One player has been eliminated. Two players are left, one final ball for each player. One player sinks his opponent’s final ball, but scratches on the shot. Does he lose?
The variations I’ve always played don’t have an automatic loss for a scratch on the last shot. In fact, 8-ball is the only billiards game I’ve ever played to have that rule.
The way I normally play is to continue with standard rules: One ball for each opponent comes back out and is respotted in the middle of the table. That includes the eliminated player. But your house rules may vary.
This is the way I play too, except when at a coin-operated table. Obviously, it has to be a loss for the person that scratched because you can’t retrieve the ball.
Well, although I haven’t played it this way, the rules do allow for the dropping of one you own balls instead of respotting each of your opponents.
Which then would mean you win after the scratch. Also, you’re allowed to hit your own balls in, and you can win even if there’s none of your own balls on the table (if you pocket your last ball and then run the table, it’s a win.)
This is (was) a bar table. The argument was that since he couldn’t remove any balls when he scratched, he lost. (I’ve never played where you can remove one of yours instead of the two opponents’).
[sub]Am I going to be pleasantly suprised by the fact that no comedian is going to drop by and make a “ball-scratching” joke?[/sub]
Since it was a coin-op table, I’m saying he lost.
My personal cutthroat rules are that if someone scratches, every player still in the game gets a ball back. This seems to help even out skill differences, since if the best player is taken out first, he can’t come back and demolish the other two. Or, if one guy really sucks, then he doesn’t come back and piss off the survivors. And the games will be a little faster.
I’m confused now. How do you play cutthroat on a coin-op table, then? I mean, is it even possible to play cutthroat on such a table? The ability to respot balls is kinda half the point of the game.
If you make either opponents’ balls, you continue. If you miss, you lose your turn. If you scratch, you lose your turn. Scratch on the winning shot, you lose (which was contested).
Oh. I see. I think that kinda misses the whole spirit of Cutthroat and should be called something else, but in that case, I’d call the game a loss for scratching on the winning shot.