Bottle Pool - Variations

Variations

The game is sometimes played with the larger and heavier (and unnumbered) carom billiard balls instead of pocket billiard balls. Such is the case at the Union Club and was also at the University of Michigan Billiards & Games Room, where the faculty devoted most of their time to bottle pool. Not incidentally three-cushion billiards, which uses these larger balls, was also a mainstay in that room and touring three-cushion professional Carl Conlon was a fixture there until his death in 1997. In this variation, a solid-yellow (or dotted) second cue ball is used in place of the 1 ball, and the red ball, known traditionally as the carombola, is used in place of the 2 ball. The use of such balls makes scoring by caroms easier, but makes pocketing balls (and scratching) more difficult because the larger balls must still be made in the ordinarily-sized pool pockets.

The rules promulgated by the Manhattan Athletic Club in the 1890s diverge in a number of ways from the modern rules published by the BCA (though they do use the numbered 1 and 2 balls, rather than carom billiards balls). Those house rules provide that when a player bursts, his score is set to zero rather than to the number of points 31 is overshot; pocketed object balls are replaced on the "red-ball spot" (the foot spot), or if occupied, frozen to the foot rail in the original position of the 1 ball and if occupied, of the 2 ball; and no foul rules whatever are preferred.

One further variation places a 6-sided die (although other sided die could also be used) on top of the bottle. If the bottle is knocked over and the die knocked onto the table, the player is awarded points equal to whatever side of the die lies facing upward when the die comes to a stop. This adds a random effect to hitting the bottle and in practice often results in players only striking the bottle in combination with other point-scoring shots.