Guan, basically one player must pot balls in the corner pocket to the right of the rack, the other player in the corner pocket to the left. Who gets which pocket is decided before the game starts.
The strategy is all about potting in your own pocket while leaving no shot for the other player to make in their pocket. It is like GO or even chess, very strategic, more than any other pool game. There are a lot of banks and kicks. All shots are intended to leave the opponent no shot. Good play involves clearing balls away from in front of your opponent's pocket so he has nothing to shoot, while at the same time leaving balls near your own pocket. You will notice in the game linked below that when Bustamente breaks off, he gently hits the rack on the side of the rack nearest his OPPONENT'S pocket, pushing balls towards HIS OWN pocket on the other side of the table. And he leaves the white right in front the the opponent's pocket, where the opponent has no easy shot on any ball toward his own pocket. There could be a bank from there, but you always think about not leaving any easy banks, or kicks, too. It takes enormous skill as well as intelligence to be good at it. A game is over when a player has potted 8 balls -- any ball can be played, the numbers on them mean nothing.
There are several specific rules, but many are also the same as other pool games. Potting balls in other pockets (including your opponent's pocket), and other various rules about scratching, are unique to one pocket. For example, when a ball is potted in one of the other pockets, the rules state: "The other four pockets are neutral pockets, and any balls pocketed in a neutral pocket are spotted at the end of the shooter’s inning." What this means is, if I sink a ball in one of the other 4 pockets, it is not a foul, and if I also made a ball in my own pocket on the same shot, I can keep shooting. If not, it is the end of my turn, and any balls I made in the other pockets must be respotted (in a straight line touching each other from the rack spot towards the bottom cushion -- in snooker, from the pink spot towards the black spot). If there are balls in the way, you just respot as best you can without disturbing any other balls. If the cue ball is in the way you don't freeze the respotted ball to it, just put it very close. Of course, if I make a ball in my opponent's pocket, it stays there and counts for the opponent, but it ends my turn unless I made a ball in my own pocket on the same shot as well.
Fouls mostly involve the white scratching, or jumping the white or an object ball off the table, which ends a turn and costs you one of the balls you have potted earlier in the game, which must be returned to the table and respotted as above. If you scratch but have not potted any balls yet, you OWE a ball. When you do make one or more balls in a turn, the OWED ball(s) must be spotted at the end of your turn. I've seen a (bad) player scratch 2 or 3 or 4 times in a game before ever making a ball in their own pocket. They "owe" that many balls to the game as soon as they make them in their own pocket.
There many other rules and they may sound complicated but they are all essential to the game:
http://www.onepocket.org/one_pocket_pool_rules.htmThere are quite a few games you can watch on Youtube. Here are two great one pocket players and former world champions, Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamente, both from the Philippines:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMrmNTr4PXUJust search 'one pocket' in Youtube for many more.
Rod
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one pocket game will be on top of charts in AT the moment it is implemented..
