Cue Sports Six Ball

If you are anything like me you are going to want to find as many billiards games as you can possible get your hands on. Believe me there are a lot out there.

There is single pocket, three cushion, four ball, five pin, and of course the common eight ball (which is referred to now as pool). Six ball is unique in the way that it is played... well unique from every game except nine ball.

To start get a pool table, it really doesn't matter if it is regulation size or not; in fact, many people like to use smaller tables for this game just because the low number of balls. A billiards table, on the other hand, will not work.

Pockets are essential for this game that is simply a fact. If you don't have any pockets you are going to be playing six ball carom style, which there is no problem with, but I don't think the NPL (national pool league) has developed a set of rules for that game.

Rack your balls in a triangle shape, some people like to put the highest number in the middle, however that is not necessary. Balls should be racked one on top, two in middle and three on the bottom row, so as to resemble one side of a pyramid (a triangle).

The ball with the highest number on it is going to be called the money ball. This is the only ball that is worth any points.

Players do not build points throughout the game like they do with other billiards games. It is played like eight ball, the player who sinks the money ball (in eight ball's case, it is the eight ball) is the victor.

That is why players usually determine to place the money ball in the center of the rack, so that it is more difficult to sink on the break, or you could place it as the point. Now how to play, we know that whosoever sinks the money ball wins, but how do we determine if it is a legal shot, and what are the other balls good for?

Every ball must be played in order of the number on its face, lowest to highest. So in a game with object balls one through six, six is going to be the money ball, but you are going to have to play each ball in order before you can sink the six.

Once a player fails to sink a shot there turn ends. For each shot a pocket must be called.

There is one trick to this game, at any point in the game; a player can call to sink the money ball by a carom shot off another ball. This means his cue ball is going to hit the object ball in play into the money ball into a selected pocket.