Seven-ball is a contemporary pool

Pocket billiards

Pool, also more formally known as pocket billiards or pool billiards , is the family of cue sports and games played on a pool table having six receptacles called pockets along the , into which balls are deposited as the main goal of play. Popular versions include eight-ball and nine-ball...

 game with rules similar to nine-ball, though it differs in two key ways: the game uses only seven as implied by its name, and play is restricted to particular pockets of the table

Billiards table

A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which billiards-type games are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that is covered with cloth and surrounded by vulcanized rubber cushions, with the whole elevated above...

. William D. Clayton is credited with the game's invention, ca. the early 1980s.

Rules

At the start of the game, balls 1 through 7 are in a hexagonal configuration, with the 1 ball placed at the rack

Rack (billiards)

A rack is the name given to a frame used to organize billiard balls at the beginning of a game. Rack may also be used as a verb to describe the act of setting billiard balls in starting position in billiards games that make use of racks , as well as a noun to describe the balls in that starting...

's , centered over the table's , the 7 ball placed at the rack's
center, and all other balls placed clockwise (see photo top right). Immediately following the , the opponent must elect three pockets along one of the table's s. Once that selection is made, that player may only balls in the selected pockets, and the player who broke is automatically assigned the three pockets situated along the opposite long rail.Balls must be pocketed in rotation, starting with the One, as the object ball. Balls pocketed via combinations off of the object ball are legal. No points exist for any balls. The Seven ball must be pocketed in the called side to be a legal win. Scratches on any object ball allow the opponent ball-in-hand, but the sunk ball remains potted. Scratching on the Seven ball is a loss. Pocketing the Seven in other than the called side results in ball-in-hand to the opponent, and a spotting of the Seven.

A special 7 ball was designed for television matches by Charles Ursitti (billiards historian, referee

Referee

A referee is the person of authority, in a variety of sports, who is responsible for presiding over the game from a neutral point of view and making on the fly decisions that enforce the rules of the sport...

 and Willie Mosconi

Willie Mosconi

William Joseph Mosconi , best known as Willie Mosconi, was an American professional pool player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the World Straight Pool Championship an unmatched fifteen times. For most of the 20th century, his name was essentially...

's one time manager) to address the problem that the color of the 7 and 3 balls in a standard set of pool balls are nearly indistinguishable when viewed on a TV screen. The ball adopts the of the with the color of the black , the "" of their respective namesake games. A similar effect can be achieved with a standard 15-ball set, substituting the striped 15 for the 7. On coin-operated tables, a second game may then be played with the striped 9-14, and the solid 7 as the money ball.

If a ball is potted when a penalty has been conceded, the offending player's ball which has been potted is to be placed once again back into the original spot it was at before as it was an illegal pot. This is the same rule for snooker.

The original informal incarnation of seven ball led to a variant professional ruleset that enjoyed a brief heyday in the Sudden Death Seven-ball

Sudden Death Seven-ball

Sudden Death Seven-ball was an annual pool tournament held in the United States; it was broadcast on and sponsored by ESPN. SDSB was the most notable event featuring the game of seven-ball...

 series of pro tournaments, broadcast on the American cable TV network ESPN

ESPN

Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....

.

Informal play

No special equipment is required for play in pool hall

Pool hall

A billiard/billiards, pool or snooker hall is a place where people get together for playing cue sports such as pool, snooker or carom billiards...

s or home pool rooms

Billiard room

A billiard room is a recreation room, such as in a house or recreation center, with a billiards, pool or snooker table...

. As illustrated to the left, a regular set of pool balls

Billiard ball

A billiard ball is a small, hard ball used in cue sports, such as carom billiards, pool, and snooker. The number, type, diameter, color, and pattern of the balls differ depending upon the specific game being played...

and a nine-ball-style diamond rack turned sidewise are adequate. When racking with an eight-ball triangle rack simply place an extra ball at the top of the triangle and remove along with the rack.