The other night, my friend Juan introduced me to Rotation.
I was a little skeptical at first, but after the first game, I fell in love with it! I must be the last person on the pool planet to learn how to play this game, but just in case I’m not, here are the rules:
Rotation is played with all 15 balls and each ball is worth it’s face value. The first player to score 61 points, wins. It is racked with the 1 ball in the front and 15 ball in the middle. You put the 2 ball and the 3 ball in the corners (because theoretically those are the easiest balls to get pocketed and you don’t want to risk your opponent scoring too many points on the break). Juan also mentioned putting the 13 and 14 behind the 1 ball (because theoretically those are tougher to get pocketed) but he seemed to make the 13 or 14 a few times. Doh!
Ball-in-hand is in the kitchen and if you foul (not scratch), it’s like a push shot (basically like a ring-game format). You can either choose to shoot or let your opponent have the shot back from where the cue ball lies. Three-foul is in effect. Pocketing an early 15 ball is not a win (unless it gets you to 61 points). In the event of a tie, the player that pocketed the 15 ball wins.
If you pocket a ball and scratch, the ball gets spotted and your opponent gets ball-in-hand in the kitchen. If you have ball-in-hand in the kitchen and the ball you’re shooting at is also in the kitchen, then it gets spotted. You can then choose to either take the shot or give it back to your opponent. [Filipino rules vary slightly]
What a perfect game for me! It involves two of my favorite things: Math & Pool! I can’t believe I haven’t played it sooner! It can get a little tricky at the end if you’re not paying attention to your score, but we’ve been allowing each other to complete the rack, even if we’ve already reached 61 points.
[These rules are from what I was told and from the brief research I just did on it. I encourage you to post any corrections.]
Another Goal for 2009: Break and run a full rack of 15 balls in rotation.
Equivalently, you could let the 15 ball be worth 16 points. That would be equivalent to “60-60 tie given to player who sunk the 15 ball”. I guess your rule is simple enough though.
Most readers know what “rotation” means, but I think you forgot to specify the balls need to be shot in order like 9 ball.
I was a little confused where you said at the start of paragraph 3, “Ball-in-hand is in the kitchen and if you foul (not scratch)…” Isn’t a scratch (cue ball pocketed) also ball-in-hand in the kitchen?
The friendly thing about this game is that does not necessarily reward the better shooter. One person might make twice as many balls (1-10) than the other player (11-15), but still lose.