how to play billiards.docx

8/11/2019 How to Play Billiards.docx

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1.

1Grab a friend and a billiards table.Carom billiards, of any variety, requires two people. It

can be played with a third, but standard carom is with two. You'll need your standard

billiards table -- 4 feet by 8 feet, 4 1/2 feet by 9 feet, 5 feet by 10 feet, or 6 feet by 12

feet withoutpockets.[1]This "without" pockets thing is pretty important. You couldplay on a

pool table (pocket billiards), but you'll soon find that the pockets get in the way and could

potentially ruin the game. Here's everything you need to know (and some things you may

not) when it comes to the table:

Those diamonds are for you to use! If you know your geometry, you can use them to aim

your shot. We'll cover that in the next section (strategy).
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The rail by where the first player breaks is called the short, or head, rail. The opposite rail is

called the foot rail, and the long rails are called the side rails.

The area behind which you break, behind the "head string," is called the "kitchen."

The pros play on heated billiards tables. The heat gets the balls to roll more smoothly.[2]

It's green so you can look at it for long periods of time. Apparently humans can handle

green better than any other color.[3]

Ad

2. 2

Determine who goes first by "lagging." That's where you each line up your ball near the

baulk cushion (the short end of the table where you break from), hit the ball, and see who

can return it closest to the Baulk cushion as the ball slows to a stop. The game hasn't even

started yet and it takes skill!

If you hit the other player's ball, you forfeit your chance of calling who starts. If you do win

the lag, it's generally accepted that you go second. The player who breaks generally wastes

their turn setting up the balls, not taking a strategic shot.

3. 3

Set up the game.You'll each need a cue stick, for starters (you had these for the lag,

right?). Billiards cues are actually shorter and lighter than their pool counterparts, with a

shorter ferrule (the white part near the end) and a thicker butt.[4]Then you'll need three balls

-- one white cue ball (heretofore called "white"), one white cue ball with a black spot on it

("spot"), and one object ball, typically red. Sometimes a yellow ball is used in place of the

spot.

The person who wins the lag calls which ball they'd like to be theirs (cue ball), the white or

the spot. It's just a matter of personal preference. The object ball (red) is then placed at the
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foot spot.[5]

That's where the point of the triangle would be in pool, by the way. The

opponent's cue ball is placed at the head spot, where you normally break from in pool as

well. The starting player's cue is then placed on the head string (in line with the head spot),

at least 6 inches (15 cm) from their opponent's cue.[6]

So, obviously, when your ball is in line with your opponent's, it's very hard to hit both balls

on the table. Hence why if you win the lag, you opt to go second.

4. 4

Determine the rules you and your partner want to play by.As with any game that's

centuries old, there are variations in play. Some make it easy, some make it hard, and

some make it faster or slower. How much time do you have on your hands? And how much

skill?

For starters, every type of carom billiards involves getting a point by striking bothballs on the

table. It's howyou do that that changes:

In straight-rail billiards, as long as you hit both balls, you get a point. This is easiest.

In one-cushion billiards, you must hit one cushion (one side of the table) before the second

ball is displaced.[5]

In three-cushion billiards, you must hit three cushions before the balls roll to a stop.[7]

Balkline billiards removes the one flaw in this game. If you manage to get both balls into a

corner, you could, presumably, hit them off of each other over and over and over. Balkline

billiards stipulates that you cannot receive points from a shot where the balls are in the

same area (often the table is divided into 8 sections) of the table.[7]

Once you determine howyou get points, decide at what point you'd like to stop. In one-

cushion, that number is generally 8.[5]But three-cushion is so hard, you'll have better luck

with 2!
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5.

5Play the game!Move your arm smoothly back, then forward in a pendulum motion. The

rest of your body should remain still as you stroke through the cue ball, letting the cue come

to rest naturally. There you have it -- all you gotta do is hit both balls to receive a point --

technically, each turn is referred to as a "cannon."[2]But here are some more specifics:[1]

The player who goes first must hit the red ball (it'd be weird to hit the other, anyway)

If you score a point, continue shooting

Playing "slop" (accidentally getting a point) is generally regarded as illegal

Always keep one foot on the floor at all times

"Jumping" the ball is a foul, as is hitting a ball when it's still in motion
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6.

6Look for the place on the cue ball where the cue tip should connect.You can do this

while taking your practice strokes. Line up your cue stick with where you would hit the ball if

you could hit it directly. Then aim for thatspot.

Most often, you'll want to hit the cue ball squarely in the center. Sometimes, you may want

to hit the ball to one side or another to impart sidespin, or "English," to it to make the ball

travel to one side. Occasionally, you may want to hit the cue ball below center to cause it to

climb over a ball you don't want to move and strike a ball you do want to move.

Part 2 of 3: Mastering the Cue and Your Stance
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1.

1Grip the cue stick correctly.Your shooting hand should grip the butt of the cue stick in a

loose, relaxed manner, with your thumb as a support and your index, middle, and ring

fingers doing the gripping. Your wrist should point straight down to prevent it from moving

sideways when you take your shot.

Your shooting hand should generally grip the cue stick about 6 inches (15 cm) to the rear of

the stick's balance point. If you're short, you may want to move your hand forward of this

point; if you're tall, you may want to move it further back.


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2.

2Place the fingers of your off-hand around the tip to form a bridge.This prevents the

cue stick from moving sideways when you shoot. There are 3 main grips: the closed, the

open, and the rail bridge.

In a closed bridge, you wrap your index fingers around the cue and use your other fingers to

steady your hand. This allows for more control over the stick, particularly with a forceful

forward stroke.
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3.

3In an open bridge, form a V-groove with your thumb and forefinger.The cue will slide

through and you will use your other fingers to keep the cue from moving sideways. The

open bridge is better for softer shots and is preferred by players who have trouble making a

closed bridge. A variation of the open bridge, is the elevated bridge, in which you raise your

hand to lift the cue over an obstructing ball when striking the cue.

Use the rail bridge when the cue ball is too close to the rail for you to slip your hand behind

it. Lay your cue stick over the rail and keep its tip steady with your off hand.
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4.

4Align your body with the shot.Line yourself up with the cue ball and the ball you want to

hit. The foot corresponding to your shooting hand (right foot if you're right-handed, left foot if

you're left-handed) should be touching this line at a 45-degree angle. Your other foot should

be a comfortable distance away from it and forward of the foot matching your shooting

hand.


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5.

5Stand a comfortable distance away.This depends on 3 things: your height, your reach,

and the location of the cue ball. The further away the cue ball is from your side of the table,

the longer you'll have to stretch.

Most billiards games require you to keep at least 1 foot on the floor when shooting. If you

can't do so comfortably, you may either need to take a different shot or use a mechanical

bridge to rest the tip of your cue stick in when you shoot.


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6.

6Position yourself vertically with the shot.Your chin should be rest slightly over the table

so that you're sighting down the cue stick as close to horizontal as comfortable. If you're tall,

you'll need to bend your forward knee or both knees to get into position. You'll also need to

bend forward at the hips.

Either the center of your head or your dominant eye should line up with the center of the

cue stick without tilting. Some professional pool players do tilt their heads, however.

Most pocket billiards players put their heads 1 to 6 inches (2.5 to 15 cm) above the cue

stick, while snooker players have their heads touching or almost touching the cue. The


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closer you bring your head, the greater your accuracy, but at a loss of range for the back

and forward stroke.

Part 3 of 3: Experimenting with Strategy and Game Variations

1.

1Look for your best shot.This depends all on where the balls lie on the table. In carom

billiards games that allow it, you want to take shots that gather the balls together so you can

score repeatedly by bouncing them off one another (in other words,notBalkline). Take a

look at the angles and how it all lines up. Take into account the cushions, if you need to,

too!


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Sometimes, your best shot isn't a scoring shot (offensive shot) but to shoot the cue ball to a

place where your opponent has difficulty making a scoring shot (that is, a defensive shot).

Take a few practice strokes if you need them. This will limber up your arm before the actual

shot.

2. 2

Get to know the "diamond system." Yep, math. But once you get it down, it's fairly

simple. Each diamond has a number. You take the number of the diamond the cue would

hit initially (called the cue position) and then subtract the natural angle (the number of the

diamond on the short rail). This leaves you with a number -- the number of the diamond you

should be aiming for!

3. 3

Play "artistic billiards." Yep, it's a thing. This is where players aim to complete 76 set-upvariations, all of various levels of difficulty. So when you've got the game down, set yourself

(and your friend) up some trick shots. Who can complete the most difficult ones?

If one-cushion billiards is doable, try moving to two. Three is near impossible, even for the

pros! If you can handle two, you should start playing for money!

4. 4

Strike the cue ball in different ways.How the cue ball strikes another ball can determine

the direction the other ball travels. This effect is called "throw" and can be caused either by

the angle at which the cue ball strikes the other ball, how much English was imparted to the


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cue ball, or both. Billiards players who've practiced and studied the effects of their shots

make use of this when they play pool.

Take some time to experiment! The more you see how many options you have, the better

you'll get and the more fun the game will be. Take your carom billiards skill and start playingpool, 9-ball, 8-ball or evenSnooker!

Major games[edit]

The billiards room inside the RoyalAutomobile Club in London.

There are two main varieties

of billiard games: carom and

pocket. The main carom
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billiards games are straight

rail, balklineand

especially three

cushionbilliards. All are

played on a pocketless table

with three balls; two cue balls

and one object ball. In all,players shoot a cue ball so

that it makes contact with the

opponent's cue ball as well asthe object ball. Others of
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multinational interest are four-

balland five-pins.

The most globally popular of

the large variety of pocket

games

are Pooland snooker. English

billiards, with some featuresof carom billiards, was one of

the two most-competitive cue

sports, along with balkline, at

the turn of the previous
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century and is still enjoyed

today especially

in Commonwealthcountries.

Russian pyramidand its

variants like kaisaare popular

in the former Eastern bloc.

Man playing billiards with a cue

and a woman with mace, from anillustration appearing in Michael
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Phelan's 1859 book, The Game ofBilliards.Games played on a carom billiards table[edit]

Main article: Carom billiards

Straigh t rai l or s traigh t

bi l l iards[edit]

Main article: Balkline and

straight rail

In straight rail, a player scores

a point and may continue

shooting each time his cue
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ball makes contact with both

other balls.

Although a difficult and subtle

game, some of the best

players of straight billiards

developed the skill

to gatherthe balls in a corneror along the same rail for the

purpose of playing a series

of nurse shotsto score a
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seemingly limitless number of

points.

The first straight rail

professional tournament was

held in 1879 where Jacob

Schaefer, Sr.scored 690

points in a singleturn[12][page needed](that is, 690

separate strokes without a

miss). With the balls

repetitively hit and barely
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moving in endless "nursing",

there was little for the fans to

watch.

Balk l ine[edit]

Main article: Balkline and

straight rail

In light of these phenomenal

skill developments in straight

rail, the game of balkline soon

developed to make it

impossible for a player to
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keep the balls gathered in

one part of the table for long,

greatly limiting the

effectiveness of nurse shots.

A balkline(not to be confused

with baulk line, which pertains

to the game of Englishbilliards) is a line parallel to

one end of a billiards table. In

the gamesof balkline

18.1and 18.2 (pronounced
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"eighteen-point-two") balkline,

among other more obscure

variations the players have

to drive at least one object

ball past a balkline set at 18

inches (460 mm) from each

rail, after one or two pointshave been scored,

respectively.


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Three-cush ion b i l liards[edit]

Main article: Three-cushion

billiards

A more elegant solution was

three-cushion billiards, which

requires a player to make

contact with the other twoballs on the table andcontact

three rail cushions in the

process. This is difficult

enough that even the best
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players can only manage to

average one to two points per

turn.Games played on a pool table[edit]

Main article: Pool (cue sports)

There are many variations of

games played on a standard

pool table. Popular pool game

include eight-ball, nine-

ball, straight pooland one-

pocket. Even within games

types (e.g.eight-ball), there
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may be variations, and people

may play recreationally using

relaxed or local rules. A few

of the more popular examples

of pool games are given

below.

In eight-ball and nine-ball, theobject is to sink object balls

until one can legally pocket

the

winning eponymous"money
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ball". Well-known but waning

in popularity is straight pool,

in which players seek to

continue sinking balls, rack

after rack if they can, to reach

a pre-determined winning

score (typically 150). Relatedto nine-ball, another well-

known game is rotation,

where the lowest-numberedobject ball on the table must
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be struck first, although any

object ball may be pocketed

(i.e., combination shot). Each

pocketed ball is worth its

number, and the player with

the highest score at the end

of the rack is the winner.Since there are only 120

points available

(1 + 2 + 3 + 15 = 120),scoring 61 points leaves no


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opportunity for the opponent

to catch up. In both one-

pocket and bank pool, the

players must sink a set

number of balls; respectively,

all in a particularpocket, or all

by bank shots. In snooker,players score points by

alternately potting red

ballsand various special"colour balls".
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Two-p layer o r -team

games[edit]

Eight-ball: The goal is

topocket(pot) all of one'sdesignated groupof balls

(either stripesvs. solids,

or redsvs. yellows,depending upon the

equipment), and then pocket

the8 ballin a calledpocket.
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Nine-ball: The goal is to

pocket the 9 ball; the initial

contact of the cue balleach

turn must be with the lowest-

numbered object

ballremaining on the table;

there are numerous variantssuch as seven-ball, six-ball,

and the older forms of three-

ball and ten-ball, that simplyuse a different number of
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balls and have a

different money ball.

Straight pool(a.k.a. 14.1

continuous pool): The goal is

to reach a predetermined

number ofpoints(e.g. 100);

a point is earned bypocketing any called ball into

a designated pocket; game

play is by racksof 15 balls,and the last object ball of a
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rack is not pocketed, but left

on the table with the

opponent re-racking the

remaining 14 before game

play continues.

Bank pool: The goal is to

reach a predeterminednumber of points; a point is

earned by pocketing any

called ball by bankingit intoa designated pocket using
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one or

morecushion.[17][unreliable source?]

Speed pool[edit]

Speed poolis a standard

billiards game where the balls

must be pocketed in as little

time as possible. Rules varygreatly from tournament to

tournament. The International

Speed Pool Challengehas
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been held annually since

2006.Games played on a snooker table[edit]

Eng l ish b i ll iards[edit]

Main article: English billiards

Dating to approximately 1800,

English billiards, called simply

billiards[5]in many former

British coloniesand in Great

Britainwhere it originated,

was originally called

the winning and losing
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carambole game, folding in

the names of three

predecessor games, the

winning game, the losing

gameand the carambole

game(an early form

of straight rail), that combinedto form it.[18]The game

features

both cannons(caroms) andthe pocketing of balls as
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objects of play. English

billiards requires two cue

ballsand a red object ball.

The object of the game is to

score either a fixed number of

points, or score the most

points within a set time frame,determined at the start of the

game.

Points are awarded for:
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Two-ball cannons: striking

both the object ball and the

other (opponent's) cue ball

on the same shot (2 points).

Winning hazards:pottingthe

red ball (3 points); potting

the other cue ball (2 points). Losing hazards(or "in-offs"):

potting one's cue ball by

cannoning off another ball (3

points if the red ball was hit
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first; 2 points if the other cue

ball was hit first, or if the red

and other cue ball were

"split", i.e., hit

simultaneously).

Snooker[edit]

Main article: SnookerSnooker is a pocket billiards

game originated by British

officersstationed

in Indiaduring the 19th
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century, based on earlier pool

games such as black pool

and life pool. The name of the

game became generalized to

also describe one of its prime

strategies: to "snooker" the

opposing player by causingthat player to foul or leave an

opening to be exploited.

In the United Kingdom,

snooker is by far the most
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popular cue sport at the

competitive level, and major

national pastime along

with association

footballand cricket. It is

played in

many Commonwealthcountries as well, especially inAsia.

Snooker is uncommon

in North America, where poolgames such as eight-ball and
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nine-ball dominate, and Latin

Americaand Continental

Europe, where carom games

dominate. The first World

Snooker Championshipwas

held in 1927, and it has been

held annually since then withfew exceptions. The World

Professional Billiards and

SnookerAssociation(WPBSA) was
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established in 1968 to

regulate the professional

game, while the International

Billiards and Snooker

Federation(IBSF) regulates

the amateur games.
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