shag_fu said:
Okay so we've all played bank the 8 or last pocket 8. Heres another 8-ball variation that has become popular in my area. Its called alabama 8ball. I'm trying the new wei tables for the 1st time so I prob screwed it up. Object is to pocket the 1ball(if you are solids) in the side pocket to the breakers left, or the 15 ball(if you have taken stripes) to the breakers right before attempting to pocket the 8...
I've played a lot of this with these old boys at a local retirement community. I've learned a lot playing it, as it makes an interesting tactical variation on regular 8 Ball. It's not quite up to the level of One Pocket but not far behind either, with a lot of requirement for two-way shots and end game defence. They typically play it in a doubles format.
No one has any idea why this variation of 8 Ball became popular there, and no one knew it's name was "Alabama" 8 Ball, they just call it "1-15 8 Ball". (The "Alabama" name is coroborated in the excellent book "
Playing Off The Rail", where it's mentioned briefly, but I've never seen it mention anywhere else.)
As it is a fairly rare regional variant of 8 Ball there are NO official rules, and as there are a surprising number of odd situation that can occur there are quite a lot of rules that have been added along the way to accomodate them. They have written up a set of rules, although it's very much a work in progress as even after years playing it there are still new things they are finding to make rules about. If you learn the game it's a great leveller for even very good players. I was playing with a friend who was beating me consistently at 9 Ball. I asked him if he wanted to try this version of 8 Ball and he agreed, then lost 4 games in a row before he quit. He never got close to shooting an 8 Ball at the right pocket once.
If you have any specific questions let me know. Here's some of the major rules:
1) Anytime you strike your opponents 1/15 before hitting any other ball it is put down and your opponent gets BIH (This is to prevent people using deliberate fouls to knock the 1/15 away from the side pocket)
2) If you make your 1/15 in the correct pocket but scratch the 1/15 is spotted and your opponent gets BIH
3) If you accidentally make your opponents 1/15 in their correct side pocket it stays down, even if you also scratch
4) If you have only one other object ball on the table, OR one normal object AND your 1/15 ball, and your opponent illegally makes that normal object ball in you can choose to have it spotted as well as getting BIH.
5) If both you and your opponent end up with the same last pocket you can choose to select a different pocket at any time prior to any shot. All players have to agree on the new pocket designations prior to shooting again, but you do not have to do this immediately upon making your last object ball.
6) If both players scratch 3 times in a row the game is declared a stalemate and played over again. (Usually this happens if the 8 ball ends up deep into a pocket that is not the last pocket for either player) There is no limit however to how many times a single player can scratch.
HTH
*** EDITED TO CORRECT DUMB ASS MISTAKES ***
