The evolution to what we in America know as Pool has been long and drawn out. Before we get into details, it’s good to know exactly what you’re dealing with when it comes to pool tables. Most tables today are made with 3 pieces of slate cut from the same large piece. Smaller 6-foot (1.8 m) tables are sometimes used in places where a larger table would be too large. However, the tables are constructed similarly to 9-foot (2.7 m) snooker tables, with rounded pocket openings, napped cloth and flat-faced rail cushions. WPA professional competition generally employs regulation tables, while the amateur league championships of various leagues, including BCAPL, VNEA, and APA, use the seven-foot tables in order to fit more of them into the hosting venue. The World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA), the governing body of pool which has continental and national affiliates around the world, promulgates standardized rules as Pool Billiards - The Rules of Play. Meanwhile, many amateur leagues - such as the American Poolplayers Association (APA) and its affiliate the Canadian Poolplayers Association (CPA), the Valley National Eight-ball Association (VNEA) and the BCA Pool League (BCAPL) - use their own rulesets which have slight differences from WPA rules and from each other.

Unless you only have a single car garage, there’s plenty of room for a table. Official artistic pool competitions often feature equipment limitations, such as playing with a single cue or all shots not being allowed to leave the bed of the table. The game is played with 22 balls, made up of one white ball (the cue ball), 15 red balls, and six numbered coloured balls including one yellow 2, one green 3, one brown 4, one blue 5, one pink 6, and one black (valued at 7 points). Balls pocketed on the break, or as the result of a foul while the table is still open, are not used to assign the suits. The result is continuously consistent and predictable results. This results in some differences in gameplay approach. If you’re a somewhat experienced player, what is billiards you may be able to tell just by shooting a few balls. The general rules of pool apply to eight-ball, such as the requirements that the cue ball not be pocketed and that a cushion be hit by any of the balls after the cue ball has struck an object ball.

It has since become the most popular cue sport in China, and the major tournaments have some of the largest prize money in pool. If the 8 ball is pocketed on the break, then the breaker can choose either to re-spot the 8 ball and play from the current position or to re-rack and re-break; but if the cue ball is also pocketed on the break (colloquially referred to as a "scratch") then the opponent is the one who has the choice: either to re-spot the 8 ball and shoot with ball-in-hand behind the head string, accepting the current position, or to re-break or have the breaker re-break. The cue ball is placed anywhere the breaker desires behind the head string. This excludes "split" shots, where the cue ball strikes one of the shooter's and one of the opponent's object balls simultaneously. Backwards eight-ball, also called reverse eight-ball, is a variant in which, instead of shooting the cue ball at an object ball to force the object ball into a pocket, the player strikes the object ball with their cue so it caroms off the cue ball and into a pocket, in a fashion similar to Russian pyramid. The shooter deliberately pockets the opponent's balls while shooting the 8 ball.

The balls in the rack are ideally placed so that they are all in contact with one another; this is accomplished by pressing the balls together toward the apex ball. To start the game, the object balls are placed in a triangular rack. One person is chosen by some predetermined method (e.g., coin toss, lag, or win or loss of previous game or match) to shoot first, using the cue ball to break the object-ball rack apart. Pocket Billiards with Cue Tips. The term billiards comes from the French. All billiards games require the basic equipment of a table, cue sticks, and balls. This rule grants them optimal control over the cue ball’s placement and subsequent strategy. In short, a world-standardized rules game of eight-ball, like a game of nine-ball, is not over until the "money ball" is no longer on the table. If a player commits a table scratch, the opposing player takes over with ball in hand anywhere on the table. If the player pockets the 8 ball and commits a foul or pockets it into another pocket than the one designated, the player loses the game.