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Cake is a game for 4-6 players. The game
consists of frames and the person with the most frames won is the winner
of the game. At the beginning of the game the order of the play is
decided the following way: The numbers from 2 to 7 are written on
separate paper pieces which are folded up so that the number cannot be
seen, put into the ball case and shuffled. Then each player takes one
piece and the order of the play is the order of the taken numbers. The
paper pieces are put back, they will be needed during the game, too.
Start of the frame
At the beginning of each frame, all the object balls are set up to form
a triangle with 6 red balls on the edges and the colors in the middle
(hence the name "cake"). The triangle is placed like in
snooker, but the apex red stands on the pink spot. The first shot of the
frame, played from the quoted", should look like a breaking in pool
and at least two object balls must hit a cushion or a red must enter a
pocket or the shot is a foul (oh poor cue tip and poor balls, but this
was the worst part of the game, I promise you ;-). Every player has zero
points at the beginning of the frame, and each foul counts as minus one
(this is best handled by setting the pointers of the scoreboard to ten
initially).
Potting
If a player is below two points, he can only pot colors into the two
center pockets and reds into any of the six pockets (this means that
every object ball is "on" in snooker terms). Each red potted
scores one point, but no points are given for the colors. If a player
reaches two points at the first time in the frame, he takes one paper
piece, but he doesn't show it to the other players. The number taken
indicates a color ball, and from this point on this ball will be his.
This is very important as the winner of the frame is the person who pots
his own ball into a corner pocket.
If a player has two or more points, he may pot any of the object balls
into any of the pockets. If he pots his color into a corner, he then
shows his paper piece to the others and the frame is over.
Other rules
In cake, it is not allowed to use equipment other than the cue. Shots
made using them are foul shots. (It is interesting but one often forgets
this rule, resulting in minus one point...) Potting a color into a
pocket having less than two points is a foul if he didn't want to pot it
there. unfair play if the shot was deliberate. In this case he is
disqualified from the frame being played. The frame is over and there is
no winner if no color remains on the table and none of the players have
announced a win (see above).
Apart from these, the normal snooker rules apply. That is, it is a foul
to touch balls, to force balls off the table, to cause the white enter a
pocket, to shoot with none of the legs touching the floor and so on. The
player remains at the table if he could pot a ball "cake
legally". There are no such rules as "free ball",
"you fouled, please shoot again" etc. For better players the
two point limit for potting colors can be raised to three.
There is quite a bit of luck involved in "cake", which enables
weaker players to win. Of course this game has completely different
tactical approaches than snooker, but this is what makes it
"interesting". For example, it is sometimes a good idea to
pretend that you're trying to pot your color into the center pocket
(making sure you don't, of course). If your color is no longer on the
table (or it wasn't there even when you took the paper piece), try to
get rid of all the other colors, so that the others can't win. Always
try to guess what color is whose and play according to this, if you can.
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