Eight ball is a billiards game played with a cue ball and 15 billiard balls on a pool table with 6 pockets.

Setup
To start the game, the colored balls are placed in a triangle, called a "rack." The base of the rack is parallel to the short end of the pool table and positioned so the ball in the top of the rack is located on the foot spot. The balls in the rack are pressed into contact with the top ball, and remain in contact after the rack is removed. Within the rack, the 8-ball is centered while the two corners are each spotted with one solid ball and one stripe ball (See image). The cue ball is placed anywhere the breaker desires between the head string and its nearest short side (that is, the quarter of the table farthest from the rack), an area known as the "kitchen."

The pool table is divided into two equal halves lengthwise by an imaginary line called the "long string". Two lines, the "head string" and "foot string" are perpendicular to the long string and are placed 1/4 length away from each end of the table. The intersection of the long and head strings is called the "head spot", and the intersection of the long and foot strings is called the "foot spot".

Pocketing the 8 ball Once all the player's object balls are pocketed, he/she can now attempt to sink the 8 ball and win. To win, he/she must specify the pocket it will land in, and make it in that pocket. If it is shot in the wrong pocket, if the cue ball is dropped, or if there is a fault (see below), he/she loses. If neither the cue ball nor the eight ball is sunk, the player's turn is over.