The most popular of the large variety of pocket games are 8-ball, 9-ball, one-pocket, bank pool, snooker and, among the old guard, straight pool. In 8-ball and 9-ball the object is to sink object balls until one can legally pocket the winning eponymous ball. Well-known but waning in popularity is straight pool, in which players seek to continue sinking balls, rack after rack if they can, to reach a pre-determined winning score. Sometimes the pre-
