

Rules vary widely from place to place (and between continents to such an extent that British-style eight-ball pool/blackball is properly regarded as a separate game in its own right). The most prestigious tournaments including the World Open are sponsored and sanctioned by the International Pool Tour. In the United Kingdom the game is commonly played in pubs, and it is competitively played in leagues on both sides of the Atlantic.
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The goal of eight-ball, which is played with a full rack of fifteen balls and the cue ball, is to claim a suit (commonly stripes or solids in the US, and reds or yellows in the UK), pocket all of them, then legally pocket the 8 ball, while denying one's opponent opportunities to do the same with their suit, and without sinking the 8 ball early by accident. In the United States, the most commonly played game is eight-ball. Main article: Eight-ball File:Eight Ball Rack 2005 SeanMcClean.jpg By comparison, carom billiards cues are generally shorter with larger tips, and snooker cues longer with smaller tips. Modern cue sticks are generally 58.5 inches (148.6 cm) long for pool while cues prior to 1980 were designed for straight pool and had an average length of 57.5 inches (146.1 cm). Modern coin-operated pool tables generally use one of three methods to distinguish and return the cue ball to the front of the table while the numbered balls return to an inaccessible receptacle until paid for again: the cue ball is larger and heavier than the other balls, or denser and heavier, or has a magnetic core. Under the WPA/ BCA (see below) equipment specifications, the weight may be from 5.5 to 6 oz. The balls range from 2.25 inches (57.15 mm) in diameter to 2.375 inches (60.33 mm) in diameter. Modern pool tables generally range in size from 3.5 feet (1.07 m) by 7 feet (2.13 m), to 4.5 feet (1.37 m) by 9 feet (2.74 m). with one black ball and a white cue ball" on a table with pockets. The definition no longer even provides the obsolete meaning found in the print edition, and refers only to the typical game "using two sets of seven coloured and numbered balls. In the United States, although the original "pool" game was played on a pocketless carom billiards table, the term later stuck to all new games of pocket billiards as the sport gained in popularity, and so outside the cue sports industry, which has long favored the more formal term pocket billiards, the common name for the sport has remained pool. The Oxford English Dictionary states that pool is generally "any of various types of billiards for two or more players" but goes on to note that the first specific meaning of "a game in which each player uses a cue ball of a distinctive colour to pocket the balls of the other player(s) in a certain order, the winner taking all the stakes submitted at the start of the contest" is now obsolete, and its other specific definitions are all for games that originate in the United States. Historic print depicting Michael Phelan's billiard saloon in New York City, January 1, 1859. ( January 2011)įile:Michael Phelan's Billiard Saloon.jpg By comparison, the 2022 World Snooker Championship was a huge television event in Old Blighty, with some 4.5 million viewers (via Sporting Life).This section needs expansion. except when ESPN or some other sports network has a programming spot to fill.

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Indeed, you're unlikely to see a billiards competition on TV in the U.S. Despite these differences, the basic gameplay is largely the same: the goal, according to Rules of Sport, is to knock the balls into the pockets, although the similarities in gameplay begin and end there.įinally, there's a cultural consideration: While pool is the most popular cue sport in the United States, in Britain and its former colonies - Canada, India, Australia - snooker is, by far, the more popular sport. Further still, snooker's balls are smaller (and not numbered, according to Game Tables Online), as are its pockets, making it a more challenging game. According to Difference Between, snooker is played on a considerably larger table than pool - 10 feet for American games, 12 feet for British competitions.
