Derek said:
So there's the ring game. And then [...]
This one's a blast: We call it FARGOFLIP, or sometimes FLIPIT
It's a multiplayer 9-ball (or 10 ball) game
Works best for 3 to 7 players, and a great part is players can jump in or jump out every five minutes or so, at the start of every game.
Someone holds a coin over the table, yelling "who's in?" Whoever is in--say it's seven players-- all flip a coin. Everybody who got heads plays as a team against everybody who got tails--just for the next game.
Tails team always breaks.
Players on a team alternate shots like in scotch doubles. Start in any order, but maintain the order throughout the game. Coaching is allowed
So with seven players it could be 4 against 3, or 5 against 2, or 6 against 1.
How much you're playing for can be a bit confusing unless you insist on the following. There is an ante, say a dollar. In any game, every player should look at how many opponents he has. That's how many dollars he's playing for that game.
So suppose you're on a team of 2 and you have 5 on the other team. You are playing for $5. If you lose you throw $5 on the table. If you win, you pick up $5 from the table.
Each of the 5 people on the other team is playing for $2, because they each have 2 opponents.
People will try to talk you into other ways of doing it. Insist on this. None of these other ways work as cleanly as this, and they lead to ambiguities.
Once the crowd gets to know the drill, the logistics are quick and seamless.
People come and go. The good player doesn't have the nuts like he does in a ring game. And even though a weaker player is at a bit of a disadvantage, he can come out ahead after an hour just like he can at the blackjack table.
This is really a lot of fun. Bring several rolls of quarters to the pool hall, and try it for a while with quarters.
This will
(A) get the bugs out
(B) encourage people to try it
(C) convince some of the average players it's not just another way for those same three people to rob them.
More often than not we play this game for an ante of $2. $5 is about as rich as we play.
Here's a link with the rules, though I think I pretty much covered everything.
http://myweb.cableone.net/fargopage/fargoflip.htm