The game
8-ball is played with fifteen balls: the solids (1 through 7), the stripes (9 through 15) and the black 8. You do not pick your group in advance — the first ball you legally pocket after the break decides it. Once your group is off the table you play the 8, and that wins the rack.
The rack
The fifteen balls are racked tightly in a triangle, with the apex ball on the foot spot. The 8 sits in the middle of the triangle: the first ball directly below the apex. One solid and one stripe go in the two back corners. The rest go in without any pattern.
The break
Whoever wins the lag breaks. You place the cue ball behind the head string and nothing is called: on the break you may hit any ball first.
The break counts if a ball is pocketed, or if at least four object balls reach a cushion. If neither happens, your opponent chooses: play the table as it lies, re-rack and break himself, or re-rack and have you break again.
Pocketing the 8 on the break is not a foul. You then choose: spot the 8 and play on, or break again. If you fouled on that same shot, the choice is your opponent's.
If the cue ball leaves the table on the break, or you foul in some other way, your opponent chooses: play the table as it lies, or take the cue ball in hand behind the head string.
Open table
Until the groups are settled the table is open. You call the ball you are playing; pocket it and that group is yours and the other is your opponent's. Miss, and the table stays open and it is his turn.
With an open table you may hit any ball first except the 8. Hitting the 8 first is a foul, unless one group has already been cleared.
Calling your shot
Every shot after the break is called: which ball, which pocket. How it gets there — off a cushion, off another ball — does not matter. If it is obvious you need say nothing.
You may also call safety. Your turn then ends after the shot, even if a ball drops, and that ball stays down. In 10-ball you cannot do that; in 8-ball you can.
Order of play
You always have to hit a ball from your own group first. Pocket the ball you called and you carry on, and anything that drops with it stays down. If it goes in a pocket other than the one you called, the ball stays down but your turn passes — that is not a foul.
Fouls
- pocketing the cue ball or driving it off the table
- hitting the cue ball with anything other than the tip
- hitting the cue ball twice
- pushing the cue ball instead of striking it
- not hitting a ball from your own group first, or hitting the 8 first with an open table
- no cushion reached after contact, with no ball pocketed
- driving a ball off the table
- shooting while balls are still moving, or without a foot on the floor
After a foul your opponent gets ball in hand: the cue ball may be placed anywhere on the table.
How you lose the rack
- you pocket the 8 and foul on the same shot
- you pocket the 8 before your own group is cleared
- you pocket the 8 in a pocket other than the one you called
- you drive the 8 off the table
None of these four apply to the break: there the 8 is not a loss but a choice.
How the game ends
You win as soon as your own group is off the table and you pocket the 8 in the pocket you called. Anything else that drops on the way simply stays down — only the 8 still counts.