How to Set Up the Balls on Bumper Pool

Bumper pool is not just regular pool with different rules. It takes an entirely different table to play on, with obstacles set up on the table that make it harder to hit the balls into the cup. It also has its own specific way of laying out the balls at the beginning of the game. Instead of racking them up, they are divided by team colors and set up on each side of the table.

Instructions

    • 1

      Pick colors for each team. Bumper pool is played with two players or two teams. One team gets white balls and the other team gets red balls. There are five balls to a team, with one ball that is marked as the special ball, which needs to be hit into the cup first.

    • 2

      Teams stand at opposite ends of the table, each behind one of the two cups. A bumper pool table is rectangular and shaped like a smaller version of a standard pool table. The two cups are in the center of the shorter sides of the table, an inch away from the edge. There are also eight barriers spread out and forming a cross in the center of the table, with two more barriers on the sides of each cup. White balls will be set up on one side of the table, with the red balls set up on the other side.

    • 3

      Place the marked balls in front of each cup, directly across from each other.

    • 4

      Put two balls on the right side of each cup and two balls on the left side of each cup so that there are four same-colored balls running parallel with the shortest edge of the table. Both sides of the table should be set up the same way, just with different colored balls.