Portal:Cue sports
Portal maintenance status: (October 2018)
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Introduction
Cue sports (sometimes written cuesports), also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by elastic bumpers known as cushions.
Historically, the umbrella term was billiards. While that familiar name is still employed by some as a generic label for all such games, the word's usage has splintered into more exclusive competing meanings in various parts of the world. For example, in British and Australian English, "billiards" usually refers exclusively to the game of English billiards, while in American and Canadian English it is sometimes used to refer to a particular game or class of games, or to all cue games in general, depending upon dialect and context. In other countries, the term "billiards" may be used colloquially to refer to pocket billiard-type games, such as pool, snooker, or Russian pyramid.
Selected general articles
A blackball kick shot in action.
Blackball (sometimes written black ball or yellow-ball) is a pool (pocket billiards) game originating in the United Kingdom and popular across Europe. In the UK and Ireland it is usually called simply "pool". The game is played with sixteen balls (a cue ball and fifteen usually unnumbered object balls) on a small (6 ft × 3 ft or 7 ft × 3 ft 6 in) pool table with six pockets.
Blackball is an internationally standardised variation of the popular bar and club game eightball pool (a.k.a. eight-ball pool or 8-ball pool), closely related to the originally American and now professionally internationalised game eight-ball. The two main sets of playing rules are those of the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA, the International Olympic Committee-recognised governing body of pool) and its affiliate the European Blackball Association (EBA), known as "blackball rules", and the older code of the World Eightball Pool Federation (WEPF), often referred to as "world rules" or the "eightball pool rules". Read more...
The appropriate rack for rotation from the racker's point of view; the 1 ball is at the apex of the rack and is on the foot spot, the 2 is in the corner to the racker's right, the 3 ball is in the left corner, and the 15 is in the center, with all other balls placed randomly, and all balls touching.
Rotation, sometimes called rotation pool or 61, is a pocket billiards game, requiring a standard pool table, cue ball and triangular rack of fifteen pool balls, in which the lowest-numbered object ball on the table must be always struck by the cue ball first, to attempt to pocket (pot) numbered balls for points. Rotation is somewhat similar to nine-ball, but its scoring system is based on points, similar to that of straight pool. However, unlike straight pool, rotation is not a call-pocket game.
As with nine-ball and other similar-format games, some attractions of rotation include performing unconventional or difficult shots to reach the correct ball, and quite often making risky attempts to score higher numbers of points by performing advanced shots such as combination shots (plants), bank shots (doubles) and swerves. Read more...- Golf billiards (also referred to as simply golf in clear context, and sometimes called golf pool or golf pocket billiards) is a pocket billiards game usually played for money. Unlike the majority of such games, it allows more than two people to play without compromises or rule changes. The game borrows concepts from the outdoor game of golf, which is historically related to the cue sports. It is usually played on 10–foot or 12–foot snooker tables as their size and structure are more appropriate (even in billiard halls in the United States where it is in fact more popular than snooker itself, according to the Billiard Congress of America). Read more...
Illustration from Michael Phelan's 1859 book, The Game of Billiards
Cue sports techniques (usually more specific, e.g., billiards techniques, snooker techniques) are a vital important aspect of game play in the various cue sports such as carom billiards, pool, snooker and other games. Such techniques are used on each shot in an attempt to achieve an immediate aim such as scoring or playing a safety, while at the same time exercising control over the positioning of the cue ball and often the object balls for the next shot or inning.
In carom games, an advanced player's aim on most shots is to leave the cue ball and the object balls in position so that the next shot is of a less difficult variety to make the requisite carom, and so that the next shot is in position to be manipulated in turn for yet another shot; ad infinitum. Read more...
Seven-ball is a contemporary rotation pool game with rules similar to nine-ball, though it differs in two key ways: the game uses only seven object balls as implied by its name, and play is restricted to particular pockets of the table. William D. Clayton is credited with the game's invention in the early 1980s. Read more...
Straight pool, also called 14.1 continuous or simply 14.1, is a type of pool game. It was the common sport of championship competition until it was overtaken by faster-playing games like nine-ball (and to a lesser extent eight-ball).
In straight pool, the shooter may attempt to shoot at any object ball on the table. The goal is to reach a set number of points determined by agreement before the game. One point is scored for each object ball pocketed where no foul is made. A typical game might require a player to score 100 points to win. In professional competition, straight pool is usually played to 125 points. Straight pool is a call-pocket game, meaning the player must indicate the intended object ball and pocket on every shot. Read more...- The International Billiards & Snooker Federation (IBSF) is the organisation that governs non-professional snooker and English billiards around the world. As of 7 May 2013, the organisation is headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Read more...
The leather shake bottle used as a carom target in bottle pool.
Bottle pool, also known as bottle-billiards and bottle pocket billiards, is a hybrid billiards game combining aspects of both carom billiards and pocket billiards. Played on a standard pool table, the game uses just two object balls, a cue ball, and a 6¾ inch (171 mm) tall, narrow-necked bottle called a shake bottle or tally bottle, traditionally made from leather, that is placed on the table and used as a target for caroms. Those unfamiliar with the game sometimes mistakenly use its name as a synonym for the very different game of kelly pool. Bottle pool has been described as combining "elements of billiards, straight pool and chess under a set of rules that lavishly rewards strategic shot making and punishes mistakes with Sisyphean point reversals."
Although bottle pool's origins remain obscure, tournament records and newspaper articles confirm that the game has been played since at least the late 19th century. A mention appears in an 1894 New York Times newspaper article announcing a 64 player tournament to be played at a certain Hanover Clubhouse in Brooklyn, New York. The game was more well known in the early-to-mid-20th century, during which references to it appear in numerous books and publications including Sinclair Lewis's Main Street. It is also known to have been played by some notable individuals, such as world-renowned quantum chemist and biochemist Linus Pauling. Read more...- The WPA World Ten-ball Championship is a professional ten-ball pocket billiards (pool) tournament sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association. The event has been held in the Philippines since it's inception, with events played in 2008, and 2009, before missing 2010, and played in 2011. The event was resurrected in 2015, by boxer Manny Pacquiao, campaigning to the World Pool Association for the event to be moved from metro manilla to General Santos. An event for 2018 was announced in June 2018. Read more...
Kelly pool (also known as pea pool, pill pool, keeley, the keilley game, and killy) is a pocket billiards game played on a standard pool table using fifteen numbered markers called peas or pills, and a standard set of sixteen pool balls. Gameplay involves players drawing peas at random from a shake bottle, which assigns to them the correspondingly numbered pool ball, kept secret from their opponents, but which they must pocket in order to win the game. Kelly pool is a rotation game, which means that players must contact the lowest numbered object ball on each shot first until the opportunity to pocket their own is presented. Two rule variants are set forth under rules promulgated by the Billiard Congress of America (BCA). In the simpler form, the object of play starts and ends with the goal of pocketing one's secret ball. In the second, in addition to the goal of pocketing one's secret ball, points are scored in various ways. In the instance where pills are unavailable, a cloth may be used to cover the balls, which are then chosen blindly, recorded, and replaced for play.
Reportedly invented by Chicagoan Calistus "Kelly" Mulvaney in 1893, kelly pool was a popular game during the early- to mid-20th century. Mentions of it were at one time common in US newspapers, often painting it in a negative light as its play was considered a stronghold of gambling. Authorities in various parts of the United States at times called for a moratorium on the game's play. Until 1964, in fact, playing the game was a fineable offense in the state of Montana. Read more...
Novuss (also known as koroona or korona) is a two-player (or four-player, doubles) game of physical skill which is closely related to carrom/ Karrom, and pocket billiards. Novuss is a national sport in Latvia. The board is approximately 100 centimetres (39 in) square, typically made of wood, has pockets in each corner, and lines marked on the surface. The board is usually placed on a stand, but may be placed on a barrel or other surface that allows the pockets to hang down properly. It uses small discs instead of balls, and each player has a small puck instead of the cue ball used in other cue sports. Players use a small cue stick to propel their pucks into their colored object discs (the novuss equivalent of object balls), knocking them into the pockets. The winner is the first one to sink all eight of their object discs (of which there are sixteen in total in two different-coloured sets, plus the two pucks).
The game is sometimes informally referred to as "Baltic billiards" or "Scandinavian billiards", but the latter is a misnomer, since neither Latvia nor Estonia are part of Scandinavia, which instead comprises Norway, Sweden and Denmark. On the other hand, in Sweden and Denmark, a similar game is played under the names 'Couronne' and 'Bob' respectively. However, unlike in novuss, the object discs in Couronne/Bob are arranged into a circle formation on the centre of the board like in carrom, and each player is given fifteen discs instead of eight. Read more...
A pool hall in Chicago, Chris's Billiards, where parts of The Color of Money were shot
A billiard/billiards, pool or snooker hall (or parlour/parlor, room or club; sometimes compounded as poolhall, poolroom, etc.) is a place where people get together for playing cue sports such as pool, snooker or carom billiards. Such establishments often serve alcohol and may have gaming machines, card games, darts, foosball and other games on the side. Read more...
World Champion professional trick shot artist Mike Massey setting up a trick shot.
A trick shot (also trickshot or trick-shot) is a shot played on a billiards table (most often a pool table, though snooker tables are also used), which seems unlikely or impossible or requires significant skill. Trick shots frequently involve the balls organized in ways that are unlikely or impossible to appear in normal play, such as balls being in a straight line, or use props such as extra cues or a triangle that would not be allowed on the table during a game. As an organized cue sports discipline, trick shot competition is known as artistic pool. Read more...
Nine-ball (sometimes written 9-ball) is a contemporary form of pool (pocket billiards), with historical beginnings rooted in the United States and traceable to the 1920s. The game may be played in social and recreational settings by any number of players (generally one-on-one) and subject to whatever rules are agreed upon beforehand, or in league and tournament settings in which the number of players and the rules are set by the sponsors. During much of its history, nine-ball has been known as a "money game" in both professional and recreational settings, but has since become established as a legitimate alternative to eight ball, straight pool and other major competition games.
In recent decades, nine-ball has become the dominant tournament game in professional pool, in the World Pool-Billiard Association, Women's Professional Billiard Association and United States Professional Poolplayers Association. Matches proceed quickly, suitable for the time constraints of television coverage, and the fast-paced games tend to keep the audience engaged. Read more...
Historic print depicting Michael Phelan's Billiard Saloon located at the corner of 10th street and Broadway in Manhattan, January 1, 1859.
Balkline (sometimes spelled balk line or balk-line) is the overarching title of a large array of carom billiards games generally played with two cue balls and a third, red object ball, on a cloth-covered, 5 foot × 10 foot, pocketless table that is divided by balklines on the cloth into marked regions called balk spaces. Such balk spaces define areas of the table surface in which a player may only score up to a threshold number of points while the object balls are within that region.
The balkline games developed to make the precursor game, straight rail, more difficult to play and less tedious for spectators to view in light of extraordinary skill developments which allowed top players to score a seemingly endless series of points with the balls barely moving in a confined area of the table playing area. Straight rail, unlike the balkline games, had no balk space restrictions, although one was later added. The object of the game is simple: one point, called a "count", is scored each time a player's cue ball makes contact with both object balls (the second cue ball and the third ball) on a single stroke. A win is achieved by reaching an agreed upon number of counts. Read more...- Bank pool is a pool game that has as its most fundamental requirement that all scoring shots in the game must be made by banking a called ball off a cushion and into a called pocket. While the game has multiple variations, the predominant version through much of its history was played with a full fifteen-ball rack, of which the winning player was required to legally pocket eight balls. A shortened version of the game using nine balls of which the players must legally pocket five for the win, often called "nine-ball banks," gained popularity in the 1990s and 2000s and is the subject of international professional competition and televised matches. Read more...
Bar billiards is a form of billiards which developed from the French/Belgian game billiard russe, of Russian origin.
Bar billiards in its current form started in the UK in the 1930s when Englishman, David Gill, saw billiard russe being played in Belgium and persuaded the Jelkes company of Holloway Road in London to make a similar table. It is a traditional game played in leagues in Sussex, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Kent, Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Suffolk and Northamptonshire. These counties comprise the All England Bar Billiards Association. There are also leagues in Guernsey and Jersey. Tables were also made by Sams, Riley, Burroughs & Watts and Clare. The standard "league" tables have a playing surface approximately 32 inches (81 cm) wide. Sams also made a narrower version with a 28-inch (71 cm) width playing surface. Read more...
Three-cushion billiards (sometimes called three-cushion carom, three-cushion, three-cushions, three-rail, rails, and the angle game, and often spelled with the numeral "3" instead of "three") is a popular form of carom billiards.
The object of the game is to carom the cue ball off both object balls and contact the rail cushions at least three times before the last object ball. A point is scored for each successful carom. In most shots the cue ball hits the object balls one time each, although hitting them any number of times is allowed as long as both are hit. The contacts between the cue ball and the cushions may happen before and/or after hitting the first object ball. The cue ball does not have to contact three different cushions as long as they have been in contact at least three times in total.
Each player has his own cue ball. In modern three-cushion, the neutral ball is red, and the cue balls are white and yellow. The introduction of the yellow ball (instead of two white balls) has not changed any rules, each player has always used a cue ball of his/her own, with small markings on the white balls in order to discriminate them from each other. The yellow ball makes it easier for spectators to follow the game. Read more...- The World Nine-ball Championships are held annually, and are sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association. The event was first held in 1990, won by Earl Strickland. Events have been held for boys, women and the main world championships since this time, with a girl's tournament being created in 2004. In 2013, the men's championship was changed from being inclusive for all to a men's only event. In 1999, two men's tournaments were held, with one being run by the World Pool Association, held in Spain, and the other not recognised, held in Wales known as the 1999 World Professional Pool Championship. However, both events were later recognised as official world championships for the year of 1999. Read more...
- The WPA World Nine-ball Championship is an annual, international, professional nine-ball pool (pocket billiards) tournament, founded in 1990, sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA), and principally sponsored and organised by Matchroom Sport (who provide the event's official website, under the less specific name World Pool Championship). It is divided into men's, women's and wheelchair Divisions. Since 2010, it is held in Doha, Qatar. Read more...
- The UMB World Three-cushion Championship is a professional carom billiards tournament in the discipline of three-cushion billiards, organized mostly annually by the Union Mondiale de Billard. Until 1953 it was organized by the UIFAB (Union Internationale des Federations d'Amateurs de Billard). During a dispute between the UMB and BWA (Billiards World Cup Association) the UMB decided not to organize the championship between 1988-1991. Instead the overall winner of the World Cup was announced as also the world champion.
From 1928 to 1958 and from 1985 to 1987, matches were played as a single frame with a run to 50 points (or 60 points between 1960 and 1984). From 1994 to 2011 the tournament was played in a set-system, the winner achieving the best of five. Since 2012 it has been changed back to a single frame with the run to 40 points. Read more...
Bagatelle (from the Château de Bagatelle) is a billiards-derived indoor table game, the object of which is to get a number of balls (set at nine in the 19th century) past wooden pins (which act as obstacles) into holes that are guarded by wooden pegs; penalties are incurred if the pegs are knocked over. It probably developed from the table made with raised sides for trou madame, which was also played with ivory balls and continued to be popular into the later nineteenth century, after which it developed into bar billiards, with influences from the French/Belgian game billard russe (with supposed Russian origins). A bagatelle variant using fixed metal pins, billard japonais, eventually led to the development of pachinko and pinball. Bagatelle is also laterally related to miniature golf. Read more...
Carrom (also spelled carom) is a cue sport-based tabletop game of South Asian origin. The game is very popular in Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and surrounding areas, and is known by various names in different languages. In South Asia, many clubs and cafés hold regular tournaments. Carrom is very commonly played by families, including children, and at social functions. Different standards and rules exist in different areas . Read more...- The following is a glossary of traditional English-language terms used in the three overarching cue sports disciplines: carom (or carambole) billiards referring to the various carom games played on a billiard table without pockets; pool (pocket billiards), which denotes a host of games played on a table with six pockets; and snooker, played on a large pocket table, and which has a sport culture unto itself distinct from pool. There are also hybrid pocket/carom games such as English billiards. Read more...
- Chinese eight-ball (sometimes rendered "Chinese" eight-ball, and also known as eight-ball kiss, reversed eight-ball or backwards eight-ball), is an American, two-player pool (pocket billiards) game which combines the play of eight-ball (except by shooting object balls at the cue ball instead of the normal vice versa) with the shooting style of carom billiards games, and is thus a pool–carom hybrid game, like English billiards. It is similar in game mechanics, if not exact rules, to Russian pyramid, but using typical American pool equipment.
The game probably takes its name from the fanciful notion that things might be done backwards on the other side of the world (cf. Chinese fire drill, etc.). Read more... - Cutthroat or cut-throat is a typically three-player or team pocket billiards game, played on a pool table, with a full standard set of pool balls (15 numbered object balls and a cue ball); the game cannot be played with three or more players with an unnumbered reds-and-yellows ball set, as used in blackball. Each player is commonly assigned a set of five consecutively numbered object balls, though the number of balls will vary by number of players. The object of the game is to be the last player with at least one ball of their group remaining on the table.
The name "cutthroat" is not unique to pool, but is used to refer to other games played with three or more players in which all players must fend for themselves, e.g. cutthroat bridge and cutthroat American handball. Read more... - The World Tournament, formerly the World Straight Pool Championship, is a pocket billiards (pool) competition, that has been held annually in United States, since 2006. During its early years, it was the modern global professional title for straight pool (also known as 14.1 continuous), and is organized by Dragon Promotions, in part to restore the game's popularity in the United States. Throughout its history, only the 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2010 editions were sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association to be world championships. Since then, the tournament continues to be held under it's current name without sanctioning. Read more...
- 2014, 2016 and 2017 world champion Mark Selby playing a practice game
Snooker (UK: /ˈsnuːkər/, US: /ˈsnʊkər/) is a cue sport which originated among British Army officers stationed in India in the later half of the 19th century. It is played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth, or baize, with pockets at each of the four corners and in the middle of each long side. Using a cue and 22 coloured balls, players must strike the white ball (or "cue ball") to pot the remaining balls in the correct sequence, accumulating points for each pot. An individual game, or frame, is won by the player who scores the most points. A match is won when a player wins a predetermined number of frames.
Snooker gained its own identity in 1884 when army officer Sir Neville Chamberlain (not the Prime Minister of that name), while stationed in Ooty, devised a set of rules that combined pyramid and life pool. The word "snooker" was a long-used military term used to describe inexperienced or first-year personnel. The game grew in popularity in England, and the Billiards Association and Control Club was formed in 1919. It is now governed by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA). Read more... - The WPA World Eight-ball Championship (W8BC) is a professional eight-ball pocket billiards (pool) tournament that is sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association. From 2004 until 2012 was held in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates and organized by Ahmed Ibrahim and Mithaq Jalali. For the next few years the tournament was not held, however it was announced by the WPA in 2016 that the 8-ball championship would be returning in 2017; it will be organized by Eric Ding and held at the Olympic Centre in Jinan, China.
A total of 64 participants compete in the event, which typically has a total prize purse over US$100,000 (over $200,000 as of 2011). The competition has also been referred to as the Etisalat World 8 Ball Pool Championship and the Damas World 8 Ball Championship, among other variations, for sponsorship purposes, and appears in various spellings ("8-Ball", "8ball", "Championships", etc.). Read more...
Artistic billiards, sometimes called fantasy billiards or fantaisie classique, is a carom billiards discipline in which players compete at performing 76 preset shots of varying difficulty. Each set shot has a maximum point value assigned for perfect execution, ranging from a four-point maximum for lowest level difficulty shots, and climbing to an 11-point maximum for shots deemed highest in difficulty level. There are a total of 500 points available to a player, representing the combined value of a perfect score on all 76 shots, although not all games are played with the full shot catalogue. The governing body of the sport is the Confédération International de Billard Artistique (CIBA).
Each shot in an artistic billiards match is played from a well-defined position (in some venues within a two millimetre tolerance), and each shot must unfold in an established manner. Players are allowed three attempts at each shot. In general, the shots making up the game – even four-point shots – require a high degree of skill, devoted practice and specialized knowledge to perform. Such shots often require extremes in shot-making techniques that are not often employed in other games, such as force follows, force draws, precision multiple-rail kicking, jumps and massés combined with outlandish use of english (sidespin). Read more...
Jacob Schaefer, Sr. tobacco card, circa 1880s
Cushion caroms (or cushion carom billiards) sometimes called by its original name, the indirect game, is a carom billiards discipline generally played on a cloth-covered, 5 foot × 10 foot, pocketless table with two cue balls and a third red-colored ball. The game is sometimes incorrectly referred to as one-cushion or one-cushion billiards, which is the direct translation of its name into English from various other languages such as Spanish ("una banda") and German ("Einband").
Cushion caroms is traceable to 1820s Britain and is a descendant of the doublet game dating to at least 1807, which required the sole object ball to be banked off a cushion before being pocketed or, as it was described in 1833: "...no hazard is scored unless it is made by reverberation." Read more...
Cue balls from (left to right):Not shown: miniature pool—approximately 38 mm (1 1⁄2 in).- Russian pyramid and kaisa—68 mm (2 11⁄16 in)
- Carom—61.5 mm (2 7⁄16 in)
- International pool—57.15 mm (2 1⁄4 in)
- British-style pool (large) —56 mm (2 3⁄16 in)
- Snooker—52.5 mm (2 1⁄15 in)
- British-style pool (regular)—51 mm (2 in)
A billiard ball is a small, hard ball used in cue sports, such as carom billiards, pool, and snooker. The number, type, diameter, color, and pattern of the balls differ depending upon the specific game being played. Various particular ball properties such as hardness, friction coefficient and resilience are important to accuracy. Read more...
A rack (sometimes called a triangle) is a piece of equipment that is used to place billiard balls in their starting positions at the beginning of a pocket billiards game. Rack may also be used as a verb to describe the act of setting billiard balls in their starting positions (e.g. "to rack the balls"), or as a noun to describe a set of balls that are in their starting positions (e.g. "a rack of balls", more often called a pack or a pyramid in British English).
Traditional racks are in the form of triangular frames, usually made from wood, plastic or metal. A modern variation, called a template rack, is made from a thin material (usually 0.14 mm or less) that contains precision cut-outs to hold the balls in place. Purported benefits of template racks include a more consistent racking, and their popularity has warranted specific inclusion in profession rules. Unlike traditional racks, template racks are left on the table during the break shot and removed at the players' earliest convenience. For this reason, template racks are almost never used for games where it is common to slow-break (i.e. not create a large spread of balls) since it is significantly more likely that the rack will interfere with slow-rolling balls. Read more...- The Six-red World Championship (also known as the SangSom 6 Red World Championship for sponsorship purposes) is a six-red snooker tournament, played with the six colour balls and six reds. Kyren Wilson is the reigning champion. Read more...
- The Mosconi Cup is an annual nine-ball pool tournament contested between teams representing Europe and the United States since 1994. The trophy is named after American player Willie Mosconi, and has been compared to the Ryder Cup in golf.
Team Europe beat USA 11-4 on 7 December 2017. Europe have won the tournament 12 times, USA 11 times, and they tied once. Team Europe has won the last 8 consecutive tournaments. Read more...
The World Snooker Championship is the leading snooker tournament both in terms of prestige and prize money. The first championship was held in 1927 and was won by Joe Davis. Davis won the first 15 championships before retiring from the event, undefeated, after his 1946 success. In the 1950s snooker went into a period of decline and the championship was not held after 1952, although an unofficial championship was held until 1957. In 1964 the championship was revived on a challenge basis and in 1969 the championship became a knock-out event again. Since 1977 it has been played at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. The tournament is currently played over 17 days and ends on the first Monday in May. In the modern era (since 1969), the best record is that of Stephen Hendry, who won the title seven times. Steve Davis and Ray Reardon both won six times while Ronnie O'Sullivan has won five titles. The current champion is Mark Williams, who has won the tournament three times. Read more...
Five-pin billiards or simply five-pins or 5-pins (Italian: [biliardo dei] cinque birilli; Spanish: [billar de] cinco quillas), is today usually a carom billiards form of cue sport, though sometimes still played on a pocket table. In addition to the customary three balls of most carom games, it makes use of a set of five upright pins (skittles) arranged in a "+" pattern at the center of the table. The game is popular especially in Italy (where it originated) and Argentina, but also in some other parts of Latin America and Europe, with international, televised professional tournaments (for the carom version only). It is sometimes referred to as Italian five-pins or Italian billiards (Italian: biliardo all'italiana), or as italiana (in Italian and Spanish). A variant of the game, goriziana or nine-pins, adds additional skittles to the formation. A related pocket game, with larger pins, is played in Scandinavia and is referred to in English as Danish pin billiards, with a Swedish variant that has some rules more similar to the Italian game. Read more...- The World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) is the international governing body for pool (pocket billiards). It was formed in 1987, and was initially headed by a provisional board of directors consisting of representatives from Japan, the United States, Sweden, and Germany. , the WPA president is Ian Anderson of Australia, and the organization is headquartered in Sydney. It is an associate of the World Confederation of Billiards Sports (WCBS), the international umbrella organization that encompasses the major cue sports. It also sanctions rules and events for carom billiards. Read more...
A valid ten-ball rack; the 1 is at the apex on the foot spot, and the 10 (the money ball) is in the center. The remaining balls can be in any position.
Ten-ball is a modern pool game. It is a rotation game very similar to nine-ball, but more difficult, using 10 balls instead of nine, and with the 10 ball instead of the nine as the "money ball".
Ten-ball is preferred over nine-ball by some professionals as a more challenging discipline than nine-ball, because it is slightly harder to pocket any balls on the break shot with the more crowded rack, the initial shooter cannot instantly win the game by pocketing the 10 on the break, all shots must be called, and performing a string of break-and-runs on successive racks is statistically more difficult to achieve. Read more...
Four-ball billiards (often abbreviated to simply four-ball, and sometimes spelled 4-ball or fourball) is a carom billiards game, played on a pocketless table with four billiard balls, usually two red and two white, one of the latter with a spot to distinguish it (in some sets, one of the white balls is yellow instead of spotted). Each player is assigned one of the white (or yellow) balls as a cue ball. A point is scored when a shooter's cue ball caroms on any two other balls in the same shot (with the opponent's cue ball serving as an object ball, along with the reds, for the shooter). Two points are scored when the shooter caroms on each of the three object balls in a single shot. A carom on only one ball results in no points, and ends the shooter's inning. Read more...
Bumper pool is a pocket billiards game played on an octagonal or rectangular table fitted with an array of fixed cushioned obstacles, called bumpers, at the center of its surface. The surface of such a table has all the same coating, as for playing in an ordinary pool. As for the pockets, there are only two of them in the bumper billiards.
Playing bumper pool, balls will not move freely over the entire surface. The peculiarity of this game is just that around the perimeter of the playing field special bumpers are exposed. Therefore, getting balls into the pockets becomes very difficult. Read more...- Three-ball (or "3-ball", colloquially) is a folk game of pool played with any three standard pool object balls and cue ball. The game is frequently gambled upon (typically for a twenty dollars (or equivalent) ante per round). The goal is to pocket (pot) the three object balls in as few shots as possible. Theoretically, any number of players can participate, in rotation, but more than five can become unwieldy. The game involves a somewhat more significant amount of luck than either nine-ball or eight-ball, because of the disproportionate value of pocketing balls on the break shot and increased difficulty of doing so. In some areas and subcultures, such as the Asian-American youth-dominated pool hall scene of San Francisco, California, three-ball is a popular local tournament game. Read more...
Racking a game of three-ball with the standard fifteen-ball triangle rack. [taller view]
English billiards, called simply billiards in the United Kingdom, where it originated, and in many former British colonies such as Australia, is a cue sport for two players or teams. Two cue balls (originally both white, with one marked e.g. with a black dot, but more recently one white, one yellow) and a red object ball are used. Each player or team uses a different cue ball. It is played on a billiards table with the same dimensions as a snooker table and points are scored for cannons and pocketing the balls. English billiards has also, but less frequently, been referred to as "the English game", "the all-in game" and (formerly) "the common game". Read more...
Kaisa or karoliina is a cue sport mainly played in Finland. The game originated in Russia, where it is still played to some extent, and is a close cousin to Russian pyramid. Compared to most other billiards-type games, both use similar large 68 mm (2 11⁄16 in) balls, small pockets barely large enough for a ball to enter, and long and heavy cue sticks. Kaisa tables are usually 10 feet long and thus 2 feet shorter than Russian pyramid tables which are usually 12 feet long. It is a two-player or -team game. As with many carom billiards games, both players have their own cue balls used to shoot at the other balls, and usually differentiated by one cue ball having a dot or other marking on it. In all, five balls are used: the yellow object ball (called the kaisa in Finnish), two red object balls, and the two white cue balls (each of which serves as an object ball for the opponent). The game is played to 60 points, in a rather elaborate scoring system, reminiscent of those used in snooker and English billiards, with points being awarded for various types of shots. Like both Russian and English billiards, which are also played on large pocket billiards tables, kaisa is a hybrid of carom and pocket billiards game styles. Kaisa is principally a recreational game, without professional players. However, the first kaisa world championship tournament was held in April 2010. Participants came from 33 countries, and the main tournament was held in Kotka. A Finnish player, Marko Rautiainen, won the championship title. Amateur competition in Finland is widespread and popular, with matches being shown on a dedicated Web show on blip.tv. Read more...
Setting up a game of cribbage with the triangle rack.
Cribbage, sometimes called cribbage pocket billiards, cribbage pool, fifteen points and pair pool, is a two-player pocket billiards game that, like its namesake card game, has a scoring system which awards points for pairing groups of balls (rather than playing cards) that total 15. Played on a standard pool table, participants who pocket a ball of a particular number are required to immediately pocket the companion ball that tallies to 15 when added to the prior ball's number. The goal is to score 5 paired cribbages out of a possible 8, with the exception that the last ball, required to be the 15 ball, is not paired but alone counts as 1 cribbage. Read more...
One-pocket (sometimes spelled one pocket or 1-pocket) is a pocket billiards game. Unlike other games played on a pocket billiard table where any pocket can be used to send in object balls, only two pockets (one for each player) are used in this game. The object of the game is to score points. A point is made when a player pockets any object ball into his/her designated pocket. The winner is the first to score an agreed-upon number of points (usually 8).
If a player pockets an object ball in a pocket other than those at the foot of the table, he/she loses his/her turn and that object ball is respotted, unless an object ball is also potted into his/her designated pocket on the same shot. If the player pockets an object ball in the opponent's pocket, his/her turn also ends but the opponent earns a point, unless the cue ball is also potted, or is hit off of the table. Read more...- Speedball also called speed pool.It is a solitary pool game. As its name suggests, one pockets all the pool balls on the table as quickly as possible. It can be played competitively with the aid of a stopwatch. Read more...
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Selected images
Engraving of an early billiards game with obstacles and targets, from Charles Cotton's 1674 book The Compleat Gamester
The sons of Louis, Grand Dauphin playing the royal game of fortifications, early form of obstacle billiard.
- Cue balls from (left to right):Not shown: half-scale children's miniature pool—approximately 28.5 mm (1 1⁄8 in).
- Russian pool and kaisa—68 mm (2 11⁄16 in)
- Carom—61.5 mm (2 7⁄16 in)
- American-style pool—57 mm (2 1⁄4 in)
- British-style pool (largish) —56 mm (2 3⁄16 in)
- Snooker—52.5 mm (2 1⁄15 in)
- Scaled-down pool—51 mm (2 in) for children's smaller tables
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| Pool games | ||
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| Carom billiards | ||
| Other games | ||
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| Major tournaments |
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