cliché: behind the eight ball (8 ball)

Meaning: Put at a disadvantage or unfavorable position (definition).

Example: With nothing but difficult options before him, Bill found himself behind the eight ball.

Origins: Billiards and the game of Eight Ball, perhaps Eight-ball Croquet. First use is in the 1929 Sheboygan Press about baseball. (Source.)

Rewrites:

• behind the hate ball
• behind the black ball
• behind the odd ball
• behind the mid-ball
• behind the killer ball
• menaced by the eight ball
• intimidated by the eight ball
• gamed by the eight ball
• galled by the eight ball
• on the unlucky side of the eight ball

Discussion: I tried to play on the variety of ways you might think of facing an eight ball in a game of billiards. 

Update: I had struggled with rewriting this cliche for some reason. As I was promoting his page on social media, an entirely new angle hit me - other game metaphors:

• caught between the chutes and the ladders
• caught at the bottom of a Sorry! slide