Pure Pool

To win an 8-Ball game of pool, you have to pot all of your balls (spots or stripes depending on what was potted first) and then followed by the black 8-Ball. If you pot the 8-Ball illegally then you lose, this includes potting it too early or fouling while you pot the black while it is the on ball. In real life, if you pot the 8-Ball off the break then you win, I need clarification if it's the same in game as well.

Tips on playing 8-Ball pool:

• Always go for a pot – Unless there are certain circumstances like you are covering a pocket and you want the opponent to give you a ball in hand by fouling then you should always go for a pot as the table is too small to play safe. If you are guaranteed to get yourself a snooker and you're not confident of potting then play that shot.
• Cover pockets – Is one of your balls over a pocket in which your opponents balls are near? Then keep it there and add huge pressure to them! Go for the more difficult balls to pot and then come to that one last.
• Think 2 or 3 shots ahead – You have an easy shot on, most people will just go straight for the pot and not care about anything else. Professionals will always think two or three shots ahead and know exactly where they want the cue ball to finish to make the next shot as easy as possible. In a sense, positional play is much more important than actually potting the ball, as counter-productive as that sounds.
• Don't pot the 8-Ball illegally! – You will lose instantly. Make sure that you have potted all your respective spots or stripes before going onto the black ball. It sounds obvious but there are a lot of people who won’t think about it.