Bench pool

Bank Pool is a variant of pool billiards .

Similar to the 8-ball or 14 / 1e , balls and bags to be punched must be announced. Each ball can be played, but in contrast to all other pool variants it has to be punched "over the board", so the object ball must first be played into the board before it ricochets off the board and rolls towards the hole.

The name of this variety is also derived from this peculiarity, since the English word bank corresponds to the German word bande. The origin of the Bank Pool is US-American , where it is still played today.

regulate

construction

The triangle of the balls can be constructed as with the 8-ball or 9-ball ; Either 9 (called 9 ball or short rack bank pool ) or 15 balls ( full rack bank pool ) are used.

Punching balls

In the bank pool, only balls that are punched over boards count. Ball and hole have to be announced. There are no combinations or balls that are hit by the guard - an exception is the bank-pool-ring game . Because of these strict rules, Bank Pool is considered to be one of the fairest games as luck plays only a minor role.

Goal of the game

The aim of the game is to sink a set number of balls over boards. With 15 balls used this is 8, with 9 used only 5, which have to be punched to win the game.

An exception to this is again the variant of the bank pool ring game, for which there is no limit to the number of balls that can be punched. More on this in the Ring Game section.

Fouls

In the bank pool the announced ball must be hit. This must either be sunk or the white ball or the announced ball must touch a board after the collision. If these basic rules are not observed, the end of the game commits a foul. This is also the case if the white player falls into a pocket or jumps off the table - the player coming to the table can now move the ball freely in the head field. Balls sunk in a foul must be placed back on the foot point. Since every punched ball counts one point, so to speak, a point is also deducted in the event of a foul - and an already punched ball must also be rebuilt. If no ball was punched before the foul, the next properly punched ball by the fouling player must be rebuilt at the end of his take-up.

If a ball is not sunk over the board during a regular hit, it will be put back on at the end of this recording.

Special rules, such as losing a game after three consecutive fouls by a player, can be operationally agreed.

Ring game

As mentioned above, the ring game variant is a specialty in pool and therefore has its own rules. It can be imagined as a mixture between billiards and poker , in which several players play in a fixed order and each offer a stake - usually increasing over time. For each punched ball, the respective player gets the stake of the others and stays at the table. Usually all 15 balls are used for this. Special rules can be determined by the players; It is very popular to allow opening bands of 3 or more bands in addition to the normal banker.

distribution

United States

Bank pool is particularly common in the United States . Next to One Pocket it is one of the typical "gaming games" - so it is not necessarily played in tournament form. In Kentucky and Chicago in particular , it is probably the most popular game, which is why players who are relatively unknown in the world of pool and win big tournaments like the Derby City Classic keep appearing there .

Europe

In Europe, Bank Pool still enjoys a subordinate status, but is becoming more and more popular thanks to the Derby City Classic in the form of the Ring Games.

Tournaments

The only really big tournament that Bank Pool is played in is the Derby City Classic , which takes place at the beginning of each year in Louisville, Kentucky . The tournament offers competitions in the game types 9-Ball , One Pocket and Bank Pool, of which Bank Pool has the highest number of participants every year and with over 400 players is the largest billiards tournament ever.

In addition to the three major competitions, the Derby City Classic also features a lot of money games. The ring games are very popular thanks to the professional players who regularly take part.