three person billiard games

justnum

justnum

Billiards Improvement Research Projects Associate
Silver Member
The challenge concept is to develop a game for three people.

The concept is 3-way 5 ball. 15 balls divided by 3 is 5, so 5 balls a piece.

Different groupings are 1-5, 6-10 and 11-15 or (3,6,9,12,15), (1,4,7,10,13) and (2,5,8,11,14).

Standard 15 ball rack, players alternate turns, winner is the first to pocket all 5.
 
This is similar to 'cutthroat'. In this game the object is to shoot of the balls of your opponents. If you scratch you must put up one ball for each opponent. You can shoot one of your own balls to keep your turn at the table.
 
How about same rules but instead of freely selecting shots, shots have to be a kick, bank, jump and/or kiss. The type of shot changes as the turns at the table change.

Or based on the number of the ball then it must be pocketed by a kick, bank, jump and/or kiss.
 
Hmmmm.....cut throat.....yup I remember playing that. It's the game where 2 players attempt to sucker an unknown into a friendly game for a dollar a ball ...... then tag team him. I wish you luck in your goal to develop an interesting 3 person game, but I'd never play it with strangers...Dan
 
danquixote said:
Hmmmm.....cut throat.....yup I remember playing that. It's the game where 2 players attempt to sucker an unknown into a friendly game for a dollar a ball ...... then tag team him. I wish you luck in your goal to develop an interesting 3 person game, but I'd never play it with strangers...Dan
Click to expand...

My version is a little bit different. Cut throat is when 2 suckers lose many dollars because the player just keeps running out.
 
justnum said:
The challenge concept is to develop a game for three people.

The concept is 3-way 5 ball. 15 balls divided by 3 is 5, so 5 balls a piece.

Different groupings are 1-5, 6-10 and 11-15 or (3,6,9,12,15), (1,4,7,10,13) and (2,5,8,11,14).

Standard 15 ball rack, players alternate turns, winner is the first to pocket all 5.
Click to expand...

Ok, here's a couple good 3 person games.
Every player gets one ball. The goal is to make your ball in all 6 pockets before everyone else. Played on a 10 or 12 ft snooker table.

Rack up 9 or 10 balls in a diamond or triangle configuration. You must shoot at the lowest numbered ball on the table. If you make the 5 ball, everyone pays you $3. If you make the 9/10 ball, everyone pays you $5.
 
justnum said:
The challenge concept is to develop a game for three people.

The concept is 3-way 5 ball. 15 balls divided by 3 is 5, so 5 balls a piece.

Different groupings are 1-5, 6-10 and 11-15 or (3,6,9,12,15), (1,4,7,10,13) and (2,5,8,11,14).

Standard 15 ball rack, players alternate turns, winner is the first to pocket all 5.
Click to expand...
Any game can be played with three player by playing captain. Ring 9 and 10 ball are good three handed games. Pill pool games are fun any number of players can play. Rotation is another, no real need to invent a new game there are already many.
 
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check or double check, draw pills

Some time back I would go to a local beer joint ever Saturday about 12:30
or so they would always be 3 or 4 of my friends that liked to play check.
we would start around 1:00 pm and play to 4:00 or a little longer some time. I think the table was an old brunswick 9 foot table and the cushions
was good the table played great with a fast roll. We played for 50 cents
the winner could buy 3 or 4 cold ones. That has been a while back. the main thing about this story is it was a good game that 4 or 5 people could play. No one could lose a lot of money and it sure was fun we all had a good time. Oftentimes I think about all those good times and wonder where did they go. take care, john
 
Drew said:
My version is a little bit different. Cut throat is when 2 suckers lose many dollars because the player just keeps running out.
Click to expand...

You and Dan pose some interesting questions.

If the two players gang on up the third the game dynamics are unbalanced. To balance that out a point system for deductions could be worked out. Suppose players miss on purpose too many times (to help create an offensive or force a defensive shot). The solution being if a person misses there is a penalty like losing points.

The situation when a player continues to runout happens in billiard games. To create a rule to prevent that from happening doesn't make sense to me. If that does happen then the rotation of shot from kick, bank, kiss, and/or jump can up the difficulty level, limited to the strong player.
 
3 player games

I think the best games to play for three people would be 9 ball or 10 ball.
I never thought very much of cut throat. take care, john
 
Problem with cut throat is the chances of a decent player running out is pretty high. If you can run a rack of 8 ball, cut throat should be even easier as there are 10 different options vs. 8.
 
As kids we use to play a game we called peg, it sounds the same as cribbage. You have to pocket two balls that add up to 15. Each pair pocked counts as one point. The 15 ball can be shot anytime to keep your turn at the table going, as soon as the 15 is pocked it is placed on the spot. When the 15 is the last ball on the table it also counts as one point. The person with the most points win. You can strike any ball first, when trying to pocket your ball.
 
We used to play some "screw your neighbor" or "cutthroat" with the stipuylation that when you pocketed a ball, the next ball had to be either the next higheer or next lower numbered ball.
For ex., if you were the 1-5 group and you pocketed the 10 ball, then you had to shoot at either the 9 or 11 next. Obvioussly if one of them were gone, the next numbered ball in line, etc.
You had to hit that ball first, buyt any ball pocketed by combo or carom counted as long as you called it.
Kind of kept yo from shooting at your own balls unless you were desperate, because one or possibly both of your next options would be your own ball again.
The standard way is too easy for good players.

ring games are fun too - especially if you're following the right player!
 
TX Poolnut said:
Bowlliards is funner. You just have to know how to score bowling.
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But no one knows what a good average is. I've read about bowlliards, but haven't seen one or heard much talk about good averages. In the 14.1 section high runs are all the rage.

But bowlliards? No one talks about having "__ average" as decent.
 
danquixote said:
Hmmmm.....cut throat.....yup I remember playing that. It's the game where 2 players attempt to sucker an unknown into a friendly game for a dollar a ball ...... then tag team him. I wish you luck in your goal to develop an interesting 3 person game, but I'd never play it with strangers...Dan
Click to expand...

Yea, anytime you play a game with 3 people you have to be worried about being brother-in-lawed. That's what we use to call it when I was kid playing 9 ball ring games. The other two would go out back of the pool hall and split up the money. Been many of fist fights over that, whether it was true or not.

Steven
 
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