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Pool (cue sports)

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Pro player David Alcaide at the World Pool Masters 2007


There are hundreds of pool games. Some of the more well known include eight-ball, nine-ball, ten-ball, straight pool, one-pocket and bank pool.

There are also hybrid games combining aspects of both pool and carom billiards, such as American four-ball billiards, cowboy pool and bottle pool.


Historic print depicting Michael Phelan's billiard saloon in New York City, January 1, 1859.

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 of America.[3]

In the United States, though 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,[citation needed] and so outside the cue sports industry, which has long favored the more formal term pocket billiards, pool has remained the common name for the sport.


Standard pool balls

Pool or pocket billiards (as the sport's governing body calls it) is played on a six pocket table. 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).

The balls range from 2.25 inches (57.15 mm) in diameter to 2.375 inches (60.33 mm) in diameter.[4] Under the WPA/BCA (see below) equipment specifications, the weight may be from 5.5 to 6 oz. (156–170 g) with a diameter of 2.25 in. (57.15 mm), plus or minus 0.005 in. (0.127 mm).[5][6] 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


Main article: Eight-ball



Main article: Nine-ball




Main article: Three-ball



Main article: One-pocket


Bank pool

Main article: Bank pool


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), Confederation Panamerica of Billiards (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 Billiard Sports, which in turn represents all forms of cue sports (including carom billiards and snooker) in the International Olympic Committee.

Well-known players

Some well-known players in the sport include Efren Reyes, Earl Strickland, Francisco Bustamante, Nick Varner, Wu Chia-ching, Ralf Souquet, Ronato Alcano, Daryl Peach, Johnny Archer, and Mika Immonen, among others.


  1. ^ "The Official Website for the Governing Body of Pool". Sydney, Australia: World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA). 2011. banner, copyright notice, etc. Retrieved 4 November 2011.  "Pool billiards" is sometimes hyphenated and/or spelled with a singular "billiard". The WPA itself uses "pool-billiard" in its logo but "pool-billiards" in its legal notices. The organization compounds the words to result in an acronym of "WPA", "WPBA" having already been taken by the Women's Professional Billiards Association. Normal English grammar would not hyphenate here, and the term is actually a Germanism.
  2. ^ Game Rules for... Six-pocket. Amityville, New York: U.S. Billiards, Inc. ca. 1970 [copyright date not specified].  Check date values in: |date= (help) A general rules booklet on pool games in general, including eight-ball, nine-ball and several others.
  3. ^ "pool, n.3.2". Oxford English Dictionary (Third ed.). Oxford University Press. September 2011 [2006].  (subscription required)
  4. ^ "World Rules of Carom Carom Billiard" (PDF). Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium: Union Mondiale de Billard. 1 January 1989. Chapter II ("Equipment"), Article 12 ("Balls, Chalk"), Section 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 5 March 2007. Officially but somewhat poorly translated version, from the French original.
  5. ^ "WPA Tournament Table & Equipment Specifications", World Pool-Billiard Association, November 2001.
  6. ^ BCA Rules Committee (2004). Billiards: The Official Rules and Records Book. Colorado Springs, CO: Billiards Congress of America. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-878493-14-9. 
  7. ^ a b Varner, Nick (February 2008). "Killing Me Softly?: The Outbreak of the Soft Break Threatens the Game of 9-ball". Billiards Digest 30 (3) (Chicago, Illinois: Luby Publishing). pp. pp. 34–35. ISSN 0164-761X. 
  8. ^ a b Panozzo, Mike (February 2008). "Long Live the Cup!". Billiards Digest 30 (3) (Chicago, Illinois: Luby Publishing). pp. pp. 34–35. ISSN 0164-761X. 


  • Byrne, Robert (1978), Byrne's Standard Book of Pool and Billiards, New York and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, ISBN 0-15-115223-3