Comments on Battle for the Moral Highground: Pool Customs Around the World
M Armstrong Mon 11 Jun 07 7:26 AM
Fantastic, laughed my head off. Playing in England I have seen some good ones, latest one: when you break the balls at least TWO must come up past the middle pockets towards the kitchen or its a re rack!
Hey man, glad you enjoyed it. Hopefully you got the rule about the break BEFORE you hit the rack. It's those after-the-fact rules you *really* have to watch out for...
John, thanks a lot for your investigation! I am from Russia so it was very interesting to compare our "bar" rules (yes, Russians sometimes play pool!), which, though, vary (Russia is big, you know!) and the foreign ones. We used to play some mixture of those you described, which included some other funny rules, like the one claiming that when you've finished with your balls, you must pot the last (black) ball into the pocket opposite to the pocket you've potted your last ball!!! If you pot it somewhere else, you lose. And there is a variety of rules regarding what to do if both the opponents potted their last balls into the same pocket. I know three rules: 1) they both have the same pocket for the black ball; 2) the second opponent has to pot it to the next pocket (clockwise); 3) his pocket is opposite to the first players' one, so this is the pocket where he's potted his last ball! We also had the rule of two strikes in the case of a foul, as you described, with one exception: if the cue-ball goes into a pocket, and you have your one ball in the kitchen, and you have to "try one of those difficult bounce-off-the-rail-and-back shots", then a foul does not lead to a punishment.
Well, some time ago we desided that this sort of rules sucks (I think we are right) so now we play using the official sport rules. I mus say this is much more fun. :)
Thank you again!
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