Ring Games

RBLilly

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Anyone care to explain how a ring game is played? I know everyone gets to play, but I haven't been able to find out all the rules and how it works!

Thanks!
 
ok , I will give an example but you can use whatever game or dollar configuration you want. Lets say you have 4 guys and the game is 9 ball , draw numbers or whatever for the order of players , all players have to pay the guy that makes the payball(s), lets say this game the payballs are the 5 ball and the 9 ball (some just play pay on the 9 ball), lets say $3 per payball, so if the payball is made in rotation its a payball for that player and everyone owes him $3 for it, and the payball stays down and the player continues to shoot, if a payball is made legally but out of rotation (rode it in or on the snap) then it gets spotted back up after that shot and the player continues to shoot but does get paid on those as well, so a player can make more than 2 payballs in a rack even though you are playing on the 5 - 9. There is no ball in hand or safety play in a ring game normally , the players must attempt to shoot at the ball to make it or make another ball with a legal hit, they don't have to actually hit it but must make a valid attempt, if the other players feel that an attempt was not made then they can put the cb back to where it was (or worse) and make that player attempt again, if this player does not attempt a shot again then this player gets the boot.

thats the way its played in my part of the woods anyhow, hope this helps.
 
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selftaut said:
ok , I will give an example but you can use whatever game or dollar configuration you want. Lets say you have 4 guys and the game is 9 ball , draw numbers or whatever for the order of players , all players have to pay the guy that makes the payball(s), lets say this game the payballs are the 5 ball and the 9 ball (some just play pay on the 9 ball), lets say $3 per payball, so if the payball is made in rotation its a payball for that player and everyone owes him $3 for it, and the payball stays down and the player continues to shoot, if a payball is made legally but out of rotation (rode it in or on the snap) then it gets spotted back up after that shot and the player continues to shoot but does get paid on those as well, so a player can make more than 2 payballs in a rack even though you are playing on the 5 - 9. There is no ball in hand or safety play in a ring game normally , the players must attempt to shoot at the ball to make it or make another ball with a legal hit, they don't have to actually hit it but must make a valid attempt, if the other players feel that an attempt was not made then they can put the cb back to where it was (or worse) and make that player attempt again, if this player does not attempt a shot again then this player gets the boot.

thats the way its played in my part of the woods anyhow, hope this helps.
The only thing that I would add is... in order to re-spot the 9-ball when made out of rotation, there must be at least two other object balls on the table. If not, the game is over.

Oh... and periodically a player can call for a redraw of the order...usually not less than a hour though... and we flip coins to establish ours... odd man breaks... next odd man is 2nd... and so on.
 
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videos

According to the DCC 10 ball ring game they win if they combo the 1 into the 10.

But it may be played different in every neck of the woods!
 
txplshrk said:
According to the DCC 10 ball ring game they win if they combo the 1 into the 10.

But it may be played different in every neck of the woods!

Why would that be different? Never heard of combinations not counting.
 
Yes, basically when you're setting up a ring game, all the rules, should be pointed out to everyone, including combinations, intentional safeties, jump cues/shots, etc, it's basically down to what game you're playing, and the players in that particular ring game, agree too :)

Either way, I hope that this is of some help at least :)

Willie
 
txplshrk said:
According to the DCC 10 ball ring game they win if they combo the 1 into the 10.

But it may be played different in every neck of the woods!

Yes, they were playing game over on the 10 ball at DCC, thats not out of the norm for the pros, what I explained earlier is what you might see more often in your local ring games. But as The Wizard said , make the game before it starts.
 
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selftaut said:
ok , I will give an example but you can use whatever game or dollar configuration you want. Lets say you have 4 guys and the game is 9 ball , draw numbers or whatever for the order of players , all players have to pay the guy that makes the payball(s), lets say this game the payballs are the 5 ball and the 9 ball (some just play pay on the 9 ball), lets say $3 per payball, so if the payball is made in rotation its a payball for that player and everyone owes him $3 for it, and the payball stays down and the player continues to shoot, if a payball is made legally but out of rotation (rode it in or on the snap) then it gets spotted back up after that shot and the player continues to shoot but does get paid on those as well, so a player can make more than 2 payballs in a rack even though you are playing on the 5 - 9. There is no ball in hand or safety play in a ring game normally , the players must attempt to shoot at the ball to make it or make another ball with a legal hit, they don't have to actually hit it but must make a valid attempt, if the other players feel that an attempt was not made then they can put the cb back to where it was (or worse) and make that player attempt again, if this player does not attempt a shot again then this player gets the boot.

thats the way its played in my part of the woods anyhow, hope this helps.


From my neck of the woods (SF Bay Area), we have a local variant of 9-ball or 10-ball ring game that demands more skill unlike the standard 'kamikaze' ring game. Here it's called 'LIABILITY' or liability ring-game. Liability is a modification of the typical ring game that originated from the Filipino players. Story has it that Filipino Gene was won of its proponents.

Playing 'Liability' is the same as the regular ring game but the player on deck can opt to play a safety shot in case he is hooked, has a tough shot or is preventing a possible run-out of any one of the other players. Only the player that sells-out pays whenever money balls are sunk on their turn. The only time all the players pay is when all nine balls are run-out or a player breaks and runs up to a money ball or both money balls, or a money ball is made on the break. Money balls are respotted if there are 2 balls before still at play. There is no push-out after the break. The selling-out player follows after the break..

The beauty of this game in comparison to the typical 'all-offense' ring game is you can protect yourself from paying because somebody else made a mistake or in case you're being set-up to be the fish. The key in playing safeties is to position a shot where the next player is able to make a legal hit but not pocket the shot. This way you will still have a chance to get back to the table. Locking up the next player that will lead to a highly probable foul will only favor the other players following him. In other words, you set the shot but they made the buck.

This is a far better ring-game best played with at least $3 for the 5 ball and $6 for 9 ball. I've played this game as high as $20-$40 and sure as heck don't want to miss any ball, pocketing or playing safeties. With 4 players, 10-ball is suggested.

This game can make you quickly lose a friend (when you hooked them) or win a friend (the guy folllowing the player you just hooked who either fouled or sold out). ;)
 
txplshrk said:
Anyone care to explain how a ring game is played? I know everyone gets to play, but I haven't been able to find out all the rules and how it works!

Thanks!

Come by clicks on Tuesday night at 7:30, we just started a $20 a man texas hold-em style ring game txplshrk. Just come and watch it if you don't want to play, it's a blast man. Shayne, Daniel, Dale etc... and me are all playing to get some practice in and get a little interest in pool around here going. Everyone liked it so much last week we played a second round but that lasted too late for me on most weeks.

Shane
 
txplshrk said:
According to the DCC 10 ball ring game they win if they combo the 1 into the 10.

But it may be played different in every neck of the woods!

I see what you meant, now. In a regular ring game, the 10 would spot and the player making it would keep shooting. The DCC ring game is an event, not a regular ring game, IIRC, though I may be wrong.
 
ccshrimper said:
Come by clicks on Tuesday night at 7:30, we just started a $20 a man texas hold-em style ring game txplshrk. Just come and watch it if you don't want to play, it's a blast man. Shayne, Daniel, Dale etc... and me are all playing to get some practice in and get a little interest in pool around here going. Everyone liked it so much last week we played a second round but that lasted too late for me on most weeks.

Shane

Hey Shane, I may stop buy if I can.

Is it $20 all in? Or is it $20 bankroll and you start out with the anty at like $5 or something?
 
TheWizard said:
Yes, basically when you're setting up a ring game, all the rules, should be pointed out to everyone, including combinations, intentional safeties, jump cues/shots, etc

Willie

I've never seen a ring game with intentional safeties allowed. Where I come from, you can get seriously injured or at least thrown out of the game for doing that. I've seen ring games with bih anywhere in the last few years and when I started playing, no one in their right mind would have agreed to that.
I've also never seen the incoming player get the option of giving the shot back to the player ahead of him if he didn't like it, which I've heard of on this forum.
 
Pushout said:
I've never seen a ring game with intentional safeties allowed. Where I come from, you can get seriously injured or at least thrown out of the game for doing that. I've seen ring games with bih anywhere in the last few years and when I started playing, no one in their right mind would have agreed to that.
I've also never seen the incoming player get the option of giving the shot back to the player ahead of him if he didn't like it, which I've heard of on this forum.

I've never heard of intentional safeties being allowed either, I simply mentioned it to give an example of rules, etc, that should always be made clear before the ring game starts, including NO intentional safeties :)

Willie
 
txplshrk said:
Hey Shane, I may stop buy if I can.

Is it $20 all in? Or is it $20 bankroll and you start out with the anty at like $5 or something?

We do it with chips, everyone pays in $20 and gets $1500 in chips to play with, then we start the blinds at 25/50. Whoever makes the 5 gets $25 from everyone, and whoever makes the 10 gets $50. We raise the blinds every 30 minutes and redraw order so you're not behind the same guy all night long. Last week we got 6 players but I'm expecting more this week so we'll probably start on two 8' tables and join on the gold crown when we're down to enough players for one table. We're not doing it like the tv version where every miss is ball-in-hand though. We're also not spotting money balls up after a combo, once the 10 ball is made, game over.
 
ccshrimper said:
We do it with chips, everyone pays in $20 and gets $1500 in chips to play with, then we start the blinds at 25/50. Whoever makes the 5 gets $25 from everyone, and whoever makes the 10 gets $50. We raise the blinds every 30 minutes and redraw order so you're not behind the same guy all night long. Last week we got 6 players but I'm expecting more this week so we'll probably start on two 8' tables and join on the gold crown when we're down to enough players for one table. We're not doing it like the tv version where every miss is ball-in-hand though. We're also not spotting money balls up after a combo, once the 10 ball is made, game over.

So if you miss you play it where it lies? What about if they scratch? Is it behind the line, or ball in hand?

I can't play tomorrow night as my league is playing the first round of play offs tomorrow. Maybe I can make it the following week. I will PM you next week to make sure that you all are still doing it? Who chose clicks and why? Wouldn't it be more fun on better tables like at Paradise? Or is is just cheaper at clicks on Tuesdays?
 
txplshrk said:
So if you miss you play it where it lies? What about if they scratch? Is it behind the line, or ball in hand?

I can't play tomorrow night as my league is playing the first round of play offs tomorrow. Maybe I can make it the following week. I will PM you next week to make sure that you all are still doing it? Who chose clicks and why? Wouldn't it be more fun on better tables like at Paradise? Or is is just cheaper at clicks on Tuesdays?

Scratch is behind the line. If you foul, the guy behind you can make you shoot again if he doesn't like the shot. Any ball made on a foul spots up and if the next ball in order is behind the line on a scratch, it spots.

Years ago, Clicks was the hotspot for action here in Corpus. They had a weekly tournament that filled with 32 players every week from all of the surrounding areas. We have too many pool halls in this town now IMO. The players had few choices where to go, now I think we have 7-8 pool halls within a 20 mile area.

I wish Harrison would bring back his yearly tournament but his place is too expensive for most pool players to play/drink at daily.

Also, the Gold Crown in the back of Clicks is the best table in town to play on that's not in someone's house.
 
ccshrimper said:
Scratch is behind the line. If you foul, the guy behind you can make you shoot again if he doesn't like the shot. Any ball made on a foul spots up and if the next ball in order is behind the line on a scratch, it spots.

Years ago, Clicks was the hotspot for action here in Corpus. They had a weekly tournament that filled with 32 players every week from all of the surrounding areas. We have too many pool halls in this town now IMO. The players had few choices where to go, now I think we have 7-8 pool halls within a 20 mile area.

I wish Harrison would bring back his yearly tournament but his place is too expensive for most pool players to play/drink at daily.

Also, the Gold Crown in the back of Clicks is the best table in town to play on that's not in someone's house.

Yea I knew that Clicks was the hot spot for many years, that was because Rascal's and Spanky's were the only other two options.

It was that way when I left in 97 for the Army. When I came back in 2001 we had a total of 9 pool halls! That's right 9 not 7or 8! The only reason that I know that is because I had to do a report for my speach class so I picked pool.

I think the 9' in Paradise play better than the Gold Crown in Clicks, but everyone is going to have their own opinion.

I wish he would bring back the yearly tourny too! However he is too hung up on the so called IPT maybe getting back together! He won't have that yearly tourny again for a while.

However the 21-22 of July there is an 8 ball tourny that Eric is running there, and in Nov Eric is going to run a big 9 ball tourny too!

I agree that we have too many in the central part of Corpus, but I know the best place to open a pool hall if anyone wanted to. There would be no competition, and you would have loads of business from surrounding areas. It would also be perfect for big tourny's throughout the year as it would be easy to find for most out of town people. (Oh well I need money for that!)

I have been talking to some friends about trying to start a BCA league on Thursdays at Paradise providing he would be giving league members some incentives or discounts for giving him their weekly business. If he isn't interested then I am going to take my proposal around to other pool halls in town.

I want to be able to enter the BCA tournys around TX and the only way to do that is to play in a weekly league. They won't let you enter these tournys unless you play in a sactioned league every week.

The pay out would be pretty good for the end of the season, and it would only cost like $10 a week. He could also include incentives for anyone from league coming in on a none league night or day.

Too bad I don't have the money to start my own pool hall. I would be doing awesome.
 
Liability = Training

The way to play Ring games is 3 players, 9-ball, Liability. Whoever sold out the 9-ball racks the next game and goes second--the player-order changes every game. This is the exact tournament training a 9-ball player should subject themself to. Only when a player runs all 9 balls in one inning WITHOUT Ball-in-Hand do ALL the other players pay--NOT when a money ball is made on the break, or when a partial run involving a money ball occurs. Rewards in a Ring game are Performace based. You start dominating this type of Ring Game and you will perform well in tournaments. The higher the stakes in the Ring Game, the better the performane in the tournaments.
fg
 
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Prolly already clear but just in case: If someone scratches, the next player has "option" just like after a pushout/rollout ... meaning they can choose to shoot it or make you shoot it. If you shoot it and make it, you still get paid for all your money balls, and the shooting order stays the same (so the guy who gave it back to you is still next in line when you finally do miss). Failing to hit a rail or failing to hit the lowest ball is not a foul, the cue ball is always played where it lies.

When the cb goes in the pocket, everything is played behind the line, BUT if a player is ever forced into a situation where the ball he's shooting at is also behind the line, he can choose to move it to the foot spot and try to sink the spot shot.

Also, it's always the shooter who decides whether it spots or not. If you foul, and I follow you... I now have the option of making you shoot again. But if I see my next ball is behind the line, I can't say "ok, don't spot that ball, and now you have to shoot it". I can only say "you have to shoot it" and then you can decide to spot it or leave it there.
 
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