Straight pool

Straight pool, also called 14.1 continuous or simply 14.1, is a pocket billiards game, and was the common sport of championship competition until overtaken by faster-playing games like nine-ball (and to a lesser extent eight-ball). This is the classic game from the history of pool and most of the greatest players of all time were known to play this game.

In straight pool, the shooter may attempt to <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">pocket</dfn> any ball on the table. The object is to reach a set number of points determined by agreement before the game. One point is scored for each ball pocketed where no <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">foul</dfn> is made. A typical game might require a player to score 100 points, meaning at least 100 balls must be pocketed to win. In professional competition, straight pool is usually played to 150 points. Straight pool is a <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">call-pocket</dfn> game, meaning the player must indicate the intended object ball and pocket on every shot. How the ball reaches the pocket is irrelevant, as long as the called ball enters the called pocket (except on a foul shot).

The game was formerly the dominant pool game in the United States, and immortalized in the 1961 film The Hustler. The game remains well known in the United States, Europe, Argentina, Japan and the Philippines, but is more obscure elsewhere. The first WPA-sanctioned World Straight Pool Championship was held in 2006 (the winner was Germany's Thorsten Hohmann, a player who also won the world nine-ball title three years earlier). Possibly as a consequence of this renewed professional competitive attention, public interest in the game has undergone a resurgence, as reflected in the amount of coverage 14.1 now receives in the billiards press.^[1]

The initial rack

In the initial <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">rack</dfn> in straight pool, the fifteen <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">object balls</dfn> are racked in a triangular rack, with the center of the apex ball placed over the <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">foot spot</dfn>. Traditionally, the 1 ball is placed at the rack's right corner, and the 5 ball placed at the rack's left corner, although this is not an official rule. Other balls are placed at random and must touch their neighbors. However, it is considered courtesy by some to place a <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">stripe ball</dfn> at the rack's apex.

Unlike in most pool games, where pocketing a ball and spreading the balls is the aim on the break, the object in straight pool's standard initial <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">break shot</dfn> is to leave the opponent with a <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">safety</dfn>. This is because the call-pocket rule includes the break shot.

On the break, either a ball must be pocketed in a designated pocket or the cue ball and at least two additional balls must touch a rail. The failure to accomplish one of these two options results in a foul. Fouling on the initial break results in a special penalty of a loss of 2 points. In addition, the opponent has the choice either of accepting the table in position, or alternatively of having the balls <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">re-racked</dfn> and requiring the offending player to repeat the opening break.

All other fouls during the game result in a one point deduction, including fouling on an intragame rack. However, a third foul in a row at any time in a straight pool game results in a loss of 15 points (for purposes of this rule, a foul on the initial break, though it is a loss of two points, is not counted as two fouls). The 15 point deduction is in addition to the one point loss for each foul. Thus, the first two fouls are a loss of one point each, and the third foul in a row is a loss of 16 points; 1 point for the foul, and 15 points for it being the third consecutive foul.

Intragame racking

Because straight pool is played to a specific number of points normally far in excess of the 15 points available in the initial rack, multiple intragame racks are necessary. Intragame racking employs a separate set of rules from those in place at the game's start.

To reach the point where an intragame rack becomes necessary, the balls are played until only the <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">cue ball</dfn> and one object ball remain on the table's surface. At that time, if neither the cue ball nor the fifteenth object ball remains in the rack area (or is interfering with racking in the rack area), the fourteen pocketed object balls are racked with no apex ball, and the rack is placed so that if the apex ball were in the rack, its center would rest directly over the table's foot spot. Play then continues with the cue ball shot from where it rested and the fifteenth, non-racked, object ball from where it rested prior to racking.

The "14.1 continuous" appellation derives from this racking practice, i.e., that fourteen racked object balls and one remaining object ball left in position is presented to the players at the conclusion of each intragame rack. The shooter will then normally try to pocket the unracked fifteenth ball, and at the same time have the cue ball <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">carom</dfn> into the fourteen racked balls, spreading them so that subsequent shots are available, and a run may continue.

A number of rules have developed which detail what must be done when one or both of the cue ball and fifteenth object ball are either in the rack area at the time an intragame rack is necessary, or are in such proximity to the intragame racking area, that the physical rack cannot be used without moving the one or the other. The rules also vary depending on whether the cue ball or fifteenth object ball are resting on the table's <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">head spot</dfn>. Such rules are detailed on the following chart (note therein that the <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">kitchen</dfn> refers to the area behind the table's <dfn style="border-bottom:1px dotted #0645AD; font-style:inherit;">head string</dfn>).

It is sometimes easier to remember where to place the cue ball and 15th ball during an intragame rack by remembering a set of logical rules instead of trying to memorize the BCA rules table above. The rules are:

1. If lying in the rack, only one of the two balls is moved up-table (cue ball or 15th ball).
2. The moved ball must be moved to another location if its original destination is occupied.
3. A pocketed 15th ball is equivalent to lying within the rack.

The "kitchen" refers to the entire section of table behind the headstring and is the cue-ball's "home". The headspot itself is the 15th ball's home. The logical rules are applied as follows:

Mosconi's High Run

One of the all-time greatest players, Willie Mosconi, had a record high run of 526 points.^[2] Here is what he said about the high run:

On March 19, in Springfield, Ohio, I ran 526 balls, a record that still stands. I was playing a two-hundred-point match against an amateur by the name of Earl Bruney in the East High Billiard Club. He made three balls off the break, then I ran two hundred and just kept going. The run took two hours and ten minutes, which means that over the span I averaged four balls a minute. I finally missed a difficult cut shot, but by that time I was weary; it was almost a relief to have it come to an end. There were about three hundred people in the audience, and one of them was an attorney who prepared an affidavit attesting to the validity of my claim to a new record. A few days later, the BCA gave its stamp of approval.

See also

• Willie Mosconi - Holder of the BCA straight pool high run world record, for running 526 balls in a row
• World Straight Pool Championship

References

1. ^ See for example the last decade's worth of issues of Billiards Digest, Pool & Billiard Magazine and InsidePOOL.
2. ^ Willie Mosconi Biography on Billiards Forum

• "World Standardized Rules: 14.1 Continuous", World Pool Billiard Association, 2007. Accessed May 16, 2008.

External links

• WPA World Standardized Rules for straight pool
• 14.1 Straight Pool Videos Listed by the Years
• Billiard Parlors — directory of pool halls in the U.S. and Canada
• "What Killed Straight Pool?", R.A. Dyer, Billiards Digest magazine (online edition), August 2005; accessed February 15, 2007