Straight pool as 14.1 continuous, with points that can fall below zero

Straight pool, which players also call 14.1 continuous, is a called game that keeps a running score instead of ending when one special ball falls. Under the WPA rules effective 21 October 2026, you call the shot. A called ball that you pocket legally is worth one point. If other balls fall on that same shot, those extra balls score as well. The rack is a pile of points, not a race to sink the 8 or the 9.

A safety is not a back door into those points. Balls pocketed on a safety are spotted. The defensive shot puts them back, so you cannot call safety, rattle one in, and write a point on the slate. Fouls move the slate the other way. They subtract points. A player can sit below zero, which matters at the start of a match and after a run of scratches. The book does not pretend a foul is free just because you have not scored yet.

Straight pool scores points until the race ends. It is not the 8-ball pot. That pot is 8 ball pool online.

The other rule cards are a race to eight, rotation instead of points, and names for the shots. 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.

The opening break has its own rail test, and it is stricter than a casual "hit them hard." If you do not pocket a called ball, the cue ball and two object balls must reach a rail. Miss that requirement and the break is a breaking foul worth minus two. The opponent may require you to break again. Two points is the price written in the facts used here. This page will not add a third point or a ball-in-hand story the facts do not include.

Minus two at the start is a real hole, because scores may go negative. You can open the match owing points before a single called ball has counted. That is a different feeling from 8-ball, where a bad break is a table state rather than a number on a card. Agree the required score before anyone owes two, so both players know how far the hole is from the finish.

Six straight-pool checks

• Call the ball and the pocket. A legal called ball is one point.
• Count extra balls pocketed on that same shot.
• Subtract points for a foul. Allow the score to go negative.
• On the opening break, send the cue ball and two object balls to a rail if no called ball is made.
• Spot a ball that fell on a safety.
• Do not stake straight pool here. This site does not run it for money.

The "14" in 14.1 is a rack size, not a winning score. When fourteen object balls have been pocketed, those balls are reracked and play continues. The fifteenth ball, if it is still on the table, stays part of the position the players earned. The game does not reset to a handshake. It resets the missing balls so there is something left to call. A match to 50, or 100, or whatever number was agreed, walks through several of these reracks.

WPA's winning line, in the facts used here, is simple: the first player to the required score wins. The required score is chosen for the match. It is not a secret number this page is withholding. What this page withholds on purpose is a high-run record. No record total was part of the paraphrase brief, and a famous number dropped in for colour would be an invention. The winner is the first to arrive at the score you actually set.

People ask for the greatest run because straight pool is a game of long strings of called balls. The answer on this page is that the run is not the rule. The rule is the point, the foul, the rerack, and the agreed total. A minus-two opening foul, a spotted safety ball, and a score that can sink below zero are enough bookkeeping without a museum number beside them.

This site does not run straight pool for money. There is no point-race in the lobby, and no entry fee dressed up as a called-ball game. The cash cue game is 8-ball. The honest original on that question is the scoring chapter above, plus the refusal to invent a record. The required score belongs to the players who agreed it.