Pool Rummy
Pot the balls, add up their numbers, land on exactly 100
About Pool Rummy
Pool Rummy turns an overhead pool table into a counting race. Every ball is worth its number, from 1 up to 15, and whatever you pot on a legal shot goes onto your score. The first player to land on exactly 100 wins.
The catch is the word exactly. Go past 100 and you bust: your score drops back to where it was when your turn began, the balls you sank stay down, and the table passes over. So late in a frame the question is not just which ball you can pot, but which ball you can afford. Balls that would bust you get a thin red ring, and the one that finishes you exactly gets a gold one.
The computer opponent plays the maths as well as the angles: it avoids balls that would bust it, sets itself up for an exact finish and plays safe when every pot is too big. There are three difficulty settings and a two-player mode for sharing one screen. If the table empties before anyone reaches 100, all fifteen balls are racked again and the scores carry on.
What is different about this version
Busting is the whole game. A red ring marks every ball that would take the shooter past 100 and a gold ring marks the exact finish, so the arithmetic is on the cloth rather than in your head, and the computer plays by the same numbers.
How to play Pool Rummy
- Each ball is worth its number: the 1 is one point, the 15 is fifteen.
- Hit an object ball first; anything you pot on that shot is added to your score and you shoot again.
- Land on exactly 100 to win.
- Go over 100 and you bust: your score returns to what it was at the start of your turn and your turn ends.
- Scratching or missing every ball is a foul: balls potted on it do not count and your opponent gets the white anywhere.
- If the table empties with nobody on 100, all fifteen balls are re-racked and scores carry on.
Controls
| Desktop | Drag back from the cue ball to aim and charge, release to shoot; or steer with the arrow keys, Shift for fine adjustment, and hold Space to build power. |
|---|---|
| Phone or tablet | Drag back from the white and lift off to strike; tap the cloth to swing the cue round to that point. |
| Players | One or two people on the same device. Nothing here plays over the internet. |
Strategy
Cloth here is slow. Speed bleeds away steadily, so a gentle shot dies quickly and a firm one carries a long way off the cushions — which means the real decision on most shots is not whether the ball goes in but how far the white travels afterwards. Use the tangent line for that. It shows the direction the white peels off on, and thin cuts send it a long way sideways, usually into trouble.
The computer scores every shot it can see and prefers straight ones. Cut angles past about sixty degrees are marked down heavily, and any line with another ball sitting on it is discarded outright. The most useful thing you can do against it, then, is leave it thin and cluttered. Potting your own ball while nudging one of theirs off a pocket mouth beats a tidy pot into open space.
The three settings differ in more than accuracy. On Easy the opponent considers only a handful of options and throws away a good share of those before scoring them, so it walks past pots that are sitting there. Normal and Hard also weigh where the white finishes relative to their remaining balls, which is why Hard strings pots together and Easy takes one then strands itself. Ball in hand is the biggest swing available: spend the extra second placing the white for a straight pot with a short follow-on.
Mistakes that cost you the game
- Hitting everything at full power. The white rattles round the cushions into somewhere useless, and hard shots jaw far more often.
- Taking the first pot after the break without checking the rest of that group — that pot chooses your seven balls for the whole frame.
- Ignoring the red circle on the aim line. It is telling you the shot is a foul before you play it.
- Spending ball in hand on a thin cut when a straight pot was available two inches away.
Tips
- Hold Shift while nudging with the arrows for the last half-degree on a long pot.
- Tap a spot on the cloth to point the cue there instantly, then refine — far quicker than dragging the cue all the way round.
- Check where the tangent line points before committing. If it runs at a pocket, you are about to scratch.
- Clear balls away from the black early. Being on the black with it buried behind two of theirs loses frames.
Questions about Pool Rummy
What happens if the black goes down on the break?
It is re-spotted and play continues. Only potting it later, out of turn or with a foul, ends the frame against you.
Can I play without a mouse?
Yes. The arrow keys swing the cue round, Shift slows that movement for the last half-degree, and a held Space bar loads the shot until you release it.
Why did my turn end when I potted a ball?
You potted one from the other group, or the first ball you touched was not yours. The pot stands, but the table passes over.
Does it cost anything?
No. Pool Rummy is free to play, runs in your browser, and needs no download, install or account.
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