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EIGHT BALL
If you are reading this to learn how to break, when playing eight ball, let's start from the beginning. Eight-ball is where the focus of winning is about sinking all of your balls, and then the eight ball. Your balls are either the stripes (the larger denominations) or the solids (the smaller denominations). The eight is solid black but is not considered a solid. It is the middle denomination, and has special interest.

The balls are racked' in a triangle form, and the first player, usually decided by who won last or by lagging,' a term which means, who could bank their ball closest to the return bank, near the player. The first shot is the break.' On the break, the object is to try to either make one ball, which ball is not important, except for the eight ball. One the one in a thousand chance that you make the eight ball on the break, you win. After that, you must remove all your balls from the table before the eight ball. The player who, first, removes all his balls and then the eight ball, wins.

THE BREAK
Remembering that you not only want to spread the balls around the table, to have the best chance at making more balls, you also want to sink the first ball, which will decide your intended color, solid or stripe, but will also give you an additional turn. If you sink a stripe on the break, you will need to proceed to sink all the striped balls before sinking the eight ball.

To have the best chance to break the rack, the rack needs to be tight,' which means that the balls are touching each other closely and evenly. A loose' rack will result in less action. You get a tight rack by pushing the balls toward the front of the triangle with your fingers, and spotting the front ball of the triangle exactly on the spot.'

A heavy, quality cue stick will get you the best action on the break. Lighter cue sticks are easier to control for the more subtle shots, later, but this is more about applied force. Place the white ball just about a foot to the right or let of center. Place the cue on the felt and use your two fingers on the rim of the table, on the felt, on either side of the stick. With the other hand, draw the cue back to where it is comfortable. Too much backstroke will result in the point of the cue rising a bit. Make a smooth transition from the backstroke to the forward stroke, and begin to build speed as you push forward, keeping the cue stick as straight and level as possible while aiming just a fraction of an inch to the right of the absolute

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