View source for Pool (cue sports)

{{Short description|Family of cue sports}}
{{Redirect|Pocket billiards}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}
[[File:Niels Feijen NL.JPG|thumb|Dutch pool player [[Niels Feijen]] at the 2008 [[European Pool Championship]]]]
[[File:A person setting the cue-balls.jpg|thumb|right|A player racking the balls]]
'''Pool''' is a series of [[cue sports]] played on a [[billiard table]]. The table has six [[Pocket (billiards)|pockets]] along the {{Cuegloss|Rail|rails}}, into which [[Billiard ball|balls]] are shot.<ref name="WPA">{{cite web |url=http://www.wpa-pool.com/ |title=The Official Website for the Governing Body of Pool |at=banner, copyright notice, etc. |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |work=WPA-Pool.com |date=2011 |publisher=[[World Pool-Billiard Association]] (WPA) |location=Sydney, Australia |access-date=4 November 2011 |archive-date=11 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011094434/http://wpa-pool.com/index.asp?content=rules_8ball |url-status=live }} "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 [[w:de:Poolbillard|the term is actually a Germanism]].</ref><ref name="USBilliardsInc">{{cite book |title=Game Rules for… Six-pocket |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |location=Amityville, New York |publisher=U.S. Billiards, Inc. |date=c. 1970<!--Copyright date not specified.-->}} A general rules booklet on pool games in general, including eight-ball, nine-ball and several others.</ref> Of the many different pool games, the most popular include: [[eight-ball]], [[Blackball (pool)|blackball]], [[nine-ball]], [[ten-ball]], [[seven-ball]], [[straight pool]], [[one-pocket]], and [[bank pool]]. Eight-ball is the most frequently played discipline of pool, and it is often thought of as synonymous with "pool".<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |title=History of Snooker and Pool |url=https://www.history.co.uk/history-of-sports/history-of-snooker-and-pool |access-date=6 April 2022 |website=Sky HISTORY TV channel |language=en |archive-date=24 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724093513/https://www.history.co.uk/history-of-sports/history-of-snooker-and-pool |url-status=live }}</ref>

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 [[snooker]], [[Russian pyramid]], and [[Kaisa (billiards)|kaisa]], which are not referred to as pool games. There are also hybrid games combining aspects of both pool and [[carom billiards]], such as [[American four-ball billiards]], [[bottle pool]], [[cowboy pool]], and [[English billiards]].

==Etymology==
[[Image:Michael Phelan's Billiard Saloon.jpg|thumb|Historic print depicting [[Michael Phelan (billiards)|Michael Phelan]]'s [[Pool hall|billiard saloon]] in New York City, 1 January 1859.]]<!-- We need much more on the history of the game -->

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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=pool {{!}} Etymology, origin and meaning of pool by etymonline |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/pool |access-date=7 April 2023 |website=www.etymonline.com |language=en |archive-date=7 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407184034/https://www.etymonline.com/word/pool |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Forsyth |first=Mark |title=The etymologicon : a circular stroll through the hidden connections of the English language |date=2012 |publisher=[[Berkley Books]] |isbn=978-0-425-26079-1 |edition=Berkley trade pbk. |location=New York |oclc=775418832}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal|title=entry for Pool, n.3|journal=Oxford English Dictionary|url=http://www.oed.com/|access-date=15 February 2018|archive-date=11 January 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080111125659/http://www.oed.com/|url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=pool, n., 3.2 |title=Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|edition=Third |orig-year=2006 |date=September 2011 |via=OED.com |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/147721 |access-date=30 September 2011 |archive-date=22 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240422032318/https://www.oed.com/dictionary/pool_n3 |url-status=live }}{{subscription required}}</ref> In the [[British Empire]] for most of the nineteenth through early twentieth century, ''pool'' referred specifically to the game of [[life pool]].<ref name="Shamos 1999">{{Shamos 1999}}</ref>{{rp|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,<ref name="Shamos 1999"/>{{rp|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.<ref>{{cite web |title=pool, 2, noun, 2 |version=British and World English |work=OxfordDictionaries.com |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2016 |url=https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/pool |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120724051142/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/pool |url-status= dead |archive-date= 24 July 2012 |access-date=15 July 2016}}</ref>

==History==

With the exception of [[one-pocket]], games typically called "pool" today are descended from two English games imported to the United States during the 19th century. The first was [[English billiards]] which became [[American four-ball billiards]], essentially the same game but with an extra red {{Cuegloss|Object ball|object ball}} to increase scoring opportunities. It was the most popular billiards game in the mid-19th century until dethroned by the carom game [[straight rail]]. American four-ball tournaments tried switching to carom tables in the 1870s but this did not save it from being doomed to obscurity; the last professional tournament was held in 1876.<ref name="Shamos 1999"/>{{rp|5–6}} [[Cowboy pool]] is a surviving member of this group of games.

The second and more influential game was [[pyramid pool]]. By 1850 a variant called [[fifteen-ball pool]] became popular. Both games were supplanted by [[continuous pool]] in 1888, the immediate forerunner of [[straight pool]] (1910).<ref name="Shamos 1994">{{cite book |last1=Shamos |first1=Mike |title=Pool |url=https://archive.org/details/poolhistorystrat0000sham |url-access=registration |date=1994 |publisher=[[Friedman/Fairfax]] |location=New York City |isbn=9781567990614 |ref=Shamos 1994}}</ref>{{rp|39–43}} New games introduced at the turn of the 20th century include [[Kelly pool]] and [[eight-ball]]. The distinctive appearance of pool balls with their many colors and division between solid and striped balls came about by 1889.<ref name="Shamos 1999"/>{{rp|246}} Prior to this, object balls were uniformly deep-red and differentiated only by numbers. English pyramid pool and [[life pool]] players were the first to adopt balls with different colors. The stripes were the last addition.<ref name="Shamos 1994" />{{rp|90–91}}

==Equipment==
[[File:American-style pool table diagram (empty).png|thumb|A pool table diagram]]
Pool is played on a [[Pool table|six pocket table]]. Modern pool tables generally range in size from {{convert|3.5|by|7|ft|m|2}}, to {{convert|4.5|by|9|ft|m|2}}.

Under [[World Pool-Billiard Association]] (WPA) official equipment specifications, [[billiard ball#Pool|pool balls]] weigh from {{convert|5.5|to|6|oz|g|abbr=on}} and have a diameter of {{convert|2.25|in|mm|sigfig=4}}, plus or minus {{convert|0.005|in|mm|sigfig=3}}.<ref name="WPAequipspec">[http://wpa-pool.com/index.asp?content=rules_spec "WPA Tournament Table &amp; Equipment Specifications"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110218145007/http://wpa-pool.com/index.asp?content=rules_spec|date=18 February 2011}}, [[World Pool-Billiard Association]], November 2001.</ref><ref name="BCAbook">{{cite book |date=2004 |title=Billiards: The Official Rules and Records Book |publisher=[[Billiard Congress of America]] |location=Colorado Springs, Colorado |page=5 |isbn=978-1-878493-14-9 |author=BCA Rules Committee}}</ref> 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 stick]]s are generally {{convert|58.5|in|cm|1}} long for pool while cues prior to 1980 were designed for straight pool and had an average length of {{convert|57.5|in|cm|1}}. 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 [[Rack (billiards)|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, also has roots in pyramid. 

====Rotation games====
[[Image:Nine-ball rack.jpg|thumb|One of many correct nine-ball racks: the 1 ball at the {{cuegloss|Apex|apex}} centered over the {{cuegloss|Foot spot|foot spot}}, the 9 ball at center, the other balls placed randomly, and all balls touching.]]
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 [[Rotation (pool)|61]], started off as a variant of [[fifteen-ball pool]] during the mid-nineteenth century. The name "rotation" came from how the balls were placed around the table in its unracked offshoot [[Chicago (pool)|Chicago]]. 61 has spawned many variations of its own such as [[American rotation]], [[nine-ball]], [[ten-ball]], and [[Kelly pool]]. Of these, nine-ball is the most popular and the predominant professional game with ten-ball as the second-most prominent.<ref name="Varner BD 2008-02">{{BDMag |first=Nick |last=Varner |date=February 2008 |title=Killing Me Softly? The Outbreak of the Soft Break Threatens the Game of 9-ball |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=4–35}}</ref>{{Clarify|date=February 2008}}<!--Additional pre-2008 sources needed here.--> There are many local and regional tours and tournaments that are contested with nine-ball. The [[World Pool-Billiard Association]] (WPA) publishes the world standardized rules. The European professional circuit has instituted rules changes to make it more difficult to achieve a legal break shot.<ref name="Varner BD 2008-02"/><ref name="Panozzo BD 2008-02">{{BDMag |first=Mike |last=Panozzo |date=February 2008 |title=Long Live the Cup! |volume=30 |issue=3| pages=34–35}}</ref>

The largest nine-ball tournaments are the [[US Open Nine-ball Championship]] and the [[WPA World Nine-ball Championship]] for men and women. A hotly contested event is the annual [[Mosconi Cup]], which pits invitational European and U.S. teams against each other in one-on-one and {{Cuegloss|Scotch doubles|scotch doubles}} nine-ball matches over a period of several days. The Mosconi Cup games are played under the more stringent European rules, as of 2007.<ref name="Panozzo BD 2008-02"/>

====Straight pool====

{{main|Straight pool}}
Also known as [[14.1 continuous]], this game originated as a slight modification of [[continuous pool]], another offshoot of fifteen-ball pool. The shooter may attempt to shoot at any object ball on the table. The goal is to reach a set number of points determined by agreement before the game. One point is scored for each object ball pocketed where no {{Cuegloss|Foul|foul}} is made. A typical game might require a player to score 100 points to win. In professional competition, straight pool is usually played to 125 points. Straight pool is a ''{{Cuegloss|Call shot|call-pocket}}'' game, meaning the player must indicate the intended object ball and pocket on every shot.

====Eight-ball====
{{main|Eight-ball}}
{{Multiple image
|total_width=400
|image1=Eight Ball Rack 2005 SeanMcClean.jpg
|caption1=[[Eight-ball]] rack: Full rack of fifteen balls, ready for the break shot
|image2=British Style Pool Balls.jpg
|caption2=Correct set up for [[Blackball (pool)|blackball]]
}}
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]].<ref name="auto"/>

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 [[Blackball (pool)|eight-ball pool/blackball]] is properly regarded as a separate game in its own right). Pool halls in North America <!--and many other places ??--> are increasingly settling upon the [[World Pool-Billiard Association]] International Standardized Rules. But tavern eight-ball (also known as "{{Cuegloss|Bar pool|bar pool}}"), typically played on smaller, coin-operated tables and in a "winner keeps the table" manner, can differ significantly even between two venues in the same city. The growth of local, regional and national amateur leagues may alleviate this confusion eventually.

====One-pocket====
{{main|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====
{{main|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 shot]]s inspired by its [[artistic billiards|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 (cue sport)|Kaisa]] is a similar game played with different equipment.

==Governing bodies==
{{anchor|Governing body|reason=Old title, may be linked.}}
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==
{{reflist}}

==References==
{{portal|Sports|Games}}
{{commons category}}
{{reflist|group=loop-pool}}
{{refbegin}}
*{{Shamos 1999}}
*{{Citation |last=Byrne |first=Robert |authorlink=Robert Byrne (author)|date=1978 |title=Byrne's Standard Book of Pool and Billiards |place=New York and [[London, England|London]] |publisher=[[Harcourt Brace Jovanovich]] |isbn=0-15-115223-3}}
{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aF21EAAAQBAJ |title=The Illustrated Principles of Pool and Billiards |first1=David G. |last1=Alciatore |isbn=9781454927914 |year=2017 |format=ebook |publisher=[[Sterling Publishing|Union Square & Company]] |language=English}}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yLpsCQAAQBAJ&q=pool+billiards |title=The Sport of Pool Billiards 1: Techniques and Training Based on PAT Part 1 |first1=David G. |last1=Alciatore |isbn=9781454927914 |date=May 2017 |format=ebook |publisher=Union Square & Company |language=English}}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dG5INsTkJAsC&q=pool+billiards |isbn=9780156005548 |title=Byrne's New Standard Book of Pool and Billiards |year=1998 |type=Paperback |publisher=[[Harcourt Brace & Company]] |language=English |first1=Robert |last1=Byrne |authorlink1=Robert Byrne (author)}}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yLpsCQAAQBAJ |isbn=9783941484986 |date=May 8, 2015 |format=ebook |publisher=[[Litho]] |language=English |first1=Ralph |last1= Eckert |title=The Sport of Pool Billiards 1: Techniques and Training Based on PAT Part 1}}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C-mt6DVhbHkC&q=pool+billiards |title=Pool and Billiards For Dummies
|first1=Nicholas |last1=Leider |isbn=9780470633946 |series=[[For Dummies]] |date=February 12, 2010 |format=ebook |publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]] |language=English}}
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[[Category:Pool (cue sports)| ]]
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