In the past, one of the hardest things that I would have to deal with as a pool player was what to do when there were more than three people who wanted to play a game. It’s not always that fun to be the third wheel waiting to play while watching two friends play. So, needless to say I’ve ended up playing a lot of cutthroat in my day, usually on the nights my home table had a bigger crowd around it than a normal match could handle.
Cutthroat is a version of pool played with three or more people, where the goal is to be the last person with any of your balls remaining on the table. It’s the best known of the three player pool games, and by far the easiest to teach.
Cutthroat Basics
Cutthroat uses all fifteen object balls plus the cue ball, split into groups that each player defends while trying to pocket everyone else’s.
With three players, those groups usually look like 1-5, 6-10, and 11-15. The split also works with five players, where the groups turn into 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12, and 13-15. Of course any random split of numbers can be used and it’s up to the players themselves to decide how they want to do it.
Your balls are your lives. When the last ball of your group drops, you’re out, though as you’ll see in the foul section, you might not stay out.
The Break
The break in cutthroat works like any other pool game: a full, tight rack of fifteen at the foot spot, cue ball anywhere behind the head string. The head string isn’t printed on the cloth. Picture a line running across the table through the second diamond down from the head rail, about a quarter of the way along the table. Keep the cue ball between that imaginary line and the rail you’re breaking from and you’re fine.
Even if someone puts all the power they have into a break, it’s still possible the balls won’t go very far. If that happens, check the rack. A good rack should look like someone glued the balls together with how close they are to each other.
Assuming the rack was tight, if the person who broke was unable to perform an open break, the next player is allowed to ask for a re-rack and attempt to break the balls themselves.
Claiming Your Group
Most tables settle who owns which balls after the break, and there are two common ways to do it.
The easy way: whoever just broke, assuming they made a ball on the break, pockets one more object ball and then verbally claims whichever group they want. Once that person’s turn is over, the next player follows the same process, pocketing a ball before claiming a group. Whatever group is left goes to the last person.
The harder way is to hold off until you’ve pocketed a ball from two different groups. Say the first player pockets a ball from the 1-5 group, then one from 6-10. He’d claim 11-15, because it still has all five balls. The player who follows only has to pocket one ball before picking whichever remaining group looks healthier.
You can also just assign groups before anyone shoots. The downside is that the break doesn’t care about your assignment, and you may watch your own ball rattle in off the rack.
What is a Legal Shot?
A legal shot in cutthroat means the cue ball contacts an object ball, and after that contact at least one ball either drops in a pocket or touches a rail. That’s the standard at most halls. Some house rules skip the rail requirement, so settle it before you break instead of arguing about it three racks in.
Legally pocket a ball, any ball, and you keep shooting. That includes your own. The ball stays down and you’re a step closer to elimination, but sometimes giving up one of your five buys you position on two of someone else’s. Miss, or come up dry on a legal shot, and the turn passes to the next player.
What Constitutes a Foul?
A foul in cutthroat is any shot where the cue ball ends up in a pocket or never touches an object ball. Stricter tables also call a foul when the cue ball makes contact and then nothing reaches a rail or a pocket afterward. Scratching is the one that gets called at every table on earth. The rest depends on how serious your group is.
The penalty is what makes the game mean. Every opponent gets to bring one of their pocketed balls back onto the table, spotted on the foot spot. That includes players who were already eliminated. A late scratch can resurrect somebody who’d been sulking by the chalk tray for ten minutes, which is why the table gets loud when it happens.
Who Goes First?
Being the third shooter in cutthroat usually puts you in a particularly bad position, so this is one of the few times that I do not advocate for being polite and letting others go first. Instead, I recommend either using games of chance like a coin toss, or a card draw to decide who goes in what order.
If players do not want to rely on luck, then I recommend something called the lag. Lag in pool refers to players hitting balls from one side of the table so that they bounce off the opposite cushion, with the goal being to get your ball as close as possible to the cushion on the original side from which you shot.
Whichever player gets closest to the cushion without their ball bouncing off of it wins the lag and picks their spot in the order. This works before any billiards game, and it’s how the pros settle it.
How You Win (and Why It Gets Political)
You win cutthroat by being the last player with at least one of your balls on the table. Everyone else gets eliminated group by group, and the survivor takes the bragging rights.
The actual strategy is social. Two trailing players will always find it convenient to gang up on whoever’s ahead, and that alliance dissolves the second the leader has been dealt with. Shoot at the player with the most balls left. When you can’t make anything, play safe and leave the cue ball somewhere ugly, because a bad leave punishes two opponents at once.
One hosting tip from experience: if cutthroat night becomes a regular thing at your place, keep a couple of spare cues for beginners in the rack so three people aren’t fighting over the one straight house cue.
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