Every 9-ball argument at a club table is about the same three things: a scratch, a foul, or the push out.
The potting rules everyone knows. The penalty rules are where games are won, lost, and argued about. Here they are, settled, under standard rules.
Ball in hand: the punishment that decides everything
First, understand the penalty, because every foul below leads to it.
When you foul in 9-ball, your opponent gets ball in hand anywhere on the table. Not behind the line, not from where it lies. Anywhere. They pick the cue ball up and place it wherever gives them the best shot.
Against a decent player, ball in hand usually means losing the rack. They place it for a perfect angle on the lowest ball with position on the next, and run out. That's why 9-ball punishes carelessness more than any other pool game, and why safety play is half the sport.
What counts as a foul
Scratching. Cue ball in a pocket, or off the table. Ball in hand.
Wrong ball first. The cue ball must contact the lowest-numbered ball on the table before anything else. Clip a higher ball first, even on the way to a legal combination, and it's a foul. Ball in hand.
No rail after contact. After the cue ball hits the lowest ball, at least one ball, any ball, must reach a cushion or be pocketed. A soft roll-up that freezes everything with no cushion contact is a foul. This is the one most casual players don't know, and it exists so you can't just nudge balls around forever.
Touching balls, double hits, feet off the floor and the rest of the standard pool fouls apply too, but the three above cover nearly every real dispute.
Scratching when the 9 goes in
The one that ends friendships. You pot the 9-ball, game-winning shot, and the cue ball follows it into a pocket.
You do not lose the game. Under standard rules: the 9 is spotted back on the foot spot, your opponent takes ball in hand, and the rack continues. You've turned a won game into a probably-lost one, but it's a foul like any other, not a loss of game.
Same applies any time the 9 is pocketed on a foul stroke: it comes back up, opponent gets ball in hand.
The three-foul rule
Foul three times in a row, three consecutive innings without a legal shot in between, and you lose the rack outright. One condition: your opponent must warn you after the second foul. No warning, no loss on the third.
This rule exists to stop a player who's snookered from just fouling forever. In league and tournament play it's standard. In casual play, agree before you start whether you're using it, and save the argument.
The push out
Straight after the break, and only then, the shooter can call a push out. They then shoot the cue ball anywhere: no lowest-ball requirement, no rail requirement. It is not a foul.
The catch that balances it: the opponent chooses whether to accept the new position and shoot, or pass it straight back to the pusher.
The push out exists because breaks often leave the incoming player hooked with no legal shot. Rather than forcing a foul-lottery, the rule creates a chess move: push to a position that's awkward for your opponent but playable for you. If they can't punish it, they hand it back and you're the one with the manageable shot.
Knowing the push out, and using it well, is the clearest tell of a player who's actually learned 9-ball rather than absorbed it at the bar.
The pattern behind all of it
Notice what every one of these rules rewards: cue ball control. Not scratching is cue ball control. Reaching a rail is cue ball control. Making the most of ball in hand is position play. The rules are a scoring system for whoever controls the white ball better, which is why the players who win at 9-ball are rarely the flashiest potters. They're the ones whose cue ball never surprises them, and that's a trainable skill, not a gift.
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