Encyclopedia of Sport: Every sport from around the world
Topend Sports Logo

Pocket Billiards (Pool)

Pocket billiards, a term more commonly used in North America, and more commonly referred to as just "pool", is a cue sport, played with a cue stick, a set of object balls, and a cue ball. The objective of the sport is the same as any cue sport, to simply strike the object balls into the pockets in a specific order. The sport is very popular in the United States and the UK.



There are many pool games - popular versions include Three-Ball, Eight-Ball and Nine-Ball, as well as Ten-Ball, Straight Pool, One-Pocket and Bank Pool. Only one type of game, the nine-ball, is played at a professional level with several tournaments. 

The variations of the sport each differs in the total number of balls used, the color of balls used, the order in which the balls have to be pocketed, and the scoring system. There could easily be over a hundred variations of pocket billiards, and most of them are used for recreational play only.

cue sport image pool table setup

All variations of pocket billiards is played in a table that has six pockets. Some common aspects of all variations are, balls have to be pocket in a pre-defined order, and pocketing a cue ball or pocketing a ball out of order results in a disqualification.



Similar Sports

Related Pages

send us a comment Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.

Sport Extra

Check out the 800+ sports in the Encyclopedia of Every Sport. Well not every sport, as there is a list of unusual sports, extinct sports and newly created sports. How to get on these lists? See What is a sport? We also have sports winners lists, and about major sports events and a summary of every year.

 → How to Cite