tomatoshooter
Well-known member
You're right. The games that are played with cue ball in kitchen, like one pocket, banks, and straight pool, spot balls if none are beyond the head string.
Why Do So Many Bar Room Recreational 8-Ball Players Cling to the Nonsense Outdated Rules?
- Thread starter ChrisinNC
- Start date
Lots of crappy players just make up rules as they go along trying to win off any BS thing they can think of.
They've convinced themselves that if they eliminate "slop" or luck from the game and create ways to make things more difficult, it makes them better. This type of player usually abhors 9 ball, and calls it a "slop game" and considers it beneath them.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Ha, I can do one better...
Eons ago I was playing in a local bar and was getting all my buddies drunk from my spoils, while following those ridiculous rules were speaking of. Until a new guy puts his coin on the table and gets his turn. The game unfolds pretty much the same as the dozens prior. However once I get down to the 8ball and I call the pocket, with how many banks it will take, and the ball it will carom off of that's mostly blocking pocket. He speaks up and says:
** "You can't do that."
-- "Do what?", I retort.
** "You can't make the 8ball by hitting it off of one of mine"
-- "Whatever man, that's not a rule I've ever heard of. If I call it, it's good. This is the shot I'm going to play"
** "It's a house rule, and if you shoot it like that, you lose"
-- "Oh so you're telling me the owner made up that rule?"
** "Yep"
--"Ok fine I'll ask him. Is he here..?"
** "You're looking at him"
I placed my cue on the table, shook his hand and asked what he was drinking. (He didn't accept the drink)
The moral of the story.... Those ridiculous rules were put in place so those who hate losing to better players have a better chance at stealing a game or two. I experienced the real-time invention of one of these rules, in an effort to get me off the table so his regulars would be happy. In invention, these silly rules are no different then how the rules of mainstream 10ball comically address all the things the whiners hate about 9ball.
Is what it is... Enjoy it. This is the stuff that keeps pool interesting
Eons ago I was playing in a local bar and was getting all my buddies drunk from my spoils, while following those ridiculous rules were speaking of. Until a new guy puts his coin on the table and gets his turn. The game unfolds pretty much the same as the dozens prior. However once I get down to the 8ball and I call the pocket, with how many banks it will take, and the ball it will carom off of that's mostly blocking pocket. He speaks up and says:
** "You can't do that."
-- "Do what?", I retort.
** "You can't make the 8ball by hitting it off of one of mine"
-- "Whatever man, that's not a rule I've ever heard of. If I call it, it's good. This is the shot I'm going to play"
** "It's a house rule, and if you shoot it like that, you lose"
-- "Oh so you're telling me the owner made up that rule?"
** "Yep"
--"Ok fine I'll ask him. Is he here..?"
** "You're looking at him"
I placed my cue on the table, shook his hand and asked what he was drinking. (He didn't accept the drink)
The moral of the story.... Those ridiculous rules were put in place so those who hate losing to better players have a better chance at stealing a game or two. I experienced the real-time invention of one of these rules, in an effort to get me off the table so his regulars would be happy. In invention, these silly rules are no different then how the rules of mainstream 10ball comically address all the things the whiners hate about 9ball.
Is what it is... Enjoy it. This is the stuff that keeps pool interesting
Zerksies
Well-known member
#1 reason I don't play in bars. The second reason is the competition is not hard enough.
I was playing 8-ball in my new pool hall a week ago with some guy. I'm usually trying not trying to play safeties and stuff like that, But when i figured out he was using BCA rules game on. He got hit with every safety I could think of.
I was playing 8-ball in my new pool hall a week ago with some guy. I'm usually trying not trying to play safeties and stuff like that, But when i figured out he was using BCA rules game on. He got hit with every safety I could think of.
To be fair, that was the official BCA rule for a brief time in the 70’s. Fats and Mosconi played it that way on television. Bob Jewett’s 8-ball Rules article in BD discusses most rule changes since 8-ball rules were put to paper.
Now’a a good time to link to my Bar 8-ball ruleset:
I've met a couple that questioned what made them "Pro rules".
"Just pull up a YouTube video of any pro playing and we'll play by the same rules".
That as far as it ever goes. I'm just there to play pool and have fun. Anyone that wants to make an issue about rules can move on.
Yeah a few will look up the rules but most drunks just want total control.
I don't understand why this is so surprising considering all the different ways folks come up with PROS to play 9 ball. 1 on the spot/9 on the spot, break box/certain number of balls hitting the rail/certain number of balls past the head string/cue ball fouls/all ball fouls, different colored 5 ball, and on and on.
Heck, I bet you would sooner get a consensus on the correct way to play 8 ball from a bunch of highly intoxicated bangers, than if you asked a bunch of pros the proper way to play 9 ball.
One of THE worst bar fights i ever sweated was over these nitty 8b rules bs. Most places in Tulsa now have in-house leagues so thankfully even the bangers are hip to the rules. There's still some little beer bars that the 'call pocket' vs. 'call shot' deal is still a problem. I don't go there. Don't need a fight over whether or not you called every kiss or what point of the pocket the ball hit before falling.
I've run into that in several places. I have a long list of questions I ask before playing. Many places won't let you hit an opponent's ball to carom (or in a multi-combo), even if called.
Stupid rule? Yes. But if it's theirs, it's a rule.
In BCA rules you lose if you make the 8 AND scratch. Just scratching alone is just BIH. Most 'bar rules' its a loss regardless.
I think there are two reasons. One, they think that the rules somehow make the game more fair and second games take longer so they get more time/quarter. Some of the bars that lean more pool than bar here in San Diego have started using BCA rules but its rare
RT Ford
Well-known member
I experienced a very similar situation. The game was call pocket eight-ball. While running a table, I set myself up for a three ball, cross-corner, combination shot. The middle ball was the eight ball. I made the shot and my opponent immediately yelled foul. He told me using the eight ball in a combination was against the rules. I called the tournament director over and explained to her that the rule was invalid because the eight ball assists during the initial break shot. She got very huffy and told me it didn't matter; rules are rules. I smiled politely, unscrewed my cue and walked out. That was probably forty years ago and I think that was the last bar tournament I went to.
BCA is a pretty common and fairly well known rule set.
I didn't really start playing pool until I was about 35 yrs old, I was playing at a bar with my little sister and she was wiping the floor with me, I was awful, so I decided to join a league and learn how to play, so I start playing and failed to make a ball or drive a ball to a rail and my opponent picks up the cue ball and calls a foul!!! The horror! This was my introduction to BIH rules, My captain explained that the reason for the rules is that you should never be punished for playing well and you will be punished for poor play, he said you have been playing checkers, real pool is played like chess, so he went over the rules and introduced me to strategy and I saw the game in a whole new light, it made me love the sport, so now if I'm in a bar I try and show the players what BIH rules really are, some are receptive some not but I can't help to think that it might bring new fans and plyers of the game, I was at the pool hall this week and found three twenty somethings, not playing video games but believe it or not but playing pool, one of them was actually taking a lesson !!!!!!!! Maybe there is hope for our sport after all.
The best way to address this issue is for the bar owner to put up a large poster near or at the tables entitled ”Mandatory House Rules” that starts out something like this:
- The rules of play for any games played in an organized league in this establishment are governed solely by the rules of that league.
- In any non-league games played in this establishment, the following rules of play are in effect at all times:
- [Then simply list the rules of play that are desired, presumably reflecting the common sense approach discussed above. Maybe even throw in a few tidbits about no drinks being placed on tables, etc.]
Someone should develop a standardized set of rules that could be put on such a poster which could be distributed to various bars by table manufacturers, mechanics, beer distributors or whoever. The most common issues (BIH, etc.) could be put first or put in bold print. It would be super cheap and, once such a poster was in widely distributed, the posted rules would become accepted.
- The rules of play for any games played in an organized league in this establishment are governed solely by the rules of that league.
- In any non-league games played in this establishment, the following rules of play are in effect at all times:
- [Then simply list the rules of play that are desired, presumably reflecting the common sense approach discussed above. Maybe even throw in a few tidbits about no drinks being placed on tables, etc.]
Someone should develop a standardized set of rules that could be put on such a poster which could be distributed to various bars by table manufacturers, mechanics, beer distributors or whoever. The most common issues (BIH, etc.) could be put first or put in bold print. It would be super cheap and, once such a poster was in widely distributed, the posted rules would become accepted.
