Following a foul, the incoming player has ball-in-hand anywhere on the table, unless the foul occurred on the break shot, as noted previously. If the 8 ball is pocketed on the break, then the breaker can choose either to re-spot the 8 ball and play from the current position or to re-rack and re-break; but if the cue ball is also pocketed on the break (colloquially referred to as a "scratch") then the opponent is the one who has the choice: either to re-spot the 8 ball and shoot with ball-in-hand behind the head string, accepting the current position, or to re-break or have the breaker re-break. If the breaker fails to make a successful break-usually defined as at least four balls hitting cushions or an object ball being pocketed-then the opponent can opt either to play from the current position or to call for a re-rack and either re-break or have the original breaker repeat the break. The Peterson picks are more sturdy, at the expense of being bulkier (but they still fit easily in many of the keyways you'll be picking).

Learn more about them in our detailed article on white dots (diamonds) on the table. The game is played with three balls, two white and one red, with one of the white balls having a small red dot, or spot, to distinguish it. 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. Once all of a player's (or team's) group of object balls are pocketed, the player attempts to sink the 8 ball. The order of the balls should be random, with the exceptions of the 8-ball, which must be placed in the center of the rack (i.e., the middle of the third row), and the two back corner balls, one of which must be a stripe and the other a solid. The game arose from two changes made, namely that the 8 ball must be pocketed last to win, and that each player may pocket only half of the other object balls.

If any balls from a player's suit are on the table, the player must hit one of them first on every shot; otherwise a foul is called and the turn ends. Otherwise (i.e., if the 8 ball is neither pocketed nor knocked off the table), the shooter's turn is simply over, even if a foul occurs. It remains open until one player legally pockets any called ball other than the 8 after the break. A player wins the game if that player legally pockets the 8 ball into a designated pocket after all of their object balls have been pocketed. The game of eight-ball arose around 1900 in the United States as a development of pyramid pool, which allows any eight of the fifteen object balls to be pocketed to win. 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 all balls from the suit have been pocketed, the player's target becomes the 8 for the remainder of the game. While these have one long shade that hangs above the table, they still contain multiple bulbs and come in several different lengths. If the player knocks the 8 ball off the table, the player loses the game. The balls in the rack are ideally placed so that they are all in contact with one another; this is accomplished by pressing the balls together toward the apex ball. There are seven solid-colored balls numbered 1 through 7, seven striped balls numbered 9 through 15, an 8 ball, and a cue ball. The cue ball is placed anywhere the breaker desires behind the head string. A shot goes amiss, and your heart sinks as the cue ball heads straight for a pocket. This rule grants them optimal control over the cue ball’s placement and subsequent strategy. In short, a world-standardized rules game of eight-ball, like a game of nine-ball, what is billiards is not over until the "money ball" is no longer on the table. It's not unusual for Google employees to bring clothes in over the weekend to do laundry at the Googleplex.