Last Pocket 8-ball Rules

We have always just gone w whichever was your last pockket....whether the other guy used the same
One or not.

gogg said:

We have always just gone w whichever was your last pockket....whether the other guy used the same
One or not.

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That’s how I’ve played it....if nobody gets out and you start fighting for the same last
pocket....it becomes an interesting variation of one-pocket.

In Chicago we play just as you describe. There is always a review and agreement of the rules before the game starts. Tons of angles on the rules.

I know some players instead of giving weight play last pocket while giving you any pocket and the break.

I have played the pocket the last ball goes into, no matter who makes it. Have played 1 & 15 in the sides along with bank the 8 in the last pocket.

A couple weeks ago, I was playing a regular at the Center, 87 year guy who spends every afternoon in the pool room. He is quick to slam the cue ball into any cluster, hoping to make a ball and continue shooting. After winning the first 5 games easily, I said I would play last pocket, then won the next game in two innings leaving him with 7 on the table. Time was up for me after winning about four more games.

Have to find some more ways to handicap it that he would agree with if I end up playing him again. I have a hard time practicing by myself while he is sitting in the chair waiting for someone to play.

I learned 15-1 Last Pocket 8 Ball from the old boys at a local retirement community in Southern California. The way they play it if you shoot your last ball into the same pocket as your opponent you have the choice of continuing with playing the 8 in the same pocket, or requesting your opponent give you a different pocket instead. If you choose this option they can choose to give you the opposite corner pocket at the same end of the table, or they can take that and give you the current pocket. This comes up typically when you can’t get shape on a direct shot on the pocket. Smart players in this scenario play for a position where they have a bank at either pocket.
Without this rule it’s like playing One Pocket where you both have the same pocket, it would lead to safety after safety, or blasting at the pocket to ensure it bounces away if you miss.
There are a lot of other interesting subtle rules to the game, like what happens when you make you second to last ball and last ball in the same shot, or make your opponents last ball and foul at the same time.
I believe this format of 8 Ball was in the BCA rules back in 1945, perhaps someone with a good library (Bob Jewett I’m looking at you buddy) could look it up?

gogg said:

We have always just gone w whichever was your last pockket....whether the other guy used the same
One or not.

Click to expand...

Same here.

I always played that if you made your last ball in the pocket already claimed by your opponent, you lose.

The reason is because of gamesmanship--it keeps the second player from blocking the eightball pocket with one of his, and leaving that ball there to save for his last ball.

In Chicago in the seventies it was: last pocket, no same last, no slop. Oh yeah and there was an area on the table called the “kitchen” in those days, Opposite pocket

Bob Jewett said:

AuntyDan, your slightest whim is my most fervent desire. :grin-square:
See item 19 on this list: http://www.sfbilliards.com/miscellaneous.htm

The one-and-fifteen rule (without last pocket) was the standard rule until the major revision in 1967. Fifteen in the left side pocket (looking from the breaker's view, I guess). I have played by that rule and for a good player it can be easier because you can keep shooting the 1 or 15 off the spot indefinitely.

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So like in snooker you can keep respotting the blue?

PoppaSaun said:

I

The reason is because of gamesmanship--

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this guy being banned aside


ive only seen last pocket played by bangers,

so extending the game for bad players never seemed like a good idea to me

nor bank the 8,

ive heard them combine the both, bank the 8 to the last pocket
gets ridiculous

they should atleast be able to break and run out before taking the game there

but thats just me, cant stand bar pool or its players for all that ive known

I've played opponent gets to pick the pocket, no side as well.

Inaction said:

I have played the pocket the last ball goes into, no matter who makes it. Have played 1 & 15 in the sides along with bank the 8 in the last pocket.

A couple weeks ago, I was playing a regular at the Center, 87 year guy who spends every afternoon in the pool room. He is quick to slam the cue ball into any cluster, hoping to make a ball and continue shooting. After winning the first 5 games easily, I said I would play last pocket, then won the next game in two innings leaving him with 7 on the table. Time was up for me after winning about four more games.

Have to find some more ways to handicap it that he would agree with if I end up playing him again. I have a hard time practicing by myself while he is sitting in the chair waiting for someone to play.

Click to expand...

87 years old? Amazing, you should play him as much as you can. One game is eight ball and you have to shoot your group in numerical order, 1-7 or 9-15.

12 years ago Roberto Gomez was in Norway, and got into a match with a local C player.

They played for an amount each game in 8-ball. The C-player could pick any pocket for the 8 - ball. After the break, the C-player could pick any pocket Gomez had to make the 8-ball in if/when he ran out.

Normally that was always one of the center pockets.

Gomez destroyed him and it was fun watching some of the creative solutions he had to come up with.

It was a challenge though, the C-player often took a foul by playing the 8-ball towards the short rail, or worse; leaving the 8-ball over a corner pocket when he was in trouble - giving up ball in hand ofcourse, but making it hard for Roberto to run out.