The Strangest Thing Happened. A Must See.

[mnorwood]

So I go to play in an eight ball tournament and I end up winning it, but that wasn't the best part of the evening. I was playing a warm up game with a good friend of mine. He breaks and his only shot was a combination shot on the 11. He hits the shot and the balls fall have way in the pocket and get jammed. There are no balls in the pocket holding them up. The balls are jammed and hanging half way on the pocket shelf. In a sanctioned tournament would these balls be considered down?????

 

[mnorwood]

Another shot.

Here is another angle.

 

[Beer:30]

Yes. If the balls are hanging in a pocket such that they would fall if they weren't stuck they are considered pocketed.

edit: WPA rules


8.3 Ball Pocketed
A ball is pocketed if it comes to rest in a pocket below the playing surface or enters the ball return system. A ball near the brink of a pocket partly supported by another ball is considered pocketed if removal of the supporting ball would cause the ball to fall into the pocket.
If a ball stops near the edge of a pocket, and remains apparently motionless for five seconds, it is not considered pocketed if it later falls into the pocket by itself. See 1.7 Balls Settling for other details. During that five second period, the referee should ensure that no other shot is taken. An object ball that rebounds from a pocket back onto the playing surface is not a pocketed ball. If the cue ball contacts an already pocketed ball, the cue ball will be considered pocketed whether it rebounds from the pocket or not. The referee will remove pocketed object balls from full or nearly full pockets, but it is the shooter’s responsibility to see that this duty is performed.

 

[mnorwood]

Here is the other picture

From another vantage point.

 

[jay helfert]

If part of the balls are below the surface of the table they are considered pocketed. If you remove one ball, will the other one fall in?

 

[mnorwood]

If part of the balls are below the surface of the table they are considered pocketed. If you remove one ball, will the other one fall in?

Yeah Jay both balls would have definitely fell like that. The funny thing is I tried to set them up by hand and couldn't get them to stay.

 

[skiergirl55]

Sunnyone was asking what a ghost ball was. I think this is the answer. SPOOKY!

 

[mosconiac]

We play a ring game every saturday afternoon & we had that happen not once, but twice in single afternoon once...& I was the guy shooting both times. We called both balls pocketed each time. This usually happens once or twice per year on those tables during our ring game.

 

[gunzby]

Both balls look like they would be below the shelf so both would be down. Pretty cool....I've never seen anything like that before.

 

[TXsouthpaw]

If part of the balls are below the surface of the table they are considered pocketed. If you remove one ball, will the other one fall in?

jay hit the nail right on the head. If u remove one will the other fall?
If so then they're down. Happen to me at the Houston open once

 

[mnorwood]

jay hit the nail right on the head. If u remove one will the other fall?
If so then they're down. Happen to me at the Houston open once

The problem with trying to hit the balls in this situation is keeping the cue ball from scratching or flying off the table. My friend was able to keep the cue ball on the table without scratching but the cue ball did jump.

 

[CreeDo]

it's weird... this is rare, but enough pool has been played that this is actually fairly common.

What I think is funny is when one attempts to drop them by popping the cue ball into them at moderate speed... and whitey just rebounds off of them. I couldn't believe it. But yeah, what everyone else said... they're down.

 

[Luxury]

So they are considered pocketed. What if the cue ball comes around three rails and would have scratched but the "pocketed balls" block the scratch?

Or while the cue ball is slowly heading down table can the non-shooter remove the wedged balls so that the cue ball will be able to scratch?

Any rules that address this?

 

[Beer:30]

So they are considered pocketed. What if the cue ball comes around three rails and would have scratched but the "pocketed balls" block the scratch?

Or while the cue ball is slowly heading down table can the non-shooter remove the wedged balls so that the cue ball will be able to scratch?

Any rules that address this?

Up above in my original post the WPA rules state that if the cueball makes contact with a pocketed ball the CB is considered pocketed regardless of it's final resting position on the table.