Last Pocket

Last Pocket

Last Pocket – also called Last Pocket Eights – is 8-Ball played exactly the same way right up to the very end. There is only one difference: the 8 ball must go in the same pocket you made your last object ball in. That pocket is your last pocket, and once it is set it stays set for the rest of the rack.

Everything in the 8-Ball rules still applies – the break, the open table, calling your shot, fouls and ball in hand. This page only covers what changes.

1. Setting your last pocket

• Your last pocket is the pocket you drop your final ball of your group into.
• That pocket must be called like any other shot.
• You may not pocket the 8 ball on the shot that sets your last pocket. The 8 goes in on a separate shot, and it goes into the pocket you just set.
• If your opponent pockets your last ball for you, that pocket becomes your last pocket anyway – and the 8 still has to go in there.

2. One player per pocket

Both players may not share a last pocket. The first player to set a last pocket owns it.

• If your opponent sets their last pocket inside yours, you get to pick their last pocket – any pocket on the table you have not already claimed. A coaster makes a handy marker.
• Common house variant: instead of letting them choose, you are assigned the opposite pocket from the one they used.
• Either way the pocket is fixed the moment it is assigned and does not change for the rest of the rack.

3. Shooting the 8

• Call the 8 and your last pocket.
• Bank shots, kick shots and combinations are all legal, so long as the 8 is your first contact and it finishes in your last pocket.
• Pocketing the 8 in any other pocket is an illegal 8. Most houses call that a loss of the rack; some spot the 8 and pass the turn instead. Settle it before you buy in.
• Scratching without sinking the 8-ball: If you scratch on a shot attempting to hit or pocket the 8-ball, but the 8-ball stays on the table (and wasn't pocketed), you do not lose. But it is Ball in hand for your opponent.

4. Fouls

Fouls are identical to 8-Ball: a foul is a loss of turn, the incoming player gets ball in hand, and balls pocketed on the foul are spotted. You lose the rack outright for pocketing the 8 illegally, pocketing the 8 on the same shot as the last ball of your group, or jumping the 8 off the table.

5. Why regulars like it

Last Pocket stretches the end of the rack and rewards thinking over reflex. The 8 stops being a gimme – you have to leave yourself a real shot into one specific pocket – and a sharp player can choose that pocket for you by parking your last ball in front of the worst one on the table.

• If you are close to your last ball, look at where the 8 is sitting before you plan the shot.
• If your opponent is one ball from winning, use any legal shot you can find to move the 8 away from their last pocket.
• You can play safe the whole rack. Denying a good player a shot at their last pocket is a legitimate way to run the clock.
• When you get to pick your opponent’s last pocket, remember the side pockets are harder to bank than the corners.

6. House notes

Mark the last pocket with a coaster if the table allows it. Three fouls in a row is a loss, and the bartender’s ruling during a tournament is final.