• Two pocket pool is more commonly called one pocket pool.Billiards room interior image by Nikolay Okhitin from Fotolia.com
  
  Two pocket pool is a game for two players or two teams in which each team can only score into one of the two pockets on one side of the pool table. One team gets to score in one pocket of one side, and the other team scores in one pocket of the other. Though the game uses two pockets total, it is commonly known as one pocket pool because each team can score only into one pocket.
  
  

Winning Conditions

• A team wins the game when all eight of its balls are scored into its pocket. This can happen on purpose or by chance. For example, the opposing team might inadvertently sink a ball of the other team's into that team's scoring pocket. This mistake contributes to the other team's victory. Handicaps may be created to adjust for any major inequalities in the levels of ability among players. These handicaps adjust the winning conditions. For example, a particularly weak player might achieve victory if only five of his eight balls are sunk in his scoring pocket.
  
  

The Break

• Fifteen balls are tightly racked in a standard triangle. The "apex" ball is placed at the "foot" spot. One end of a standard billiards table is called the "head"; the other end is called the "foot." The foot is the side on which the break takes place. Teams alternate who breaks in each game after the first, regardless of who wins the preceding game. Before a team breaks, the breaking team selects one of the corner pockets on the foot of the table. This pocket is its scoring pocket for the game. The selected pockets can be changef in the next game only before the break.
  
  

Play

• A player's inning, i.e., her turn to play, continues so long as she pockets a ball in her scoring pocket. Pocketing a ball in a non-scoring pocket is a legal play, but it doesn't let the player continue her inning. If a player inadvertently pockets an opponent's ball, the ball counts for the opponent unless in the same stroke there was a jump or a scratch.