Heyball – Is THIS the Future of Pool?
Chinese pool is starting to spread beyond China’s borders. Also referred as Chinese 8-ball or Heyball, this cue sport now attracts some of the best billiard players from all over the world. This surge in popularity is no coincidence. Chinese pool is a great combination of all the major cue sports. To talk about it, […]

Chinese pool is starting to spread beyond China’s borders. Also referred as Chinese 8-ball or Heyball, this cue sport now attracts some of the best billiard players from all over the world.
This surge in popularity is no coincidence. Chinese pool is a great combination of all the major cue sports.
To talk about it, we interviewed Gareth Potts, multiple Chinese 8-ball World Masters Champion.
This first of 6 episodes tackles the ever-growing excitement around this sport and the key to mastering the game.
A cue sport like no other
“It’s a mixture of all of the 3 cue sport disciplines: the Snooker, the American pool, the English pool. You have a really tight snooker-like pocket. You have an American sized pool ball, a large pool ball, and at the end of the day, it’s still Eightball. And I think the pure excitement is the fact that there’s live TV like no other cue sport, especially in China. And the last one is the prize money. The prize money now in China has overtaken all of the cue sports in the world.”
A perfect playing surface
“At Eightball, we’re playing cannons, we’re playing nudges, we’re playing doubles. All of these things are a huge part of Eightball. In my opinion, what makes the Strachan cloth the best is because of the napped cloth it gives the grip to the cue ball, which enables me to pot the cue ball exactly where I want to.”