SHELL-OUT
This game is practically the same as pyramids, but more than two take part in it. A stake, so much a ball, is agreed upon. The balls are set up as at pyramids, but under no circumstances is a ball ever put up after a miss, or when a ball has been forced off the table, or when the white has run in. If any of these things has happened, a point is added to every one’s score except the offender’s, who thus pays the stake to the other players. The score is most conveniently kept on the slate, each ball counting one, except the last, which is generally reckoned as two; all penalties incurred off it are also double, but with the exaction of the penalty the game is at an end. There is no single pool, white always playing upon red. If a player plays out of turn, he has to pay all round; he can gain nothing if he takes a ball, but the ball is not put up. If he makes a foul when only one red ball is left and takes that ball, he cannot score, but the game is at an end. The rules for foul strokes are the same as at pyramids. At the end of the game each player pays or receives the differences. Thus, if the scores stand A. 9, B. 3, C. 4, A. receives 6 from B. and 5 from C., while C. receives 1 from B.
Everything that has been said about pyramids applies equally to shell-out; but as it is a game of all against all, safety is not so much an object as hazard striking, it being clearly useless for A. to leave B. safe so that C. may profit by it. It may also be remembered that if, say, four are playing, the individual has practically a bet of three to one about each stroke. The game, in fact, is more for amusement than for scientific play, though naturally the scientific player will in the long run get more pleasure and profit out of it.