peer2peergames

Nine-ball

The televised pool game, on the same nine foot table as eight-ball, to the WPA rules. Nine balls, the lowest first, and the 9 in any pocket ends it, which is why a rack takes a dozen shots and a whole game fits in a few minutes.

Play Nine-ball Leaderboard

The rules

  1. The cue ball must hit the lowest-numbered ball on the table first. It need not pot it: any ball that drops on a legal shot keeps you at the table.
  2. Pot the 9 on a legal shot and you win the rack, on the break included. Potted on a foul or a push out, the 9 goes back on the foot spot; no other ball is ever spotted.
  3. The break is from behind the head string. If nothing drops, at least four balls must reach a cushion or it is a foul.
  4. On the shot after a clean break, the player shooting may play a push out: the cue ball may hit anything or nothing, and no cushion is required. After it, the other player chooses whether to shoot from there or hand it back.
  5. A foul gives the other player ball in hand anywhere: potting the cue ball, hitting the wrong ball first, hitting nothing, or no ball reaching a cushion after contact.
  6. Three fouls in a row lose the rack. After the second the page says so.

How a game ends

  1. A rack is a game: pot the 9 legally and you win, or foul three times in a row and you lose.
  2. A resignation or a missed deadline ends the game against that player.

Worth knowing before you start

  1. Position matters more than the pot. The next ball is always known, so a pot that leaves the cue ball on the wrong side of the table is only half a shot.
  2. The push out is for a bad break: play the cue ball somewhere you can see the lowest ball from, and make your opponent decide whether the shot you left is one they want.
  3. A safety is a whole shot in nine-ball: hit the lowest ball, send it to a cushion, and leave the cue ball where the next player cannot see it. If they foul, you have ball in hand.
  4. The 9 is on from the first shot. A combination off the lowest ball into the 9 wins the rack at once, and a good player looks for it every time.

The seed decides who breaks and the sub-millimetre jitter in the rack, so no two breaks are the same; it is published when the game ends. The shots themselves are physics, not chance.

Nine-ball terms

The ball on
The lowest-numbered ball still on the table, which the cue ball must hit first.
A push out
The one shot, right after a clean break, on which the wrong ball and no cushion are allowed; the other player then chooses who shoots.
Ball in hand
The cue ball placed anywhere you like before you shoot, which every foul gives to the other player.

Playing it here

  • Against a person or the bot. The bot needs no account and starts at once. To play a person, be rated and keep your games, you need an account: an email address and a password.
  • At your own pace. Every move has a deadline you both see, from one minute to a week. A game can take an evening or it can take a fortnight.
  • Nothing to buy and nothing to win. No stakes, no prizes, no boosts, no undo. The only thing on offer is a place on a leaderboard, and only if you want one.
  • Every game can be checked. Anything decided by chance comes from the game's seed, and the seed is published the moment the game ends, so any finished game can be replayed and verified by anyone. See fair play.