The Complete Guide to Billiards

Chapter 1: What Is Billiards and Why People Love It

Let's clear something up right away: billiards is not what you see on ESPN where players in vests are frozen over a table for minutes at a time, calculating impossible angles. That's tournament three-cushion billiards, and it's a beautiful sport, but it's not where most people start or what they actually love. What most of us mean when we say billiards is pool—the game you see in pubs, recreation centers, and dedicated pool halls. It's you, a cue stick (the tapered wooden pole you use to hit the balls), a green (or blue, or slate-gray) felt-covered table with six pockets, and fifteen numbered balls plus one white cue ball. Your goal is simple to understand and surprisingly hard to master: use the white ball to knock the other balls into the pockets, in the right order depending on the game.

The day-to-day experience of billiards is much more accessible than you'd think. You don't need to be an athlete. You don't need to be young. You don't need incredible hand-eye coordination to begin, just the willingness to pay attention. If you can comfortably lean over a table and push a stick forward in a straight line, you can play. The first session usually feels clumsy—your bridge hand (the hand that holds the cue stick steady on the table) feels like it has a mind of its own, and you'll likely send the cue ball flying off the table with more