Straight Pool

Straight pool, also called 14.1 continuous or simply 14.1, is a pocket billiards game. It was the common sport of championship competition until it was overtaken by faster-playing games like nine-ball (and to a lesser extent eight-ball).

In straight pool, the shooter may attempt to shoot at any object ball on the table. The goal is to reach a set number of points determined by agreement before the game. One point is scored for each object ball pocketed where no foul is made. A typical game might require a player to score 100 points to win. In professional competition, straight pool is usually played to 125 points. Straight pool is a call-pocket game, meaning the player must indicate the intended object ball and pocket on every shot.

The game was the popular pool game in the United States, and immortalized in the 1961 film The Hustler. The game remains well known in the United States, Europe, Argentina and Japan, but is more obscure elsewhere. The first WPA-sanctioned World Straight Pool Championship was held in 2006 (the winner was Germany's Thorsten Hohmann, a player who also won the world nine-ball title three years earlier). Possibly as a consequence of this renewed professional competitive attention, public interest in the game has undergone a resurgence, as reflected in the amount of coverage 14.1 now receives in the billiards press.

Straight pool is derived from an earlier pool game called continuous pool. Like its successor, in continuous pool a player has to score a certain number of points (usually 100) to win the match, and a point is earned for every object ball legally pocketed. However, a new rack does not start until all the object balls have been pocketed. When the new rack begins, the object balls are racked at the foot spot, and the player has to break from behind the head string. As players become skilled in scoring dozens of points in a single turn, they would often employ defensive shots in breaks to avoid risk of giving their opponents runout opportunities. Because of this, Jerome Keogh, who was a winner of numerous tournaments, came up with the idea in 1910 of reracking the balls while there's still an object ball on the table, therefore encouraging players to be more offensive. This new game became 14.1 continuous and would a few years later be called straight pool.

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