Billiards is the name of several indoor games played on a rectangular table. Players shoot at plastic balls with a long tapered stick called a cue. In all billiard games, a player must first strike a special ball called the cue ball with the tip of the cue. The cue ball then must strike one or more other balls, known as object balls, to score points. In most billiard games, the table has openings called pockets. Players attempt to use the cue ball to drive object balls into the pockets.
The most common forms of billiards are pool, snooker, and carom billiards. Two or more players can compete in pool. Snooker is limited to two players. Two or three people can play carom billiards.
Pool is the most popular billiard game in the United States. It is played on a table with six pockets, one at each corner and one each on the longest sides of the table. A player tries to sink or pocket a specified ball by shooting it into a pocket. Most pool games are played with 15 object balls and a cue ball.
Snooker is an English pocket billiards game played on a table with six pockets similar to a pool table. The game is played with a cue ball and 21 object balls of various point values. Players try to outscore their opponent by pocketing balls of greater value.
Carom billiards is played on a table without pockets. Three or four balls are used: a white ball, one or two red balls, and a white ball with a dot. Players score points by caroming (striking) a cue ball off the object balls and the raised sides of the table in specified ways.
Billiards is both a popular form of recreation and an important competitive sport. Expert players compete for world titles in several kinds of billiard games.
Equipment.
Billiard tables vary in size, but all tables are twice as long as they are wide. American pool tables range in size from 3 feet by 6 feet (0.9 meter by 1.8 meters) to 5 feet by 10 feet (1.5 meters by 3 meters). English snooker tables are 6 feet by 12 feet (1.8 meters by 3.7 meters), while the American version is generally played on tables 5 feet by 10 feet. Most carom games are also played on tables that are 5 feet by 10 feet.
Billiard tables are solidly constructed pieces of furniture. The frame is normally made of dried wood to avoid warping. The top of the table, called the bed, is usually made of slate and can weigh as much as 800 pounds (360 kilograms). The raised sides of the table are called rails. They are made of wood with molded rubber cushions that allow balls to rebound off them. A cloth of blended nylon and wool covers the table and serves as the playing surface.
The size and shape of pockets on billiard tables vary with the game. In general, the openings are wide enough to accommodate two balls resting side by side. On American pool tables, the side pockets are slightly larger than the corner pockets. The American pool table pockets are somewhat pointed while the pockets on a snooker table are more rounded. Snooker table pockets are also smaller than pool table pockets.
Billiard balls were once made of ivory. Today, they are manufactured from a durable plastic material. Most pool balls weigh from 51/2 to 6 ounces (160 to 170 grams) and have a diameter of 21/4 inches (5.7 centimeters). Snooker balls are slightly lighter and smaller. Balls used in carom billiards weigh from 7 to 71/2 ounces (200 to 210 grams).
Most cues are made from aged hardwoods. They vary in length and weight, but most are 57 inches (145 centimeters) long and weigh between 14 and 22 ounces (400 and 620 grams). At the thin end of the cue is the cue tip, a small leather attachment that allows the shooter to apply English (spin) to the cue ball. A rough substance called chalk can be applied to keep the tip from slipping off the cue ball when English is applied.
Pool
is the general term for American pocket billiards games. The most widely played pool games are 14.1 continuous, 8-ball, Rotation, and 9-ball. The game of 14.1 continuous begins with 15 balls, numbered 1 through 15. They are racked (arranged) in a triangle at a position on the table called the foot spot. The first shooter must place the cue ball behind a line called the head string and drive it into the triangle of balls. This shot is called the break. The shooter scores a point by pocketing a numbered ball specified by the shooter in a certain pocket. Each player tries to reach a certain number of points before the opponent.
The game is called 14.1 continuous because play stops after the 14th ball has been pocketed. The 14 balls are then racked again without moving the 15th ball and the cue ball. Play then resumes. Players normally try to pocket the 15th ball in such a way that the cue ball breaks up the racked balls and increases the possibility of continuing their string of pocketed balls.
The game of 8-ball is the most popular pool game in the United States. The game begins in the same manner as the start of 14.1 continuous. After the break, the shooter attempts to sink all the balls that are numbered 1 through 7 or 9 through 15, followed by the 8 ball. To win, a player must pocket all the balls in a group and then the 8 ball. A player may shoot at any ball other than the 8 ball until the first ball is pocketed. That ball determines which player has the lower-numbered group and which has the higher-numbered group. If a player accidentally sinks the 8 ball before pocketing the other seven balls, he or she loses the game. If a player sinks the 8 ball on the break, the shooter can either re-rack the balls and break again, or spot (place) the 8 ball on the foot spot. A game is neither won nor lost when the 8 ball is pocketed on the break.
In rotation, players try to pocket balls of greater value than the opponents’ balls. The only requirement is that the cue ball first must strike the lowest-numbered ball. The maximum number of points in a 15-ball game is 120. Therefore, the first player to score 61 points wins.
In 9-ball, only the balls numbered 1 through 9 are used. The balls are racked in a diamond shape with the 9 ball in the middle. The 1 ball sits at the point of the diamond on the foot spot and must be the first ball struck by the cue ball on the break. The lowest numbered ball on the table must be struck first on all shots. To win, a player must sink the 9 ball.
Snooker
is played with 15 red balls and 6 “colored” balls. Each red ball is worth 1 point. The colored balls and their point values are yellow (2), green (3), brown (4), blue (5), pink (6), and black (7). Players try to outscore opponents by the time all balls have been pocketed.
The game begins when one player breaks from anywhere inside a small semicircle behind the head string. This semicircle is called the “D.” On subsequent turns, the player must pocket a red ball before shooting at a colored ball. A red ball and a colored ball cannot be pocketed on the same shot. When a colored ball is pocketed after a red ball, it is returned to its initial spot on the table. After all the red balls have been pocketed, the colored balls are then pocketed in order of ascending value and do not return to the table.
Carom billiards
games are played throughout the world. The most popular versions in the United States are 3-cushion and straight-rail billiards. In both of these games, one player uses the white ball as the cue ball, and the opponent uses the dotted ball as the cue ball. At the start of the game, the white ball and the dotted ball are placed on the foot spot. In order to score a point in 3-cushion billiards, the shooter’s cue ball must strike three or more cushions and one ball in any sequence before hitting the third ball. In straight-rail billiards, a player scores points by merely striking the other two balls with the cue ball.
