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Does the Inning End if Player Calls "Safety" and Pockets a Ball?

5/10/2020 10:34:08 AM

Does the Inning End if Player Calls "Safety" and Pockets a Ball?

I will be hosting 9-ball pool tournaments utilizing BCA rules and need some clarification:

Can you sit after calling safety and make proper ball?

Remember I am looking specifically for the BCA rules. I'm not asking for opinions but rather, the specific rules which apply to the question.

This question relates to the following billiard rules:

Does the Inning End if Player Calls "Safety" and Pockets a Ball?

Replies & Comments
  1. LuckyPRayMills on 5/13/2020 7:32:20 AM

    The "General Rules" section applies to about 8 different games, including Scotch Doubles and Wheelchair play.

    Regarding your question about 9-Ball safety:

    1-17 Calling a Safety

    This rule applies to 8-Ball and 14.1 Continuous.

    Source: playcsipool.com/uploads/7/3/5/9/7359673/official_rules_of_csi__170714_.pdf

    The rest of my reply regards "Rules for 8-Ball"...

    2-8 Safety Play

    Prior to any shot except the break, you may declare a safety. On a safety (in 8-Ball), your inning ends after the shot regardless of whether you pocket any ball.

    Source: playcsipool.com/uploads/7/3/5/9/7359673/official_rules_of_csi__170714_.pdf

  2. LuckyPbilliardsforum on 6/2/2020 3:39:13 PM

    I am afraid @raymills has not answered your question in the context of the game you were asking about - nine ball.

    The exact wording of your original question is a bit confusing.

    Can you sit after calling safety and make proper ball?

    I will paraphrase to what I think you are asking, and show you the rules for that. Feel free to clarify if I got it wrong.

    If you call "safety" before your shot, do the rules permit you to end your inning?

    I will answer it, then point to the WPA rules which support that. The WPA is the official world governing body of pool. The BCA officially follows the World Pool-Billiard Association rule sets. When you go to various BCA websites, their rules all either link-to, or reference the WPA rules. My answer will follow those.

    The answer is: When you declare a "safety", you execute your shot, and the inning is over, regardless of whether or not you pocket your called ball in the called pocket.

    Supporting WPA rules (emphasis ours):

    8.0 - Definitions Used in the Rules

    8.17 Safety Shot

    A shot is said to be a safety shot if the game in play is a call shot game and the shooter declared the shot to the referee or his opponent to be a “safety” before the shot. Play passes to the other player at the end of a safety shot.

    Source: wpapool.com/rules-of-play/

    The general rules apply in 9-ball, and this blurb from the general rules also shows that play always passes after a safety, no matter what.

    1.0 GENERAL RULES

    1.6 Standard Call Shot

    ...

    In call shot games, the shooter may choose to call “safety” instead of a ball and pocket, and then play passes to the opponent at the end of the shot.

    ...

    Source: wpapool.com/rules-of-play/

  3. LuckyPRayMills on 6/5/2020 6:58:57 PM

    The rules I cited stated that the safety rule applied to 8-ball and 14.1 only.

    Is 9-Ball a "call shot" game?

  4. LuckyPbilliardsforum on 6/9/2020 8:30:39 AM

    Ahh, good point. 9-ball is not a call-shot game.

    I guess my answer doesn't apply either. I've further confirmed that there are no "called safeties" in nine-ball.

    This means that the question, as asked, doesn't make sense in the context of nine-ball.

    Can you sit after calling safety and make proper ball?

    Someone asked a similar thing in a question I found online, and one answer said:

    [In 9-ball,] you can call safe until your face is blue but as soon as you make a legal shot and a ball drops you must continue shooting.

  5. LuckyPRayMills on 8/17/2020 11:49:09 AM

    The question has been answered, but it brings up the by-product of announcing safeties.

    They are legal, strategic shots, but the embarrassment some shooters feel for using them is fading ever so slowly.

    When a shooter declares a safety but has no intent or possibility to pocket one of his balls, the declaration seems to me to be an apology in advance, automatically reinforcing the stigma of "dirty pool".

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Does the Inning End if Player Calls "Safety" and Pockets a Ball?

  • Title: Does the Inning End if Player Calls "Safety" and Pockets a Ball?
  • Author:
  • Published: 5/10/2020 10:34:08 AM
  • Last Updated: 6/2/2020 4:13:32 AM
  • Last Updated By: billiardsforum (Billiards Forum)