Speed pool (also called speedball), is a

pool Pool may refer to: Bodies of water * 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 roc ...

game, in which a player s all the balls on the

table Table may refer to: * Table (database), how the table data arrangement is used within the databases * Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs * Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and column ...

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

Rules

*The must not be in motion when shooting :*s still be in motion when shooting *Ball and pocket must be , (no the balls in) *Legal shots must be made – a 10-second penalty is 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 speed pool is a relatively recent development, there are few tournaments devoted to it, though it has attracted some professional competition. One notable event was the International Speed Pool Challenge which was broadcast on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

. 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 sports, cue sport in which two competing players attempt to as many s as possible without playing a . The game was the primary version of Pool (cue sports), pool play ...

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, bigs and smalls, big ones and little ones, or rarely highs and lows) is a discipline of Pool (cue sports), pool played on a billiard tabl ...

. The object in each match was to play all games with a shorter total time than other players. Luc Salvas was the first to win this event, which had a

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

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

Notable professional players

* Dave Pearson ("the Ginger Wizard") * Luc Salvas * Jeanette Lee ("the Black Widow") * Bobby McGrath ("the Kid")

References

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