8-Ball Billiards: Play Pool Against the Computer

8-Ball Billiards: Play the Computer is our own pool game, played on a full table with six pockets, fifteen numbered balls and a cue ball that roll, bounce off the cushions and drop into the pockets as real ones do. Play 8-ball against the computer, pass the phone between two players, or take on the daily clearance.

The rules are 8-ball as most people play it. After the break the table is open. The first ball you pot on a clean shot gives you its group, solids (1 to 7) or stripes (9 to 15), and the other player takes the rest. On every shot the cue ball must hit one of your own balls first. Pot one of yours and you shoot again; pot nothing, or only the other player's balls, and the turn passes. A scratch (the cue ball goes in), hitting nothing or hitting the wrong ball first is a foul, and the other player gets ball in hand: they can put the cue ball anywhere on the table. Clear your group, then pot the eight to win. Pot the eight early, or on a foul, and you lose. If the eight goes in on the break it comes back to the spot.

To aim, drag anywhere on the table and the cue follows your finger or mouse. A dotted line runs to the first ball the cue ball will meet, a ghost ball shows where they touch, and short lines show where the object ball and the cue ball head next. If you are lined up on a ball you may not hit, the ghost ball shows a cross. Set the power on the bar and tap Shoot. The arrow buttons turn the aim a fraction of a degree, and on a keyboard the arrow keys aim and set the power and Space shoots. You can switch the aiming guide off in the settings.

There are three computer players. Easy picks a pot it likes and misses now and then. Medium tries its best few pots with the real table physics and pots the easy ones. Hard plays out its best eight pots at three different strengths, keeps the one that pots a ball and leaves the easiest next shot, and plays a safety when nothing is on. It thinks in the background, so the table never stutters.

The daily clearance is the same rack and the same break for everyone each day. You play alone: pot all fifteen balls, the eight last, in as few shots as you can. Any ball but the eight may be hit first until the rest are down. A foul adds a shot to your count and gives you ball in hand. Clearing the table scores 3,000, less 100 for every shot over par, which is 15, and never less than 300. If you reach 60 shots first, you score 20 for each ball you potted. Your first finished clearance of the day goes on the leaderboard.

The only paid item is a hint for 10 gems: for the shot you are lining up, it draws the full path of the cue ball and of every ball it sends moving, and the paths follow as you change the aim or power. A hint never changes your score. 8-Ball Billiards is free to play in your browser with no download or sign-up, and its table, balls, sound effects and music are all made for the game.