Bottle pool Totally Explained

Everything about Bottle Pool totally explained

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, a cue ball, and a 6¾ inch tall, narrow-necked bottle called a or tally bottle, traditionally made from leather, that's placed on the table and used as a target for . 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."
   Although bottle pool's origins remain obscure, tournament records and newspaper articles confirm that the game has been played since at least the late 1800s.
   Over time bottle pool developed an elitist image, its active play more commonly the province of gentlemen's clubs and select groups than patrons of billiard parlors.
   Despite being one of a short group of non-championship games still detailed in the Official Rules and Records Book of the Billiard Congress of America, as of 2006, bottle pool was known only to be the billiard sport of general choice at a few New York City social clubs such as the two mentioned previously. A veteran member of both those clubs opined in 2006 that there were then fewer than 1,000 dedicated bottle pool players nationwide.

General rules (Billiard Congress of America)

Set up

At the start of bottle pool, the shake bottle is placed inverted (neck down) on the at the geographic center of the of a pool table. The two object balls used are the 1 ball and the 2 ball. Viewed from the racker's vantage point, the 1 ball is to the on the immediately adjacent to the right corner pocket, and the 2 ball to the diamond on the foot rail immediately adjacent to the left corner pocket.

Illegal shots and fouls

Any legally made scoring shot entitles a player to continue shooting. The penalty for a in the game is a loss of turn, any point scoring acts made on the same stroke are not counted, and 1 point is deducted from the player's total score. The incoming player after a foul accepts the table in position except if the cue ball is jumped off the table or a occurs, in which case the incoming player has from the . Three consecutive fouls in bottle pool results in a loss of game. In addition to standard fouls defined in the General Rules for Pocket Billiards

, such as scratches,, and others, the following are specifically defined fouls peculiar to bottle pool: the cue ball fails to touch an object ball; the cue ball touches the bottle before contacting an object ball; the bottle is knocked over by an object ball; and an object ball is pocketed on the same stroke as an illegal shot. Illegal shots which are not fouls unless a ball is pocketed on the same stroke (thus resulting in a loss of turn, no score, but not a loss of points), include: causing an to touch the bottle at all before the cue ball touches it (without knocking it over); and causing the bottle to go into a pocket or off the table as a result of action by the cue ball, after it has caromed off an object ball.

Bottle and ball spotting rules

Whenever the shake bottle is knocked over it's immediately stood up open end down as close as possible to the position on the table at which it came to rest after being upset, as judged from the mouth of the bottle. When the shake bottle is knocked into a pocket, off the table, or where the open end of the bottle intrudes over a pocket opening such that it's impossible to replace it to its upset resting position, the shake bottle is replaced to the table's center spot. If the center spot is occupied by any ball, then it's placed on the . If both the center and head spots are occupied, then it's placed on the . If none of the listed spots are available then it remains off the table until such time as the center spot becomes unobstructed. As in the games of snooker, English billiards, cowboy pool and others, pocketed balls are immediately respotted to their starting position. Where the second object ball, the cue ball or the bottle makes the ball there impossible, it's spotted to the center spot. If the center spot is occupied, the ball is spotted to the head spot. Where both object balls have been on a shot, they're spotted with the same dictates for just one ball, first spotting the 1 ball, followed by the 2 ball. Thus, if the starting positions for the two object balls are each occupied, respectively by the cue ball and shake bottle, the 1 ball would be placed on the center spot and the 2 ball on the head spot.

Variations

The game has been sometimes played with the larger and heavier, unnumbered carom billiard balls in lieu of pocket billiard balls. Such was the case at Michigan State University's billiard room where the faculty devoted their time to bottle pool. Not incidentally, in that room three-cushion billiards which uses these larger balls was also a mainstay, and was where touring three-cushion professional, Carl Conlon was a fixture until his death in 1997. In this variation, a solid-yellow (or dotted) second cue ball is used in place of the 1 ball, and the red ball, known traditionally as the, is used in place of the 2 ball. The use of such balls makes the game more difficult as the larger balls must still be made in the same-sized pool pockets.
The rules promulgated by the Manhattan Athletic Club in the 1890s diverge in a number of ways from the modern rules published by the BCA (though they do use the numbered 1 and 2 balls, rather than carom billiards balls). Those provide that when a player bursts, his score is set to zero rather than to the number of points 31 is overshot; pocketed object balls are replaced on the "red-ball spot" (the foot spot), or if occupied, frozen to the foot rail in the original position of the 1 ball and if occupied, of the 2 ball; and no foul rules whatever are proferred.

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