So maybe you’ve just started 8 Ball Pool for the first time or just want to learn a few new tricks to improve your game, well we’ve got you covered. We’ve also included some questions we get asked a lot on our Facebook pages and on Twitter.
We’ve even got tips from the best: M A G I C C U E, Kunal908 and G A R Y have sent us their advice on how to become a top 8 Ball Pool player.
Click the links below to go skip straight to the specific section.
Game Rules
Common Fouls
Game Mechanics
Mini Games
Commonly Asked Questions
PROTIP: G A R Y says “The safety side of things is very important also. It’s very easy to clear 5 or 6 balls after the break but sometimes you may run into trouble. That’s where frames are lost. If you’ve messed up after clearing the table of most of your balls and left your opponent a nice easy table. You can avoid this by identifying the balls in awkward positions early on and try to break them up so you can pot them easily or play a safety game to force your opponent to make an error and take advantage of it.
Game Rules
- Calling pockets
- To call a pocket all you need to do is click the pocket you want to pot the ball into. Some of the mid-ranked tables require you to call the pocket on the 8 Ball and the higher rank tables require you to call a pocket for every ball.
- Fouls that will result in a ball in hand for the other player
- Running out of time: you have a short amount of time to take your shot, so don’t take too long or play passes to the other player. Your time gets a little shorter with every ball you pot in a game.
- Cue ball not hitting your own balls: if the white doesn’t make contact with one of your own balls before hitting your opponent’s balls, or it misses altogether, this is a foul.
- No ball hitting the rail: if neither the object ball nor the cue ball hit the rail around the edge of the table, this is a foul. This is to designed to prevent negative play
- Potting the 8 Ball: the following situations are fouls, and result in the win being awarded to the other player.
- Potting the 8 Ball before all your object balls have been potted.
- Potting the cue ball and the 8 Ball on the same shot.
- Potting any coloured ball before the 8 Ball on the same shot.
- In a tier that requires calling pocket on the 8 Ball, potting the 8 Ball into an uncalled pocket.
Game mechanics
- Breaking off
- If you get to break off, you can move the cue ball anywhere in the space to the left of the white line.
- If you pot one of more balls during your break you get another turn. However, the table will remain “open” so you can choose if you want pot the spots or stripes.
- However, any spotted or striped balls potted during the break won’t count until you pot either pattern during your next turn.
- If you pot the cue ball on your break, the opponent gets a ball in hand.
- Having a ball in hand
- You will be able to move the cue ball anywhere on the table. Hover the mouse over the cue ball and it will change to a hand symbol for you to pick the ball up.
- On Mobile just swipe to drag the ball around the table.
- Using spin
- Spin can help you better position the cue ball after you’ve taken a shot, setting you up for your next one. You can also use it to snooker your opponent or stop you from potting the cue ball on your turn.
- You can put spin on the ball by moving the red symbol on the cue ball with your mouse or using the arrow keys. That will cause the ball to spin in that direction after it’s hit a ball.
- On Mobile, all you need to do is tap the cue ball in the top right of the screen and move the red circle to apply spin in that direction.
PROTIP: M A G I C C U E says “The key to being a great 8 Ball Pool player is positioning. Positioning of the cue ball is key and keeping a tight control on where that cue ball is at all times. Don’t smack the balls like your life depends on it. Use all of the time given to you and think about not just your first shot, but the very last shot you want to play.”
- Challenging/adding friends
- You can search for a user if you know their player name. NOTE: players will only show up in search if they are online.
- You can search using user IDs (Mobile only).
- You can add a player by clicking the “plus” sign on their profile picture.
- How do I earn coins/cash for free
- You can earn 25 coins every 30 mins on Web and 1 hour on Mobile. Tap of the Free Coins button to get the coins.
- You can also watch short adverts to earn coins.
- You earn 1 Pool Cash each time you level up.
- Experience points, levels and ranks
Mini games
- Spin & Win
- Spin the wheel to win a variety of prizes. The top prizes are pretty rare, but thousands of Lucky Cues are won each day! You get one free spin each day you log in.
- Scratch & Win
- Scratch the cards to match 3 and win big. Not every card is a winner, but the prizes tend to be higher than Spin & Win.
- Hi-Lo
- Guess if the next number will higher or lower – you can win up to 250k coins! You can cash out anytime over 500 coins.
PROTIP: Kunal908 says “The amount of power you use in your shot is always very important. If the ball is closer to the pocket, using a low power shot will be a better solution. Don’t try for longer shots with lot of power, otherwise there’s a higher chance the ball won’t go in. Practicing will make you perfect in deciding how much power you need to use in a shot”