Mark the Pocket Rule?

[TheBook]

I think that it disrupts your rhythm. I don't think that it is necessary if you are playing with a good sport player.

I don't even think it is necessary when the pocket is obvious.

The problem comes when you play someone that points there cue towards the center of a rail insinuating a corner pocket and it goes into the side pocket on a bank or kick shot. They then claim that was the pocket that was called. :indecisive:

I don't think that is it necessary on last pocket either. :scratchhead:

When I have to mark a pocket I use a lense cleaning paper that is packaged similar to a condom wrapper. It gets a lot of strange looks and laughs. What makes it funnier is being a senior citizen. The other is that the package is a little on the worn side so I have been carrying it around for a long time. Never know I might need it someday.

 

[jason]

There is no such rule in the BCA Pool League

Bill Stock
BCAPL
Rules Administrator

Bill,

My apologies to you and the BCAPL. The BCA has set the highest standards for rules and the integrity of the game, period.

I must have confused the BCA rules with the VNEA rules.

 

[Richardson]

Our BCA league does not mark the 8.

VNEA/APA/TAP do.

 

[OrigZaphod]

I find it a little out of place, but understand the reasoning on it.

It actually helped me along when I was getting back into the game, part of a pre-shot routine. I would often find myself starting to move to quickly during a run and would get cocky i guess on the 8, the mark the pocket rule in vnea here helped to force me to slow down and take another look at the shot.

But overall, I feel that I call the pocket, point to it and make sure that the OP knows it, that should be it. If is a weird one or not very obvious I will ask someone to watch the shot after calling it.

 

[Flettir]

I played APA one year as a seven. I thought the "marking" was so stupid I spent $40 on a stand up cardboard sign. It was kind of a rebellion towards an idiotic rule. I was about four and a half feet high and said, "I am playin' the eight ball in this fu#$in' pocket" and had a large arrow that pointed down. After three weeks, the area person asked me to not bring it with me. Anyone want it?

See, that is what I mean by have fun with it. Make it interesting. Try what theBook uses or maybe the real thing. That should be good for a laugh.

When I have to mark a pocket I use a lense cleaning paper that is packaged similar to a condom wrapper. It gets a lot of strange looks and laughs. What makes it funnier is being a senior citizen. The other is that the package is a little on the worn side so I have been carrying it around for a long time. Never know I might need it someday.

Remember, we are there to have a good time, have fun with it.

BTW, crawfish, send the sign to me, I would use it. Oh course, I watch BattleStar Galactica so it would have to be Frackin Pocket.

 

[supergreenman]

I find it a little out of place, but understand the reasoning on it.

It actually helped me along when I was getting back into the game, part of a pre-shot routine. I would often find myself starting to move to quickly during a run and would get cocky i guess on the 8, the mark the pocket rule in vnea here helped to force me to slow down and take another look at the shot.

But overall, I feel that I call the pocket, point to it and make sure that the OP knows it, that should be it. If is a weird one or not very obvious I will ask someone to watch the shot after calling it.

I've gone about this a little differently. I usually pick up the patch at the beginning of the rack and place it where I'd like to end with the 8. This forces me to plan a complete run out.

 

[CreeDo]

It's a silly and insulting rule, it implies people are so dishonest that they will try to lie and claim a bullshìt win in full view of a dozen witnesses. And then only if they dog the shot and then make it in the wrong pocket.

It's what jude said, this is a 1 in 10,000 situation. Three rare things have to happen: A. They miss but make it in a different pocket (one that could plausibly be something you'd play for, not a situation where a side pocket shot hits the tit and flies straight down the long rail into the corner) ... and then B. They are sleazy enough to try to lie and claim the win... and C. Their entire team is sleazy enough to back them (because if the shooter is the only one who makes that claim but even his own team won't buy it, then it's definitely going down as a loss).

......
People in league are not so win-obsessed or money-obsessed as the rulemakers seem to think they are. Nobody is in it for the money because everyone knows that 99% of the time there isn't any. Another fairly well-known fact, at least in our league, is that regular season games are fairly meaningless and it's only the finals that count.

Honestly, it's stupid... they must have made this rule because of the one time in a million that some dirtbag tried to take advantage.

 

[Flettir]

I've gone about this a little differently. I usually pick up the patch at the beginning of the rack and place it where I'd like to end with the 8. This forces me to plan a complete run out.

What a great idea, I have to try that. I usually look at the whole table but I like the idea of marking the 8 at the beginning of my shot sequence. Also, if it works it is very intimidating to the opponent, esp a 4 or a 5.

 

[OrigZaphod]

What a great idea, I have to try that. I usually look at the whole table but I like the idea of marking the 8 at the beginning of my shot sequence. Also, if it works it is very intimidating to the opponent, esp a 4 or a 5.

I agree going to have to try this from now on.

 

[SKUNKBOY]

http://dsmpoolplayers.com/UserFiles/pdf/DesMoinesBCA/BCA%20Local%20Bylaws%202007-09-23.pdf

Although the master rules do not call for it, many local BCA rules do. Thanks for being accurate, but this isn't really about any specific league.

Just to clarrify those rules that Jason has posted with regard to the ISPA...the ISPA uses the rules published by the WPA...nothing is added or taken away. We do not mark the pocket.

As many have mentioned, it is a "LOCAL LEAGUE RULE".

Now Jason, if you truly want to change the rule within your league, I'd suggest you get on your league's web site and post this poll in the forum there. That is one of the reasons we (the ISPA) has provided a web site for each league that sanctions with the ISPA. Get the people of your league to get involved and maybe the person running your league will take that poll into consideration, I doubt he will even read this one and certainly does not care about the opinions of someone from California or New York or even any other league in Iowa.

L8R...Ken

 

[Mostly Miss]

Gay!

Calling your pocket should suffice and even that should be for situations that are not obvious. There is no reason anyone should ever loose a game because they didnt mark the pocket or even call the shot on a dead in or obvious shot.

Bank the ball kick, carom any other shot should be called. Other than that lets play ball and quit *****ing. Usually the only people looking to enforce these rules are the ones that loose a lot.

 

[jason]

Now Jason, if you truly want to change the rule within your league, I'd suggest you get on your league's web site and post this poll in the forum there.

I don't play in a league. As a matter of fact, I don't play at all!

 

[ScottW]

Our BCA league does not mark the 8.

VNEA/APA/TAP do.

Heh, and here I was about to call BS on you like I did the other guy.

But, lo and behold... you are correct!

VNEA: http://www.vnea.com/cgi-bin/VNEA/info2.pl?domain=info&name=8_Ball_Rules

Section D:

When a player has pocketed all of the balls in his group, he then shoots at the 8-ball, physically designating his pocket with a pocket marker. The marker is to be placed on the table completely within the first two diamonds on either side of the pocket. The entire area between the diamonds included. You do not have to touch or move the marker if it is already at your intended pocket

TAP: http://www.tapleague.com/rules.html
8 Ball Rule Book PDF, pg 10, Shooting the 8-ball:

When shooting the 8-Ball, you must mark the pocket you
are calling. As long as the 8-Ball goes in the marked pocket after a
good hit, the player wins. Any form of a scratch on the 8-Ball is loss
of game. Anyone can remind the shooter to mark the pocket without it
being considered a time-out. If the marker is already at the intended
pocket, regardless of how it got there, the shooter does not have to
physically touch the marker. The pocket intended is the closest pocket
to the marker. When a shooter is on the 8-Ball, impeding the
movement of the cue ball and or the 8-Ball while it is still in motion
results in a loss of game. The 8-ball does not have to go clean. The 8-
Ball hitting the pocket marker is a loss of game. Any oused as a marker except a standard piece of chalk.

Interesting, as none of the VNEA or TAP leagues I've played in (one VNEA, two TAP) enforce this.

 

[Pushout]

Haven't played 8 ball since the early to mid '70s and only in commercial rooms? Your a true pure pool purest old-timer! Much respect.

I guess I wasn't quite clear. I played very, very little 8 ball after beginning Straight Pool, and then only in bars, not in pool rooms, which did not serve alcohol. There was no, and I repeat, no good pool played in bars on 3 x 6 tables with a big cue ball. The room I played in had as many as six bar tables at one time and was the only pool room in NYS that had any. Only kids and beginners played on them. They have since been removed to make way for a decent Billiard table and a 6 x 12 Snooker table. I literally went years without playing it at all. I've played it more since I moved to SC in the last 3 years than I did in the 22 or 23 years I played in NY. Twice I made a decision, renewed just a short time ago, not to play it anymore at all. Why, I won't get into here. I knew guys who had played pool for 30 or 40 years and never played in bars.

 

[catscradle]

The only place I've ever seen it is APA and I think it is appropriate for APA.

 

[jason]

I was wrong. Sorry.