In a televised women’s 9 ball tournament that I was watching on ESPN2 the other day, the lady who they call the Black Widow (I don’t recall her real name) sank the 9 ball…only to have the shot nullified. It turns out that she forgot to call her pocket! Fortunately, her opponent missed an easy shot on the 9 and the Black Widow lady ended up winning the game and the match.
Has anyone heard of something like this happening before? And what’s the deal with calling the pocket, anyway? Pool players always say things like “9 ball, corner pocket” but which corner pocket are they talking about? What if they miss their intended pocket and it goes into some other corner pocket. Will it still count?
In a commercial featuring the same Black Widow, they showed her pocketing every ball but the last (I’m not sure if it was an 8 ball or a 9 ball rack) on a break. This seems like it’s a hell of a lot more difficult than just pocketing the 8 on a break. Is it really possible to do it, or did they use some sort of TV trickery for the sake of the commercial?
That was Jennete (sp) Lee, and I was watching it last night. as for calling the shot in 9 ball normally you dont, see above rules, but they said that they had to call the 9 ball in that tournamet. They can, and do, change the rules to suit the sponser. Normally they use the cue to point the to pocket they want. It’s always a good idea to agree on the rules before playing just to make sure everyone plays the same.
As for dropping that many balls I’m sure it can be done, I’ve never seen it, I have seen 5-6 balls at once, but they might have set the rack up to accomidate it better. I didn’t see the commercial so I don’t know for sure.
If she pocketed every ball but one on the break, the Jeanette Lee must have been playing nine-ball. Had she been playing eight-ball, she would have had to pocket fourteen balls on the break; a truly amazing feat. I personally have had opponents pocket four balls on a break, and let me tell you, if that wasn’t discouraging…
Yeah, as Edward The Head said, they can play by varying rules, but all’s well as long as the parties agree to play by them. Even in casual play, you should establish the rules first. Sure beats arguing over something later.
This is the rule I was taught: If we decide to play with this rule in effect, when you call a pocket, say corner pocket, and you shoot, miss your intended pocket, and it falls in another pocket, you lose. Also, if you call a pocket, shoot it, make it in, but scratch (cue ball also is pocketed), then you lose also. This rule is applied towards both eight and nine ball.
I honestly don’t know what the purpose of calling a pocket is.
Which pocket the player means is usually apparent in the placement of the balls; ordinarily, it’s obvious, and there aren’t many pockets you could make it in, unless you were both that good and a showoff.
I play a bit of pool at the bar and i can tell you we always call the shot. now, if it is obvious by the placement of the balls then i don’t bother to vocally call or point, and if someone calls me on it i’ll tell them to shove it (yes the pool cue). I mean, come on idiots… now if I am playing a combo or cutting to one side or the other from the center of the table, I will call right or left and/or point. You also have to shoot it clean unless you call a combo or ricochet. Amazingly, the honor system works pretty well.
And you don’t lose the game for scratching, just the turn.
So if you say “8 ball, corner pocket” and put it in an unintended corner pocket, what is stopping you from telling your opponent: “That’s the one I was talking about”? It seems that pointing to the intended pocket makes the most sense.
It’s almost always pretty obvious which corner pocket is meant, from the position of the balls and the way the shooter is going about it. In all these cases, “nine in the corner” will suffice. For those rare situations where it’s not obvious, it’s up to the shooter to make sure that others know which pocket he’s shooting for. Simple.
My BCA rule book says for 9-ball that it is a called-shot game. If you sink a ball in the wrong pocket, the ball stays down, but you don’t get to keep shooting. If you scratch while pocketing the 9-ball, the 9-ball is spotted and the incoming player has ball in hand.
And as opposed to IVAR’s barroom experience, the BCA rules for calling shots do not allow for calling kisses, banks, or caroms - only a certain ball in a certain pocket. I believe that all organizations with rules follow this standard. And in every way, where barroom rules are different from published rules, the barroom rules are inferior. If you play by real rules, there’s no such thing as “dirty pool.”
I was playing straight pool with a friend of mine a few years ago. I called a shot in the corner pocket. The ball missed the pocket and went off the two rails, over to the opposite corner and off two rails there, then back and into the pocket. I called ball and pocket, so the shot was good.
