The rules of the game are as follows:
- Serving: The BulletBall is first placed within your triangular area on the tabletop. Serving may be free-handed (where the ball is served from its resting location directly on the table) or from a held position (where the ball is served from its position being held in the other hand, similar to table tennis), but the ball must remain within your triangle. Each person gets two consecutive tries to get the served ball into his or her opponent's triangular service area. Serve rotates after every 5 points.
- Points: If both serve attempts fail, the other team gets a point. Similar to table tennis, a typical game plays to 21 points or an otherwise agreed-upon number of points. If there is a tie, there must be a win margin of 2 points.
- Hitting the Ball:
- Each opponent must wait until the ball crosses into his or her playing area before he or she can touch it. If the ball is touched before it crosses into the playing area, this is considered a foul and loss of point.
- Each player only gets one hit/touch when the ball comes into his or her colored playing area. That hit/touch has to be hard enough to return the ball into the opponent's colored playing area to continue play. If the ball stops short of this, you lose the point.
- If an opponent's hand or arm is resting on the table surface in his or her colored playing area, their hand or arm is then considered an extension of his or her playing area.
- Side Rails:
- Side rails cannot be touched any time during play. This is considered a foul and you lose the point.
- If the ball banks off the side-rail and returns to the same player's area, the player has another opportunity to return the ball to his or her opponent, by only touching it once.
- Airballs: Airballs occur when you hit the ball too hard after it crosses into your playing area and it leaves the table before it touches your opponent's playing area. This results in the loss of a point.