Speedball, also called speed pool, is a solitary

pool Pool may refer to: Water pool * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a rocky pool ...

game. As its name suggests, one all the pool balls on the

table Table may refer to: * Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs * Table (landform), a flat area of land * Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and columns * Table (database), how the table data ...

as quickly as possible. It can be played competitively with the aid of a stopwatch.

Rules

*The must not be in motion when shooting :* ''can'' still be in motion when shooting *Ball and pocket must be , (No the balls in) *Legal shots must be made — a 10-second penalty will be incurred for each . :*A legal shot involves the cue ball contacting an object ball, and driving it to a , or the cue ball hitting a cushion after contact, or pocketing an object ball *Any ball may be pocketed, except that the must be last.

Tournaments

Because speedball is a relatively recent development in pool, there are few tournaments devoted to it. One notable event was the

International Speed Pool Challenge The International Speed Pool Challenge is a pool (pocket billiards) tournament held in the United States from 2006 to 2010. It is the most notable speed pool event, as well as being the richest in prize money for that discipline. Luc Salvas won the ...

which was broadcast on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. The games played in this event included one based on

straight pool Straight pool, which is also called 14.1 continuous and 14.1 rack, is a cue sport in which two competing players attempt to as many billiard balls as possible without playing a . The game was the primary version of pool played in professional ...

as well as the more common version described above, which is derived from

eight-ball Eight-ball (also spelled 8-ball or eightball, and sometimes called solids and stripes, spots and stripes or rarely highs and lows) is a discipline of pool played on a billiard table with six pockets, cue sticks, and sixteen billiard balls (a ...

. The object in each match was to play all games with a shorter total time than other players.

Luc Salvas Luc Salvas (born November 21, 1962) is a Canadian professional pool player. His quick-paced speed pool play has earned him the nickname "Machine Gun". Born in Yamaska, Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québe ...

was the first to win this event, which had a

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

50,000 winner-take-all purse that year.

Notable professional players

* Dave Pearson ("the Ginger Wizard") *

Jeanette Lee Jeanette Lee (born Lee Jin-Hee, Hangul: 이진희, July 9, 1971, in Brooklyn, New York) is a Korean-American professional pool player. She was nicknamed the Black Widow by her friends because, in spite of her sweet demeanor, she would "eat peop ...

("the Black Widow") *

Bobby McGrath Bobby McGrath is an American professional pool player from Washington, Illinois, nicknamed "the Kid" for being one of the youngest professional pool players. He won US$50,000 in the 2007 International Speed Pool Challenge, not only beating the U ...

("the Kid")

References

One set of rules
from the Valley National Eight-ball Association {{Cue sports nav Pool (cue sports)