- Home
- How to play
How to play
The short version of every game's rules, as the computer referee applies them here, with a link to the full page and four longer guides.
Guides
- Darts checkouts from 170 downA finish in 501 or 301 must end on a double. This page lists one sensible route for every total and explains how the routes are chosen.
- Cue ball control: stun, follow, draw and sidePotting is geometry; getting the next shot is cue ball control. Here is what the spin ball in our pool game does and how to use it.
- Picking up spares: the forty leavesStrikes win games, spares save them. These are the forty leaves our spare challenges are built from, rated by simulation.
- Table shuffle tactics: hammer, guards and knock-offsTable shuffle looks like a game of touch, and it is — but the order of the pucks decides as many rounds as the hand does.
Rules in brief
Pool
Eight-ball: after the break, your first legal pot decides whether you own the solids or the stripes; clear them and sink the 8 last. Nine-ball: always strike the lowest ball first; whoever drops the 9 legally takes the rack.
Table Shuffle
Four pucks a side each round, thrown in turn. When all are down, only the colour with the deepest puck scores — 1, 2 or 3 by zone, 4 if it hangs over the end — for each of its pucks ahead of the other side's best.
Full rules and tips: Table Shuffle
Darts
501 and 301 count down to exactly zero, the last dart in a double or the bull; overshooting cancels the visit. Round the clock runs from 1 to 20 and then the bull.
Mini Golf
Nine or eighteen holes, each built from the course number and proven playable. Fewest strokes wins; water adds a stroke, and a ball still out at par plus four is picked up.
Full rules and tips: Mini Golf
Bowling
Ten frames, two balls at most in each. Topple all ten with the first ball and that frame is worth ten plus the pins of your following two balls; need both balls and it is ten plus the pins of the one after. In the tenth frame those extra balls are rolled straight away.