Online Pool | Every Internet Game

Pool is a pocket billiards game popular in much of the world, and the subject of increasing international amateur and professional competition. It is played with sixteen balls on a pool table with six pockets. To start the game, the object balls are placed in a triangular rack. The base of the rack is parallel to the end rail (the short end of the pool table) and positioned so the apex ball of the rack is located on the foot spot. The balls in the rack are ideally placed so that they are all in contact with one another. This is accomplished by pressing the balls together from the back of the rack toward the apex ball. The placement of the balls, for a legal rack according to World Standardized Rules is that the 8 ball is placed in the center, while the two lower corners must be a stripe and

a solid. The cue ball is placed anywhere the breaker desires inside the "kitchen". One person is chosen (by a predetermined method, e.g., coin flip, win or loss of previous game, lag) to shoot first and break the object ball rack apart. If the shooter who breaks fails to make a legal break, then the opponent can demand a re-rack and become the breaker, or elect to play from the current position of the balls. If the breaker pockets a ball, it is still that player's turn and the table is considered "open" (the breaker can still make any object ball to determine if he/she will only shoot solids or stripes). If the breaker fails to make another ball after the break, the table is still considered "open" until someone legally pockets a ball.
Winning
1) The player has legally pocketed the 8 ball, after all his/her object balls have been pocketed
2) The opposing player illegally pockets the 8 ball (e.g. before clearing all of his/her object balls, in the same shot as the last such object ball, or into a pocket other than the one that was called)
3) The opposing player scratches the cue ball into a pocket, or knocks it off of the table, when the eight ball is pocketed. A scratch or foul is not loss of game if the 8 ball is not pocketed or jumped from the table
4) The opposing player commits any foul on the shot that pocketed the 8 ball
5) The opposing player knocks the 8 ball off of the table.

Adopted from Wikipedia