Pool (cue sports)
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Pool is the name given to a series of
The generic term pocket billiards is sometimes also used, and favored by some pool-industry bodies, but is technically a broader classification, including games such as
.Etymology
The etymology of "pool" is uncertain. The Oxford English Dictionary speculates that "pool" and other games with collective stakes is derived from the French poule (literally translated "hen"), in which the poule is the collected prize, originating from jeu de la poule, a game that is thought to have been played during the Middle Ages. Supposedly, participants would put an equal amount of money into a pot and throw stones at a live chicken, and the person who successfully hit the chicken first would win the pooled money.[4][5] Alternatively the term could derive from the verb to pool in the sense of combining objects or stakes. The oldest use of the word "pool" to describe a billiards-like game was made in 1797 in a Virginia newspaper.[6] The OED defines it as 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.[7] In the British Empire for most of the nineteenth through early twentieth century, pool referred specifically to the game of life pool.[8]: 143&187
Although skittle pool is played on a pocketless carom billiards table, the term pool later stuck to all new games of pocket billiards as the sport gained in popularity in the United States,[8]: 186 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 OxfordDictionaries.com definition no longer even provides the obsolete meaning found in the print edition, and refers only to the typical game "using two sets [each] of seven coloured and numbered balls ... with one black ball and a white cue ball" on a table with pockets.[9]
History
With the exception of
The second and more influential game was
Equipment
Pool is played on a
Under World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) official equipment specifications, pool balls weigh from 5.5 to 6 oz (160 to 170 g) and have a diameter of 2.25 inches (57 mm), plus or minus 0.005 inches (0.13 mm).[11][12] 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.
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). By comparison, carom billiards cues are generally shorter with larger tips, and snooker cues longer with smaller tips.
Game types
Racked games
These are games descended from the early 19th century games of pyramid pool and fifteen-ball pool which required balls to be racked due to the large number of them on the table. Of the other pyramid traditions of Continental Europe, only Russian pyramid survives. Snooker, originally known as snooker's pool, can be considered a member of this family.
Rotation games
Rotation games require players to make legal contact with the lowest numbered ball on the table or a foul is called. The earliest rotation game, originally known as
The largest nine-ball tournaments are the
Straight pool
Also known as
Eight-ball
The most commonly played pool game is eight-ball, which appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is often thought of as synonymous with "pool". The game has numerous variations, mostly regional. It is the second most played professional pool game, after nine-ball, and for the last several decades ahead of straight pool.[3]
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 Kingdom the game is commonly played in pubs, and it is competitively played in leagues on both sides of the Atlantic. The most prestigious tournaments including the World Open are sponsored and sanctioned by the International Pool Tour. Rules vary widely from place to place (and between continents to such an extent that British-style
One-pocket
One-pocket owes its origins to 18th century cramp (handicapped) games. It is a strategic game for two players in which each player is assigned one of the corner pockets on the table. This is the only pocket into which that player can legally pocket balls. The first player to pocket the majority of the balls (8) into their pocket wins the game. The game requires far more defensive strategy than offensive strategy, much unlike eight-ball, nine-ball, or straight pool. Most times, accomplished players choose to position balls near their pocket instead of trying to actually pocket them. This allows them to control the game by forcing their opponent to be on defense instead of taking a low percentage shot that could result in a loss of game. These low percentage shots are known as "flyers" by one-pocket aficionados.
Bank pool
Bank pool can be played with a full rack (can be a long game), but is more typically played with nine balls (frequently called "nine-ball bank"). The balls are racked in nine-ball formation, but in no particular order. The object of the game is simple: to be the first player to bank five balls in any order (eight balls when played with a full rack). Penalties and fouls are similar to one pocket in that the player committing the foul must spot a ball for each foul. This must be done before the incoming player shoots.
Artistic pool
Artistic pool is the competitive discipline of trick shots inspired by its carom equivalent. Played on pool or snooker tables, players must complete a set number of shots of varying difficulty.
Hybrid carom or obstacle games
Cowboy pool and bottle pool are games involving only a few balls which are placed at specific spots on the table. Elements of their games go back to the eighteenth century before balls needed to be racked. Bottle pool shares traits with pin billiards games such as Danish pin billiards. Cowboy pool is a descendant of English billiards. Kaisa is a similar game played with different equipment.
Governing bodies
As a competitive sport, pool is governed internationally by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA), which has multi-national, regional affiliates comprising the All Africa Pool Association (AAPA), Asian Pocket Billiard Union (APBU, including the Middle East), Billiard Congress of America (BCA, Canada and the US), Confederación Panamericana de Billar (CPB, Latin America and Caribbean), European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF, including Russia and the Near East), and Oceania Pocket Billiard Association (OPBA, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific islands). The WPA represents pool in the World Confederation of Billiards Sports, which in turn represents all forms of cue sports (including carom billiards and snooker) in the International Olympic Committee.
Notes
- Women's Professional Billiards Association. Normal English grammar would not hyphenate here, and the term is actually a Germanism.
- ^ Game Rules for… Six-pocket. Amityville, New York: U.S. Billiards, Inc. c. 1970. A general rules booklet on pool games in general, including eight-ball, nine-ball and several others.
- ^ a b "History of Snooker and Pool". Sky HISTORY TV channel. Archived from the original on 24 July 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
- ^ "pool | Etymology, origin and meaning of pool by etymonline". www.etymonline.com. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
- OCLC 775418832.
- ^ "entry for Pool, n.3". Oxford English Dictionary. Archived from the original on 11 January 2008. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
- ^ "pool, n., 3.2". Oxford English Dictionary (Third ed.). Oxford University Press. September 2011 [2006]. Archived from the original on 22 April 2024. Retrieved 30 September 2011 – via OED.com.(subscription required)
- ^ ISBN 9781558217973– via Internet Archive.
- ^ "pool, 2, noun, 2". OxfordDictionaries.com. British and World English. Oxford University Press. 2016. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
- ^ ISBN 9781567990614.
- ^ "WPA Tournament Table & Equipment Specifications" Archived 18 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine, World Pool-Billiard Association, November 2001.
- ISBN 978-1-878493-14-9.
- ^ ISSN 0164-761X.
- ^ ISSN 0164-761X.
References
- ISBN 9781558217973– via Internet Archive.
- ISBN 0-15-115223-3
Further reading
- Alciatore, David G. (2017). The Illustrated Principles of Pool and Billiards (ebook). ISBN 9781454927914.
- Alciatore, David G. (May 2017). The Sport of Pool Billiards 1: Techniques and Training Based on PAT Part 1 (ebook). Union Square & Company. ISBN 9781454927914.
- ISBN 9780156005548.
- Eckert, Ralph (8 May 2015). The Sport of Pool Billiards 1: Techniques and Training Based on PAT Part 1 (ebook). ISBN 9783941484986.)
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: CS1 maint: date and year (link - Leider, Nicholas (12 February 2010). Pool and Billiards For Dummies (ebook). ISBN 9780470633946. ISBN 0470633948.)
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: CS1 maint: date and year (link