Kelly pool

listing Calistus Mulvaney, the "Father of kelly pool" The quote is attributed in the article to Hugh E. Keough, Further information is provided in a November 10, 1916 Indianapolis Star obituary for one Calistus Mulvaney, who is listed as having died the preceding day. The obituary, entitled "Originated 'Kelly Pool, states that: "... for thirty five years [Mulvaney] was identified with Kelly pool in the loop district ... He was widely known as the father of 'Kelly pool' and better known as Kelly Mulvaney than Calistus. He was born at Fox Lake Wis[consin] sixty-five years ago." As part of the same household, Mulvaney's brother-in-law's listing appears on the same census page, with his occupation and position identically recorded. ==Gameplay==

Kelly pool accommodates players with a wide variety of skill levels. The game is designed for group play with a minimum of two players, best suited for four to six, but allowing up to 15 to take part. The BCA publishes a long-standardized set of rules for the game. Rules of play Kelly pool is a game, which means that the lowest-numbered ball on the table must be contacted by the cue ball on every shot. No are called in kelly pool; the legal pocketing (i.e., with no committed on the same ) of the lowest-numbered ball on the table permits and requires the shooter to continue play. When a ball is illegally pocketed, it is to the foot spot (or as close as possible, toward the ). If a foul is committed, no point penalty occurs and the incoming player has the option of accepting the table in position, or requiring the offending player to continue shooting. However, when the foul is the result of jumping the cue ball off the table, or it into a pocket, the incoming player has from the (behind the ), and retains the option of forcing the opponent to shoot. Whichever player ultimately shoots with cue ball in hand has the option of spotting the object ball to the foot spot if it is in the kitchen area. There exists an exception, if two balls are left on the table and Katie pots the other person's ball, even if the white ball goes in, Katie will always wins the game Scoring Two main scoring variations are used; under the first and simpler ruleset, the first player to pocket his private number wins. Under the second variation, although a player still wins by pocketing his private number, points are scored in various ways: • Two points are given by each participant to the winning player for the pocketing of his private number • A player receives one point for pocketing any other player's private number, and the player whose private number was pocketed is penalized one point (and can have a negative point total), but is not out of the game and can still win points in this way • If a player whose private number is pocketed by another does not disclose this fact before a subsequent shot is taken, the nondisclosing player forfeits, immediately losing the game, and the player who made that ball is given two points instead of one. In the event that no player succeeds in pocketing his private number, gameplay ends when the last private number is potted, and the game is played again with all points values doubled. ==Association with gambling==

appearing in the January 8, 1915, edition of The Washington Post Kelly pool has long been associated with gambling—so much so, that it was made illegal in some municipalities in the US and Canada. In the state of Montana, for example, the playing of kelly pool was punishable by a $25 fine until the law was repealed in 1964. Likewise, the playing of kelly pool was banned in the Canadian province of Manitoba at least as of 1918. Gambling exploits associated with kelly pool were often depicted in Clare Briggs' comic strip of the same name, which centered on the game. The Kelly Pool strip (panel pictured at right), ran in the ''New York Tribune's'' sports section from 1912 to 1917. From the early- to mid-20th century, numerous newspaper stories cover indictments of kelly pool as a bastion of gambling. In February 1908, the county attorney of Oklahoma City denounced kelly pool, declaring "that it comes with in the pale of the law against gambling", and issued orders to the city's sheriff's department to enforce a moratorium. The following month, Mayor Mudge of Edwardsville, Illinois announced that "effective at once ... poolrooms ... must do away with all forms of gambling, including Kelly Pool." In the same vein, in 1914 Judge J.A. McIlvaine of a Washington, Pennsylvania, court, in passing sentence on a pool room proprietor who allowed pea pool games to be wagered on in his establishment, announced that persons committing similar crimes would "be severely punished ... This is the most pernicious form of gambling for it starts youths to higher grades of crime." In April 1922, Charleston, West Virginia's then mayor, Grant P. Hall, declared "baseball pools, pay-ball, Kelly pool and all other forms of gambling in billiard parlors and cigar stores must cease forthwith." Likewise, in December of the same year, Oxford, Ohio's then mayor, J. M. Hughes, declared a war on all forms of gambling, announcing in the local newspaper that "schemes of chance ... [including] Kelly pool ... are contrary to law." In 1934, sports promoter and notorious gambler Jack Doyle's billiard establishment was raided and he, along with 14 patrons, were arrested for placing bets on Kelly pool. =="Behind the eight ball"==

"Behind the eight ball" (or "behind the eight") is a common idiom meaning to be in trouble, stymied, thwarted, in an awkward position, or out of luck. It is often assumed that the expression derives from the inability to use the 8 ball in a combination in the game of eight-ball—if the cue ball is directly behind the 8 ball a player has no direct shot route. However, numerous billiards-specific and etymological publications state that the expression derives instead from kelly pool, or an early version of kelly pool called kelly rotation. That precursor game was little known until it was popularized in 1925 under the name B.B.C. Co. Pool by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, marketed by them with a special set of balls that did not have a numbered 8 ball, but rather came with a ball set consisting of seven of one color, seven of another, and an unnumbered black ball. Thus, multiple-time world champion Steve Mizerak explains that behind the eight ball cannot derive from the game of eight-ball as "the phrase predates the game ... by at least 20 years." "So a position directly behind the eight ball is a position of great hazard." which organization was the governing body of American billiards from 1921 In the game of snooker, the roughly equivalent idiom is "snookered", and it too has entered the language (especially Commonwealth English of various forms in countries where snooker is a major sport) as a metaphor. ==References==