Strategy for a dumb parlor game - 3 ball

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maxeypad2007

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Okay so recently I tried this in a bar.

Rack 3 balls and you have four shots to make all three. You can shoot them in any order.

Playing on a 9-foot table with tough pockets I was surprised by how much tougher this is than I first thought.

So here comes my question, has anyone ever played this and did you determine what the best type of break is.
 
Yes, I played it on a bar table about 40 odd years ago. There is a break where you are almost guaranteed to make two on the break but I can't remember how it's done. Hell, if you can make one on the break and get out in 3 you'll probably win.
We played that whatever low score was won. 3 would usually do it.
 
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the break varies from table to table. Depends on the cloth, rails, and what your goal is. On some tables you can find a way to make one of the back balls four in the corner. Whatever you do, keep whitey in the center
 
i 1st played this game in some bars in west palm beach fla back in the 80s.

you had to make all 3 in 3 shots, the break counted as a shot. basically you had to make 1 on the break and make the other 2 in 2 shots to win. if you did not make a ball on the break it was virtually impossible to win unless you made 2 balls in 1 shot.

i have seen pots over 100.00 down there with 5 or 6 men playing putting up 1.00 each round. if nobody made it in 3 shots you put up again. some guys would go a few rounds and drop out. some places a new man could buy in, other places you had to wait till someone won the pot and a new game started.

how you bought in was matching what every player had in the pot. say there was 100.000 in the pot and 5 men playing. that came up to 20.00 per man. you put up 20.00 and you were in the game.


how they play it here in memphis is whoever makes it in 4 shots or less.

the pots very rarely get over 10.00 here. just about any decent player can make 3 balls in 4 shots or less.
 
I still play it!

We play it sometimes when the action is slow, low count wins. So if you make all three balls in the fewest shots you win the pot. If two guys tie for low number the next game starts, but the two guys with low count dont have to put any money in for that game.

We play $5 a man with 5 guys.
 
This is a fun game for small action. We played $1 or $2 a game with a tie for low tie for all. Everyone adds to the pot and they play again. With 5 players there will be a lot of ties, so the pot can grow pretty good sometimes. Breaker never racks his own. If I played it today i'd want to use the Magic Rack. The rack is big in this game. I'd hate to play this game rack your own with Corey D. Johnnyt
 
Played it years ago at a quarter a shot, add an extra shot for a scratch, with no limit on shots. 2 tie all tie. Fun game! :wink:
 
They had this as a carnival game at the local county fair years ago. They zinger that was throwing everyone off was the guy racking the balls was doing some wonky stuff. I can't remember for sure what what is was, but if you hit the head ball, that one of the back balls would end up way up-table and the other would kind of dribble to the back rail with the head ball staying put. They were tilting the rack somehow I believe. The table was like some old 1970's Montgomery Ward warped honeycomb-surface POS that was the absolute worst I have ever tried to play on.
 
3-ball = $!

Johnnyt said:
This is a fun game for small action. We played $1 or $2 a game with a tie for low tie for all. Everyone adds to the pot and they play again. With 5 players there will be a lot of ties, so the pot can grow pretty good sometimes. Breaker never racks his own. If I played it today i'd want to use the Magic Rack. The rack is big in this game. I'd hate to play this game rack your own with Corey D. Johnnyt
Click to expand...

Yes, it's a great game! Nice and simple for the novice or the slightly loaded! Winner starts the next game, with up to 5 or 6 players. I took $600 home from a 3-ball game on Rhode Island Avenue in DC back in '93!

Donny L
PBIA/ACS Instructor
 
The break that I wrote about in my post above, I saw in a book on trick shots years ago. I didn't own the book and couldn't remember the title when I went looking for it. I remember trying it a few times and if two weren't guaranteed you could still make two quite often. I wish I could remember how it was done:grin:
 
Three ball is scored the same as skins in golf where all the holes are par 4. Two people tie, the pot rolls over to the next hole/turn for all players.

1 = double eagle
2 = eagle
3 = birdie
4 = par
5 = bogie
6 = double bogie
7 = triple bogie
8 = pull up stakes, your done, max. score

Here's a pool golf score sheet that allows you to keep score and rack differently for each "hole":

http://www.sfbilliards.com/golfpool_score.pdf
 
WoodyJ said:
Three ball is scored the same as skins in golf where all the holes are par 4. Two people tie, the pot rolls over to the next hole/turn for all players.

1 = double eagle
2 = eagle
3 = birdie
4 = par
5 = bogie
6 = double bogie
7 = triple bogie
8 = pull up stakes, your done, max. score

Here's a pool golf score sheet that allows you to keep score and rack differently for each "hole":

http://www.sfbilliards.com/golfpool_score.pdf
Click to expand...

Here is what that kind of golf looks like:
CropperCapture[23].png
 
Johnnyt said:
This is a fun game for small action. We played $1 or $2 a game with a tie for low tie for all. Everyone adds to the pot and they play again. With 5 players there will be a lot of ties, so the pot can grow pretty good sometimes. Breaker never racks his own. If I played it today i'd want to use the Magic Rack. The rack is big in this game. I'd hate to play this game rack your own with Corey D. Johnnyt
Click to expand...
There is a little bit of strategy for brothers-in-law: If you are shooting last in a group of 7, and the pot's pretty big, and your BiL has the lead with a 3, it would be a mistake to tie him.
 
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I break three ball kind of like a second ball 8 ball break, but you want to hit the head ball and the second ball at the same time with low right if you are breaking from the right side of the table.
 
maxeypad2007 said:
Okay so recently I tried this in a bar.

Rack 3 balls and you have four shots to make all three. You can shoot them in any order.

Playing on a 9-foot table with tough pockets I was surprised by how much tougher this is than I first thought.

So here comes my question, has anyone ever played this and did you determine what the best type of break is.
Click to expand...


The break depends on the situation. If you are the last person to shoot and nobody has made it in 4 shots you can break soft. Heck, I have even played the cue ball off the back rail into the stack in that situation. You don't need to break hard because you just need to do it in 4 shots.

If the point is already set at 4 you can break hard or soft. Soft break will give you a better chance of getting a tie and carry over the cash. Hard break will give you a better chance to win but you could also scratch.
 
I don't know any tricks for breaking when the balls are racked in a triangle. We had a weekly 3-ball tournament in my area at one time, but the balls were racked in a straight line (like 3 spotted balls). When they are racked like that, you can play a glancing break (just to get whitey out of the way) and the back ball will sometimes split the front two and get 'em going towards the sides. I made two and left the third one hanging several times with that break. The only real strategy I ever used in that game was to shoot tough shots at pocket speed. Sometimes if you miss they will hang up and you get an opportunity to make one and carom in the hanging ball on a subsequent shot.

Aaron
 
Trick to that is to just slightly push the cueball into the rack, just barely make contact and it pushes the 2 balls towards each corner and the head ball sits there. Guaranteed winner at any fair every time.

haywood said:
They had this as a carnival game at the local county fair years ago. They zinger that was throwing everyone off was the guy racking the balls was doing some wonky stuff. I can't remember for sure what what is was, but if you hit the head ball, that one of the back balls would end up way up-table and the other would kind of dribble to the back rail with the head ball staying put. They were tilting the rack somehow I believe. The table was like some old 1970's Montgomery Ward warped honeycomb-surface POS that was the absolute worst I have ever tried to play on.
Click to expand...
 
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