Weirdest pool rules

S

Side Pocket Kid

Poolhall Junkie
Silver Member
Do any of you out there have any weird rules?
Alright so a couple of my friends won the qualifications for AUCI at Georgia Southern. So I went down to Florida to see them play in the regionals. A friend of mine by the name of Adam broke, and the cue ball exploded into pieces on the table. I mean, shattered everywhere. We were bafeled when the referee/Tournament director broke out the scale and weighed the broken peices, deciding on who has ball in hand!!!
 
weird is whatever you're not used to...

in bars in France, they often play where the 8 ball (black) has to be pocketed in the opposite corner from the one your last ball went in. Cross corner, and opposite sides.

in bars in the U.K., a foul meant that the other person had two shots- as in, two misses before the fouling person could return to the table. The bar players in the backpacker's places were so pathetically awful, though, that even with two consecutive trips to the table they were rarely out.

and the weirdest I've seen was Hawaii: you didn't need to keep one foot on the ground. So even little old men would crawl up on to the table, sometimes flat-footed with shoes on, and shoot a hard- to- reach ball. The fun was watching them crawl quickly out of the way of moving balls.
 
Side Pocket Kid said:
the referee/Tournament director broke out the scale and weighed the broken peices, deciding on who has ball in hand!!!
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Did he explain why he was doing this, and what results would determine who had ball in hand?
 
woody_968 said:
Did he explain why he was doing this, and what results would determine who had ball in hand?
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He explained all this bs :rolleyes: I dont remember it all, he found a way to split the 2 halves and the player with the heaviest half recieved ball in hand. I thought it was a joke at first!
 
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I think the weirdest rule is the one in straight pool that says that if you catch the cue ball as it scratches into a pocket, it is a sixteen point foul. I do understand why the rule is on the books, but the truth is that most people who catch the cue ball in this situation are doing so as a courtesy to opponent or, at least, to keep the game moving.
 
Side Pocket Kid said:
Do any of you out there have any weird rules?
Alright so a couple of my friends won the qualifications for AUCI at Georgia Southern. So I went down to Florida to see them play in the regionals. A friend of mine by the name of Adam broke, and the cue ball exploded into pieces on the table. I mean, shattered everywhere. We were bafeled when the referee/Tournament director broke out the scale and weighed the broken peices, deciding on who has ball in hand!!!
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Wow. The whole team can get ball in hand.


I saw this happen before on a bar table. I doubt they were quality balls.
 
sjm said:
I think the weirdest rule is the one in straight pool that says that if you catch the cue ball as it scratches into a pocket, it is a sixteen point foul. I do understand why the rule is on the books, but the truth is that most people who catch the cue ball in this situation are doing so as a courtesy to opponent or, at least, to keep the game moving.
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If you really want to save time that way, put your hand down under the level of the slate to catch the ball, and say, "I'm acting as the referee."

There is also a rule at nine ball that you must never, ever touch a moving ball or it is a foul, whether or not you are playing with a referee. At the next tournament, watch how many players touch the cue ball while is it still rolling after the nine is pocketed. The last shot is not over until the last ball stops moving. If you want some major excitement, call this foul on your next opponent.
 
Bob Jewett said:
There is also a rule at nine ball that you must never, ever touch a moving ball or it is a foul, whether or not you are playing with a referee. At the next tournament, watch how many players touch the cue ball while is it still rolling after the nine is pocketed. The last shot is not over until the last ball stops moving. If you want some major excitement, call this foul on your next opponent.
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I wouldn't, if it was 100% likely not to go in Id think Id have a 100% chance of him slamming a house peice in my face.
 
Side Pocket Kid said:
Do any of you out there have any weird rules?
Alright so a couple of my friends won the qualifications for AUCI at Georgia Southern. So I went down to Florida to see them play in the regionals. A friend of mine by the name of Adam broke, and the cue ball exploded into pieces on the table. I mean, shattered everywhere. We were bafeled when the referee/Tournament director broke out the scale and weighed the broken peices, deciding on who has ball in hand!!!
Click to expand...

This sounds more like a strange dream you had than something that really happened. You asked him why he was weighing the pieces and you forgot what he said? I would listen intently to see why in the hell he would do that. And no way Aramith balls would shatter, they had to be some crappy balls made with different material.
 
LastTwo said:
This sounds more like a strange dream you had than something that really happened. You asked him why he was weighing the pieces and you forgot what he said? I would listen intently to see why in the hell he would do that. And no way Aramith balls would shatter, they had to be some crappy balls made with different material.
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Eh.. I didn't ask him. I wasn't even in the tournament, wasn't my match. He was talking to my friends not me. I just heard what he said from a distance.
 
One of the more ridiculous rules came up in the 1976 PPPA World Open Straight Pool Championship in Asbury Park, NJ, which was played during a hurricane, and at which I was in attendance.

Somebdy mistakenly opened one of the doors near where the late Larry Lisciotti's match was in progress. All the balls were blown to the same side of the table. The referee ruled that all the balls had to be replaced to their original position, but nobody could remember the exact details of where the balls were.

Once the balls were replaced from best memory, Larry had a dead ball in the pack! Larry told the story often.

As many will recall, Larry went on to win the event.
 
sjm said:
One of the more ridiculous rules came up in the 1976 PPPA World Open Straight Pool Championship in Asbury Park, NJ, which was played during a hurricane, and at which I was in attendance.
...
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I remember this differently. The door that blew open was by the table where Herb Lehman was playing. The scoring screen (for the overhead projector) blew over onto the scorer and blew all the balls to the head of the table. Rain was coming horizontally into the room (which was the second time I had seen rain moving horizontally across an indoor pool table). Just before things came crashing down, Herb had been studying a safety, as there was nothing to shoot at. Herb put the balls back where they were and played a safety. I don't remember who he was playing. Maybe some other table was also affected, but Herb's was the table nearest the open door, and the tournament room -- suitable for a hockey rink -- had the tables widely spread out.

This was on the first night of the tournament, as I recall. I was on one of the last planes into Newark that night, Monday, August 9th, 1976, and when I got to Asbury Park, I noticed the rental car was dancing at the stop signs, and not the Asbury Jukes. Hurricane Belle hit Long Island early the next morning.
 
Bob Jewett said:
I remember this differently. The door that blew open was by the table where Herb Lehman was playing. The scoring screen (for the overhead projector) blew over onto the scorer and blew all the balls to the head of the table. Rain was coming horizontally into the room (which was the second time I had seen rain moving horizontally across an indoor pool table). Just before things came crashing down, Herb had been studying a safety, as there was nothing to shoot at. Herb put the balls back where they were and played a safety. I don't remember who he was playing. Maybe some other table was also affected, but Herb's was the table nearest the open door, and the tournament room -- suitable for a hockey rink -- had the tables widely spread out.

This was on the first night of the tournament, as I recall. I was on one of the last planes into Newark that night, Monday, August 9th, 1976, and when I got to Asbury Park, I noticed the rental car was dancing at the stop signs, and not the Asbury Jukes. Hurricane Belle hit Long Island early the next morning.
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Yes, more than one table was affected, and the futility of trying to recreate the original positions was quite comical. Wow, Herb Lehmann! Super nice guy from Connecticutt. Wonder how he's doing.

Sounds like you were quite fortunate to get there at all. I remember it was a tough drive. I was 18 and I'd only had gotten my driver's license about a month earlier, so I was still learning the ropes behind the wheel. Tough assignment for a driving newbie!
 
sjm said:
I think the weirdest rule is the one in straight pool that says that if you catch the cue ball as it scratches into a pocket, it is a sixteen point foul. I do understand why the rule is on the books, but the truth is that most people who catch the cue ball in this situation are doing so as a courtesy to opponent or, at least, to keep the game moving.
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About 20 years ago, I nearly broke a finger doing that so I never catch a ball anymore...that's why gulleys were invented.

Jeff Livingston
 
Bob Jewett said:
I remember this differently. The door that blew open was by the table where Herb Lehman was playing. The scoring screen (for the overhead projector) blew over onto the scorer and blew all the balls to the head of the table. Rain was coming horizontally into the room (which was the second time I had seen rain moving horizontally across an indoor pool table). Just before things came crashing down, Herb had been studying a safety, as there was nothing to shoot at. Herb put the balls back where they were and played a safety. I don't remember who he was playing. Maybe some other table was also affected, but Herb's was the table nearest the open door, and the tournament room -- suitable for a hockey rink -- had the tables widely spread out.

This was on the first night of the tournament, as I recall. I was on one of the last planes into Newark that night, Monday, August 9th, 1976, and when I got to Asbury Park, I noticed the rental car was dancing at the stop signs, and not the Asbury Jukes. Hurricane Belle hit Long Island early the next morning.
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Thats a crazy tale. I've never heard of anything like that, id like to go through one once though. Im sure everyone there got a good " What the hell?" out of it.
 
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