Cowboy Pool

 On my infinite research spree through the interwebs, I stumbled upon the game of Cowboy Pool on Wikipedia.

To my dismay however, I was unable to learn much more than that.
Most Google searches just came up with results of cowboy themed pool tables; not at all what I was looking for.

I also found another (arguably really cool) Pool variant of the same name, where you have to shoot the object balls at the cue ball to then pocket them. Cool, but not the game we're talking about today.

This game is supposedly based on English Billiards, but entirely playable with a standard Pool table and Pool balls.

Materials and Setup

To play this game you need the following:

• A Pool table
• Four Pool balls: 1, 3, 5, and the cue-ball
• Two players, and some cues

The game is set up as follows:

The yellow 1-ball in the table's head spot, the orange 5-ball in the middle, and the red 3-ball in the table's foot-spot.

Sidenote: I really like how the three colours make up a perfect little sunset gradient when set up like this. It's very visually appealing. Not sure if it's a total accident or not, but it works really well!

Gameplay

Despite being played with Pool equipment, the game itself couldn't be further from Pool, as it shares much of its DNA with English Billiards.

The Break

To break, the starting player fires the cue-ball from the kitchen, the area behind the table head and the head spot, with the aim of hitting the 3-ball on the other side of the table.

Failing to hit the 3-ball may cause the other player to either request a re-shot, or attempt the break themself.

Structure

Like most Billiards, the game is played in innings, where a player keeps playing as long as they make points. Players only change sides if a foul was made or the player misses their shot.

Like in Snooker, the balls are re-spotted when pocketed.

Scoring

To score you do one of the following:

• Hit two object balls with the cue-ball: 1 point
• Hit all three object balls with the cue-ball: 2 points
• Pocket the yellow 1-ball: 1 point
• Pocket the red 3-ball: 3 points
• Pocket the orange 5-ball: 5 points

Thus, the maximum numer of points scoreable in a single hit is thus 1 + 2 + 3 + 5 = 11.

The game is played to 101 points over three phases:

Phase 1: 0-90 points, where all methods of scoring are legal. The 90th point must be reached exactly. Failing to do so is a foul, garnering no points for that shot.

Phase 2: 91-100 points, where only carom shots are legal (carom shots being hitting two or more balls with the cue-ball), again the 100th point must be hit exactly.

Phase 3: the 101st point, where you must do a losing hazard, a special shot from English Billiards, where you pocket the cue-ball after hitting one of the object balls.

Fouls

A foul shot results in the player losing all the points gained for that inning, so the game becomes a balance of trying to play it safe and score points.

 The rules I've managed to track down do not explicitly mention any fouls, that said, reasonable fouls could include

• Hitting no balls at all in a stroke
  
• Hitting a ball other than the cue-ball 
• Scratching (pocketing the cue-ball), which would give the opponent ball in-hand from the kitchen
• Not hitting a cushion in the event that nothing was scored (like in Eight-Ball Pool)
  

Closing

There's very little other info about the game, but I did manage to track down this tutorial series on youtube:

 

(updated Dec 4, 2023)