The traditional mahogany billiards table is still in use, but tables are now generally made of other woods and synthetic materials. The game of carom billiards is still played primarily in France and other European countries and to a lesser degree in the United States and has many players in Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and South Korea and in Central America, South America, Africa, and the Middle East. Snooker is played on the same table and with the same size balls used for English billiards. The game of snooker is primarily British and is played to a small degree in the Americas. Chalk in small cubes is applied uniformly to the cue tip permitting the players to strike the cue ball off centre on purpose in order to impart a spinning motion, called "side" in Great Britain and "English" in the United States. The small end of the cue, with which the ball is struck, is fitted with a plastic, fibre, or ivory reinforcement to which is cemented a leather cue tip. One of the white balls (plain or spot) serves as the cue ball for each player, the red ball and other white ball serving as his object balls.

The game of English billiards is played on a relatively large table, usually 6 feet 1.5 inches by 12 feet (1.9 by 3.7 m); it is played with three balls as in carom-a plain white, a white with a spot, and a red. So if a players assigned cue ball is the yellow cue ball then the white and red balls are the object balls he needs to hit to make a carom. Move a ball a half inch and an ordinary pattern requires a completely different solution than what you’re used to. The cue ball doesn’t need to hit 3 different rails to score either. The main difference between carom billiard games like 3 Cushion and pool is that 3 Cushion doesn’t have any pockets. The extra size gives them much more weight so the balls react differently to spin than pool balls because they have more mass. The other principal games are played on tables that have six pockets, one at each corner and one in each of the long sides; these games include English billiards, played with three balls; snooker, played with 21 balls and a cue ball; and pocket billiards, or pool, played with 15 balls and a cue ball.

Another difference that’s only on the best tables is that the tables are heated. On top of that, professional billiards tables are 10 feet in length as opposed to a standard pool table which is only 9 feet. All billiards games require the basic equipment of a table, cue sticks, and balls. With only 3 balls on the table, the game is far more complicated than other games even though the rules are simple. Kicking and position are the only skills that are used in 3 Cushion so learning to play this game will put any pool players kicks/position play on steroids. And there’s no question that 3 Cushion helps improve your pool game. A pool ball is 57mm in diameter while a billiards ball is 61.5mm. That might not sound like a lot, but it’s a big difference. When the last ball is pocketed, the game is ended. Different forms of the game tend to be played in certain groups of countries or areas of the world, though many of the games cross many national boundaries. The game of English billiards is most popular in Britain and the former empire countries. Balkline - a Carom Billiards discipline.

There are many carom games out there, but 3 Cushion billiards is the most popular. Many countries-among them France, England, China, Italy, and Spain-have been credited with the invention of the game, but, in fact, nothing is really known about the origin of billiards. There are three ways of scoring: (1) the losing hazard, or loser, is a stroke in which the striker’s cue ball is pocketed after contact with another ball; (2) the winning hazard, or pot, is a stroke in which a ball other than the striker’s cue ball is pocketed after contact with another ball; (3) the cannon, or carom, is a scoring sequence in which the striker’s cue ball contacts the two other balls successively or simultaneously. The skill involved consists of developing one scoring stroke after another. A player continues at the table for as long as he succeeds in scoring. The player must first pocket a red ball and then try to pocket any colour he may choose, scoring the value of the ball that he has pocketed. Often in 3 Cushion the cue ball has to hit many more than 3 rails sometimes the cue ball travels seven or eight rails during a game.

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