broke out his trusty key-hole saw and created another pocket.
The rest, as they say, is history. :smile:

P.S. The first liar doesn't have a chance around here, eh?

That's quite a story...I wonder what year that would have been in.....sounds like a "Ronnie Allen" tale ;)
 
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I think 9 Ball was discovered shortly after the game of 6 Ball was invented.

Someone realized that some dastardly thief stole 6 balls from the box and left them with 9.

My theory and I am sticking to it.

Actually, it wouldn't surprise me if it was invented pretty much at the same time as 6 Ball. Probably by a couple of nits trying to figure out how to get more play out of a coin op box.

Although 9 Ball probably predates the coin op table so I don't really know.
 
two hustlers who lacked the skill to play straight pool with the big kids .. fell back on an old hustler trick to make money...

Mosconi treated 9 ball players like clowns. because they deserved it... it's a crying shame that his most hated game still bears his name

9 ball WAS a luck game.. until the perfect rack was invented.. now it's completely useless...

what do they say about insanity??? something about doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result...

if you want to find out who the best player is .. you play 14.1 round robin....

if you want to hustle the fish you play 9 ball

playing runnout 9ball does NOT make you a world class pro.. hell in most cities it doesn't even make you a shortstop.

to make pool worthwhile you need integrity.. not saver grubbing pot chopping gambler hacks... you need MEN playing to win... if you don't have that you don't have anything... and no amount of laser show bullshit will change that..
 
Staying awake

two hustlers who lacked the skill to play straight pool with the big kids .. fell back on an old hustler trick to make money...

Mosconi treated 9 ball players like clowns. because they deserved it... it's a crying shame that his most hated game still bears his name

9 ball WAS a luck game.. until the perfect rack was invented.. now it's completely useless...

what do they say about insanity??? something about doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result...

if you want to find out who the best player is .. you play 14.1 round robin....

if you want to hustle the fish you play 9 ball

playing runnout 9ball does NOT make you a world class pro.. hell in most cities it doesn't even make you a shortstop.

to make pool worthwhile you need integrity.. not saver grubbing pot chopping gambler hacks... you need MEN playing to win... if you don't have that you don't have anything... and no amount of laser show bullshit will change that..

That's funny...I played in one 14.1 tournament in my life....they ask me what the toughest part of the game was and I said "staying awake" ....I'm not sure they appreciated that remark ;)
 
Actually it was discovered by the Earl of Kennedy back in the 17th century in a castle basement. In Europe back then they played "billiards" a game with 3 ball and no pockets. When it came over on the Mayflower they had to convert from metric to english. So 3 balls now became 9 and no pockets converted to 5.6 which was rounded up to todays 6 pockets.
Sometimes in old old poolrooms in a dark corner you'll find a table with 5 normal pockets and 1 shimmed one thats not to hustle in comming road players. Its an actual original true table built to the correct metric conversion.
 
Lyng and cheating?

I don't know about 9 ball specifically, but I've often wondered if pool wasn't invented by the devil. What other game causes more swearing, lying, cheating, conning, greed, ill will towards others, anger, disappointment, sorrow, ect. Golf comes close, but I think pool has it beat.


p.s. I love pool, and it has a lot of great sides to it too. But, boy, it sure has more than it's share of bad sides.:eek:

You could also be describing all professional sports today...

Donny L
PBIA/ACS Instructor
 
That's funny...I played in one 14.1 tournament in my life....they ask me what the toughest part of the game was and I said "staying awake" ....I'm not sure they appreciated that remark ;)

Funny, same thing happened to me during a one pocket tournament.
:p
 
Pool Branded as "the devil's tool' in 1962 'Trouble in River City'

You could also be describing all professional sports today...

Donny L
PBIA/ACS Instructor




By the presence of a pool table in your community.
Ya got trouble, my friend, right here,
I say, trouble right here in River City.
Why sure I'm a billiard player,
Certainly mighty proud I say
I'm always mighty proud to say it.
I consider that the hours I spend
With a cue in my hand are golden.
Help you cultivate horse sense
And a cool head and a keen eye.
Never take and try to give
An iron-clad leave to yourself
From a three-reail billiard shot?
But just as I say,
It takes judgement, brains, and maturity to score
In a balkline game,
I say that any boob kin take
And shove a ball in a pocket.
And they call that sloth.
The first big step on the road
To the depths of deg-ra-Day--
I say, first, medicinal wine from a teaspoon,
Then beer from a bottle.
An' the next thing ya know,
Your son is playin' for money
In a pinch-back suit.
And list'nin to some big out-a-town Jasper
Hearin' him tell about horse-race gamblin'.
Not a wholesome trottin' race, no!
But a race where they set down right on the horse!
Like to see some stuck-up jockey'boy
Sittin' on Dan Patch? Make your blood boil?
Well, I should say.
Friends, lemme tell you what I mean.
Ya got one, two, three, four, five, six pockets in a table.
Pockets that mark the diff'rence
Between a gentlemen and a bum,
With a capital "B,"
And that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool!
And all week long your River City
Youth'll be frittern away,
I say your young men'll be frittern!
Frittern away their noontime, suppertime, choretime too!
Get the ball in the pocket,
Never mind gittin' Dandelions pulled
Or the screen door patched or the beefsteak pounded.
Never mind pumpin' any water
'Til your parents are caught with the Cistern empty
On a Saturday night and that's trouble,
Oh, yes we got lots and lots a' trouble.
I'm thinkin' of the kids in the knickerbockers,
Shirt-tail young ones, peekin' in the pool
Hall window after school, look, folks!
Right here in River City.
Trouble with a capital "T"
And that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool!
[ From: http://www.metrolyrics.com/ya-got-trouble-lyrics-music-man.html ]
Now, I know all you folks are the right kinda parents.
I'm gonna be perfectly frank.
Would ya like to know what kinda conversation goes
On while they're loafin' around that Hall?
They're tryin' out Bevo, tryin' out cubebs,
Tryin' out Tailor Mades like Cigarette Feends!
And braggin' all about
How they're gonna cover up a tell-tale breath with Sen-Sen.
One fine night, they leave the pool hall,
Headin' for the dance at the Arm'ry!
Libertine men and Scarlet women!
And Rag-time, shameless music
That'll grab your son and your daughter
With the arms of a jungle animal instink!
Mass-staria!
Friends, the idle brain is the devil's playground!


Read more: MUSIC MAN - YA GOT TROUBLE LYRICS http://www.metrolyrics.com/ya-got-trouble-lyrics-music-man.html#ixzz26NORHVy1
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