The game SPIDER ...You may want to try it

Ralph Kramden

Ralph Kramden

BOOM!.. ZOOM!.. MOON!
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Bob Jewett has an article in the March '09 issue of BD magazine about a game called Spider. I'm including a link to the rules of the game if you didn't have a chance to read it.

The game plays with 8 balls. The 1 through 7 balls are racked. The racked balls are called "Bug" balls. The Spider ball (8 ball) is placed on the center spot.
To break you must pass by either side of the Spider and hit the 1 ball directly.

After the lowest numbered Bug ball is contacted, any ball can pocket, as in a rotational game. When any ball pockets the Spider becomes the new object ball.
A kill point is earned when the Spider pockets (in any pocket).

After killing a bug the Spider returns to the table on the center spot and you go for the next lowest numbered bug ball. The first player to score 4 kill points is the winner of the rack.

If you pocket a bug ball and fail to pocket the Spider, your opponent will also be shooting at the Spider and will score the kill point if he pockets it.

Here is the link... http://sites.google.com/site/poolandbilliard/Home/spi

Play the game and leave some feedback as to your thoughts about it.
 
Sounds like a snooker/9ball hybrid. I might give it a try next time I find myself at the table. Thanks. :thumbup:
 
Sounds fun. It will definitely appeal to my teenagers who are tired of 8-ball, 9-ball, 10-ball.

You can add more challenge by requiring the spider to go down the same hole as the bug to score a valid kill. (Completes the imagery, gobble gobble.) Any wrongly-pocketed spider is spotted on the center spot, with loss of inning, but no BIH foul.
 
Shaft said:
You can add more challenge by requiring the spider to go down the same hole as the bug to score a valid kill.
Click to expand...

A variation of the game to handicap higher level players would be to limit the number of pockets allowed to pocket the Spider.

An example would be that a lesser player could pocket the Spider in any pocket but a higher level player would only be allowed to pocket the Spider in the corner pockets for a kill.
 
awesome, sounds great! a little confusing read at first, but will try it out soon. easily adadptable to more balls, with/without rotation play for varying skill levels
 
I played it, it was lots of fun, and we agreed it would be great for those that like 9 ball except for the fact that you lose if you don't miss the last one
 
Johnnyz86 said:
I played it, it was lots of fun, and we agreed it would be great for those that like 9 ball except for the fact that you lose if you don't miss the last one
Click to expand...

I don't understand what you mean by saying, "except for the fact that you lose if you don't miss the last one".

If either player makes a legal Bug ball, the object ball then switches to the Spider ball.
Both players must then try to pocket the Spider to get the kill point.

After the Spider pockets, it spots back up and the next lowest numbered Bug ball becomes the new object ball.
When that Bug ball pockets the object ball again switches to pocketing the Spider for another kill point.

The first player that recieves 4 kill points by pocketing the Spider, after any Bug ball is pocketed, is the winner of the rack.

What do you mean when you say, "you lose if you don't miss the last one?" It's the first player with 4 points that wins. You may never get to the "last one".
 
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what i meant to say was "we agreed it would be great for those that like 9 ball but don't like the fact that in 9 ball, you lose if you miss the last ball"

i must've been tired when i wrote the original statement.
 
Johnnyz86 said:
i must've been tired when i wrote the original statement.
Click to expand...

I do the same thing at times. Thanks for the explanation.
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I'd also like to hear input from others who have tried the game. Any comments you may have would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
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