Lamplight Pool

What is Lamplight Pool?

We wanted a pool game where the shots you learn on our table work on a real one. So we built the physics first. The cue ball slides before it rolls, so a firm center hit stops dead on a straight shot. A rolling cue ball glances off about 30 degrees on most cuts. Object balls get pushed a little off line by friction (players call it throw), side spin changes how a ball comes off a rail, and the pockets have real points and facings, so a ball that clips the jaw can rattle out.

You can play a career against our house players, a quick match, a friend online on their own phone or computer, a two player game on one device, a free practice table, and a Daily Table that is the same for everyone. It is free, it plays in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer, and there is nothing to download.

Controls

• Aim: drag anywhere on the table to swing the cue. Slow drags turn it finer. Tap a ball to aim straight at its center.
• Fine aim: drag the ridged strip next to the power bar for the last tiny turn.
• Power: pull the power bar and let go to shoot. The label shows the speed, from Touch to Break. Slide back to the start to cancel.
• Spin: tap the cue ball button and drag the red dot. Up is follow, down is draw, left and right are side spin. You can also raise the cue there.
• Ball in hand: drag the cue ball to any clear spot.
• On a computer: drag or click to aim, the mouse wheel or arrow keys to fine tune (hold Shift for finer), Up and Down to set power, Space to shoot and S for spin. Hold Space while balls roll to speed them up.

The table turns to fit your screen, so it plays the long way in portrait and fills the width in landscape. In Settings you can move the power bar to the other side.

How 8 ball works

Fifteen balls are racked with the 8 in the middle. After the break the table is open. The first group you pot on a clean shot is yours: solids (1 to 7) or stripes (9 to 15). If one of each drops, the table stays open and you keep shooting.

• Pot one of your balls and you shoot again.
• When your group is gone, pot the 8 to win the rack.
• Potting the 8 early, or on a foul, loses the rack.
• If the 8 goes down on the break, we re-rack and the same player breaks again.
• A break that pots nothing and sends fewer than four balls to a rail is a weak break, and your opponent gets ball in hand.

Called shots are off by default. Turn on Call your shots in 8 ball in Settings and you name the pocket before each shot. A ball in the wrong pocket ends your turn, and the 8 in the wrong pocket loses the rack.

How 9 ball works

Nine balls are racked in a diamond with the 1 at the front and the 9 in the middle. You must always hit the lowest numbered ball first, but any ball that goes in on a legal shot counts and you keep shooting. Pot the 9 on a legal shot to win, even on the break or in a combination.

• If the 9 goes in on a foul, it comes back to the foot spot.
• Three fouls in a row lose the rack. We warn you after the second.
• With Push out on in Settings, the shot right after the break can be a push: hit the cue ball anywhere without the usual rules, then your opponent chooses whether to shoot from there or pass it back.

Fouls

Ball in hand means the incoming player can put the cue ball anywhere on the table.

Play a friend online with a room code

Tap Play a friend on the title screen. One of you taps Host a game and gets a four character room code, like K7QM. We leave out letters and numbers that look alike, so it is easy to read out loud. Send the code, or tap Share link and send the link: opening it goes straight to joining. Your friend types the code under Join a friend and you are both at the same table.

The host picks 8 ball or 9 ball, a race to 1, 3 or 5, and the house options: call your shots in 8 ball or push out in 9 ball. There is a turn timer too, off by default because friends rarely need one. When the host taps Start, a coin toss on both screens decides who breaks.

• You see your friend line up every shot as it happens: the cue, the aim line and the power bar move on your screen too.
• Fouls, ball in hand, called pockets and wins work exactly as they do against the house, and both devices always agree on where every ball sits.
• Tap the smiley button to send a quick reaction like a thumbs up or a clap. There is no typed chat.
• If the connection drops, we hold the match for two minutes and pick up right where you left off. A refresh of the page brings the joining player back to the same match.
• When the match ends, either of you can ask for a rematch, and the host can switch between 8 ball and 9 ball first.

No account is needed. If you are signed in, your friend sees your site name; if not, we give you a friendly name you can change. Your name is the only thing that is shared, and nothing about the match is stored once you leave.

Career, stars and the collection

The career has six venues: The Garage, the Rec Room, the Lakeside Boathouse, Union Street Hall, the Rooftop Garden and The Grand Hall. Each has four house players to beat, and the last one is the champion who opens the next venue. Tables grow from a 7 foot table with generous pockets in the garage to a full 9 foot table with tight pockets in the Grand Hall, and matches grow from a single rack to a race to five.

Every match can earn three stars: one for the win, one for winning without a foul, and one for potting four balls in a single visit (three in 9 ball). There are 72 stars in all, and your total is your score on the all-time Stars leaderboard.

Cues, cloths and ball sets are earned by playing: beating venues, collecting stars, playing Daily Tables, potting your first bank shot or combination, and winning a rack in one visit from your own break. They change the look only. Nothing is ever sold, and no cue plays better than another.

The house players

Our house players shoot on the same table with the same physics and the same controls you have. They only see the table, and they miss the way people miss: the easygoing ones go for the easiest pot and often leave it short, the steady ones start allowing for throw and playing for the next ball, and the experts play position, safeties and the occasional bank. Quick match lets you pick any of eight levels.

The Daily Table

Each day there is one Daily Table, the same for everyone, with a handful of balls set out in a theme like Bank Street, The Cluster or Rail Riders. You have 8 shots to clear it. Every ball is worth 100 points, with 50 more for a bank, a combination, or each extra ball in one shot. Clear the table and you get 300 more plus 100 for every shot you did not need. A scratch costs the shot and the cue ball goes back to its spot.

Your first finished run of the day is the one that goes on the daily leaderboard. After that you can practice the same table as often as you like. Every Daily Table is checked by a solver before it goes live, so each one can be cleared.

Tips and strategy

• Think about where the cue ball goes, not just the pot. A rolling cue ball leaves a cut at about 30 degrees from its line, and a stun shot leaves at about 90 degrees from the object ball's path.
• For a stop shot, hit a touch below center so the cue ball is still sliding when it arrives. From farther away, use more draw.
• Slow cut shots throw the object ball a little toward the direction of the cut. Aim a hair thinner on soft cuts, or add a little outside spin to cancel it.
• Side spin bends the cue ball off the rails. Running spin (spin toward the way the ball travels along the rail) makes it come off longer and faster. Reverse spin makes it come off shorter.
• Pockets take more when the ball is slow. On a tough angle, roll it in gently rather than firing at the jaws.
• In 8 ball, break up clusters early while you still have easy balls to come back to, and save a ball near the 8 as a key ball.
• In 9 ball, look for a combination into the 9. It wins the rack just as well as a run out.

Questions