Types of Billiards

Cuesports is a blanket terminology to describe the game involving a table, a cue stick and balls.

There are 3 major subdivisions of games within cue sports:

Carom Billiards

Carom billiards, is a unique form of billiards which is extremely different compared to the other 2 forms as this game involves a table without pockets. The standard table size is 5 by 10 feet, which has a size that is larger than a pool table but smaller than a snooker one. This game is played with 3 balls usually one red, one white and one white with a dot although in some pool halls a yellow ball might be used in place of the white one with a dot. The objective of this game is for the player to score as many points possible either within a time frame or to a point cap decided at the start (usually 50, 100 for example). And the way points are scored in this game is for the player to hit his own cue ball into the other 2 balls to score 1 point. If the player has successfully scored a point, he would continue until he fails to score a point and his opponent will take over. Variations of this game include 3 ccushion billiards where the player has to contact 3 cushions or more before striking the second ball. In all variations of the game, the point system would determine the winner.

Pool

Pool, is one of the most common billiard games around the world. In this aspect of pocket billiards, there are 3 variations, namely 8ball, 9ball and 10ball. And all this 3 variations can be played on 3 different sizes of pool tables. This is namely, tables that are 7 feet, 8 feet or 9 feet long. The rules are consistent across all sizes of the pool table. 8 ball pool is inarguably the most common game played in the world recreationally and in pub competitions. This game is played when a full rack of 15 balls are racked up in a triangular formation where the solid and striped balls are arranged alternately with the 8 ball in the centre. This game played against 2 opponents are measured based on the number of racks won and a rack can be won when a player pockets all his balls and then the 8 ball. In this game, the player's balls are decided at the start of the game after the break occurs. He has to either pot all the solid coloured balls or the striped balls and his opponent would therefore take the other. This game is most popular in pubs where people gather together to drink and challenge the player at the table. And the format would be winner stays and a loser comes forward with a coin to pay the table for a challenge! In the second and third variation of 9/10ball, this 2 games are pretty similar where the objective of the game is to pot the last ball. In these 2 games, both players would have the same objective of pocketing the last ball (9 or 10 ball) and that players would have to hit the balls in order. Similar to 8 ball, a pre determined rack count is usually decided before the game begins. This 2 variations are not so popular among recreational players but are played competitive such as in the world championships where there are only 9 and 10 ball tournaments but not 8 ball.

Snooker

Snooker, otherwise known as English Billiards, is the toughest billiard game among the 3. This is due to the nature of the table and pockets where tables are 11 feet long and the pockets are alot tighter than those in pool tables. The objective of this game is based on a scoring system and that scores are accumulated within the same frame to score 1 rack. Best of a number of racks are decided before the commencement of the competition. The layout of the balls are shown above in the image. Players are supposed to pot the balls in the correct order. At the start of the frame, one player would break open the pack and then each player is supposed to pot in a certain order. He would have to pot a red ball and then a coloured ball (which is one of the 6 colours of yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and finally black in increasing points from 2 to 7 points). After a successful pocket of a red and coloured ball, the coloured ball is respotted and the player continues with potting a red ball first. Each red ball is worth 1 point. Once all the red balls have been pocketed, the order to be pocketed for the coloured balls are from the lowest to highest points. Any of the players are allowed to resign the frame at any point of time. The maximum points a player can achieve in snooker is 147 which has only been done extremely few times by even the best in the world.

Apart from these 3 major subdivisions of cuesport game types, there are still types of less well-known variations that involve the use of obstacles and targets such as pins which act as a means for scoring.