Eight-ball rules most people get wrong — and a pool game that works offline

Almost everyone has played eight-ball. Almost nobody plays it by the actual rules, which is fine in a pub and confusing the moment a game gets competitive.

The rules that cause arguments

The break. A legal break requires either a ball potted or at least four object balls driven to a cushion. Tapping the pack gently and leaving everything in place is a foul, not a clever safety.

Potting on the break. Potting a ball on the break does not assign you that group. The table stays open. This is the single most disputed rule in casual play.

When the table is "open". Until a group is assigned, you may hit any object ball first — including one from the group you will end up not having. What you cannot do is hit the black first.

Fouls give ball in hand. In most standard rulesets a foul gives the opponent the cue ball anywhere on the table, not just behind the line. House rules vary more on this than on anything else, which is exactly why it is worth agreeing before the first shot.

Potting the black. Pot it before clearing your group and you lose. Pot it and the cue ball on the same shot and you lose, even if it was your legal last ball.

Most pub arguments are one of two things: whether the break assigns a group, and whether a foul gives ball in hand. Settle both before you start and the rest tends to sort itself out.

Why offline matters

Most pool apps assume a connection and an opponent. That is a poor fit for the times people actually want a game: a plane, a train tunnel, a waiting room, ten minutes with bad signal. An online-only pool game is unavailable exactly when it would be most welcome.

What 8 Pool does

8 Pool runs entirely on the device. No sign-in, no matchmaking queue, no waiting for someone else to take their shot. Play the computer, or hand the phone across for pass-and-play — which is how a game between two people in the same room ought to work anyway.

The rules are the proper ones: groups assigned on the first legal pot rather than the break, fouls giving ball in hand, and the black called last.

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