<P> Eight - ball (often spelled 8 - ball or eightball, and sometimes called solids and stripes, spots and stripes in the UK or, more rarely, bigs and littles / smalls, and highs and lows) is a pool (pocket billiards) game popular in much of the world, and the subject of international professional and amateur competition . Played on a pool table with six pockets, the game is so universally known in some countries that beginners are often unaware of other pool games and believe the word "pool" itself refers to eight - ball . The game has numerous variations, mostly regional . Standard eight - ball is the second most competitive professional pool game, after nine - ball, and for the last several decades ahead of straight pool . </P> <P> Eight - ball is played with cue sticks and 16 balls: a cue ball, and 15 object ball s consisting of seven striped balls, seven solid - colored balls and the black 8 ball . After the balls are scattered with a break shot, the players are assigned either the group of solid balls or the stripes once a ball from a particular group is legally pocketed . The ultimate object of the game is to legally pocket the eight ball in a called pocket, which can only be done after all of the balls from a player's assigned group have been cleared from the table . </P> <P> The game of eight - ball is derived from an earlier game invented around 1900 (first recorded in 1908) in the United States and initially popularized under the name "B.B.C. Co . Pool" (a name that was still in use as late as 1925) by the Brunswick - Balke - Collender Company . This forerunner game was played with seven yellow and seven red ball s, a black ball, and the cue ball . Today, numbered stripes and solids are preferred in most of the world, though the British - style offshoot, blackball, uses the traditional colors (as did early televised "casino" tournaments in the U.S.). The game had relatively simple rules compared to today and was not added (under any name) to an official rule book (i.e., one published by a national or international sport governing body) until 1940 . </P>

How many balls are in a pool table