One pocket as a race to eight balls in a chosen foot pocket

One pocket, in the WPA rules effective 21 October 2026, gives each player one foot pocket. The breaker chooses a pocket, and the other foot pocket belongs to the opponent. The first player to pocket eight balls in their own pocket wins the rack. Balls are not a private group the way solids are in 8-ball. Any object ball can score, and it scores only if it finishes in your pocket.

Eight is a small number and a long game, because the intention is narrow even when the jaws are wide. A ball that drops in the opponent's foot pocket is their point. The breaker's choice of side is the first rules act of the rack, and the book allows that choice. This page will not add a veto for the opponent, and it will not add a coin flip. You pick, they receive the other corner, and both of you hunt the same fifteen balls toward different holes.

Six one-pocket checks

• Let the breaker choose a foot pocket. The other foot pocket is the opponent's.
• Score only balls that finish in your pocket. Eight wins the rack.
• Spot balls that fall in a side pocket or a head pocket.
• Charge a foul as one point: spot a scored ball, or owe a marker.
• After a scratch, take ball in hand above the head string.
• Remember three fouls in a row lose the rack, and this site does not stake the game.

Side pockets and head pockets are not scoring pockets in this game. A ball that falls in either is spotted. The foot pocket you were assigned is the only hole that moves your tally forward. That spotting rule keeps a wild carom from becoming a point in a pocket nobody was given. It also means a ball you sent toward your corner, which rattled out and fell in the side, returns to the table instead of sitting on your count.

The points you have already stored can be taken back by a foul. A foul costs one point. If a scored ball is available, one of those balls is spotted. If you are still on zero, you owe a marker, a point you will surrender from the next ball you do score. The marker charges a player who has nothing on the wood yet. It does not let the foul pass for free.

One pocket is a race to eight in a single pocket. This site does not stake it. The 8-ball match is 8 ball pool online.

The other rule cards are called banks, continuous points, and where a scratch leaves the cue ball. The group is the games of chance guides.

The match is the 8-ball table. A finished rack can be checked on the fairness page. Adults 18 and over only, and only where a stake is legal. Limits are on responsible gambling.

A scratch in one pocket is ball in hand above the head string. It is not ball in hand anywhere on the bed. The incoming player shoots from the kitchen. Bank pool uses that same kitchen limit on a scratch. A standard foul in 9-ball does not: there the cue ball may be placed anywhere. Three consecutive fouls lose the one-pocket rack, so a player who keeps giving up the cue ball does not grind forever from behind the line.

The kitchen fence changes the safety you are allowed to answer with. You cannot lift the cue ball and freeze it against the opponent's pocket after a scratch, because that spot is below the head string. You play out, and the angle is the angle the kitchen gives you. Players who import the 9-ball "anywhere" habit into this game are using a different scratch. The October 2026 facts put the cue ball behind the line and leave it there.

Three fouls are a second way to lose, beside the race to eight. The count is consecutive. A legal shot in between clears it. The third foul hands the rack over without waiting for an eighth ball. Combined with the one-point foul, the game can swing on defence as much as on a made ball: each mistake spots something you already earned, or writes a marker, and a string of them ends the rack.

This site does not run one pocket for money. The volume is modest. The rules are still specific, and they are not a simplified 8-ball. The cashier on this website remains 8-ball. If you want a foot-pocket race with a stake, take it to a room that posts the game. Nothing on this site will grow a second scoring pocket for you.