The responsibilities of the referee include announcing the points scored during a break, determining when a foul has been committed and awarding penalty points and free balls accordingly, replacing colours onto their designated spots after they are potted, restoring the balls to their previous positions after the "miss" rule has been invoked (see Scoring), and cleaning the cue ball or any object ball upon request by the striker. All balls other than the 8 ball are placed at random, but in conformance with the preceding corner ball rule. At that time, the fourteen pocketed balls are racked with no apex ball, and the rack is so placed so that if the apex ball were in the rack, its center would rest directly over the table`s foot spot. If dissatisfied with the position left after a foul, the next player may nominate the opponent who committed the foul to play again from where the balls have come to rest. The total number of consecutive points (excluding fouls) that a player amasses during one visit to the table is known as a "break". Dive into the nuances of scratching in pool, from the break to the final 8-ball shot. If the referee has also called a "miss"-meaning that the referee has deemed the opponent not to have made their best possible attempt to hit the object ball-the player has the option of having the balls replaced to their original positions and forcing the opponent to play the shot again.



















Rack may also be used as a verb to describe the act of setting billiard balls in their starting positions (e.g. "to rack the balls"), or as a noun to describe a set of balls that are in their starting positions (e.g. "a rack of balls", more often called a pack or a pyramid in British English). The object of the game is to legally pocket the 8-ball in a "called" pocket, which can only be done after all of the balls from a player`s assigned group have been cleared from the table. Diamond-shaped frames are sometimes used for the game of nine-ball (although a triangular rack can also be used) and template racks come in a variety of shapes. Games are shorter, balls are more likely to be hit harder, and `jump` shots are more likely to be witnessed, where a ball is played to deliberately jump off the ground and over another ball.



















Purported benefits of template racks include a more consistent racking, and their popularity has warranted specific inclusion in profession rules. Straight pool is played to a specific number of points agreed on prior to the match`s start, with each pocketed ball being worth one point to the shooter. Because the game is played to a number of points normally far in excess of the fifteen points total available in the initial rack (in tournament play, one-hundred fifty points), multiple intragame racks are necessary. Players agree ahead of time that they will reach a set number of points to be considered the winner (a typical game is one hundred points, whereas a professional game is usually one hundred fifty points). The referee then tosses a coin and the winner of the toss decides who takes the first strike. Play then continues with the cue ball shot from where it rested and the fifteenth ball from where it rested prior to racking. The rules also vary depending on whether the cue ball or fifteenth ball are resting on the table`s head spot.



















In nine-ball, the basic principles are the same as detailed in the eight-ball section above, but only balls 1 through 9 are used; the 1 ball is always placed at the rack`s apex (because in nine-ball every legal shot, including the break, must strike the lowest numbered ball first) over the table`s foot spot, and the 9 ball is placed in the center of the rack. The first ball must be placed at the apex position (front of the rack and so the center of that ball is directly over the table`s foot spot). The most common shape of a rack is that of an equilateral triangle. Some players (most often amateurs) place the balls in numeric order but for the 9 ball; from the top of the triangle down and from left to right, i.e., the 1 on the foot spot, followed by the 2 then 3 in the second row, and so on. Further up the table is the pink ball, which sits midway between the blue spot and the top cushion, followed by the red balls (one each), placed in a tightly-packed triangle behind the pink. It is played using a cue stick, one white ball (the cue ball), fifteen red balls and six colours: a yellow (worth two points), green (three points), brown (four points), blue (five points), pink (six points) and black ball (seven points).



































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