One-pocket

Last updated
The two top corner pockets, one for each player throughout an entire game. Onepocket Holes.jpg
The two top corner pockets, one for each player throughout an entire game.

One-pocket is a pool game. Only one pocket for each player is used in this game, unlike other games played on a pool table where any pocket can be used to score object balls . The object of the game is to score points. A point is made when a player pockets any object ball into their designated pocket. The winner is the first to score an agreed-upon number of points (usually 8).

Contents

One-pocket
Highest governing body Billiard Congress of America
First played1930s
Characteristics
ContactNo
Team memberssingle competitors
Mixed-sex Yes
Equipment Cue sports equipment
Glossary glossary of cue sports terms
Presence
Country or regionNationwide

One-pocket is similar to straight pool in that a player can shoot at any object ball regardless of its color or number. Unlike straight pool, however, a shooter does not need to call their shots.

Penalties for a foul are the loss of 1 point, re- spotting a previously pocketed ball if possible, and in the case of a scratch , the incoming player gets ball-in-hand behind the head string . Three consecutive fouls is a loss of game. If a player pockets an object ball in a pocket other than those at the top of the table, their turn ends and that object ball is respotted, unless an object ball is also potted into their designated pocket on the same shot. If the player pockets an object ball in the opponent's pocket, their turn also ends and the opponent earns a point.

History

The first one-pocket tournament was held in 1961, promoted by the Jansco brothers. The winner of the event was Johnny Vives. Hayden W. Lingo, author of the first published rules on one-pocket, wrote the rules adopted as the basis for the tournament rules.

American pool player and entertainer Rudolph "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone allegedly said the game of one-pocket was like chess (later admitting that he had actually never played a game of chess). On the other hand, Wanderone's public rival, Willie Mosconi, called one-pocket a gimmick game for gamblers.

Well known one pocket players and commentators such as Hall of famer Danny DiLiberto, Accu-Stats host Billy Incardona, and Mosconi Cup coach Jeremy Jones have often compared the game to chess, with a beginning, middle, and end game, and similar strategic elements. A player must be careful not to leave the opponent with a good shot, or the opponent may be able to capitalize on a successful shot for successive shots and never let the original player shoot again. A player may even intentionally pocket a ball into their opponent’s pocket, thereby conceding a point, in order to prevent the opponent from being able to pocket that ball and use it to get shape (ideal cue ball position) on a subsequent next shot.

The game is very popular with gamblers, and frequently attracts high stakes. One-pocket plays a major role in the yearly Derby City Classic that is played in Louisville, Kentucky, each January.

One of the most famous players of the game is Grady "the Professor" Mathews, who has written articles and published a number of instructional videos on the game. The two main reference works on one-pocket are Winning One-Pocket and One-Pocket Shots, Moves and Strategies, both written by player and gambler, Eddie Robins. The books, now out of print, often sell on the used market for over US$200 each.

Another well-known one-pocket player is Efren Reyes. His victories in the game include the Galveston World Classic One Pocket (2009) and the US Open One-pocket Championship (2000, 2011) and the Derby City One-pocket event (1999, 2004-2007 and 2014).

One-pocket was the main game featured in the 2007 film, Turn the River , the story of a female pool hustler who plays high-stakes pool. The film ends with a nine-ball match, with the main character saying that nine-ball "seems like a chumpy game for us."

Set up and break

The balls in a one-pocket rack are placed randomly, similar to straight pool and bank pool. Before the break shot , the player breaking (typically after winning the lag or coin flip) chooses a foot corner pocket for the rest of the game; all of that shooter's balls must be shot into that pocket. All of the opponent's balls must be made in the other foot corner pocket.

Handicapping

One-pocket is a very flexible game for players of different skill levels, and many variations are used to handicap a game. The stronger player, for instance, might need 10 points to win versus 6 points for the weaker player (called a "10-6 spot "). Also, as the break shot is so critical in the game, spotting someone the breaks can be a very strong equalizer.

Handicapping one player by allowing points to be scored on bank and kick shots only is a particularly challenging spot, as the free-scoring opponent has a much greater variety of options for both balls to pocket and safeties (defensive positioning of the cue ball after a shot) to play against the opponent.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cue sports</span> Table games using cues and billiard balls

Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as cushions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eight-ball</span> Pool game popular in much of the world

Eight-ball is a discipline of pool played on a billiard table with six pockets, cue sticks, and sixteen billiard balls. The object balls include seven solid-colored balls numbered 1 through 7, seven striped balls numbered 9 through 15, and the black 8 ball. After the balls are scattered with a break shot, a player is assigned either the group of solid or striped balls once they have legally pocketed a ball from that group. The object of the game is to legally pocket the 8-ball in a "called" pocket, which can only be done after all of the balls from a player's assigned group have been cleared from the table.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nine-ball</span> Type of cue sport

Nine-ball is a discipline of the cue sport pool. The game's origins are traceable to the 1920s in the United States. It is played on a rectangular billiard table with pockets at each of the four corners and in the middle of each long side. Using a cue stick, players must strike the white cue ball to pocket nine colored billiard balls, hitting them in ascending numerical order. An individual game is won by the player pocketing the 9-ball. Matches are usually played as a race to a set number of racks, with the player who reaches the set number winning the match.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English billiards</span> Cue sport combining the disciples of carom and pocket billiards

English billiards, called simply billiards in the United Kingdom and in many former British colonies, is a cue sport that combines the aspects of carom billiards and pool. Two cue balls and a red object ball are used. Each player or team uses a different cue ball. It is played on a billiards table with the same dimensions as one used for snooker and points are scored for cannons and pocketing the balls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willie Mosconi</span> American pool player

William Joseph Mosconi was an American professional pool player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mosconi is widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time. Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the World Straight Pool Championship nineteen times. For most of the 20th century, his name was essentially synonymous with pool in North America – he was nicknamed "Mr. Pocket Billiards" – and he was among the first Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame inductees. Mosconi pioneered and regularly employed numerous trick shots, set many records, and helped to popularize pool as a national recreation activity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Straight pool</span> Cue sport

Straight pool, which is also called 14.1 continuous and 14.1 rack, is a cue sport in which two competing players attempt to pocket as many object balls as possible without playing a foul. The game was the primary version of pool played in professional competition until it was superseded by faster-playing games like nine-ball and eight-ball in the 1980s.

Golf billiards is a pocket billiards game usually played for money. Unlike the majority of such games, it allows more than two people to play without compromises or rule changes. The game borrows from the outdoor game of golf, which is historically related to the cue sports. It is usually played on 10-foot or 12-foot snooker tables as their size and structure are more appropriate. In 2006 the Billiard Congress of America commented it was more popular than snooker in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pool (cue sports)</span> Family of cue sports

Pool is a classification of cue sports played on a table with six pockets along the rails, into which balls are shot. Each specific pool game has its own name; some of the better-known include eight-ball, blackball, nine-ball, ten-ball, seven-ball, straight pool, one-pocket, and bank pool. Eight-ball is the most frequently played discipline of pool, and is often thought of as synonymous with "pool".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Four-ball billiards</span> Carom billiards game played in variations around the world

Four-ball billiards or four-ball carom is a carom billiards game, played on a pocketless table with four billiard balls, usually two red and two white, one of the latter with a spot to distinguish it. Each player is assigned one of the white balls as a cue ball. A point is scored when a shooter's cue ball caroms on any two other balls in the same shot. Two points are scored when the shooter caroms on each of the three object balls in a single shot. A carom on only one ball results in no points, and ends the shooter's inning.

Bank pool is a pool game that has as its most fundamental requirement that all scoring shots in the game must be made by banking a called ball off a cushion and into a called pocket.

The following is a glossary of traditional English-language terms used in the three overarching cue sports disciplines: carom billiards referring to the various carom games played on a billiard table without pockets; pool, which denotes a host of games played on a table with six pockets; and snooker, played on a large pocket table, and which has a sport culture unto itself distinct from pool. There are also games such as English billiards that include aspects of multiple disciplines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rotation (pool)</span>

Rotation, sometimes called rotation pool, 15-ball rotation, or 61, is a pool game, played with a pocketed billiards table, cue ball, and triangular rack of fifteen billiard balls, in which the lowest-numbered object ball on the table must be always struck by the cue ball first, to attempt to pocket numbered balls for points.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Three-ball</span> Folk game of pool

Three-ball is a folk game of pool played with any three standard pool object balls and cue ball. The game is frequently gambled upon. The goal is to pocket the three object balls in as few shots as possible. The game involves a somewhat more significant amount of luck than either nine-ball or eight-ball, because of the disproportionate value of pocketing balls on the break shot and increased difficulty of doing so. In some areas and subcultures, such as the Asian-American youth-dominated pool hall scene of San Francisco, California, three-ball is a popular local tournament game.

Cowboy pool is a hybrid pool game combining elements of English billiards through an intermediary game, with more standard pocket billiards characteristics. The game employs four balls, the cue ball and three others, numbered one, three, and five. A game of Cowboy pool is contested as a race to 101 points, with those points being awarded for a host of different shot types. Dating back to 1908, the game is a strictly amateur pastime.

Honolulu, also known as banks, kisses, and combinations or indirect, is a pocket billiards game. Players must pocket all shots in an indirect fashion to reach a set number of points. The game shares some similarities with other cue sports, played on tables and with balls used for pool, but differs with foul points being awarded for regular direct shots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bottle pool</span> Billiards game

Bottle pool, also known as bottle-billiards and bottle pocket billiards, is a hybrid billiards game combining aspects of both carom billiards and pocket billiards. Played on a standard pool table, the game uses just two object balls, a cue ball, and a 6+34 inches (170 mm) tall, narrow-necked bottle called a shake bottle or tally bottle, traditionally made from leather, that is placed on the table and used as a target for caroms. Those unfamiliar with the game sometimes mistakenly use its name as a synonym for the very different game of kelly pool. Bottle pool has been described as combining "elements of billiards, straight pool and chess under a set of rules that lavishly rewards strategic shot making and punishes mistakes with Sisyphean point reversals."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cribbage (pool)</span> Two-player pool game

Cribbage, sometimes called cribbage pool, fifteen points and pair pool, is a two-player pool game that, like its namesake card game, has a scoring system which awards points for pairing groups of balls that total 15. Played on a standard pool table, participants who pocket a ball of a particular number are required to immediately pocket the companion ball that tallies to 15 when added to the prior ball's number. Each pair so pocketed counts as a cribbage; there are seven such pairs, and the 15 ball counts as an eighth by itself after all of the others have been pocketed. The first player to score five cribbages wins the game.

Luther Clement Lassiter Jr., nicknamed Wimpy, was an American pool player from Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The winner of seven world pocket billiard championships and numerous other titles, Lassiter is most well known for his wizardry in the game of nine-ball and is widely considered one of the greatest players in history, He was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 1983. That same year, he was also inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. He was ranked number 9 on the Billiards Digest 50 Greatest Players of the Century.

James William Moore, known as "Cowboy Jimmy Moore", was a world-class American pocket billiards (pool) player originally from Troup County, Georgia, and for most of his life a resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico, best known for his mastery in the game of straight pool.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fifteen-ball pool</span> Pocket billiards game

Fifteen-ball pool, also known as sixty-one pool, is a pocket billiards game developed in America in the nineteenth century from pyramid pool. Created by members of the Bassford's Billiard & Chess Rooms in Manhattan during the late 1830s or 1840s, it is the ancestor to many American pool games.

References