The regulation size of the table's playing surface is 9 by 4.5 ft (2.7 by 1.4 m), with the between-cushion area being 100 by 50 in (250 by 130 cm), though exact dimensions may vary slightly by manufacturer. 1⁄16 inches (52 mm) in diameter, the latter being the same size as the balls used in snooker and English billiards. Bottle pool shares traits with pin billiards games such as Danish pin billiards. Cowboy pool and bottle pool are games involving only a few balls which are placed at specific spots on the table. If both the middle and pyramid spots are occupied, it goes back on the spot. Elements of their games go back to the eighteenth century before balls needed to be racked. 2 points. This influence on the English game appears to have come about through the popularity of French tables in English coffee houses; London alone had over two thousand such establishments in the early 18th century. In the 19th century and up through the mid-1950s, a common way for championship titles to change hands was by a challenge match.

Matches held under professional regulations include a rule forcing the player to execute a shot in a way to have his cue ball cross the baulk line, heading towards the baulk cushion, once between 80 and 99 points in every 100 in a running break. Up until the first organised professional tournament in 1870, all English billiards champions were decided by challenge. The WPA represents pool in the World Confederation of Billiards Sports, which in turn represents all forms of cue sports (including carom billiards and snooker) in the International Olympic Committee. By contrast, in the losing game a player could only score two points by pocketing the cue ball through a carom off the opponent's ball. This allows them to control the game by forcing their opponent to be on defense instead of taking a low percentage shot that could result in a loss of game. If the 8 ball is pocketed on the break, then the breaker can choose either to re-spot the 8 ball and play from the current position or to re-rack and re-break; but if the cue ball is also pocketed on the break (colloquially referred to as a "scratch") then the opponent is the one who has the choice: either to re-spot the 8 ball and shoot with ball-in-hand behind the head string, accepting the current position, Choose a Billiard Cue or to re-break or have the breaker re-break.

The goal of eight-ball, which is played with a full rack of fifteen balls and the cue ball, is to claim a suit (commonly stripes or solids in the US, and reds or yellows in the UK), pocket all of them, then legally pocket the 8 ball, while denying one's opponent opportunities to do the same with their suit, and without sinking the 8 ball early by accident. The object of the game is simple: to be the first player to bank five balls in any order (eight balls when played with a full rack). Bank pool can be played with a full rack (can be a long game), but is more typically played with nine balls (frequently called "nine-ball bank"). The first player to pocket the majority of the balls (8) into their pocket wins the game. After the balls are scattered with a break shot, a player is assigned either the group of solid or striped balls once they have legally pocketed a ball from that group. A "Women's Billiard Association" was formed in Britain in 1931. One of the founders was Teresa Billington-Greig who had been a leading suffragette and was then married to a billiard ball manufacturer.

As a competitive sport, pool is governed internationally by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA), which has multi-national, regional affiliates comprising the All Africa Pool Association (AAPA), Asian Pocket Billiard Union (APBU, including the Middle East), Billiard Congress of America (BCA, Canada and the US), Confederación Panamericana de Billar (CPB, Latin America and Caribbean), European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF, including Russia and the Near East), and Oceania Pocket Billiard Association (OPBA, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific islands). Pool halls in North America are increasingly settling upon the World Pool-Billiard Association International Standardized Rules. Colorado Springs, Colorado: Billiard Congress of America. Asia and South America. By 1925, the game was popular enough for the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company to introduce purpose-made ball sets with seven red, seven yellow, one black ball, and the cue ball, which allowed spectators to more easily see which suit each ball belonged to. If the cue ball is touching an object ball, then the balls must be respotted: red on its spot and opponent's ball in the centre spot, with the striker to play from in-hand.