rules question on 8 ball

oldplayer

oldplayer

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
had a match last night wherein the 8 ball was hanging in the pocket, shot thecue ball and the 2 balls went in side by side (perfectly), went just inside the pocket shelf but both were still just barley touching the cloth. what is the rule here? and based on the answer, what was the best thing to do? my understanding is that the old rule changed, that being, lift one of the balls up, if the other falls in, then it is a leggal shot. but thaat has since changed to either shoot the shot or take a foul and pass the shot to the opponent...(that could pass back and forth all night, so rerack and do over?)...what do ya'll say?
 
I'm not sure what the rule is in the case of it being the 8 ball here which is a game winner or loser, but to clarify your post a bit, the cueball and the 8 ball are jammed inside the jaws and they look to be holding each other up from falling in correct?
 
I don't think this rule has changed.

Both balls go down. In this case, loss of game.

randyg
 
both balls REALLY jammed in the pocket, equally "inside the mouth of the pocket........hanging over the lip of the pocket but just touching the felt (maybe by 1/16 inch), but oddly equal. WTH?
 
Not super clear what happened... you had an 8 hanging in the side, you sent the cue ball at it,
and the cue ball wedged up next to the 8 ball, and they both just hung in the hole unable to drop?

Which rule set do you want to use?

WPA:
A ball near the brink of a pocket partly supported by another ball is considered pocketed
if removal of the supporting ball would cause the ball to fall into the pocket.

BCA
If balls are wedged in the mouth of a pocket, a referee will inspect them and judge
whether, if they were free to fall directly downward, the balls would come to rest on the
bed of the table or in the pocket. The referee will then place the balls in the positions as
judged and play will continue.

They actually say the same thing:
Where would these balls end up, if the other ball wasn't preventing them from getting there?

If the answer is "in the hole", pick 'em up an drop them in the hole
(so, scratch on the 8, loss of game in this case).

If the answer is "one would be on the lip" then pick it up and rest it on the lip,
and drop the other one in the hole.

I'm not sure what you'd do if it appears both balls would be resting on the lip.
 
thanks for all the rules....one source last night suggested that each could take a foul and be there all night or rerack and play that game over......the balls were so tight that you really could not pick up one ball....they were both equally hanging over the pocket...what happened was, the one opponenet took a fould and passed the play back to the one who tried to pocket the eight, he shot hard at the cue ball out of the pocket and the eight followed.....he ended up losing....i think reracking would have been more fair considering the unusual circumstances.
 
Actually, if player 1 took the foul and passed the shot to player 2, then player 2 immediately passed the shot back to player 1 without a legal shot attempt then right then and there player 1 should have declared a stalemate and the rack should have been replayed. End of argument.

Black Cat :cool:
 
I would say what ever RandyG says is the rule, since he was co-author of world/bca rules........Go right to the source.....case closed
 
oldplayer said:
...the balls were so tight that you really could not pick up one ball.... ...
Click to expand...
And the rules do not require that you pick up a ball. One way to check is to force one of the two balls back into the pocket facing being careful to move it straight away from the other ball. If the other ball drops in or moves closer to the pocket, it's down. But from your description it seems clear that both balls were slightly over the brink, so they were both pocketed.
 
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