Billiards

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Billiards is a game consisting of billiard balls, cuess, and a particular table (usually slate covered in felt, twice as long as it is wide - e.g. 4'X8', 4.5'X9', 5'X10'. There are numerous games that have different goals of winning (e.g. making a certain number of balls, or a certain ball). Games are played by hitting a "cue ball" into an object ball with the cue stick. The name derives from the correlation of the number of numbered balls in a standard billiard set and the number of zeroes in the number one billiard (fifteen).

In 1865, John Wesley Hyatt patented a composition material resembling ivory for a billiard ball (US50359), winning $10,000 prize from Phelan and Collender of New York City for the best substitute for ivory. This was the first U.S. patent for billiard balls.

Table of contents

1 Billiard games by table type
2 More information
3 Links

Billiard games by table type

French or Continental billiard table (no pockets)
- three cushion billiard
- straight rail
English billiard table
pool table
- rotation or straight pool
- eight ball (also known as stars and stripes)
- nine ball
- seven ball
- banks
- Flanges
- one pocket
- six pocket
- cowboy
- indian
- cutthroat
Russian billiard table (pockets are 74mm, balls are 68mm)
- Russian Pyramid
- Moscow Style
bumper pool
bar billiards

More information

BCA Hall of Fame
History of Billiards
Pool Hustling
Byrne, Robert. 1998. Byrne's New Standard Book of Pool and Billiards. ISBN 0156005549.