Understanding the rules in 9 ball pool?

A safety shot (and this applies to any pool game) is a defensive shot in which you are purposefully turning the table over to your opponent. The idea of a safety is to make a legal shot and to not leave your opponent much to work with on his turn. A legal shot means that you must first contact a legal object ball. In the case of 9-ball, it would be the lowest numbered ball on the table. After contacting the legal object ball, you must drive a ball to a cushion. The ball contacting the cushion could be the cue ball or any object ball. 9-ball is unique in that if you happen to pocket a ball on a safety attempt, you have to continue shooting. In most other pool games you have the option of pocketing a ball and calling safe in the same shot. 9-ball is not a call shot game, in fact you never need to call anything in 9 ball. However in some places, they've changed the rules so that you can't slop in the 9, it must be called. There are three main elements to an effective safety shot: distance, cushions, and obstructions. Distance, means that we want the cue ball as far as possible from your opponents object ball. Cushions, mean that if possible you want to freeze your opponents object ball to a cushion. This makes it twice as hard to pocket. Lastly, obstructions mean that you want to try and block your opponent from having a direct shot on his object ball. This can mean snookering your opponent behind another ball. It can also mean corner-hooking the cue ball in the mouth of a pocket. It can also mean freezing the cue ball up against another ball to force your opponent to use an awkward, jacked-up bridge. The goal of a perfect safety is to force your opponent to foul giving you ball in hand anywhere on the table. Since a perfect safety isn't always available, the secondary goal is to give your opponent as difficult a shot as possible so that you have a very good chance of getting back control of the table. The push out is a shot that is unique to 9-ball and 10-ball. Very often after the break shot, the shooter won't have a good opening shot on the lowest numbered ball. This doesn't always mean that they can't hit the ball, but often it means that it's very unlikely that they will pocket the ball or get a favorable leave on the next ball. On the shot immediately following the break, the shooter has the option of calling a push out. Obviously, if the breaker made a ball on the break it would be their call. Otherwise, on a dry break the opponent would have the option. There are no requirements for contacting balls or cushions on a push out. The shooter could simply nudge to cue ball to another location on the table, bump another ball into a better location for later in the game, or even pocket a ball. Of course, the shooter has to call the push out before taking the shot. The only exception to pocketing a ball on a push out is the 9 ball. If you pocket the 9 ball on a push out, the 9 gets spotted on the foot spot. The whole idea behind a push out it to move the cue ball into a position where the low ball can be contacted, but extremely difficult to pocket. Most often the shooter will be looking to play a safety on the shot following the push out. The opponent has the option of taking the shot or handing it back to the player who played the push out. So, you don't want to make it so hard that you can't even hit the low ball. Your opponent would probably turn the shot back over to you and you'd be likely to foul and give them ball in hand. Confused yet? Nothing against the APA, they have some strange rules and scoring methods. I would recommend playing by world-standardized rules. Check out the WPA (world pool-billiard association) website.

I've played in the APA for 8 years, and I can tell you that APA 9 Ball is NOT 9 Ball. That's not to say it's good or bad, it's just a different game. I wouldn't even bother trying to learn APA 9 Ball if I weren't in the APA, nor would I use their 8 Ball rules. The rules of both games have been modified to be used in a handicapped, recreational league played on coin-operated tables. They're not meant to be used when playing straight up. A "safety" is just a fancy name for a defensive shot. Any shot in which you are not trying to pocket a ball is a "safety." When you play a safety, the goal is to put yourself in a better position to win the rack on a later turn. Generally this means hiding the cue ball or object ball (the next ball that must be pocketed) so that your opponent cannot make his next shot. In some games, every shot must be called. In 9 Ball, you do not need to call any shots, so you never need to declare safeties. Just miss on purpose, and that's a safety. If you've been reading APA rules, they're making a big deal out of safeties because they must be marked on the scoresheet for handicapping purposes. In most other leagues and tournaments, that doesn't matter. Safeties are just a strategic play. A push out is a shot specific to 9 Ball (not APA 9 Ball, there are not push outs in the APA). On the first shot immediately following the break, sometimes you are left with a very difficult shot on the next ball (usually the 1, unless it goes in on the break), or no shot at all. If this happens, you have the option of calling a "push out," at which point you may take a shot without fulfilling any of the requirements of a legal shot. In other words, you do not actually have to shoot at the lowest ball on the table, you don't even have to touch a ball or a rail at all. You can just move the cue ball from one place to another. Your opponent then has the option of taking the shot from where you left the cue ball, or passing his turn back to you and making you take the shot. The game then continues normally. Most of the time, when executing a push out you should try to set up a very difficult shot, or put the cue ball in a position where the only reasonable shot is a safety. For future reference, don't bother with APA rules. Like I said, they were designed for a specific purpose, and that is for a recreational (not highly competitive), handicapped league played on coin-operated tables. The best rules are World Standardized, which can be found at the link below.

your not playing for money or trophies you can dance between shots & nobody will care i wouldn't worry about a "rule" book.....throw that book in the garbage

A safety shot (and this applies to any pool game) is a defensive shot in which you are purposefully turning the table over to your opponent. The idea of a safety is to make a legal shot and to not leave your opponent much to work with on his turn. A legal shot means that you must first contact a legal object ball. In the case of 9-ball, it would be the lowest numbered ball on the table. After contacting the legal object ball, you must drive a ball to a cushion. The ball contacting the cushion could be the cue ball or any object ball. 9-ball is unique in that if you happen to pocket a ball on a safety attempt, you have to continue shooting. In most other pool games you have the option of pocketing a ball and calling safe in the same shot. 9-ball is not a call shot game, in fact you never need to call anything in 9 ball. However in some places, they've changed the rules so that you can't slop in the 9, it must be called. There are three main elements to an effective safety shot: distance, cushions, and obstructions. Distance, means that we want the cue ball as far as possible from your opponents object ball. Cushions, mean that if possible you want to freeze your opponents object ball to a cushion. This makes it twice as hard to pocket. Lastly, obstructions mean that you want to try and block your opponent from having a direct shot on his object ball. This can mean snookering your opponent behind another ball. It can also mean corner-hooking the cue ball in the mouth of a pocket. It can also mean freezing the cue ball up against another ball to force your opponent to use an awkward, jacked-up bridge. The goal of a perfect safety is to force your opponent to foul giving you ball in hand anywhere on the table. Since a perfect safety isn't always available, the secondary goal is to give your opponent as difficult a shot as possible so that you have a very good chance of getting back control of the table. The push out is a shot that is unique to 9-ball and 10-ball. Very often after the break shot, the shooter won't have a good opening shot on the lowest numbered ball. This doesn't always mean that they can't hit the ball, but often it means that it's very unlikely that they will pocket the ball or get a favorable leave on the next ball. On the shot immediately following the break, the shooter has the option of calling a push out. Obviously, if the breaker made a ball on the break it would be their call. Otherwise, on a dry break the opponent would have the option. There are no requirements for contacting balls or cushions on a push out. The shooter could simply nudge to cue ball to another location on the table, bump another ball into a better location for later in the game, or even pocket a ball. Of course, the shooter has to call the push out before taking the shot. The only exception to pocketing a ball on a push out is the 9 ball. If you pocket the 9 ball on a push out, the 9 gets spotted on the foot spot. The whole idea behind a push out it to move the cue ball into a position where the low ball can be contacted, but extremely difficult to pocket. Most often the shooter will be looking to play a safety on the shot following the push out. The opponent has the option of taking the shot or handing it back to the player who played the push out. So, you don't want to make it so hard that you can't even hit the low ball. Your opponent would probably turn the shot back over to you and you'd be likely to foul and give them ball in hand. Confused yet? Nothing against the APA, they have some strange rules and scoring methods. I would recommend playing by world-standardized rules. Check out the WPA (world pool-billiard association) website.

As for no such thing as a stalemate "Wrong" 5.14 STALEMATE If the referee decides that neither player is attempting to win from the current position, he will announce his decision, and each player will have three more turns at the table. Then, if the referee still feels that there is no progress towards a conclusion, he will declare the rack a stalemate and the original breaker of the rack will break again Playing safties like you were talking about will very well lead to one.Depending on the ref. but I would call one after 3 then 3 more before calling the rack "Old" rules?? How old are you 14? Like this being a free country That rule is hundreds of years old On second thought you may have a point.

This Site Might Help You. RE: Understanding the rules in 9 ball pool? guys... i tried... but the APA 9 ball pool rules wus just a bunch of nonsense. Now im not trying to play in the league or anything, but after watching pool hall junkies. They had too much ghetto hustle crap goin on. i didn't know whats what. So lets get this straight. 9 ball. 1 on...

your not playing for money or trophies you can dance between shots & nobody will care i wouldn't worry about a "rule" book.....throw that book in the garbage