Killer pool

Players and equipment

Three or more players, up to the twelve seats, with one cue ball and a set of object balls racked as for pool. Killer is the pub game for a crowd round one table.

SquareScores keeps the order people went out: tap a player when they are down to no lives, and the tap that leaves one player standing crowns them.

The deal

Rack the balls as for pool. Play goes round the table in seat order, so set the order on the Host tab. Everyone starts with three lives.

Draw for the order if you like — chalk numbers, or a card each — and then enter it as the seat order so the sheet follows the table. The first player breaks, and the break is a turn like any other: pot a ball and it counts, miss and it costs a life.

Play

Each player takes one shot in turn. Pot any ball and you keep your lives; miss, foul or pot the cue ball and you lose one. A player with no lives left is out, and the balls that remain are anybody's. When the table runs out of balls, re-rack and carry on.

Any ball in any pocket is a pot, the black included, and there are no groups: every ball is everybody's. A shot that pots a ball and then sends the cue ball into a pocket is a foul on most tables, and the life goes. After a foul the next player plays from where the cue ball lies, or from baulk if it was potted. A player who is out takes no more turns, and the rest play on round the seat order without them.

Common house rules

Two lives

A shorter game for a bigger crowd

The black gives a life back

Some tables let a potted black restore a life, to a maximum of three

A foul costs two

Potting the cue ball or missing everything loses an extra life

Scoring

Out

Their place

Tap a player when their last life goes; they take the next place from the bottom

The last one in

The win

The tap that puts the second-to-last player out crowns the survivor

Un-enter

—

Only the most recent exit can be taken back, while the match is open

There are no points inside a game of Killer: the lives are kept on a chalkboard or in heads, and the only thing written down is the order people went out. The sheet is the match table set up as a knockout, so the taps run backwards: with six players in, the first one out is sixth, the next fifth, and the tap that puts the fifth player out writes the survivor's win in the same motion. The host chooses at launch between winner-takes-all and podium, where the winner takes three points, the last player out two and the one before them one.

A worked game

Six players round the table in seat order: Alice, Ben, Cara, Dev, Ed and Fay, three lives each.

Round one

Dev on two

Everyone pots except Dev, who misses

Round two

Fay on two, Dev on one

Fay goes in-off and Dev misses again

Round three

Tap Dev: sixth

Dev misses a third time and is the first out

Round four

Ben on two, Cara on two

Ben and Cara both miss; the table is re-racked when the last ball goes

Rounds five and six

Tap Fay: fifth

Fay loses her last two lives on two hard cuts

Rounds seven to nine

Tap Cara: fourth, then Ben: third

Cara runs out of lives, then Ben

The end

Tap Ed: second, and Alice is crowned

Alice and Ed are left, each on one life, and Ed misses a long pot

Dev's tap gave him sixth because six were in when he went; every later tap takes the next place up. The tap on Ed is the one that ends the match, because it leaves Alice alone at the table: her win is written by that same tap and there is nothing left to enter. If the host chose winner-takes-all, the sheet reads 1 for Alice and 0 for everybody else; if podium, Alice has three points, Ed two and Ben one, and Cara, Fay and Dev have 0. A tap made too soon is taken back by tapping again, but only the most recent exit, while the match is open — a mistake three places back means taking the later ones back first.

Ending

A game ends when one player is left in. The sheet records the finishing order from last out to first, and the leaderboard counts games won, or the podium if the host chose that at launch. Rack up and go again.

Choosing a ball

Every turn is one shot, and the only question it asks is whether a ball goes in. Take the easiest pot on the table every time, whatever it is: the ball hanging over a pocket, the straight one, the one you would be embarrassed to miss. There is nothing to be gained from a hard shot, because a hard shot potted and an easy shot potted are worth exactly the same, and a hard shot missed is a life.

Leaving the table hard

The player after you wants an easy pot as much as you did, and a table with none on it costs them a life more often than not. When you have a choice of easy pots, pick the one whose cue ball finishes somewhere awkward for the next player: on the cushion, behind a cluster, at the far end from what is left. Potting comes first, but between two pots of equal ease, the one that leaves nothing is the better shot.

Cue-ball control in plain words

Where the white stops matters twice over: it decides your own pot next time round, and it decides what the next player has. Hit the cue ball below centre and it comes back towards you after contact; above centre and it follows on; in the middle, firmly and straight, it stops dead.

When lives are low

On your last life the shot is the surest one on the table and no other, even if it means potting a ball that helps the player after you. Do not go for the black in the hope of a life back unless it is the easiest ball on the table anyway; a miss ends your game and the black is still there for somebody else. When several players are down to one life, the game becomes a matter of who blinks: play tight, play simple, and let them take the risks. And watch who is after you — a player on one life behind you is worth leaving a hard table to, because their exit is your promotion up the order.

Five lives

Five lives each rather than three. The game runs longer and forgives a run of bad luck, so it suits a small group who want it to last; the order out is the same shape, and the app records it the same way.

Two lives

Two lives each for a big crowd, as the house rule says: with ten or twelve round a table, three lives each is a long wait between shots, and two keeps everybody in the game or out of it inside half an hour.

The black gives a life back

A potted black restores one life, up to the starting three and never more. It gives a player on their last life a reason to go for the black rather than the easy ball, which is the whole point: it puts a decision into a game that otherwise has none.

A foul costs two

Potting the cue ball, or missing every ball on the table, costs two lives instead of one; a plain miss that touches a ball still costs one. It makes the difference between a bad shot and a careless one, and a player on two lives can go out on a single in-off.

Cutthroat

The American crowd game on the same table, for three players: the balls 1 to 5, 6 to 10 and 11 to 15 belong to one player each, and you pot the other players' balls. A player whose balls are all gone is out, and the last with a ball on the table wins. There are no lives and you shoot again after a pot, but the knockout table records it the same way: tap a player when their last ball goes.

How many lives do you have in killer pool?

Three, on most tables. Two is common for a big crowd and five for a small one, and the number is agreed before the break. Everybody starts with the same number, and the lives are kept as chalk marks rather than on the sheet, which records only who went out and when.

What happens when you miss in killer?

You lose a life. A miss is any shot that does not pot a ball: missing the pocket, missing the ball altogether, or hitting nothing at all. Potting the cue ball also costs a life, and on some tables two. The next player plays from where the cue ball lies, and when your lives are gone you are out, and tapped out on the sheet.

Does potting the cue ball lose a life in killer?

Yes. Going in-off is a foul, and a foul costs a life like a miss does, even if a ball went in on the same shot on most tables; under the house rule where a foul costs two, it costs two. The next player brings the cue ball out and plays from baulk.

Can you pot the black in killer pool?

Yes. In Killer the black is just another ball: pot it and you are safe for the turn, and there is no penalty for potting it early because there is no order to the balls. Some tables give a life back for the black, up to the starting number, which is the one house rule that changes how people play.

What happens when the balls run out?

Rack up again and carry on. Lives are not reset, and the player whose turn it is breaks the new rack as an ordinary shot: pot a ball and they are safe, miss and it costs a life. A game with a big crowd may go through three or four racks.

How does the app record who won at killer?

By the order people went out. Tap a player when their last life goes and they take the place that is the number of players still in at that moment: with eight in, the first out is eighth. The tap that puts the second-to-last player out crowns the survivor in the same motion, and the leaderboard counts the win, or three, two and one for the podium if the host chose that at launch.