Billiards, Snooker and Pool: The games of Cue

Whenever i watched someone playing with the round coloured balls with cue, i always wondered what is it called. I always made wrong guesses about the game being Billiards, Pool or Snooker. All three games vary in table size, ball size, rules, cue size and width, and even the number of pockets used.

Here is a small piece which differentiates between all the three forms of the cue game.

Billiards

In Billiards, only three balls are used whose colors are white, yellow, and red. The white and yellow balls can be used as cue balls. Billiards is played either between two individuals or two teams.

Points are awarded through cannon, winning hazard, and losing hazard. Lets understand what does it mean?

Cannon
In cannon, the cue ball is hit in order to hit the other cue ball and then the red ball two points will be scored.

Winning Hazard
In winning hazard, a player has to pot the red ball and in this case three points are scored.

Losing Hazard
In losing hazard, a player can score in the following conditions −

1. If he hits another cue ball which hits the red ball and pot it three points will be scored.

2. If the red ball is hit first and then the other cue ball, then two points are scored.

3. If the other cue ball is hit and then the red ball and the red ball is not potted, two points are scored.

4. If the red and the other cue ball hit simultaneously, then two points are scored.

Now lets take a look at Snooker

Snooker
Snooker is comparatively a popular form of the cue game. Instead of three, snooker game is played with 22 balls.
In snooker, 22 balls are used which include one cue ball, 15 red balls, and one ball each of yellow, brown, blue, pink, black and green colors. In this sport, a player has to pot one red ball and one colored ball.

The winner is decided on the basis of the number of points. A player will score one point by potting the red ball. Then he has to shoot the colored ball from least valued ball to the most valued ball. The player has to shoot least valued ball first and then move to the next valued ball.

The Snooker Champion
Pankaj Advani created history in 2016 by winning the Asian 6-Red Snooker title. In the process, he became the first player to win both the world and Asian titles. He reached the second round of the Indian Open. He followed this by reaching the semi-finals of the Six-Red World Championships where he lost to eventual champion Ding Jinhui.

Now lets take a look at what is Pool?

Pool
Pool was originated in Great Britain, Billiards was originated in France. It is also formally known as pool billiards or pocket billiards. This is an indoor sport and played on a pool table. The table has six holes along the sides which are also called as receptacles or pockets.
As we discussed earlier there are 22 balls in snooker, 3 balls in billiards. Unlike, these two,In pool, there are nine balls with numbers and stripes print.
Pool has different variants and based on that number of balls are declared. In eight-ball pool there are 15 balls, in nine-ball pool, there are nine balls and in three-ball pool, there are three balls.

After the first shot, the players have to choose whether to play with solid colored balls or striped colored balls. After potting either of the seven balls, the 8 ball has to be potted.

An individual can win if −

• he pots the 8 ball legally after potting all the seven balls.
• the opponent illegally pots the 8 ball.
• 8 ball is knocked off the table.

Pool Champion

Efren Reyes is all time best pool player in the world. Efren Manalang Reyes, OLD, PLH (born August 26, 1954) is a Filipino professional pool player. He was also termed as the Magician.
A winner of over 70 international titles, Reyes is the first man in history to win World Championships in two different disciplines.