Who has encountered similar rules in Europe (or elsewhere)?

[Push&Pool]

We are talking about informal "bar" rules here, so there really isn't a written up, standardized set of rules. Here is the rule set most common in Scandinavia and northwestern Europe. (The English 8 ball is an enigma wrapped in a mystery. I don't think anyone knows the proper rules to this game anywhere in the world.) This is my best effort at compiling the rules for American bar 8 ball as played in Nortwestern Europe (but of course someone will come and say "We don't play that way at our bar/basement!", but this is my best effort):

1. Scratch means ball in hand behind the line
2. No rail requirement
3. Must hit own group first
4. Black in the last pocket (or sometimes the opposite of the last pocket)
5. Lots of variations on smaller points. Usually pocketing one of your opponents balls together with your own means loss of turn.
6. Usually there is no call shot.

These rules are stupid and unbalanced. Easily exploited and cause lots of fights. For a couple of years I played pool every night at a poolroom. The average skill level was very high at this poolroom and I wasn't really that good at the time. Since I'm also a pretty easy going, non-threatening type of person the people at the poolroom would often refer new players in the room to play me. I NEVER turned anyone down who asked me for a free game no matter what their skill level was, and I always let them pick whatever game or rule sets they would like. If they wanted to play carom, snooker, 6 ball 8, 9 or 10 ball or whatever else they may come up with it did not really matter to me. If they wanted to play for money, I might not want to play for much, but if they gambled small and fair I'd usually play. I can't remember more than ONE player wanting to play 8 ball with bar rules and that particular player could not run 3 balls. If you threw 3 balls out and asked him to run them in order with ball in hand he'd be a massive underdog. Before you can actually do this, you are in my opinion not even a pool player. You may have potential, but running three balls in numerical order is where the journey to actually learn to play starts. That fact ought to tell you something. Once someone learns the WPA or BCA rules of 8 ball and can actually run 3 balls, they do not go back to the bar rules, it is a simple fact of life.

I don't think they're stupid. They can be easily exploited so I'd never play for money using them, just like I would never play for cash by our own rules. But when you play just for love for the game, there's honor among the players which doesn't allow anyone to exploit those "gaps". I talked about it a few days ago. And if no one plays dirty, playing by this kind of rules (like in Scandinavia or Balkan countries) can get just as serious and competitive as when using WSR. Note that I'm not saying they're better than WSR, as WSR is the most balanced version out there, but they are just as challenging and fun in another way. It's like a completely different game of pool.

Ask fatboy about these 8 ball rules

I mentioned those rules in a previous thread as well. They were Serbian. I remember well what happened to Fatboy. His story may be the greatest example of the vast differences between WPA/BCA 8 ball and our game here. The rules were so different that Fatboy and his friend, despite being better players, were practically walking into an entirely new game for them, against opponents who played it for years several times a week. Mix in poor conditions and bad equipment, which the Serbian players were used to, and that match was over before it even began.