Holes Games


	Hole Marbles Games
From the The Great American Marble Book on hole games:
Potty This more intricate one-hole game had its heyday in the New York City borough of Queens because it required the kind of dirt driveway with which Queens once abounded. In time, the dirt driveway gave way to the alley. The hole or "potty" is dug seven or more feet from the shooting line. Players throw their marbles toward the potty, the closest throw winning the first shot. The object of the game is to get into the potty but not to get too close if you fail. Being in the potty entitles the advantaged to "spannies," that is, he can keep all the marbles that are a hand's span from the lip of the potty. Potty is a double-edged game. Though it's desirable to get into the potty (as you can help yourself to any marble that comes too close), once in it, you are at the mercy of the next person who follows you in. That person has three chances to knock you out of the pot and thus take your marble. If he fails, you have three chances to hit him. You can make it hard for someone to shoot your marble out of the potty by substituting a tiny peewee in its place. On the other hand, the attacker can substitute an oversized scaboulder (see A Lexicon in Mibology) in an attempt at brute force. A thinking man's game. It is good/bad to be the first into the potty. It is good/bad to quite close to the potty. Strategies and measurements tax the mind in this "ruthless" game.
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Pot In this New Jersey variation of Potty, players put up stakes of marbles in a circle around the pot. Once a player gets his shooter into the pot, he can put it on the lip and shoot at the stake, keeping any marble he shoots off the circular ring. A game for only the best shooters. Another New Jersey variation, also called Pot, specifies that once having gotten into the pot, a shooter take his marble out to the lip of the pot and try to shoot an opponent from there. This requires some elementary knowledge of pool hall "English" and strong, propelling knuckles. Only for the strong.
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Puggy Like Potty, this is a hole game, but there the resemblance ends. First, the hole has to be dug with the heel of a shoe and to a depth of that heel. Then the players stand upright about six inches from the hole and, at random, drop whatever stake of marbles is decided upon, usually three. The players then shoot from a shooting line about ten feet away and attempt to propel these target marbles into the hole or "puggy." A player continues shooting until he misses; an expert shooter could conceivably -- like a good pool player -- run all the marbles. This rarely happened in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where Puggy was regarded as a "girls only" game, and it was common knowledge that girls weren't good shooters. In Yonkers, in New York's Weschester County, the players gathered in a circle around the hole or pot. They shot for the hole and if successful became "killers," eligible to go after the marbles of others. A stake of several marbles was agreed upon for each hit.
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Killer In Brooklyn, Puggy was simply called Killer. Players, after shooting at the hole from a line a dozen feet away, shot at their opponent's marbles. The extra added attraction here was that one played "for keeps" for aggies, the favored shooters. This was a tense business. Only the best shooters played Killer.
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Newark killer Another "strictly for shooters" game is native to Newark. In this one the players begin by tossing their shooters into a hole about eight feet away. After successfully entering the hole, the player can then shoot at an opponent's marble. If if is hit, that player is not only eliminated from the game but also loses his shooter and pays a bounty of one or more marbles. The successful shooter has the option, after hitting one player, to aim at another by either placing his shooter on the lip of the hole and shooting from there or by shooting from where his marble lays. This is the toughest of the one-on-one shooting games, and those who played it were the neighborhood's top guns. The best thought so highly of themselves that they refused to recognize the annual winner of the National Marbles Tournament because the competition didn't involve a pot.
	* * * Song: "Duck Tales"