Billiard Games

There are many types of billiard games. Here are a few.

Eight Ball

This is the most common game in the US. Many people are surprised to learn that this is not the only game of billiards around.

Eight Ball has

• 7 solid balls (the low numbers, 1-7)
• 7 striped balls (the high numbers, 9-15)
• 1 black eight ball
• 1 white cue ball

One player breaks. If any ball goes in a pocket then they may continue their turn, choosing whether they want to play the solids or stripes. The designated stripe or solid must be hit first by the cue in order for the next turn to count. Players must designate which ball they intend to put into which pocket before taking their turn. They will continue to shoot until they miss a ball, foul, meaning they hit the wrong ball first, fail to get the designated ball in the designated pocket or break any one of the other rules. The object is to get all the solids or stripes in a pocket and finish by pocketing the black 8 ball, without scratching (meaning the white cue ball is also pocketed).

Snooker

Snooker involves a larger table, 22 balls and much more skill than American billiards. After you break the balls, then the object is to alternately hit and pocket a red ball, then a colored ball, red ball, colored ball, and so on.

Carom Billiards

Carom billiards uses only three balls and a table without pockets. There are two cue balls and one object ball. The goal of the game is to hit your cue ball so that it strikes the opponents cue ball and then the object ball in one shot.

There are hundreds of variations of these games, including nine ball, three ball, one-pocket, and bank pool. Pool remains to be a very popular game worldwide, with different types of games being performed in different regions of the world.