Billiards Rack

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.

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Eight Ball Triangle

In the game eight ball, 15 balls are used. The balls are set up as:

• The corner balls must be a solid and striped
• 8 ball is placed in the center 
• 1 ball is at the front
• Balls should be tightly packed

For amateur eight ball play the balls are set up like:

• The outer edge of the triangle must be pattern of solid, stripe, solid, stripe.
• Sometimes balls can be placed in numerical order.

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The Snooker Triangle/Setup

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.

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The Nine Ball Diamond

In nine ball the 1 through 9 balls are used. To start the balls are placed in a diamond shape.

They set up like this:

• 1 ball is placed at the front of the diamond
• Balls must be hit by lowest number first.
• 8 ball is at the back of the rack.
• 9 Ball is in the center.

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Here is an article about how to properly rack billiards balls.

Here is a video that shows how to make CUSTOM billiards racks.