New 8 ball game

R

Rono8275

Registered
I don't know if this is where this goes. If not, I apologize.
I've been watching a lot of Heath Manning's instructional videos on Youtube. During a phone conversation with him, he told me that he had developed a new 8 ball game.
After the break, the table is open. If the shooter chooses solids, he has to make them in rotation starting with the lowest numbered ball on the table. If he chooses stripes, he begins with the highest numbered ball on the table. Balls must be shot in rotation from low to high or high to low depending on whether you choose solids or stripes. Both players work toward the 8 ball.
It is a call shot game. Rails, kisses, caroms, have to be called. A cue ball hitting the rail on a along the rail shot is a legal shot.
All fouls, including on the break, are ball in hand. Any ball made on the break or in the course of shooting stay in the pocket.
If a safety is played, the lowest numbered solid or highest numbered stripe on the table has to be hit first or it's a foul.
For further info, contact Heath Manning at manningcues.com or manningcues.com@gmail.com
Sounds like a challenging or fun game - no lucky shots or flukes!
 
Years ago when I played in pool rooms it was a common spot for the better play to play in rotation while the other player could play in any order.

My idea of a new 8 ball game is called pocket. Like straight pool called pocket, even on the break. So, the break is a straight pool safety, and one variation could be you don't ever have to hit your group first, You would play the game identical to straight pool with any combination allowed.

Or after the safety break, continue on with the rules of 8 ball hitting only your group first. Just eliminate the slop of the smash em open break.

Always call pocket and what it amounts to is a sort of one rack straight pool.
 
Where do you take BIH after a foul? Important because there are going to be a lot of them! With 10-15 balls on the table it's just too easy to trap your opponent where he has little to no chance of contacting his lowest/highest numbered ball first. I suspect it would take a long time just to get to the first ball.

Our "little-bit-more-difficult" version of 8-ball is that you have to bank a ball somewhere in the course of your runout. If you don't bank one of your group you're stuck having to bank the 8-ball. It's fun to play shape for a bank; not something I often get to do.
 
bdorman said:
Where do you take BIH after a foul? Important because there are going to be a lot of them! With 10-15 balls on the table it's just too easy to trap your opponent where he has little to no chance of contacting his lowest/highest numbered ball first. I suspect it would take a long time just to get to the first ball.

Our "little-bit-more-difficult" version of 8-ball is that you have to bank a ball somewhere in the course of your runout. If you don't bank one of your group you're stuck having to bank the 8-ball. It's fun to play shape for a bank; not something I often get to do.
Click to expand...


This is why I suggest not having to contact your group first for a legal shot.
 
We've been playing that kind of 8-Ball for years and years. We call it Outside-In or Inside-Out.

You can add the 1 & 15 option, the last pocket option & have a real skill game.

Kinda like playing one pocket, rotation & bank pool all rolled into one.

Really punishes a player with no positional skills.
 
Last edited:
Rono8275 said:
I don't know if this is where this goes. If not, I apologize.
I've been watching a lot of Heath Manning's instructional videos on Youtube. During a phone conversation with him, he told me that he had developed a new 8 ball game.
After the break, the table is open. If the shooter chooses solids, he has to make them in rotation starting with the lowest numbered ball on the table. If he chooses stripes, he begins with the highest numbered ball on the table. Balls must be shot in rotation from low to high or high to low depending on whether you choose solids or stripes. Both players work toward the 8 ball.
It is a call shot game. Rails, kisses, caroms, have to be called. A cue ball hitting the rail on a along the rail shot is a legal shot.
All fouls, including on the break, are ball in hand. Any ball made on the break or in the course of shooting stay in the pocket.
If a safety is played, the lowest numbered solid or highest numbered stripe on the table has to be hit first or it's a foul.
For further info, contact Heath Manning at manningcues.com or manningcues.com@gmail.com
Sounds like a challenging or fun game - no lucky shots or flukes!
Click to expand...



Sounds fun except for calling rails , then it gets to be a nit picking game . Any game should be calling caroms , billiards , combos and banks , after that it should just be call pocket.
 
If you wanna play some FAST 8-Ball, try the Short Rack 8-Ball game.

It's 4 Stripes, 4 Solids & the 8-Ball, racked like 9-Ball.

Winner Breaks is a tough row to hoe. I once ran 17 racks in a tournament, for the win. They wouldn't let me play the 7th week. I had won the 2nd,3rd,4th,5th & 6th week.
 
Rono8275 said:
I don't know if this is where this goes. If not, I apologize.
I've been watching a lot of Heath Manning's instructional videos on Youtube. During a phone conversation with him, he told me that he had developed a new 8 ball game.
After the break, the table is open. If the shooter chooses solids, he has to make them in rotation starting with the lowest numbered ball on the table. If he chooses stripes, he begins with the highest numbered ball on the table. Balls must be shot in rotation from low to high or high to low depending on whether you choose solids or stripes. Both players work toward the 8 ball..........................
Click to expand...

Not really anything new.
We play a very similar version of this off and on. Solids played in order 1-7 and stripes 9-15 then the 8. What we found is that there were too many safeties being played so we crossed it over with 9 ball. That is to say that if my object ball was say the 3, I could call the 3 into the 7 and if the 7 went in I'm still at the table. However unlike 9 ball you must clear all of your balls before the 8 ball. And when you get tired of that... then you can play drop the 8 ball at any time just like 9 ball. You just have to make a legal hit on your lowest ball first.
And we also play it NO SLOP CALL POCKET. Believe me, the first time that you run an 8 ball rack in rotation (with no slop) you know that you're on your game.

And then there is 8 ball where you have to call ball and pocket not just on your current shot... but your following shot after... and so forth (for practicing cue ball position). If you get in trouble with cue ball placement it makes for some interesting saves and future calls. No safeties allowed because a missed shot is a foul (BIH). 4 fouls is a loss of game. Given that this form of 8 ball is for working on cue ball position, it's basically call ball and pocket... slops are allowed.
We even created a shorter version of 14.1 with the "call next 2 shots" rule.

Then you can play nothing but banks... or banks, caroms and combos only... and on and on. Necessity is the mother of invention and if there is a weakness in my game I find it more successful (and enjoyable) to work it out during game play instead of just shooting repetitive drills.
 
Ralph Kramden said:
Just bang away? No fouls unless you scratch? Wow!
.
Click to expand...

No not bang away, call pocket, opening safety, same ball and cushion safeties, It would be a single rack straight pool game only having to pocket your group first. If you pocket the other players ball, the inning is over for you and the incoming player shoots or plays safe.
 
3andstop said:
This is why I suggest not having to contact your group first for a legal shot.
Click to expand...

I'll have to also give that one a try. It sounds like it helps avoid too many safeties. So your opponent's balls are neutral for 1st contact... I'm assuming that the 8 ball is not neutral for 1st contact.
 
When play begins you have to hit the lowest numbered ball on the table if you're playing solids or the highest numbered ball on the table if playing stripes - even if playing safe. If you fail to do that, it's a foul and your opponent gets ball in hand anywhere on the table. Cue ball scratches - same result. Any ball pocketed after the lowest solid or highest stripe on the table is contacted stays in the pocket.
 
Honestly, this looks like a game that will have a similar pace to 1-pocket, maybe even slower. In my opinion, BCA 8-ball is already a great game and if you want to play rotation, 9-ball is king. You shouldn't try to mix the two. I think people are too focused on trying to find that perfect single-rack game and the fact is, there's no such thing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top