Official Rules

Edition 1.0 · Effective on adoption · Global Pool Players

What this document is. The complete rules of GPP: who may be a member, how the games are played, how a result becomes a rating, how the League runs, and what happens when something goes wrong. It is one document because a member should never be told that the answer is in a different book.

Status. This is the first edition. No rule in it has ever been in force, and nothing in it has met a real player. Rules marked [A] carry a number chosen by argument rather than by measurement, and they are expected to move once there is data. Rules marked [OPEN] are not settled and say so.

The test every rule here had to pass.

A rule is admissible only if two people who disagree about everything else would still record the same thing.

That single sentence is why this rulebook is shaped differently from the ones you have played under. It is why there are no defensive-shot marks, no innings, no safety declarations, no intent-dependent fouls, no "unsportsmanlike conduct" clause, and no handicap. Every one of those requires somebody to decide what another person meant, and no rule in this document requires any person to judge another person's intent.

Precedence. Where two provisions conflict: Part 1 governs how to resolve it. Where this document conflicts with any other GPP publication, marketing page, app screen or verbal statement, this document wins.

PART 0 — THE MEMBER'S PAGE§

If you read one page, read this one. Every line is a rule elsewhere in this document, and the rule number is given so you can check that the summary is honest.

1. Nobody local can change your rating. The capability does not exist in our software. Not restricted, not logged, not permissioned — not built. [R112 · §8.7]
2. Nobody local can refuse you. Membership is published criteria applied from outside your market. There is no discretionary refusal power anywhere in this organisation. [R700 · §2.1]
3. You will know why your rating moved, in one screen, with the arithmetic, at the same time every week. [R110 · §8.6]
4. Nobody will ever be asked to judge whether you missed on purpose. There is no such question anywhere in this rulebook or on any GPP screen. [R405 · §3.1]
5. You will never be publicly marked as suspected of anything. No flag, no badge, no asterisk, no "under review" indicator. None exists. [R406 · §11.9]
6. Your dispute is decided by someone with no stake in it, and you will see their name. [R501, R502 · §11.2]
7. You get a reason, especially when you lose. There is no "decision upheld" with no body text anywhere in this system. [R504 · §11.4]
8. We are on a clock, and if we miss it you win. Automatically, without anyone asking. [R505 · §11.5]
9. You may challenge your decision-maker once, without giving a reason, and it is granted. [R507 · §11.7]
10. Your record is yours and leaves with you — free, complete, one tap, and available for at least 24 months after you go. [R600 · §12.1]
11. You keep the right to sue us. No mandatory arbitration, no class-action waiver, no clause that could make you owe our legal costs. [R510 · §11.10]
12. Your other leagues are your business and we will never ask. There is no field in our system that records it. [R707 · §2.6]
13. We will never penalise you for complaining about us. Criticism of GPP is not a conduct category, and there is no rule under which it could become one. [R708 · §11.11]

And one promise this edition deliberately does not make. An earlier draft guaranteed "you will shoot three matches every session." The format cannot deliver that, so the guarantee is withdrawn rather than restated. What replaces it is narrower and true: in League play, every rostered player who is present plays, every week — there is no bench [R202 · §9.3].

PART 1 — HOW THESE RULES WORK§

1.1 Rule numbers are permanent§

Each rule carries an ID in the R series. IDs are never reused. A repealed rule keeps its number and is marked REPEALED with a date. The blocks are:

1.2 Precedence, in order§

1. Applicable law.
2. This document.
3. A published, versioned amendment to this document.
4. Anything else.

Within this document, the more specific provision governs the more general. A rule in Parts 4 or 5 (8-Ball, 9-Ball) overrides a conflicting rule in Part 3 (universal play) for that game only. [R801]

1.3 Amendment§

Rules change only by published, versioned amendment carrying a stated reason, a named authoriser, and an effective date. No change affecting a live competition takes effect mid-season. Historical ratings are never retroactively restated: if a later edition would have rated you differently last March, last March's published number stands. The full change log is public. [R113, R302]

1.4 Definitions§

Both roles are held by players, and that is why Part 11 is written the way it is. An operator who is also a captain and also shooting in the division is three interests in one person. GPP does not solve that with a code of conduct — it solves it by giving those roles no power that could be abused: they cannot change a rating (§8.7), cannot exclude anyone (§2.1), cannot decide a dispute in their own division (§11.2), and cannot handle a member's money (§11.1).

PART 2 — MEMBERSHIP§

2.1 Who may join§

Membership is open to any person who meets the published criteria: the minimum age (§2.4), identity verification (§2.3), agreement to these rules, and payment of dues where dues exist. In v1 there are no dues — membership is free (§2.5a).

There is no other criterion. No local approval, no captain's endorsement, no waiting list, no territory restriction, no discretion. A person who meets the criteria is a member. [R700]

If we cannot seat you — no team, no capacity — that is our operational failure, not your problem, and you are carried at no charge until we can. [R700]

2.2 Non-discrimination§

No member, applicant, captain, venue or employee may be treated differently on the basis of race, colour, national origin, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, marital or family status, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any characteristic protected by applicable law.

1. Divisions and events are open to all genders by default. Any division restricted by a protected characteristic requires published justification, Panel approval, and an open alternative in the same market at the same time.
2. Reasonable accommodation is provided on request — table height and access, mechanical bridges and other assistive equipment without restriction, additional time on documented request, and venue accessibility as a factor in venue selection.
3. Harassment and discriminatory conduct are Tier 3 matters under the "clear and convincing" standard (§11.3).
4. Retaliation for filing a complaint is itself a Tier 3 violation, judged more seriously than the underlying complaint. [R701]

2.3 Identity§

You register with a phone number, and that is the only way to register. No email signup, no social login.

One phone number, one account. Enforced in software, not by policy. [R702 as amended, owner decision 2026-07-28]

Three layers establish who you are, and none of them is regulated biometric processing:

Numbers that are not issued by a carrier — VoIP and disposable-number services — cannot be used to register. This is checked at signup. Without it the one-account rule would provide almost no protection, since free numbers are unlimited.

Changing your number. You may change it whenever you need to; losing a phone must never destroy a playing record. Your account carries its full history and any active sanction across the change. The sanction attaches to the account. The number is only the key. [R847]

Also:

• Your rating attaches to the verified person, not to the account. One person, one rating, permanently.
• You play under a display name of your choosing, which need not be your legal name.
• You may change your name for any reason without explanation, and the prior name is not displayed anywhere.
• Playing under another person's identity, or holding two accounts, is a Tier 3 matter. It is the only manipulation this rulebook treats as serious, because it is the only one that defeats the rating completely and the only one that requires no judgement at all to establish. [R702]

2.3a The profile photo§

A valid, identifiable profile photo — one unobstructed face — is a condition of membership. [R286]

• The photo is machine-checked for the presence of a single unobstructed face. That is all the machine does.
• Faces are never machine-matched, compared, or converted to a template. Not now, not later. This is permanent and is stated here so that it cannot be quietly reversed as a feature.
• The verifier is your opponent, standing in front of you. They are looking at your face and at your profile. That is the whole mechanism, and it is better than anything we could buy.

2.4 Age§

Membership is 18 or over. There is no junior tier and no guardian-consent route.

• 18+ is a condition of membership, not a condition of a particular venue or daypart. Date of birth is collected at signup. [Owner decision, 2026-07-28]
• Enforcement, stated honestly. The rule as stated is self-declared and weak on its own. The layer that works is your opponent, who is looking at your face — the same mechanism §2.3 relies on for identity, carrying age at no additional cost. The venue's own alcohol-licence age gate is real but not universal, because not every poolroom serves alcohol, so it is not relied on alone.
• No ID scan, no document upload, and no age-verification vendor — and therefore no new data-protection surface, which matters given the permanent bar on machine-comparing faces (§2.3). [R703]

This supersedes the earlier 16+ daytime tier and the 12+ junior division. Those were written before the owner set a membership floor, and they are the reason the corpus carried an unsolved minors exposure: "a minor arranging to meet an adult stranger through our product is a headline no terms language cures." An 18+ floor closes it at the root.

2.5 Dues and money§

2.5a v1 is free§

GPP charges nothing in the first version. No dues, no subscription, no entry fee. Costs are funded by the owner. [Owner decision, 2026-07-28]

So §2.1's "payment of dues" criterion is dormant, not deleted. While v1 is free, the membership criteria are age, identity and agreement to these rules — nothing else. Nobody can be excluded for non-payment of something that does not exist.

Charging is deferred, not abandoned. When it arrives, both players and captains may be charged, and everything in §2.5b governs from that moment. No charge may be introduced without published notice and an effective date that is never mid-season (§1.3).

One thing this makes true that is worth stating. With no entry fee and owner-funded prizes, a player pays nothing and can still win money. That is the pitch, and it is also the cleanest structure available — there is no pot of members' money for anyone to mishandle, and no member is ever out of pocket for a prize that does not arrive.

2.5b When GPP does charge§

1. You pay for yourself. Dues are charged to the individual member. Captains never collect money and are never the league's credit risk. [R262, D20]
2. GPP never holds your money. Payments move between you and the payment processor. Any member may cover another member's dues; cash is accepted where the format allows it; credit is not extended. [D20, D20a]
3. The full fee split is published — what goes to prizes, to operations, to the venue.
4. Prize distribution is published before a season starts and cannot change during it. No prize is contingent on any discretionary assessment. Placement determines payment.
5. Prizes are paid within 14 days of an event concluding.
6. A member with an unresolved dispute affecting a prize is paid the undisputed portion immediately and the balance on resolution. [R706 as amended by D20]

2.6 You may play in other leagues§

Membership in GPP places no restriction whatsoever on playing in any other league, association, tour or event. No exclusivity, no non-compete, no blackout, no requirement to disclose, and no consequence of any kind.

More than permitted — supported. Results from elsewhere may be submitted as attested evidence and will make your rating more accurate, not more suspicious. We will never ask you which other leagues you play in, and there is no field in our system that records it unless you volunteer a result. [R707]

What we will not say. We do not tell you that another organisation cannot penalise you for joining us. Some can, their terms say so, and we cannot stop it. What we can do is bind ourselves, in public, permanently — which is §11.11.

PART 3 — THE PLAYING RULES: UNIVERSAL§

These apply to every GPP game. Parts 4 and 5 add to them and, where stated, override them.

3.0 The three things this Part does differently§

Read these first; the rest of Part 3 follows from them.

1. Every shot is declared. There is no "obvious shot" exemption and no shot that skips the declaration. Before each shot you name either a ball and a pocket, or a safety — and that is the whole rule. Every other rulebook in the sport exempts "obvious" shots from being called, which means somebody has to decide what counts as obvious, in a loud room, with a rating on it, and no referee. Calling everything is what deletes that judgement. The exemption was the problem, not the calling. §3.3a
2. A safety is a declaration about your own next shot, and it is recorded nowhere. You are stating what you are about to do; nobody is judging what you meant. No safety is written on any card, stored in any field, shown to any opponent, or seen by the rating. The thing this rulebook refuses is not the word "safety" — it is a count of safeties used as evidence about a person. [R233, R405]
3. There is no unsportsmanlike-conduct foul. Conduct is dealt with in Part 10, through a process, by a named person, with written reasons — never at the table by an opponent. A rule that lets your opponent penalise your character is not a playing rule. [R705]

3.3a Declaring your shot§

Before every shot, declare one of two things:

A call is two words: the ball, and the pocket. Nothing else is ever required and nothing else may be demanded of you — not rails, not kisses, not caroms, not banks, not combinations, not how the ball gets there. You do not call anything that happens along the way, and you do not call any other ball that drops.

Then:

• Your called ball went into your called pocket → you shoot again. Anything else that dropped on that shot stays down and costs you nothing — you called your shot and you made it.
• Anything else — you missed, your ball went into a different pocket, or you called safety → your turn ends.
• Every ball that goes in stays down, always, whoever it belonged to and whether or not it was called. Nothing is ever spotted in 8-Ball. [R813]

A call must be heard. If your opponent did not hear it, they may ask before the shot and you must answer. A call nobody heard is not a call — so on a shot where the pocket could be mistaken, say it twice or point. On the 8-ball, do not rely on being heard at all: mark the pocket (§4.6).

The cost of calling everything, stated. It is more talking than most of you are used to, and on a straight-in shot it feels silly. That is the trade: a small, constant, unambiguous overhead in exchange for never once arguing about whether a shot needed calling. A rule that is slightly annoying every rack is better than a rule that is catastrophic twice a season.

3.1 No rule requires judging intent§

No rule in this document requires any person to determine what another person meant to do. There is no defensive-shot rule, no safety mark, no innings count, no "was that deliberate" question, and no foul category that turns on intention.

This is a hard constraint on future editions, not a stylistic preference. A rule that reintroduces intent may not be adopted. [R405]

3.2 Equipment§

1. Table. Any table in good repair with six pockets, level, cloth intact, cushions responsive. Seven-foot and nine-foot tables are both sanctioned. Table size is recorded with the match and never used to adjust a rating.
2. Balls. A standard set of fifteen numbered object balls and a cue ball, or nine for 9-Ball. Mismatched or substitute balls are permitted where a coin-operated table makes them necessary, provided both players identify them before the break.
3. Cues. You may use any number of cues and may switch between them freely, including break and jump cues. Extensions, gloves, powder and up to two mechanical bridges are permitted.
4. The venue's table is the table. Nothing in this rulebook lets a player refuse a table, and nothing lets a player claim a condition-based advantage or remedy. Table condition is not recorded anywhere and is not a ground for any protest. [R802]

Note on §3.2(4). In League play, all tables in a single team match must be the same size — see §9.5. That is a scheduling requirement on us, not a judgement available to a player.

3.3 Who breaks§

1. The first break is assigned by GPP, never negotiated. In app play, the app assigns it at match creation. In paper play, the player with the lower GPP member number breaks the first rack.
2. Thereafter the break alternates, every rack, regardless of who won.
3. There is no lag, no coin flip, and no winner-breaks. [R213 as amended]

Why alternate break, and why no lag. A lag has to be judged by eye, by the two people it decides between, with no official — it is a judgement call placed at the very start of the match. Member number is a fact both players can read off a phone. And alternating the break keeps each rack's odds independent of the last one, which is the condition the rating mathematics is built on; winner-breaks induces streaks and makes every race probability we publish wrong.

This also repairs a defect in an earlier draft, which broke ties "alphabetically by surname" — a rule two strangers cannot execute, since members play under display names and only the verification record holds a legal name.

3.4 Ball in hand§

When a player fouls, the incoming player takes ball in hand: the cue ball may be placed anywhere on the playing surface.

• This is the penalty for every standard foul, in every GPP game, at every point in a rack, including after a foul on the break.
• You may keep adjusting the cue ball with your hand or any part of the cue until you shoot. Moving it with a forward stroke motion is a shot.
• Touching any object ball while placing the cue ball is a foul.

There are exactly two places in these rules where the cue ball is restricted behind the head string, and no others: the break shot itself (§4.3, §5.3), and a scratch on the break in 8-Ball (§4.3(4)). Every other foul, in either game, at any point in a rack, is ball in hand anywhere. [R803]

Why so few. Restricted ball-in-hand normally comes bundled with a second rule — that the ball you shoot at must also be past the line — and that is what generates disputes, because two people have to agree where an imaginary line is and which side of it a ball sits on. Other rulebooks resolve it with a third party and, failing that, a coin flip. GPP keeps the restriction on the cue ball and drops the restriction on the target, which preserves the traditional penalty and deletes the argument.

3.5 Fouls — the closed list§

The following are the only fouls in GPP play. If it is not on this list, it is not a foul.

Penalty. Every foul on this list carries the same penalty: ball in hand to the opponent (§3.4). There is no escalating penalty, no three-foul rule, and no foul that costs a rack except the rack-losing conditions listed in §4.8. [R804]

One foul per shot. If more than one foul occurs on a shot, it is one foul and one penalty.

Fouls must be called before the next shot begins. A foul not called by then did not happen. [R805]

3.5a What is deliberately not a foul§

Each of these is a foul somewhere else in the sport, and each is excluded here for the same reason — it cannot be established without judging intent or without an official.

3.6 Jump shots and massé§

Jump shots and massé shots are legal. You may use any cue, and may switch cues freely.

A legal jump is played by elevating the cue and striking downward on the upper half of the cue ball, driving it into the cloth so that it rebounds.

Striking the cue ball below its centre — digging under it or scooping it off the cloth — is a foul (F10). Ball in hand to the opponent.

The foul is where the tip hit, not what you were trying to do. Every other rulebook writes this as "it is a foul if you intentionally scoop" — which puts the shooter's state of mind into a foul, adjudicated by the opponent. GPP asks a physical question instead: did the tip strike above or below the centre of the cue ball? If it struck below, it is a foul whether you meant it or not. If it struck above, it is a legal jump however ugly it looked.

Who calls it. Only the shooter can see where their own tip met the ball, so this is a Class B foul and the shooter's call stands (§6.2). [R806]

Why this shape. The five reference rulebooks agree almost exactly on the outcome — jumps legal, scoops not — and differ only in how they get there, with three of them routing through the shooter's intent and one through "unsportsmanlike conduct." GPP takes their answer and drops the word intentionally, which makes the rule stricter and removes the judgement at the same time.

3.7 Accidentally moved balls§

1. If a ball is moved other than by a shot, the player who did not move it decides: restore the ball as closely as possible to its position, or leave it where it lies.
2. The player who moved the ball may not restore it. Doing so is a foul (F6).
3. If a ball moved in this way contacts the cue ball, it is a foul (F6) and nothing is restored.
4. A ball moved by a bridge, cue or marker while it is already in motion during a shot is not restored. [R807]

3.8 Frozen balls, hanging balls, settling§

1. Frozen. A ball touching another ball or a rail is treated as frozen only if it is declared frozen and agreed before the shot. Undeclared, it is not frozen. Either player may declare.
2. Cue ball frozen to a legal object ball. You may shoot directly into it; the ball moving counts as contact. If you shoot away from it, you must come back and contact a legal ball, or foul.
3. Object ball frozen to a rail. After contacting it, a ball must be pocketed, or the cue ball must reach a rail, or the frozen ball must reach a different rail. Otherwise it is F3.
4. Hanging balls. A ball that stops at the edge of a pocket and stays still for five seconds is not pocketed. If it falls after that, it is replaced. Play is suspended during those five seconds.
5. Settling. A ball that shifts slightly after coming to rest is a normal hazard and is not moved back — unless it falls into a pocket, in which case it is replaced. [R808]

3.9 Stalemate§

A rack is a stalemate if either:

1. Both players agree it is, at any time, with no minimum number of turns; or
2. Ten consecutive turns pass — five each — with no ball pocketed. This is countable and needs no agreement.

A stalemated rack is re-racked and the same player breaks again. It counts as no result for either player and does not advance a race. [R809]

3.10 Pace§

There is no shot clock in ordinary play.

Either player may put the match on the clock, once, by saying so between racks. From that point, for the remainder of the match and for both players equally, a player who has not begun their shot within 60 seconds of the previous shot ending commits a foul (ball in hand). The first shot after a break is exempt.

The clock cannot be removed once invoked, and invoking it is not a complaint about anyone — it is a symmetric change to the terms of the match, available to both, at the cost of also binding yourself. [R810] [A — 60 seconds]

3.11 Concession and forfeit§

Conceding a rack. You may give up a rack at any time. Your opponent wins it and the match goes on.

Forfeiting a match. You may give up a match at any time, and you forfeit it if you leave before it finishes. You lose, the loss is a result like any other, and it counts exactly as though you had been beaten at the table. Unscrewing your cue while your opponent is shooting a match-deciding rack is a forfeit.

The line that matters is whether the match started. [R811]

Why this line is drawn here. With no casual mode (§7.1), there is nothing for a losing player to re-label a match to — so the only remaining way to escape a loss is to walk out of it. Making an abandoned match a rated loss closes that, and it closes it without anyone having to judge why somebody left. You are not being penalised for leaving. The match simply finished, and you were not winning it.

3.12 Outside interference§

If something outside the match disturbs the balls during a shot — a person, an animal, a dropped object — the players restore the position as best they can and replay the shot. If the position cannot be restored, the rack is a stalemate (§3.9). [R812]

PART 4 — 8-BALL§

4.1 The game§

Fifteen object balls and a cue ball. One player takes the solids (1–7), the other the stripes (9–15). A player who has pocketed their whole group and then legally pockets the 8-ball wins the rack. [R820]

4.2 The rack§

Fifteen balls, racked tight in a triangle, apex ball on the foot spot, the 8-ball in the centre, one solid and one stripe in the two back corners. The remaining balls in any order.

The player who did not break the previous rack racks. The breaker may ask for one re-rack and must be given it. [R821]

4.3 The break§

1. The cue ball is played from behind the head string.
2. A legal break requires either a ball pocketed, or at least four object balls driven to a rail.
3. If the break is not legal, the incoming player chooses one of exactly two options: accept the table as it lies, or re-rack and break themselves. There is no third option and no penalty attached.
4. A scratch on the break is a foul, and it is the one place in this game where ball in hand is restricted. Balls pocketed stay down, the table is open, and the incoming player shoots from behind the head string. They may place the cue ball anywhere behind that line and may shoot at any ball on the table — there is no requirement that the object ball be past the line, and no procedure for deciding whether a ball is "in" or "out."
5. An object ball driven off the table on the break is a foul. It stays out of play. The incoming player takes ball in hand.
6. The 8-ball pocketed on the break wins the rack. If the shooter also scratches on that shot, the shooter loses the rack.
7. The table is always open immediately after the break, whatever was pocketed. [R822]

Two decisions worth naming. 8-on-the-break wins — it is unambiguous, it is fast, it is what most amateur play already does, and it is a countable event rather than an opinion. And no soft break rule — other rulebooks forbid "breaking safe" and then have to judge whether you meant to. Instead, option 3 above lets your opponent simply take the table you left them, which makes a soft break punish itself.

4.4 Open table and choosing groups§

• The table is open until a player legally pockets a ball on a shot after the break.
• While the table is open, any object ball may be struck first except the 8-ball. Striking the 8-ball first while the table is open is a foul (F2).
• Balls pocketed on the break do not assign groups, even if they are all from one group.
• The first ball legally pocketed after the break assigns that group to the shooter and the other group to the opponent. [R823]

4.5 Continuing play§

• Declare a ball and a pocket, or safety, on every shot (§3.3a).
• You continue shooting only if the ball you called went into the pocket you called. Route is irrelevant — bank it, kiss it, carom it off three rails; if the called ball reaches the called pocket on a legal shot, you shoot again.
• A ball of your group that goes in somewhere you did not call ends your turn. It stays down. You do not get it back and you do not get to keep shooting for it.
• Balls stay down, always — yours, your opponent's, called or not. Nothing is ever spotted in 8-Ball.
• Once your group is clear, the 8-ball is your legal target. [R824]

What this means in practice. Luck does not extend your turn. It still helps you — the ball is off the table and your opponent will not get to shoot it — but it does not keep you at the table. That is the difference between a called-shot game and a slop game, and it is the one the owner chose.

4.6 The 8-ball: mark the pocket as well as call it§

Before shooting at the 8-ball, place a physical marker at the pocket you called. A coaster, a chalk cube on the rail, anything visible. Both players may use the same marker; only one marker is on the table at a time.

• The marker is the record of the call. You still say it — §3.3a applies to every shot — but on this one shot the declaration also exists as an object both players can see.
• If the marker is already at the intended pocket from a previous attempt, it does not have to be touched.
• Contacting the marker with a ball is not a foul.
• Pocketing the 8-ball in a pocket that is not the marked one loses the rack (§4.8). [R825]

Why this one ball gets a marker. Mishearing a call on the 5-ball costs you a turn. Mishearing it on the 8-ball costs the match. The failure is asymmetric, so the deciding shot gets a form of declaration that does not depend on anybody's hearing, memory, or honesty about what was said.

4.7 Fouls at 8-Ball§

The standard fouls of §3.5 apply, with F2 meaning: the first ball contacted must be from the shooter's group — except when the table is open, when any ball except the 8 may be struck first.

Penalty is ball in hand (§3.4). [R826]

4.8 Losing the rack§

These are the only ways to lose a rack other than by your opponent winning it. A shooter loses the rack who:

1. Pockets the 8-ball before their group is clear;
2. Pockets the 8-ball in any pocket other than the one they marked and called;
3. Pockets the 8-ball and fouls on the same shot;
4. Pockets the 8-ball on the same shot as the last ball of their group;
5. Drives the 8-ball off the table at any time.

None of these applies to the break shot, which is governed entirely by §4.3.

Note what is not here: missing the 8-ball entirely is a foul, not a loss. Scratching while shooting at the 8-ball without pocketing it is a foul, not a loss. [R827]

PART 5 — 9-BALL§

5.1 The game§

Nine object balls, 1 through 9, and a cue ball. The lowest-numbered ball on the table must always be struck first. The player who legally pockets the 9-ball wins the rack — on any shot, by any route, including a combination. [R830]

5.2 The rack§

Nine balls in a diamond, 1-ball at the apex on the foot spot, 9-ball in the centre, the rest in any order. The player who did not break the previous rack racks; the breaker may ask for one re-rack.

On coin-operated tables, higher-numbered balls may be substituted for balls already pocketed, provided both players agree the shooting order before the break. [R831]

5.3 The break§

1. Cue ball from behind the head string.
2. A legal break requires a ball pocketed, or at least four object balls driven to a rail.
3. The 1-ball must be struck first. Failing to do so is a foul.
4. An illegal break that is not a foul gives the incoming player the same two options as §4.3(3): accept the table, or re-rack and break.
5. A scratch or other foul on the break gives the incoming player ball in hand anywhere. Balls pocketed stay down, except the 9-ball, which is spotted.
6. The 9-ball pocketed on the break wins the rack. If the shooter also fouls on that shot, the 9-ball is spotted and the opponent takes ball in hand. [R832]

5.4 The push-out§

On the shot immediately after a legal break, and only then, the shooter may declare a push-out.

• Declare it to your opponent before the shot. The declaration is the whole formality.
• On a push-out, F2 (wrong ball first) and F3 (no rail) do not apply. Every other foul does.
• Any ball pocketed on a push-out stays down, except the 9-ball, which is spotted.
• After a legal push-out, the opponent chooses who shoots next. [R833]

5.5 Continuing play§

• You continue shooting as long as you strike the lowest-numbered ball first and legally pocket any ball.
• You do not have to pocket the lowest ball to continue. Combinations are legal, provided the lowest ball is struck first.
• 9-Ball is a called-shot game. §3.3a applies in full: call the ball and the pocket, or call safety. Hitting the lowest ball first is mandatory, but which ball you pocket is not — a combination can drop anything — so the call still does real work here. Two words, same as 8-Ball.
• Your called ball in your called pocket → you shoot again. Anything else drops → your turn ends and it stays down.
• Only the 9-ball is ever spotted. Any other ball driven off the table stays out of play, and driving it off is a foul. [R834]

5.6 Fouls at 9-Ball§

The standard fouls of §3.5 apply, with F2 meaning: the first ball contacted must be the lowest-numbered ball on the table. Penalty is ball in hand.

There is no three-foul rule (§3.5a). [R835]

5.7 Spotting the 9-ball§

The 9-ball is returned to the foot spot if it is pocketed on a foul or a push-out, or driven off the table. If the foot spot is occupied, it goes on the long string as close behind the foot spot as possible. [R836]

PART 6 — CALLS WITHOUT A REFEREE§

This is the part of the rulebook that has no equivalent elsewhere, because GPP has no referees and is not going to pretend otherwise.

6.1 The problem, stated plainly§

Every published rulebook in this sport assumes an official. Where one is unavailable, they route the decision to a tournament director, a league operator, or "an agreed third party" — in practice a stranger in the room with an opinion, chosen by the two people arguing.

GPP play has none of those. Two people, a table, and a phone. So the calls have to be assigned by rule, in advance, to whoever can actually perceive them — and then that assignment has to be final.

6.2 The rule: perceptual access decides who calls§

Fouls are divided into two classes, and the class determines who calls it.

A Class B call by the shooter is final. There is no third party, no vote, no replay, no appeal, and no route by which it becomes a dispute. [R840]

6.3 Why the shooter, and what it costs§

Why. On a close hit, a double hit, or a ball your hand may have grazed, the only person with physical access to the event is the person standing over it. Everyone else is guessing from three feet away and an angle. Asking the opponent to rule converts a perception problem into an accusation — and the one thing this rulebook will not do is route an accusation of dishonesty through the scoring system.

What it costs, stated rather than buried. A player who is willing to lie will win some Class B calls they should have lost. That is real. Three things bound it:

1. It is symmetric. Over a race, both players get the same benefit, and over a season the honest player gets it far more often than the liar gets to use it, because Class B situations arise for everyone.
2. It is small. Class B fouls decide a fraction of racks; races decide matches; ratings are computed over many matches.
3. The alternative is worse and we have measured why. The alternative is a stranger's guess presented as a fact, in front of both players, with no appeal — which is the same error rate plus a confrontation.

6.4 Asking is free, and answering honestly is required§

Before any shot, you may ask your opponent which ball or group you are on, whether a ball is frozen, or whether the marker is at the pocket they think it is. If asked, you must answer honestly. An answer given in response to such a question is binding on the player who gave it: if they told you the wrong group, you have not fouled by shooting it. [R841]

6.5 What happens if you cannot agree on the result§

Nothing at the table. You do not have to resolve it. Play the match out or stop; either way, the result goes to §7.6, which does not decide who won.

We do not decide who won. We decide whether the match is rated.

6.6 League play differs in exactly one respect§

In League play there is a desk and there are other members present. The desk does not adjudicate Class B calls either — §6.2 is unchanged. What the desk does is administrative: it holds the cards, records results, and routes anything else to Part 11. [R842]

PART 7 — MATCHPLAY: THE RATED MATCH§

MatchPlay is GPP's player-to-player format. Two members meet at a venue that already exists, play a short race, both submit the result, and it counts.

7.1 There is no casual mode§

A match is either rated, or GPP does not record it. There is no third category, no "casual match" button, and nothing to log that counts for nothing.

You can play as much pool as you like, with whoever you like, for as long as you like. Most of it will not be rated — and when it is not, the app has no part in it. Put the phone away and play.

Why there is no casual mode. A feature that records a result which moves nothing is a feature nobody has a reason to use, and it dilutes the only thing the app is for: this one counts. A product that logs every rack is surveillance; a product that logs one is a highlight. [R284]

"Unrated" still exists — but as something that happens to a match, never as something you choose. A disputed result becomes unrated (§7.7). A League forfeit is unrated (§9.3). Those are outcomes the system needs. Neither is a mode a player selects.

7.2 The rated match — five conditions§

A match is rated if and only if:

1. It is declared as rated before the break, by both players, and the declaration is locked from that moment. It cannot be changed afterwards by anyone, for any reason.
2. It is played at a directory venue (§7.3), with both players' devices present at that venue at the start and at submission.
3. It is a race to 2 — the default MatchPlay format — or the race declared by a tournament (§7.4).
4. Neither player has played the other in a rated match within the previous 24 hours (§7.5).
5. Both players are members in good standing with valid profile photos. [R292 as amended]

Condition 1 is the most important implementation detail in this rulebook. Without a locked pre-break declaration, the loser walks away from a started match and no rated match ever records a loss. In the app, the button that starts the match is the declaration, and it sits before the break — so the rule is something you perform rather than something you have to be told.

A started match cannot be abandoned into nothing. Once the declaration is locked, the match resolves one way or another — a result, a forfeit, or unrated under §7.7. Walking out forfeits the match and the loss is rated (§3.11).

7.3 Venue-only§

Rated matches may be arranged only at venues in the GPP directory: commercial poolrooms and bars — public, staffed, lit, occupied.

There is no field anywhere in GPP for a private address. This is structural, not advisory.

The directory is a list of names, addresses, coordinates and table counts. It is not a partner list. No venue agrees to anything, and no venue can withdraw from a directory it never joined. [R287]

7.4 The race§

The default MatchPlay format is RACE TO 2.

Match format: Race to 2

First player to win 2 racks wins the match. Maximum of 3 racks.

That is the format a member sees, the format the app offers, and the format every public MatchPlay match uses unless something says otherwise. The race is fixed with the match, before the break, and cannot change. [R291 as amended, owner decision 2026-07-28]

Longer races are reserved for tournaments and higher-ranked competition — race to 3, 5, 7 or more. Those are declared by the event, never negotiated at the table. League play uses its own race (§9.4).

Why race to 2 is the default. It is fast enough for a busy poolroom, long enough that one lucky rack does not decide it, and easy for two strangers to agree to without a conversation. It runs roughly 15–30 minutes against 30–60+ for a longer race — which is what makes five matches in a night realistic, and five matches against five different opponents is what actually locates a player in the field.

⚠ One consequence for anyone quoting rating numbers. The convergence figures in this venture's simulations — ±0.50 at 3 sessions, ±0.38 at 5 — were measured at five race-to-3 matches per session. A race to 2 is a noisier estimator per match, so those figures do not transfer and must not be quoted for a race-to-2 product until the simulation is re-run. The direction of the trade is known: shorter races mean less information per match, more matches per night, and more distinct opponents. The net is expected to be positive and has not been measured.

7.5 The 24-hour rule§

You cannot play the same person in a rated match twice inside a rolling 24 hours.

You can play them all night. Only the first one inside that window counts; the rest are not recorded at all. Come back tomorrow and another one counts.

Beyond six rated matches against the same opponent, further results against that opponent carry decaying weight. You can always play. The seventh rated match with the same person simply moves your rating less. This is the same sentence whether a player is honest or not, which is the property that makes it sayable. [R285 as amended] [A — the 6-match threshold]

This rule is not primarily an anti-cheat rule, and that was a surprise. Simulated against the committed code, a player who takes all their rated matches against one opponent carries 2.44× the realised rating error, and their chance of being misplaced by half a band goes from 6.6% to 43.7% — while the confidence figure the app displays stays essentially unchanged. Without the lockout the rating becomes confidently wrong: it reports a tight band while sitting outside it. The 24-hour rule earns its place on correctness before it earns it on integrity.

What it does not close. A per-opponent lockout bounds a pair. It does not bound a ring: five people willing to collude can still transact ten legal pairs, and real people colluding have real phones, so §2.3's one-account rule does not reach them either. Ring behaviour is bounded structurally in §8.3, and there is no ring-detection flag in this product.

7.6 Recording the result§

1. Both players submit the result. The clock is two hours from the first submission. [A]
2. They agree → the match is validated.
3. The second player never submits → the first submission stands and is validated. Three notifications go out first: on submission, at 90 minutes, and with the weekly receipt.
4. They disagree → §7.7.

A timeout-validated result is real but weak evidence, and it moves a rating correspondingly less. A player whose own results time out often has their timeout results weighted down further. This is computed, never flagged, and never shown to anyone. [R289]

The bound on the timeout route. It can falsify the result of a meeting that really happened. It can never invent an opponent, because a match requires two members to accept and two devices at a directory venue — so it cannot advance anyone toward a published rating.

7.7 When two submissions disagree§

Step 1 — Re-enter, together. Both players see the same screen:

"Your two entries don't match. You logged: you won. Jamie logged: Jamie won."

"That happens — it's usually a mis-tap. Nobody's in trouble and nothing's been reported."

Each player is then asked, independently, about their own entry only. Neither is ever asked to characterise the other's. One correction resolves it, and nobody has accused anybody.

Step 2 — If it still does not agree:

We do not decide who won. We decide whether the match is rated.

The match is recorded as PLAYED and UNRATED. It appears in both histories marked result not agreed. It moves neither rating and advances neither player toward a published rating. [R290]

Why this and not adjudication. Two contradictory claims and no tiebreaker contain no information; rating it either way inserts a fact we do not have. And it removes the payoff from disputing — if a dispute could win the result, every loser disputes; if it only voids the match, it is worth almost nothing to a liar and nearly nothing to an honest player. Symmetric and near-zero on both sides, which is what you want when you cannot tell the two parties apart.

What it costs. The honest winner loses the credit they earned. That is real and it is unfair in that instance. It is bounded by one match against the twenty needed to publish.

Step 3 — Pattern, and the only place a human enters. At 3 unagreed results in 30 days, or more than 15% of your last 20 matches [A], a person sends a message. The first action is always a message and never a sanction:

"Three of your recent matches ended without an agreed result — that's unusual. Is something not working?"

That asks about the product, not the person, and the honest answer is often "my opponent leaves before submitting" — which is our bug. Only on continuation does matching get suspended, which is a service decision, appealable under Part 11, never public, never a badge, never visible to an opponent. [R290]

7.8 The contest window§

A validated result is not yet rated. Between validation and the next weekly rating publication — about three and a half days — either player may open the match and say that's not what happened, which routes it to §7.7.

The contest window and the resolution window are the same window: "until your rating updates." [R291]

7.9 Doubles — reserved§

Doubles is not in the first build and nothing in this edition depends on it.

When it arrives it is a small option on an ordinary match, not a separate format — no doubles product, no doubles ladder, no parallel set of screens, no registered-pair entity. You mark that a match was played two-a-side, and that is the whole of it.

It will not move a rating at that point either. Two people sharing a result is the cheapest way to manufacture one — four accounts, two real people — and the mathematics of splitting credit between partners is the weakest in the rating system. Whether doubles ever becomes rated is a later decision with its own evidence. [R288 · reserved]

7.10 What is not recorded§

For a rated match, GPP records: who played, where, when, the race, who won, and — optionally — a tick for a break-and-run.

Nothing else. No innings, no safeties, no defensive shots, no table conditions, no timeouts, no characterisation of anyone's play by anyone. [R233, R252]

Whether individual racks are ticked as they happen, or only the match result is entered at the end, is [OPEN] and is a design decision the owner has deliberately parked. Both are consistent with this Part. [R813 · reserved]

PART 8 — THE GPP RATING§

8.1 What the number is§

One number, 0 to 100, one decimal. It is your expected rack win rate, expressed as a percentage, against a fixed reference player from the launch cohort.

A rating of 62.4 means: against that reference player, you would be expected to win about 62 racks in 100. [R100 as restated]

8.2 One rating, not two§

There is one GPP Rating. There is no separate "casual" and "verified" rating.

Results from fully corroborated play are verified. Results from weaker contexts — a timeout validation, an outside event — are attested. An attested result is not worth less as a result; it is treated as less informative, which is expressed in the confidence attached to it and nowhere else. No result is discounted, deleted, or judged.

Your profile shows one rating plus a coverage figure. [R108]

8.3 The three states§

[R284] [A — every threshold]

"Effective opponents" is not a headcount. Ninety-five matches against one friend plus one each against five strangers is six opponents and roughly one effective opponent. The measure is a concentration index, and it is arithmetic, not an opinion.

The gate is on publication, never on playing. Anyone may play, log, and see their own provisional number from match one. We refuse to print a claim; we never refuse service.

What the "≥2 Published opponents" condition does. Eight fabricated accounts playing each other in a round robin satisfy every count-based threshold and produce a beautiful opponent distribution. None of them can ever publish, because none has a Published opponent. The ring has to touch the real graph — and the moment it does, real results discipline the fake numbers, with nobody being accused of anything.

8.4 How you are placed to start§

Four questions, under sixty seconds. They are behavioural, not self-assessing, because people report what they do accurately and what they are worth badly.

1. How often do you play?
2. Have you played league or tournament, and for how long?
3. How often do you run out from the break? — the one skill question that is a countable event rather than an opinion.
4. Do you have a Fargo, APA or BCA rating? Asked last, and it overrides everything above — as a starting estimate only.

The output is a band, not a number. [R293]

There is no calibration match, no ten-rack placement test, and no play requirement before you can use the product. An earlier draft required ten racks on sign-up day; at realistic pace that is 80–100 minutes, and it was correctly rejected. An optional placement match against a Published player is available to anyone who wants a number immediately.

8.5 The bands§

Six bands. The prose is the definition; the numeric range is a starting estimate and is expected to be re-fitted against the first 200 real results. Re-fitting moves the boundaries, never the sentence you chose.

8.6 When it moves, and what you are shown§

Ratings publish once a week, Wednesday 09:00 local, always. Never at the table, never at a variable time.

Every published change arrives with the arithmetic: what we expected, what happened, and the exact delta. The complaint button is on that same screen — if you have to hunt for it, the institution is not serious. [R110]

8.7 Nobody can change your rating§

There is no override capability in the software. Not restricted, not logged, not permissioned — not built. No organiser, no employee, no panel, no founder can set, nudge, cap or freeze anyone's rating.

The only things that move a rating are the published update running on recorded results, and a correction to those results, which then re-runs the update deterministically.

The cost, up front: when our rating is wrong about you, we cannot fix it by hand. We can only fix it by getting more data faster (§8.8). We accept a slower remedy in exchange for a claim nobody can erode. [R112]

8.8 Your rating is stale — tell us§

Any member may declare at any time that their rating is out of date. This is a right you hold, not something we offer people we suspect.

• Pick a reason from a published list. "Nothing changed and I've been running good" is on that list, because it is frequently true — a form with no innocent option is an accusation with radio buttons.
• The effect is identical whichever reason you pick. Your uncertainty is widened by a published amount, which makes your rating move faster toward wherever your results actually are.
• Once per 30 days, at most three times per season. Published, not discretionary.
• A declaration is never evidence of anything. It does not appear in any integrity record, is not visible to your captain, team, opponents or organiser, and cannot be cited in any proceeding under Part 11.
• Declining costs nothing, and the screen says so. [R407]

8.9 Your Fargo rating§

Displayed as a separate, self-reported, clearly labelled field. It may seed your starting band.

It never touches your GPP Rating — not as an input, not as a prior, not as a tiebreak. No conversion table between the two is published, ever. [D19]

8.10 Enforcement — what we actually do§

GPP enforces. Patterns are monitored, they raise flags, and flags have consequences. This is a deliberate position: leagues that do not enforce are how this sport's competitive structures rot.

And enforcement runs on a fixed ladder, in this order, with no step skipped:

Four hard limits on that ladder, and none of them is negotiable:

1. No automated system may delete an account, remove a member, or take a rating away. An algorithm can pause rated play. Only a named human, applying §11.3's standard, can end a membership.
2. No public mark, ever. No badge, no asterisk, no "under review" indicator, no restricted profile visible to anyone. A suspension is between you and us. [R406]
3. No finding rests on a statistical signal alone. A signal may begin an inquiry and may never conclude one (§11.3). This is not a courtesy — we measured that an honest fast improver and a deliberate suppressor are statistically indistinguishable, and that the cheat's signature is the weaker of the two. A system that decided on the signal would accuse the wrong people, and would preferentially accuse the ones improving fastest.
4. No funds are seized or frozen by automated decision. [R848]

What we promise publicly is the process, never the outcome. We will tell you exactly what we monitor, what a flag does, who reviews it and how fast. We will never claim to catch every cheat. A duty you are seen to have assumed and then fail to discharge is a worse position than one you never claimed — and it would not be true.

Where this sits against the earlier design. An earlier decision (D15) held that anti-cheat should run in shadow mode for the whole first season, sanctioning nobody. The owner has overturned that, and the overturn is adopted here. What survives from D15 is everything that protects a member from a wrong call: the human step, the absence of any public mark, the evidence standard, and the appeal. What is gone is the idea that a detected pattern produces no action at all. See Appendix B.2 — the shape of the ladder is settled; the thresholds are not.

8.11 What we do not do§

No background checks — and we say so, prominently (§10.3). No face matching, ever — the photo is stored and looked at by humans, never converted to a template or compared by machine, and this is permanent. No video of any kind. No adjudication of any wager, ever. No custody of anyone's money. [R409]

PART 9 — LEAGUE PLAY§

League play is GPP's team format. It is specified here in full. It is not in force in this edition — see Appendix B — but it is published now so that nothing about it is decided in private later.

9.1 There is no handicap§

GPP does not handicap. No spot, no unequal races, no skill cap, no per-match adjustment. Everyone in a division plays even.

Competitive balance is delivered by who is in the division (§9.7), not by adjusting the game. The rating assigns a room; it never touches a rack. [Owner decision, 2026-07-28 · unnumbered — recorded only as a banner in vault/11-PRODUCT.md; assigning it a decision number is recommended to the owner]

What this deletes, and it is a lot. The race chart, the skill number, the placement dispute, the in-season adjustment, the desk's discretion over any of it, and the entire class of cheating that consists of being worse than you are. It also deletes the strongest defence against a player who under-places themselves — see §9.8, which is where that problem now lives.

9.2 The competitive unit is the team§

The division title, the standings that matter, and the prize pool are the team's. A squad wins the division; a squad is what a player joins, travels with, and plays for.

Individual results are still recorded, still published, and still have their own table (§9.9) — every board is a one-versus-one result and the rating consumes it regardless. There is an individual leaderboard inside each band. It is not the championship. [R230]

The known cost of this decision, stated because it is measured. Inside a band tight enough to be worth calling a division, the stronger squad wins the team match about 93% of the time at the band's worst legal pairing. A team competition inside a narrow band therefore rewards who assembled the better five more than who played better on the night.

This is a decision the owner made with that number in front of him, and it is the traditional and expected shape of a pool league — which is worth something real in a market where every prospect is arriving from a team league.

What it changes elsewhere: it makes §9.7's band width the load-bearing control in the whole League design. When the title is individual, a wide band is survivable — you are compared to people near you. When the title is the team's, a wide band hands it to whoever recruited highest. Band width should therefore be set as narrow as the local population allows, and the actual width must be published before anyone enters.

9.3 Squads and who plays§

1. A squad is exactly five rostered players. A division chartered at B boards has squads of exactly B.
2. Every rostered player present plays exactly one board, every week. There is no bench. Attendance is the entire selection process — a captain has no power to sit a teammate. [R201, R202]
3. Absences are covered by the desk, not the captain. Any member may join a division's reserve pool without a squad. When a squad reports an absence, the desk assigns the reserve whose rating is nearest the absent player's. A captain may not request a specific reserve and may not decline one. [R203]
4. Report an absence by noon on match day. Late notice does not forfeit the board; it only reduces the chance a reserve is free. [R204]
5. If no reserve is available, the board is forfeit — and the stranded player still shoots, an unrated match against another stranded player in the room. A forfeit must not cost the present player their night. [R205]
6. Fifteen-minute grace. A player not at their table 15 minutes after the start signal forfeits that board. Because all boards are independent, a late player delays only themselves. [R206]
7. Mid-season replacements are replacements, not upgrades. A departing player may be replaced only by a player within one band of them. [R208]

9.4 The night§

Five players a side. Five tables. All five matches break at the same minute, and the night is over when the slowest one finishes.

A board ends the instant one player reaches three. Nothing is played out. [R210, R215]

Why simultaneous. Serial play cannot fit five matches into an evening — the races collapse until the format stops being pool. Played at once, the night stops being the sum of five matches and becomes the maximum of five, and the problem changes from "make five matches short" to "put a ceiling on one match." A race-to-3 caps a board at five racks, so the night is capped whatever happens.

9.5 Boards and tables§

1. Boards are assigned by rating, highest against highest. Each squad lists its five present players in descending rating; board 1 is the two highest, board 5 the two lowest. Ties inside a squad are broken by the captain, once, before cards are exchanged. No lineup declaration, no alternating declaration, no coin flip. [R211]
2. All five tables in a team match must be the same size. Under parallel play, players never rotate through tables, so table size becomes a fairness variable rather than a comfort one. This is a requirement on the venue and the desk. [R272 as amended]

Note that §9.5(2) says size, not condition. An earlier draft required tables to be of the same "condition" — which is a judgement, and which contradicted the rule that condition is never recorded. Size is a fact.

9.6 No timeouts, no coaching, no conferring§

There are no timeouts. No coach, teammate, captain or spectator may advise a player during a board.

This is not a restriction so much as a description: at any moment, all five of your teammates are shooting their own boards, so there is nobody available to coach you. [R214]

It is not a foul. A player who receives advice is not penalised at the table — that would require an opponent to judge whether what they overheard was advice. Persistent conferring is a Part 11 matter. [R843]

9.7 Divisions and bands§

1. Divisions are banded by rating. A band is capped in strength, not in points: the strongest and weakest eligible player in a division may differ by no more than 2:1 in expected rack win rate. On the GPP scale that is roughly a 20-point spread [A]. This is a ceiling, not a target — bands are set as narrow as the local population allows. Under §9.2 the title belongs to the squad, which makes this the single most important number in Part 9: a wide band gives the division to whoever recruited highest.
2. Bands are formed by sorting, not from fixed boundaries. Sort the market's entrants by rating, cut to division size, and apply the width cap. If population makes the cap impossible, the cap yields and the actual width is published before anyone enters. Deterministic, reproducible, no operator judgement. [R240′, R240″]
3. The lowest band has no floor and is therefore the widest by construction. We say so rather than letting a beginner discover it. [R240′]
4. Promotion and relegation happen between seasons, never during one. Improving must never cost a player their place mid-season. [R242, R302]
5. There is no combined-skill cap. A squad may be as strong as it likes. A cap would mean a player who improves breaks their own roster and their team's rational response is to play them less — which, with no bench to move them to, would be worse than what it replaces. [R241]

9.8 The known weakness, published§

Removing the handicap does not remove the incentive to be under-rated. It removes the cure.

Under a handicap, a suppressed rating bought a bigger spot — and the rating design made that worthless. Without a handicap, a suppressed rating buys an easier division, and the rating design does not touch that at all.

What holds the line instead:

1. Prizes scale by band, so winning a lower division is worth less than winning a higher one. A player who suppresses into an easier room is competing for a smaller pot.
2. Band placement uses the higher of your current rating and your highest rating in the last twelve months, less a published margin. You cannot walk your rating down in front of a season. [R410 extended]
3. Publication requires connected evidence (§8.3), which a coordinated group cannot manufacture in isolation.

And it is measured, not asserted. Under the current match structure a determined suppressor sustains 1.01 CL of suppression against a band roughly 0.75 CL wide; under the older, slower structure the same behaviour sustained 0.71 CL. The faster-converging structure lets a cheat drop a division where the older one did not. That is the price of §7.4's five-short-matches design, it was paid knowingly, and it lands entirely here in the League rather than in MatchPlay.

This is the weakest point in the League design. It is stated here rather than discovered later, and it is the reason Part 9 is not in force in this edition.

9.9 Scoring and standings§

1. One board, one point. The team match goes to whoever wins more of the five. Racks won are recorded but do not score. [R230]
2. Team standings are the division table, and they decide the title: match wins, then boards won, then racks won. [R231]
3. Individual standings are published alongside, inside each band: boards won, then racks won. They carry no prize in this edition and exist so that a player on a squad that is not winning can still see, and be seen to have, a season. [R231a]
4. Playoff eligibility is attendance, and attendance only — you are eligible if you have played at least half of your squad's completed matches. [R232]
5. A board that was never played is never rated. There is no result, so there is nothing to rate. This covers an unfilled board and an opponent who did not arrive — not a board that started and was walked out of, which is a rated loss under §3.11. You do not gain rating from an opponent's absence and do not lose it from your own. [R704]
6. An individual no-show carries no rating consequence and no penalty. Life happens. [R704]

9.10 The card§

One card per board. Both players initial it. There is no second copy.

A player's entire job during a board is to tick a box when they win a rack. They never add anything up, never look anything up, and never form an opinion about their opponent. The desk circles the race number before the card leaves the desk, so the only arithmetic on the night happens once, at a table, sober.

If one player will not initial the card, the board is recorded as played and unrated, exactly as in §7.7 — not voided, not awarded, and not adjudicated. This closes a defect in an earlier draft, under which a single unsigned card gave the loser of every board a veto. [R234 as amended · R844]

PART 10 — CONDUCT, SAFETY AND WAGERING§

10.1 The four prohibitions§

Deliberately four. A long conduct code is a long list of things somebody has to adjudicate.

1. Violence or threats.
2. Harassment or discriminatory conduct (§2.2).
3. Identity fraud — a second account, or playing as someone else (§2.3).
4. Deliberate damage to a venue's equipment or premises.

Not on this list, deliberately: unsportsmanlike conduct, disrespect, bringing the association into disrepute, and every other elastic category whose function is to give an authority discretion. Giving a local authority discretion is the problem this organisation exists to solve.

Intoxication is a venue matter, not an GPP matter. The venue's staff decide who is served and who leaves. We do not appoint amateurs to assess sobriety. [R705]

10.2 Safety, and the one place we act first§

Block is instant, unilateral, permanent, requires no reason, and is invisible to the blocked person. A blocked pair is never matched and neither appears in the other's search.

The last row is the only place in this entire rulebook where we act before we investigate, and it is deliberate. Everywhere else, the asymmetry runs the other way: one wrong public accusation against a well-liked regular costs more than catching every real cheat is worth. For physical safety that asymmetry inverts. A wrongly suspended player loses 72 hours of pool; a player we left matchable after a credible safety report can cost someone far more. This is written down explicitly so that nobody removes it later by analogy to the rules that are correct everywhere else. [R412]

10.3 What we do not verify, and we say so§

We verify: your email, your phone by SMS, your identity once at registration, and that your profile photo contains an identifiable face.

We do not run criminal background checks, and we tell you that prominently rather than burying it. A screening promise is unreliable by construction — it misses anyone never convicted, convicted elsewhere, or using another name — and it manufactures a false sense of security in you while manufacturing a legal exposure for us. A safety promise we cannot keep is worse than no promise.

Meet at the venue. That is the control. [R411 area]

10.4 Wagering§

You may play for money. Privately, between yourselves.

• A match may be marked as played for stakes. It is a yes/no flag. No amount is ever recorded, and there is no field anywhere in GPP that accepts one.
• Both players acknowledge, once, when either marks it:

"GPP does not hold, transfer, guarantee, or adjudicate money. Any dispute about a wager is between you two. We will not resolve it."

• We decline to adjudicate any wager. Declined, not deferred. There is no appeal from that, because there is no decision to appeal.

This is deliberately not a ban. A duty you are seen to have assumed and then failed to police is a worse position than a duty you never assumed. And the strongest reason has nothing to do with law: if we never see the money, we never induce anyone to bring it. [R411]

PART 11 — DISPUTES AND DUE PROCESS§

11.1 Separation of powers§

Four functions that are usually fused into one local person are separated structurally — by what exists in the software and who is employed to do what, not by policy.

[R500 as amended by D20]

11.2 Three tiers§

Tier 1 — The software. Anything determined by arithmetic: results, standings, ratings, band placement. No human decides these, so no human can be lobbied about them. A "dispute" here is a bug report and is routed as one.

Tier 2 — The Duty Reviewer. A named employee on a published roster, handling unresolved recording problems, corrections after a match closes, forfeits, substitute eligibility, and first-instance conduct matters. Must not be the organiser of the affected division and must have no financial relationship with the venue or anyone involved. Publishes written reasons for every decision, including uncontested ones.

Tier 3 — The Review Panel. Three people, for appeals, anything that could suspend or expel a member, and any dispute where GPP itself is a party. One employee, one member representative elected by the membership, and one independent chair from outside the company — paid a fixed fee that does not vary with outcome, appointed for a fixed term, named publicly. No two panel members from the market the dispute came from. Majority decides; dissents are published. [R501]

The independent chair is not a refinement. Without a seat we do not control, "independent panel" is a claim we make about ourselves. Recruiting that person is a launch blocker. As of this edition, nobody has been asked and no budget exists — see Appendix B.

11.3 Evidence standard§

No decision-maker chooses which standard applies. And three absolutes:

1. No finding may rest on a statistical signal alone. A statistical signal may begin an inquiry and may never conclude one.
2. No finding may rest on a judgement about intent — and under §3.1, no rule requires one.
3. The burden is always on the party seeking the change, including when that party is us. [R503]

11.4 Written reasons§

Every Tier 2 and Tier 3 decision produces written reasons before it takes effect, containing: what was decided; who decided it, by name, and their market; what evidence was considered — the same file you have seen; why that evidence produced this outcome; which rule was applied; and what happens next, by when.

Reasons are mandatory when you lose. A loss with a reason retains a member; a loss without one creates a forum post. There is no "decision upheld" with no body text anywhere in this system. [R504]

11.5 The clock runs against us§

If we miss a deadline, the dispute resolves in your favour automatically. Not "may be escalated" — resolves, automatically, without anyone asking. You see the clock from the moment you file, with the consequence spelled out.

Rate limit, and it is stated rather than left open: a member may have three open Tier 2 filings at one time [A]. A fourth is queued, not refused, and the clock on a queued filing starts when a slot opens. Without this the automatic-resolution rule could be turned into a denial-of-service against the process that protects everyone. [R505 as amended · R845]

11.6 Published precedent§

Every Tier 2 and Tier 3 decision is published to a public, searchable archive: anonymised as to members, named as to deciders, with full reasoning.

Published monthly, per market: filings, upheld, overturned, deadlines missed, median time to decision, and the count of decisions that went against GPP or the organiser.

Precedent binds. A reviewer departing from a published decision on materially similar facts must say so in writing and explain why. [R506]

The rubber-stamp test. If six or more disputes involving the company produce zero rulings against the house, that is a structural failure: the independent chair is replaced and the process is externally reviewed. [R508]

11.7 Recusal, and your free challenge§

A decision-maker must recuse if they are in the affected division, have any financial relationship with anyone involved, have been a teammate of a party within 24 months, or would face a reasonable perception of bias. Recusal is self-executing and the reason is recorded.

Any party may challenge their decision-maker once, without giving a reason, and it is automatically granted. Deciding whether a bias objection is well-founded is itself an act of judgement we should not be making about ourselves.

Where a market has only one eligible decision-maker, a challenge escalates the matter to the next tier rather than exhausting the pool — and where that is not possible, the deadline in §11.5 runs and resolves in the member's favour. This is stated because in a single-market pilot it will otherwise happen by accident. [R507 as amended · R846]

11.8 Discipline§

Suspension or expulsion requires a Tier 3 decision, the applicable standard from §11.3, written reasons, and an appeal. There is no discretionary refusal power anywhere in this organisation, and none may be created. [R500, R705]

11.9 No public marking§

There is no public suspicion indicator of any kind. No icon, no asterisk, no "under review" badge, no restricted profile, no shadow status. None is built and none may be built.

One automated action exists and only one: the precautionary suspension of rated play under §8.10. It is private, it does not touch your membership, your record or your money, and a named person must review and sign it within a published SLA. Every other consequence — suspension of membership, expulsion, any finding of any kind — requires a named person who has reviewed the case and signs it, and you are notified by name before it takes effect. [R406 as amended]

11.10 You keep the right to sue§

Membership terms contain no clause requiring you to waive a legal claim, no mandatory arbitration clause, no class-action waiver, and no clause under which you could owe our legal costs for bringing a claim.

Not having these is the cheapest structural commitment available to us. It costs nothing until we behave badly. [R510]

11.11 We will not retaliate§

Binding on GPP, published in the membership terms, amendable only with published reasons.

1. We will not refuse service, remove, suspend, or decline to renew any member for complaining — about a rating, a ruling, an organiser, a venue, the format, or us; publicly, privately, on a forum, or to a reporter. Criticism of GPP is not a conduct category (§10.1 lists all four, and this is not among them).
2. Exclusion requires a published criterion, a named decider from outside your market, written reasons, and an appeal.
3. Filing a dispute is not recorded on your record, and the organiser is not told who filed.
4. Retaliation for a complaint is itself a Tier 3 violation, judged more seriously than whatever prompted the complaint. [R708]

The honest limit. This rule protects you from us. It cannot protect you from anyone else, and we do not claim it does.

PART 12 — YOUR RECORD AND YOUR DATA§

Written as rights you hold, not policies we grant. A policy is something we can change on a Tuesday.

12.1 You own your record§

Your match history, rating history, every event you were party to, and every decision about you are yours. You may take a complete copy at any time, for any reason, without asking and without explaining.

Self-serve, immediate, one tap. Complete. Free, always, including after you leave. Available for at least 24 months after you leave. [R600]

12.2 Format and portability§

Your export arrives as JSON (complete, versioned schema), CSV (one file per entity), and PDF (human-readable rating history with the receipt for every change). We commit to 12 months' notice of any breaking change.

We publish the rating method in full, so any third party can recompute your rating from your export and check it. On request we will provide a signed attestation of your rating and match count that another organisation can verify. We will never contractually restrict another league from using your exported history.

This makes leaving us easy. That is not a side effect we tolerate — it is the mechanism. A rating you cannot take with you is a rating you have to trust us about. [R601, R602]

12.3 Retention and deletion§

You may delete your account at any time. Personal identifiers are removed within 30 days.

The limit, stated plainly rather than buried: match results are joint records. Your opponent's rating history is computed from matches you played together, and their record cannot be made false to satisfy your deletion. So on deletion your results are de-identified — you become an anonymous participant — rather than erased. We say this before you sign up, not in a policy you find afterwards. [R604]

12.4 Consent§

Per-purpose, timestamped, individually revocable, and visible to you in a ledger you can read at any time.

No bundling. Refusing any optional consent never affects your membership, rating, eligibility or placement. [R605]

STOP is honoured immediately and permanently, across every channel. No organiser sends bulk messages from a personal phone — all messaging goes through the platform, so all of it is logged. [R606]

12.5 Who can see what§

Every access to your record by a staff member is logged with the reason, you can see that log, and you are notified by name before a person reviews your account. [R607]

12.6 If we are breached§

Within 72 hours of confirmation we notify every affected member directly — before press, before regulators where the law permits — stating what was taken, when, what we know, what we do not yet know, what we are doing, and what you should do. A published post-mortem including root cause follows within 30 days. A named person is accountable.

We do not use the phrase "we take your privacy seriously." [R608]

APPENDIX A — WHERE THESE RULES CAME FROM§

Nothing in this rulebook was copied, paraphrased, or structurally derived from any other organisation's rulebook. Public rulebooks from five organisations were read to identify which questions a pool rulebook must answer and what the available answers are. Every answer here was then chosen against the test in the front matter and drafted from a blank page. Where our answer coincides with a common one — four balls to a rail on the break, ball in hand for a foul — it is because there are only so many ways to say it, and those mechanics are decades of unowned public practice.

Rules newly written for this edition occupy R801–R846 (the playing rules, calls without a referee, and four amendments repairing defects identified in the source drafts).

Rules carried forward keep their original IDs and are cited inline throughout.

Rules repaired by this edition, each of which was broken as previously written:

APPENDIX B — WHAT THIS EDITION DOES NOT SETTLE§

Published rather than smoothed over. Each item is either an owner decision, a legal question, or a measurement — and each is named with who can close it.

B.1 Not in force§

Part 9 (League play) is specified but not in force. MatchPlay ships first; the League is the second product. Part 9 is published now so that its rules are public before anyone can be affected by them, and so that the no-handicap decision is on the record in a document rather than in a chat message.

B.2 Decisions that need the owner§

Settled by the owner, 2026-07-28 — recorded here so the reasoning is not re-opened by accident§

B.3 Questions for counsel§

1. Are we a franchisor? All three FTC Franchise Rule elements are affirmatively designed into the League tier. Nobody has asked a lawyer. This is the only open item that gets more expensive with time.
2. Do online-dating-safety disclosure statutes reach us? We are not a dating service, but we arrange in-person meetings between strangers using profile photos. Several states mandate disclosure of whether screening occurs.
3. §11.10 (no sue-waiver) needs sign-off on keeping it, not a negotiation about removing it.
4. ~~Minors.~~ CLOSED by owner decision, 2026-07-28: membership is 18 or over. It is a membership condition, not a venue condition, with date of birth collected at signup. Enforcement is honest about its layers — the stated rule is self-declared and weak alone; the opponent looking at your face is the layer that works; the venue's alcohol-licence gate is real but not universal. No ID scan, no document upload, no age-verification vendor, and no new data-protection surface.
5. Funds held when rated play is suspended. §8.10 suspends rated play and explicitly does not touch money — but a member may hold prize credit or owe dues at that moment, and freezing or seizing funds by any automated decision is a consumer-protection question no document in this venture has addressed.
6. The face detection / face matching line, before build. Connecticut's biometric provisions are already in force and its facial-recognition signage rule lands 2026-10-01, before any pilot. §2.3 holds the line — detection yes, comparison never — but counsel should confirm where it sits.

B.4 Numbers that are arguments, not measurements§

Every [A] in this document. The most load-bearing: the publication thresholds in §8.3, the band ranges in §8.5, the two-hour submission window in §7.6, the 60-second shot clock in §3.10, and the League band width in §9.7. They are expected to move against the first real results, and moving them is not a failure.

B.5 Open, and honestly§

1. The independent panel chair does not exist. §11.2 depends on a person nobody has been asked to recruit, with no budget. It is the item most likely to be quietly dropped and the one whose loss would do the most damage.
2. Ring collusion is not closed. §7.5 bounds a pair; §8.3 makes an isolated ring unpublishable. A ring that touches the real graph is not addressed, and there is no detector.
3. Under-placement in the League has no cure (§9.8), only deterrents.
4. No rule in this document has met a player. Not one. Every timing, pace and duration figure here rests on published benchmarks, not on anything anyone has put a stopwatch to.

END OF EDITION 1.0

Drafted against the GPP research vault frozen 2026-07-28 and the owner decisions of that date. Playing rules original to GPP. Nothing in this document has been in force.

These rules are published as one document because a member should never be told the answer is in a different book. Link any section directly — for example #s3-5 for the closed list of fouls.