How to Play 9-Ball

Series Summary

Pocket billiards, billiards, or pool, is a game generally played on a table with six pockets. Pool is a game of technique, geometry, and finesse. Developing a mastery of billiards technique, and learning the rules and game play for billiards is paramount for beginner pool players. In this free video on billiards, an experienced pool player Joe Nichols explains the rules and techniques for playing various games of pool. Nichols begins by demonstrating how to play nine-ball, hang a pool table light, rack pool balls and chalk a pool stick. He then discusses the techniques involved with making a variety of pool shots, such as: curving the ball, performing the stop shot, the draw shot, putting English on the ball, aiming and even performing the intricate combination shot. Watch these free videos and learn more about pool and billiards today.

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Joe, I'm at Break Time Billiards in Wilmington North Carolina. Today I'm going to explain to you the rules for playing nine ball. Nine ball is played with nine balls racked in a diamond shape. The person will break the balls and then if he makes a ball he will continue shooting, shooting at the lowest numbered ball first. He has to hit the lowest numbered ball. If he does this and another ball should accidentally fall in, that ball counts and he continues shooting. He will continue shooting until he misses and then the next person will come up and he will take his turn at the table. Whoever makes the nine ball is the winner of the game. Whether you make the nine ball by a combination like the one into the nine, or whether you make the nine last. You win the game. Now when the person breaks if he does not make a ball in the break, the next person or the next shot, after the break, whether it be the person who just broke and make a ball, he has the option of pushing out. If he pushes out to any place on the table then his opponent has the choice of whether he will shoot that shot or whether he will give that shot back to the person who broke the balls. If it's your turn to shoot and you don't have a shot that you want to shoot at, because it's too hard to make the ball or it's too hard to play a shape you can do something called the safe. What you do there is you have to make a good hit on the lowest numbered ball and you have to send that ball to a rail or another ball to the rail or the cue ball to the rail. If you do this then you made a legal safety. What you are trying to do is to put the cue ball behind some blocking balls or put the object ball in such a position that it can not be hit head on with the cue ball, it has to be kicked by going to a rail. They play a thing called Texas express, if in Texas express if you are shooting at a ball and you were to foul, a foul would be not hitting the lowest numbered ball, scratching in one of the six pockets, knocking the ball off the table, knocking the cue ball off the table. Then the person that is his turn to shoot will come to the table with cue ball in hand. What that means is he can put the ball anywhere on the table that he wants to and then proceed to shoot. So those are pretty much the rules of nine ball and as I said you shoot them in rotation, you shoot the lowest numbered ball first and whoever makes the nine ball wins."