Play
Set up the balls as you would for eight-ball. The first player breaks by shooting the cue ball into the rack as one normally would. A ball must be pocketed, or two must strike cushions, for the break to be legal. If a ball is pocketed, the breaking player goes again.
The break is the only time players will strike the white cue ball with their cue stick.
From this point forward, balls are pocketed by striking the object ball with the cue stick and causing it to carom off the cue ball, then go into the called pocket.
Even if a ball is pocketed on the break, the table is still "open," which means that neither player is yet "stripes" or "solids." To determine which object balls one is playing, one must sink an object ball with a legal shot.
Read more about this topic: Chinese Eight-ball
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Others may license, grouping round their chairs
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