The Billiards Table

There are many types of billiards tables used in billiards sports. There is the billiard table, pool table,snooker table, carom and more.

   

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The Carom Billiards Table

   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. 

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The Pool Table

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.

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The Snooker Table

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.

Markings on a Snooker table are as shown.

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The Novelty Table(s)

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.

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Here are some of the nicest & craziest tables!

Here is how the tables are made!