The billiards rack may seem pointless but is important for billiards. There are a few different shapes the racks come in but they all are used the same, to set up various types of billiards games. For example, theres the eight ball triangle, the nine ball diamond, and the snooker triangle as well as others.
When playing snooker, you use 21 balls. 15 of the balls are red and are placed in a triangle, and six colour balls are placed in different spots on the table. The balls are set up as shown:
Colour Balls:
Blue ball is placed at the center of the table.
The green ball is placed at the right spot on the baulk line
The brown ball is placed between the yellow and green balls
The yellow ball is placed on the left spot on the baulk line.
The black ball is placed at the bottom part of the table, centered behind the red balls.
The pink ball is placed in front of the tip of the triangle.
Red Balls:
Placed in a triangle in between the pink and black balls, the tip is touching the pink ball.
The carom billiards table is used for carom, or carambole, style games. Such as three cushion billiards, cushion caroms,straight rail, balkline, and artistic billiards. It is the only table with no pockets. It is made out of slate, and is covered with cloth. The whole table is also surrounded by rubber cushions. Regulation tables are 10ft x 5ft, and the height is 25-30 inches. The bed of the table, is a piece of slate and usually is heated to about 9 degrees F. Heating tables is an old practice. Queen Victoria of England, had a table that was heated, in 1819-1901. This was one of the first known heated tables, then electricity came into play. The first time electricity was used to heat tables was during the Balkline Tournament in December of 1927.
A pool/pocket billiards table is used for modern billiards/cue sports. It has six pockets, two at each midpoint and one at each corner. Older pool tables sometimes only had four pockets. Pool tables come in different sizes, but for official play there are only two sizes. Which are 9ft x 8.5ft, or 8ft x 7ft. For a 9ft table there is a 100 inch playing surface,and for 8ft tables there is a 92 inch playing surface. The bed of a pool table is made of slate. The slate is 1 inch thick. The pockets of the table have something to catch the balls. The can have cloth bags, wire racks, or plastic cups. Tables found in public areas, when you need to pay to play, have channels for the balls to fall through. Pool tables are a great work of craftsmanship.
The snooker table is unique compared to other tables. It is used in the game of snooker, and other English billiards games. A snooker table is the biggest size table. It is 12ft x 6ft. There is also a smaller snooker table that is 10ft x 5ft. The height of the table is about 3ft. There are cushions, or rails, that are the same as pool and carom tables. The pockets of the snooker table are aligned the same as a pool table, two in the midpoint and one at each corner. On snooker tables the pockets are rounded unlike the knuckle shape of other billiards tables. This affects the difficulty of the player's shot. Another thing that makes the table unique is it's markings. There is a line, called the baulk line, that marks the baulk area. A semicircle is centered on the baulk line with a radius of 11.5 inches. This forms a D shape. This D area is used for scratched shots, to break, or if the cue ball is shot of the table. There is a blue spot that is marked in the center of the table, the black spot is measured 11 3/4 inches from the bottom of the table, the pink spot is measured 27 inches from the bottom, the brown spot is marked at the center of the baulk line, and the green and yellow spots are marked at the left and right parts where the D shape hits the baulk line. (the picture The bed of a snooker table is made of slate, like other tables, and is covered by cloth. The traditional color of the cloth is green, but many other colors are modernly available. The snooker table is a very unique table.
There are many different, sometimes crazy,novelty tables. These tables are mostly used for Pool. They can come in all shapes and sizes. They can be circular, zig zag, hexagonal, and more. Many makers of these tables make some tables with removable tops which can then be used for pool, table tennis, air hockey, and even Foosball. These are very unique tables as well.
A pool stick, used for pocket billiards, it is usually made mostly of maple wood, and it is mixed with fiberglass. Sometimes it is also two pieces that screw together. There are also steel collars, and a pin. Normal Pool sticks are about 58 inches long. They are also available in 17-21 ounces. 19 ounces is the most common. There are many custom sticks. Recently, pool sticks are becoming more technological. They are using materials like fiberglass, carbon fiber, aluminum, etc., for shafts and butts. There has been some experimenting with rubber, memory foam and other soft wraps.
Carom cue sticks are similar to pool sticks, but are shorter and lighter. They also can come in two pieces. They are normally 54-56 inches long, and weights 16.5-18.5 ounces. The tip is also 11-12 mm in diameter. The difference in the Pool and the Carom sticks, is the Carom sticks are stiffer. Which is because of the heavier billiards balls. They also reduce the amount of deflection. Caroms sticks are made widely of wood, and the best sticks are handmade.
These cue sticks are designed for the game, snooker. They are normally 55 inches long, and they have a 6 inch extension piece that makes the stick longer. The tips are normally 8.5-10.5 mm in diameter. They provide more accuracy and finesse, because of snooker balls being smaller then pool and carom balls. Snooker butts are flat on one side. This is so the stick can be laid flat on the table. The flat part helps make the players shots more precise.
Some Cue Stick makers, make a variety of special sticks made for specific shots. There are Pool break sticks are made from a very hard leather, this avoids excessive wear and tear on tips. Jump sticks are shorter and lighter then other sticks, and a very hard tip. It makes the jump shot easier. Some standard cue sticks have a two piece stick, which allows a player to create a jump cue stick. People who play artistic pool, sometimes have 20 or more cue sticks. They are each used for a specific shot. A high quality two piece cue stick that has a nearly invisible wood to wood joint is called a sneaky pete. These sticks look like cheap one piece sticks. Hustlers liked to use these sticks.
The billiards balls of today are very unique. There are training balls, novalty balls, carom balls, international balls, and snooker balls. All of these balls, exept snooker balls, are used in the game of pool.
Pool balls are used in many different pocket billiards games. Like eight ball, nine ball, and one pocket. These balls are mostly called billiard balls in America, and in Europe they are called kelly pool or American balls. Pool balls are used throughout the world. They are also the most commonly used balls. The balls are numbered and colored as shown(9-15 are stripes):
Yellow 5. Orange 9. Yellow & White 13. Orange & White
Blue 6. Green 10. Blue & White 14. Green & White
Red 7. Brown or Burgundy 11. Red & White 15. Brown & White
Carom balls are used to play straight rail, three cushion, and other pocketless billiardgames. There are 3 balls. The colored ball (typically red/maroon) is the object ball, the whiteball with a dot (sometimes yellow) is player two's cue ball, and the final ball is the cue ball for player one. These balls are not numbered and are larger then regular pool balls.
The Training Ball Training billiards balls are used to help beginers get familiar with the game. The balls have targets on them to help make shots. The cue ball, is marked with rings and targets. This is so the practicing player can better decide how much spin to put on the ball. Some sets of training balls come with just a speacil cue ball and others include an object ball marked for aiming practice.
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Novelty Balls Novalty balls are very unique. People nowadays are very interested in speacil cue balls and even entire ball sets. The balls feature sports team logos, cartoon characters, animal print, and many others. Many investors also have a variety of novelty billiard games with unique rules and balls. For example, playing card markings, others with stars and stripes, and yet others in sets of more than thirty balls in several card suits. There are some marbled looking balls from a home table, and there are even blacklight ball sets so you can play in the dark. There are also jokecues. Which are 8 balls with off center weights so that makes there paths curve and wobble. Another set is the miniature pool set. These are intended for under sized toy tables. Some egg cue ball shape has been made. Such as the bobble ball and tag ball. _________________________________________________________________
Snooker Balls
The snooker balls are very cultural. They are American and British based. There are twenty twon balls in a snooker game. There are 15 unmarked red balls, 6 colour balls, and 1 white cue ball. The balls are sometimes numbered with their point values. The numbers are:
This match of Ronnie o'Sullivan vs Mark williams, is one of the greatest games in history. It was the single fastest 147 game ever at 5 minutes and 20 seconds.
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