I started playing pool years ago at the Boy's Club. They had a few pool tables that you had to reserve for 1/2 hour periods. If there was a solo player you could ask if they wanted to play. Most times it was yes and it gave a chance to meet a member.
We were 7 or 8 years old and no one showed us how to play so we just struggled along and played by what we thought were the rules.
Here are some of them:
Would spin the 8 ball in the rack and the player had to break while it was spinning.
If the CB was against the rail we could call cheeks and move the CB the space of the cue butt from the rail, unless they called no cheeks.
If you scratched you had to take a ball out of the pocket to spot. If you scratched and while pocketing a ball you had to take out 2 balls and spot them. If you scratched and the other players ball was pocketed that ball stayed in but you had to spot one of your balls.
If an opponent's ball was blocking your ball you could call spots and remove that ball by spotting it (using a damp finger) until after your shot. Unless they called no spots first. You didn't have to hit your ball first but any ball could be blocking a easy shot.
If you made two balls on the same shot you got two more misses before it was the other players even though one was the opponents ball.
We only played 8 ball as we didn't know about any other game. And would always call what balls we were before the break as we thought there was some luck or magic involved by being either stripes or solids.
And it always seemed as if someone would come up with some new call out like no chalk, or spits where they would put some spit on your cue tip. Problem was we weren't that good anyways and it would almost take the whole 1/2 hour to finish a game and most times we didn't. And it became more of a game of calling cheeks, chalk, spots and etc before the other player called out no cheeks, spots and etc with a lot or arguing. As we got a little older we would agreed to play without all that BS of calling out that BS and eliminated it but still would cheek the CB from the rail and spot a ball if it was blocking a shot.
When we finally got old enough to be able to go into the older boys room we learned the "proper" way to play but still spinned the 8 ball.
We were 7 or 8 years old and no one showed us how to play so we just struggled along and played by what we thought were the rules.
Here are some of them:
Would spin the 8 ball in the rack and the player had to break while it was spinning.
If the CB was against the rail we could call cheeks and move the CB the space of the cue butt from the rail, unless they called no cheeks.
If you scratched you had to take a ball out of the pocket to spot. If you scratched and while pocketing a ball you had to take out 2 balls and spot them. If you scratched and the other players ball was pocketed that ball stayed in but you had to spot one of your balls.
If an opponent's ball was blocking your ball you could call spots and remove that ball by spotting it (using a damp finger) until after your shot. Unless they called no spots first. You didn't have to hit your ball first but any ball could be blocking a easy shot.
If you made two balls on the same shot you got two more misses before it was the other players even though one was the opponents ball.
We only played 8 ball as we didn't know about any other game. And would always call what balls we were before the break as we thought there was some luck or magic involved by being either stripes or solids.
And it always seemed as if someone would come up with some new call out like no chalk, or spits where they would put some spit on your cue tip. Problem was we weren't that good anyways and it would almost take the whole 1/2 hour to finish a game and most times we didn't. And it became more of a game of calling cheeks, chalk, spots and etc before the other player called out no cheeks, spots and etc with a lot or arguing. As we got a little older we would agreed to play without all that BS of calling out that BS and eliminated it but still would cheek the CB from the rail and spot a ball if it was blocking a shot.
When we finally got old enough to be able to go into the older boys room we learned the "proper" way to play but still spinned the 8 ball.
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