Anyone ever play this game?

[SalientBeing]

When I was younger, in the pool room everyday.... all day, we played a ring game called Ghost. The pockets have a point value:
(the periods are just to keep the formatting)
3.................4
......9 ball.......


5.....1 ball....10


.......cue........
1.................6

You make a mark in the dead center of the table and the one goes there,
a mark between the foot rail and foot spot, the nine goes there. A spot in between the head rail and the head spot and the cue goes there.

Each pocket is worth the points it carries and a carom is 2 points. You have to score a point first and then you can draw a pea. Peas 1-11 are used. You add 10 to your pea and that's what you have to get. So if you draw the 6 you have to get 16 points before anyone else. you get paid double for 21.

Dumper pays double. Scratching or not hitting a ball or hitting a ball off the table is a foul and you're out of the game. You can buy back in. usually $5 or $10 per man. You all tally your score on the chalk board as you go.

It sounds more complicated than it is. We would play it for hours. I ended up playing it again yesterday for the first time in say 5 years. I haven't found many people that have heard of it but I have to think it's an old game.

Anyone play it? What do you call it?



Ohh yeah, if you hit all 3 balls off the table or all three balls in the pockets you win double from everyone. Only seen that once.

 

[Billiard Architect]

So I take it when the one or 9 drop you have to respot? Do you continue shooting when you make a ball? Does the person coming in respot the cue, 1 and 9 or play them where they lay? Or do they just respot the 1 and 9? Seems like a cool game just the rules are a little cloudy.

JV

 

[SalientBeing]

So I take it when the one or 9 drop you have to respot? Do you continue shooting when you make a ball? Does the person coming in respot the cue, 1 and 9 or play them where they lay? Or do they just respot the 1 and 9? Seems like a cool game just the rules are a little cloudy.

JV

Yeah forgot about that part

Balls are spotted only after they are made. You only get one shot at a time. If you make a ball it spots, you mark your new count and the next person is up to the table. The cue stays where it lands. Scratch puts it back on it's spot. If another balls in on the spot the pocketed ball needs to go on it goes on the other spot.
This way you can play defense. Like you know the man following you has 16 points and his last missed shot was at the 4 hole so you don't want to leave him that. Of course he could have shot at the 4 hole to get you to sell out the 1 hole next round.

Its the most frustrating game because its sooo hard to play your man.

If you go over your number you are out. That's one of the reasons a the carom is so dangerous because many times you make the shot you need in the out hole and accidentally get a carom.

One thing to watch out for is on your opening shot say you make the ten hole then accidentally get a carom. That's 12 points to open and you draw the 1 pea and add ten you're already over and out.

The opening shot if you shoot first is to shoot the 1 ball in the 4 hole and get a 2 rail carom into the 9 ball. If you fail to get on the board early and draw a pea too late you can get left behind.