Two-Ball

The game of two-ball has been adopted and popularized by the Princeton Band to the point that people outside of Princeton seem to think it was born here. Though the Band has certainly invented many things, two-ball is actually not one of them. I'm not sure where it was born, who created it, or what it was even called in the beginning. However, I do know that it's about fifty times more entertaining than pool, whether you're watching it or playing it. If you know of it or any similar games by other sources, I'd be happy to add a little "history" section to this page -- just e-mail me. This webpage is, as far as I know and Google can tell, the first online attempt to explain it to the world.

What You Need

Two-ball can be played with anywhere from two to ten players, although the ideal number of players is five. With more than five, keeping players out of the way when it's not their turn becomes difficult.

Obviously, you will be needing two billiard balls, and a pool table. Princeton games naturally favor the use of the five and eight balls, as they are orange and black. You may use whatever colors you like, but don't blame me for the bad karma if you play with, say, the inauspicious combination of two ball and cue ball.

Play Order

"Hands on the table" is the call that indicates a game is starting. The winner of the previous game (or the caller of the present game, if it is the first of the evening) has the privilege of determining the play order. For simplicity's sake, this is usually reduced to a decision of whether play rotates clockwise or counterclockwise. If he's being particularly crafty, he'll specify “you’re after me, she’s after you,” and so on. Conventionally, the winner of the previous game takes the first serve, although he doesn't have to. The previous winner has complete and unrestricted control on the order of play for that game, including who goes first. The only thing you really need to remember about the play order is which player you follow, so that you are ready to jump into action when your turn comes around. [See Tournament Play for a fairer and more formal way of arranging the play order.]

Play order is incredibly important to the outcome of the game, so it should rotate periodically if many games are to be played. In a friendly game to teach new players, be sure to position them after relatively weak players or they'll be out by the third round and generally unhappy.

Getting the Party Started

First of all, forget everything you thought you knew about pool. This is not pool; this is two-ball. Aside from the fact that billiard balls and a pocketed table are involved, there are no similarities. For instance, in two-ball one does not use a cue stick. Instead, the ball is rolled. (Yes, with your hands. Get over it.)

Play is begun with a "serve," in which the orange ball is launched at the black one to get it moving. (In two-ball, the orange ball generally serves the function of a cue ball.) The black ball's beginning position is at the "dot," the same reference point one would use to place racked balls in ordinary pool. I'm sure it has a name; I just don't know it. The person serving stands at the short side of the table opposite the black ball, and may release the orange ball at any angle. Once the black ball is hit, it is the next player's turn. If you fail to hit the black ball on a serve, you get two more chances.

Ordinary turns are quite similar to serves. The player must grab the orange ball, run to the short side of the table opposite the black ball, and attempt to hit the black ball. The player may take as many shots at the black ball as necessary before hitting it. In order for a play to be legal, however, the player must be fully behind the imaginary line extending along the short side of the table -- no leaning around, or shooting early.

The neutral zone (see diagram above) belongs to both sides of the table. If the ball is on your end of the table but moving away from you, it becomes legal the moment it moves into the neutral zone. Similarly, if the ball is in the neutral zone moving toward you, it becomes illegal as soon as it leaves the neutral zone. However, the legality of a play depends not on where the balls collide, but on where the black ball was when the orange ball was released. Admittably, this is a technicality, but a useful one to be aware of since it's been known to save many a player from a strike (see below).

An obscure rule states that if any part of the black ball is in the neutral zone, then no part of the shooting player's body may also be in the neutral zone when the orange ball is released. Additionally, no part of your body may ever cross over the neutral zone to the opposite side of the table while the orange ball is in hand These rules were made to keep players with very long reach, namely Brad Friedman, from completely dominating the game..

Striking Out

Now, let's make this not just fun but competitive. Two-ball is a three-strikes-and-you're-out elimination game. Basically, you get a strike against you if any of the following things happen:

• The ball stops moving on your turn. In this case, "on your turn" has a special and less-than-inuitive meaning. Technically, turns end when the orange ball leaves the player's hand, assuming the black ball is subsequently hit. Therefore the black ball is allowed to stop moving briefly before it is hit, as long as it was clearly moving when the orange ball was released.
• Before you are able to hit the ball, the ball goes into a pocket.
• You accumulate three illegal serves on a turn. For a serve to be legal, the black ball must either hit a bumper or any part of the ball must enter the neutral zone. A serve that hits the black ball but doesn’t meet either of these requirements is an illegal serve. Serves that fail to hit the black ball are also illegal serves. If the black ball is hit on an illegal serve, the player after the server may choose to play it if he so wishes. Once a legal throw is made by that player, however, the serve becomes valid, and the player must then make a legal hit before the black ball stops or lands in a pocket.
• You hit the black ball off the table. However, if the orange ball leaves the table without hitting the black ball in the process, it remains a live ball. No strikes are issued and the player must retrieve the orange ball from wherever it landed and attempt to hit the black ball before time runs out. If the orange ball leaves the table during a throw in which it has hit the black ball, and the black ball fails to go into a pocket relatively quickly, the hitter gets a strike. This requires a judgment call. For added fun, any player including the hitter can catch the black ball in the air in order to receive a "negative strike," which cancels any strikes a person may have and can even reinsert an eliminated player into the game. Negative strikes can be accumulated even when a player does not already have strikes for them to cancel. If the hitter catches the ball that he illegally hit off the table, the strike and anti-strike he receives cancel out.
• You make an illegal shot. If your hips are not completely behind the imaginary line extending along the short end of the table when you make your shotand your shot hits the black ball, play stops and the hitter receives a strike. The illegal play only results in a strike if it interferes with the black ball.
• You accidentally touch the black ball in any manner.

After reading these rules, it should be fairly evident that speed is advantageous. Play begins again with a serve from the player who just received the strike.

Notice that, unlike pool, you're allowed to sink the orange "cue" ball. In fact, it can be advantageous to do so, because it requires the next player to retrieve it from the pocket. If the orange ball falls into a pocket, the player may pick up any ball from that pocket. For example, if the orange ball falls into a pocket that also currently holds a one ball and a fifteen ball, the hitter may take the orange ball, the one ball, or the fifteen ball and that will be the throwing ball for the remainder of that round.

Special Moves & Techniques

In order to win a game of two ball, then, you have to inflict strikes upon other people without accumulating any of your own. It is true that you can win a game of two-ball by playing completely defensively, but you're much better off if you learn a few offensive techniques. Obviously the simplest is just sinking the black ball reliably, but the following techniques are far more fun...

Yarf

A yarf, so named for its Y-shaped pattern, is one of the flashiest ways of inflicting a strike upon another player. It's unstoppable. Basically, it's a serve in which the black ball is launched into one corner pocket, and the orange ball is deflected into the other (see the diagram). I've yet to calculate the proper attack angle, so for now the only way to learn is practice. Yarfing alone will not win a game of two-ball, however, as one must have received a strike himself in order to serve a yarf.

Jersey Yarf

The Jersey yarf is a close cousin to the regular yarf, only the orange ball hits the other side of the black ball. Therefore, the angle of the orange ball's path is much larger, as seen in the following diagram:

Reverse Yarf

A reverse yarf is perhaps the only thing flashier than a regular yarf. It's a serve in which the orange ball bounces against the back of the table, and returns to hit the black ball such that both go into opposite center pockets (see the diagram).

Travelling Yarf

It's also possible to create a yarfing pattern while the balls are in play, but it's hard to replicate and therefore hardly counts as a strategy.

The Belias Method

Because this technique is so characteristic of Ben Elias, I've gone ahead and named it after him. Most of Ben's playing strategy consists of very deliberately robbing his opponent of time. His shots are very slow and calculated ones intended to slow or even stop the black ball, while leaving both balls inconveniently on the same end of the table. Playing by this strategy is the only known instance in which speed is not advantageous in two-ball.

Tournament Play

For now, the only form of tournament play is one-on-one, with a traditional bracketing system. A multiplayer tournament format, however, is in the works and will be revealed as soon as Sunger and I figure it out. Check back later!

Words of Warning

Yes, it is very possible to injure yourself playing two-ball. In fact, it is very likely that after each game you will have at the very least accumulated a number of bruises on your thighs from inadvertently running into the table. I will not be responsible for any injuries, pain, and suffering that may result from your games of two-ball.

It is also very possible to injure pool tables by playing two-ball on them. Therefore, I will now set down the final rule of two-ball: one does not play two-ball on nice tables. Apparently, it's because repeated high-velocity impacts will eventually break the backs of the pockets. I'm not sure I believe this explanation, since it seems that this would eventually happen in ordinary pool also. If anyone has any other thoughts on the matter, please let me know. For the time being, forget reason and call it etiquette. I will simply leave it as a mythic truth that for this reason one plays two-ball in Wu Basement but emphatically not in the billards room at Campus.

This page authored by Ashley Prescott, with much assistance from Brad Friedman.

This page is one of many unrelated pages on Ashley Prescott's Princeton webspace.

All graphics are original, except the background (provided by GRSites) and the instructional diagrams which were created by Photoshopping screenshots from Online Mini-Pool.