Run the Table

Run the Table is a card-driven pool strategy game that captures the real skill of pool — not making shots, but playing position.

Players run racks on an illustrated 9-foot table board. On each shot you call your ball and pocket, check the difficulty on the board's chart (straight-on 5+, angled cut 7+, thin cut 9+, long table +2), then play a Shot card — Stop, Follow, Draw, Bank, Kick, Combo, or Safety — and roll two dice against the difficulty. Make it and you keep shooting; the Shot card you played determines where the cue ball finishes, which sets up — or wrecks — your next shot. Miss, and the table passes to the next player exactly as it lies.

Pocketed balls score 1 point each, with bonuses for runs of 3 (+2) and 5 (+5) and a Run Out bonus (+10) for clearing the rack. Rolling a natural 2 is a scratch: your run ends and the next player gets ball in hand. Safety cards let you bury the cue ball and saddle an opponent with a +3 difficulty shot, and Chalk tokens — earned by making called Banks and Kicks — buy re-rolls when a run is on the line. First player to 40 points wins.

Includes 20 Rack cards graded Rookie, Pro, and Hustler; a 15-minute 9-Ball Quick Game variant; Call-Everything pro rules; and Solo Hustle, a solo mode with a par score printed on every Rack card.

—description from the designer