I learned about 3-ball last night....

justadub

justadub

Rattling corners nightly
Silver Member
What a lot of fun!

I don't know if we were playing by any established set of rules, or some local bastardization, but it moved quickly, got everyone involved, and everyone had fun. Hooting and hollering, rooting people on to make the round a push....what a hoot!

It sure sounds easy, but it didn't turn out that way for us. At one point we had 9 people playing, and you would think that at least one player would get out in 3, but many rounds that didn't happen, and we had a couple of pretty darned good players mixing it up with the rest of us.

Great game when you have a bunch of people wanting to play.
 
it's definitely a good group dollar-or-two game... and it'll sharpen up your skills for that Carnie with the pool tables at the fair.
 
3 ball is fun, and make a few dollars playing it too. one tie all tie and add more money to the pot, funnnnnnnnn!!
 
Back in my broke collage days I made more off three ball in a little back country dive shooting a dollar or two a round than I did playing nine ball. You could get at least five and sometimes 10 or more guys involved. When you got a bunch you want to win whenever you can but when 5 guys are in. You sometimes should hold off and bring the pot up. Granted you could lose that way but if 3 of the five guys only want to lose 5 dollars and you keep them in for 15 or twenty until you take if off. Then you pot gets good. I won a pot one time for almost 200 with 9 guys in it. It seemed like that game would never end. Everytime I scored a three or two it seemed like someone else would get lucky. In the end it took a two to win. I broke and made one and one ball ended up in a corner. I shot at the ball in the middle of the table and managed to swing the cue ball around into the last ball ending it with a two. This was on loose valley bar boxes. Boy the memories. I think I'll try to get one going on my next trip to the pool room:smile:
 
We were playing on a 9 footer, so you really have to juice it to try and get lucky crapping something in, when you're stuck.

I expect its even more fun on a bar box....
 
On a loose bar box you can almost count on something going in, and it's not as uncommon to have two drop on the break. A big breaking shot-maker who isn't so great in other games can be a real threat in 3 ball on a bar box. Not that I'm terrific at pool now or anything, but that was me 5 years ago and I had a blast with it.
 
dkleather said:
What's the rules?
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The way we played it was pretty simple. Everyone that plays puts in a dollar. Everyone gets a turn, lowest score wins. If the lowest score is tied, it's a push, everyone puts in another dollar, scores are wiped out, and you start again.

How many shots does it take to get all three in?

Rack 3 ball balls on the spot in a triangle. Break. Break counts as one. Any scratch adds one to the number of shots.

Should be easy, right? We pushed with four shots most of the night, three being the winner most times. We only had one chance at a two all night, with 9 people playing, for about 2 hours or so. (Again, this was a 9 footer with fairly tight pockets.)

Huge advantage to get one in on the break, and if you somehow get two in and a leave....whoooo.

A fun way for a bunch of people to be involved at one time. Not too complicated, fast, and even though the better players still (and always) have an advantage, it's not so great a difference that the average players in the room can't have fun and think they have a chance. (It helps if there are at least 2 of the "better" players, so there's always the likelihood of a push...)
 
Used to love playing 3-ball back in San Diego after the weekly tourneys ended.

One memorable match: 6 or 7 of us playing, $1 ante, one tie-all tie. Pot rolled over 3 or 4 times. 2nd guys gets an ACE on the break - all 3 in one break shot. Never saw that happen before. The next 3 of us are trying like crazy to tie. We had to wait on the next shooter, as he was in the bathroom. When he came back, we told him don't bother: he just missed seeing an ACE. He said it's not over yet... boom.... ANOTHER ACE and the pot rolled over!

The next rack was won on 4.

The best part of the way we played was heckling the shooter if no point was made and rooting for a tie if there was. Really helps to teach you to fade the sideline sharking.
 
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How often is this played with the 3 balls lined up on the spot, as opposed to triangle racked?

Either way easier to make a ball on the break?
 
It was the first time most of us had ever played, so we were scrambling trying to figure out a good spot to break from...it got to be funny, everybody angling for a spot to watch from, when the one guy who got a ball in on the break during the first two rounds was up next.

He didn't make one on the break the rest of the night. :p
 
I used to love playing 3 ball at the bar, late at night. :) One time we had maybe 6 people playing and when I broke, I got 2 in and scratched... was told the scratch was a one point penalty, so hit the 3rd one in and got a 3 total. After the next people in the game were unable to tie my 3 I was told I couldn't win with a scratch and it was carrying over another round.

Four more rounds of ties and I got up and broke 2 in again, hit the third ball in for a total score of 2, picked up their money and told them to stuff it up their arses for making up rules as they went. It was only about 40 bucks but I was still so glad I won that money.
 
justadub said:
We were playing on a 9 footer, so you really have to juice it to try and get lucky crapping something in, when you're stuck.

I expect its even more fun on a bar box....
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A bar box with BIG POCKETS.

The fun is tying a low score, by making two balls in the same shot. Bucket pockets help in that.

I think it would be the BEST SPECTATOR game around. It's fast and fun and lively and the action changes quickly and every player has a chance to win.

One of our "rules" was that sharking was not only allowed, but encouraged. You could do anything but touch a player or the table. The best shark I ever saw was when a guy had a simple shot to get a 2 and win the pot, the bartender waited just until his backstroke when he threw a big glass ashtray over the shooter's head where it hit the hard floor and burst into shards of glass. The shooter miscued and missed the shot. Everyone else cheered as the game was still on!

Plus, a guy can quit anytime he wants and not go home broke. Or a guy can win and go home with a few bucks in his pocket. His wife won't be unhappy, either way.

Jeff Livingston
 
PaulieB said:
I used to love playing 3 ball at the bar, late at night. :) One time we had maybe 6 people playing and when I broke, I got 2 in and scratched... was told the scratch was a one point penalty, so hit the 3rd one in and got a 3 total. After the next people in the game were unable to tie my 3 I was told I couldn't win with a scratch and it was carrying over another round.

Four more rounds of ties and I got up and broke 2 in again, hit the third ball in for a total score of 2, picked up their money and told them to stuff it up their arses for making up rules as they went. It was only about 40 bucks but I was still so glad I won that money.
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The first and only time I ever got invited into a game was at a bar near where I had just moved. I was banging balls around feeling sorry for myself, typical bar stuff, when a guy and his gf apparently wanted the table. After challenging a couple of times, the guy seemed legitimately impressed and told me I should join his APA team, saying I was probably "like a 5!" Anyhow, to get his girl in the game and possibly trying to get me off the table, he told me about 3 ball. As a compulsive gambler, I was happy to try! It was just the 3 of us at $2 a game, but I had a blast, ended up looking into the APA, got uber-drunk, and had $44 more in the morning than I did when I left the apartment. I sometimes long for my ignorant banger days, when $44 was a serious score and being compared to an APA 5 made me tingly.
 
How have most of you rack them? The times I've played we have always rack 3 in a row. I would think racking in a triangle would be much too easy to make balls on the break. It's a fun game and really gets exciting when everybody has several dollars in the pot.
 
I always wondered...

We'll have to try it out at the house. It sounds like lots of fun.
 
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