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What type of game to choose for a pool table?

312 Views Posted on: 27/09/2022
 

Billiards is a sport of skill with 16,000 licensed players in France. It combines relaxation, strategy and conviviality. The great variety of its models (American billiard, French billiard, English billiard, golf billiard, Nicolas billiard) and types of play makes billiards a coffee game suitable for both novices and experienced players. To help you see more clearly, here is a summary of the different billiard games.

Pool or American billiards

Our Stella Chiberta pool table has the quality and elegance of an American billiard table with a reduced size that allows it to fit perfectly in your living room. The Pool table has 6 pockets and is played with 16 balls, 15 numbered and one cue ball. The balls of our Chiberta have a diameter of 48 mm, that is to say 9,2 mm less than the official dimensions of a classic billiard table to adapt to the compact form without decreasing the feelings of the game. If during official tournaments, American billiards measure 2.20 m, the Chiberta is different with its size of 1.60 m.

Fun and friendly, American billiards is suitable for everyone, whether you are a novice or a professional, thanks to its simple rules and its many variations. Played at least in pairs, it will allow you to share a good time, but also to perfect your strategy and game techniques.

The rules of the game are numerous allowing to vary the pleasure. For example, the 8-ball game, the most famous, consists in pocketing the marbles previously defined as being those of one's camp (full or striped), then finishing with the black one. The player who finishes first wins the game.

The American billiard, the Chiberta of Stella
The American billiard, the Chiberta of Stella

Carambole or French billiards

The French billiard table is not only different from the American one by its name, but also by its official size, its design and its rules. If the table, without pockets, can measure up to 3,10 m during tournaments, we made the choice at Stella to develop a Scipion billiard table with a reduced size, allowing to open the practice of this sport to a wider public. Played with 3 balls of 61.5 mm, one of which is red and two are white, one of which is pointed or yellow, it consists of touching the two balls with the third in the same shot.

Despite the simplicity of its rules at first glance, the game of French billiards requires skill, technique, rigor and reflection in order to master perfectly all the movements of the ball and its effects. Played alone or with others, it appears as a real training tool allowing the development of qualities and techniques useful for the other billiard games, whether French or not. However, the necessary mastery that it implies does not erase its accessibility. Indeed, the diversity of its rules makes it a billiard game suitable for all, both for beginners thanks to the free games, but also for experienced and artistic players.

The Carambole billiard table, the Scipio of Stella
The Carambole billiard table, the Scipio of Stella

The cork billiard or billiard-golf

The cork billiard table was invented in the 1930's in order to offer novelty to the customers of cafés. Although it is still very popular in Belgium, Stella is trying to popularize it again by developing the Tilman billiard table, which differs from the classic cork billiard tables by its reduced size, allowing it to fit perfectly in your home. Like all billiard-golf tables, it is played with obstacles, called corks, on a table with two pockets at each end of the table. They are framed by two stoppers, forming what could be considered a goal. In addition, there are eight other obstacles placed in the center in the form of a cross. Played by two or four players, billiard-golf consists of pocketing the five balls (white or red) in the opponent's hole. Even if its play can require certain technical skills and that there are competitions in Belgium, in the United States and in Germany, the billiard with cork is primarily addressed to the private individuals, whether they are novices or experienced.

The billiard-golf, the Tilman of Stella
The billiard-golf, the Tilman of Stella

The bellows billiard or Nicolas billiard

Traditional wooden game from the North of France invented in 1894 by Mr. Nicolas, Nicolas billiards can be played with family or friends, from 6 years old, making it a fun and friendly activity. Each game, which lasts about 15 minutes, requires 2 to 6 players depending on the model and the number of shutters provided. If this game of skill implies reactivity and concentration, the rules of the game are relatively simple, each player having a pear (or bellows) which he will have to use to avoid that the cork ball falls in his hole, as well as to direct this same ball towards one of his opponents' holes. The winner of the game of billiards is the one who has scored the most points, i.e. the one who has succeeded in protecting his side the best.

Nicolas Stella pool table
Nicolas Stella pool table

The 8-pool billiard or English pool

Derived from American billiards, English Pool, which became Blackball in 2012, has its origins in the desire of English bars to reduce the complexity of the rules, as well as the size of the table in order to adapt it to smaller pieces. Played with 16 balls of 50.8 mm including 7 red, 7 yellow, one black and one white, it consists in pocketing all the balls of its color (yellow or red), finishing with the black. Variants have also been created in order to diversify the game and the techniques. Although it is relatively easy to learn for the uninitiated, 8-Pool billiards nevertheless requires skill and reflection, which is why it is so popular with the public. It is played with two or more players.

8-Pool or Blackball, the game derived from American billiards
8-Pool or Blackball, the game derived from American billiards

Snooker or English billiards

Created at the end of the 19th century by British officers stationed in India, then an English colony, Snooker billiards is now one of the most popular billiards games in the world, especially in the United Kingdom. It takes its name from the nickname given in the army to new recruits and means silly or easy to trap. It is played by two players or in teams of two, with 22 balls of 52.5 mm, 15 of which are red, 6 colored and one white. This billiard game consists of alternately pocketing the red and colored balls with the cue ball (white). For each red ball placed in a hole, the player gets one point. When a colored ball is pocketed, the player scores 2 points if it is yellow, 3 if green, 4 if brown, 5 if blue, 6 if pink and 7 if black. However, these balls must be put back into play until all the red balls are pocketed, and then played in ascending order. It is therefore a game of skill that requires strategy and technical mastery, the goal of the game not only being to pocket your marbles but also to trap your opponent by pushing him to make mistakes.

Snooker billiards
Snooker billiards

The Carrom billiard or Indian billiard

Invented in 1925, Carrom is a very popular billiard game in Asia, especially in India, although it developed in Europe in the 1960s. Played in several rounds, the game is relatively simple: you just have to place, before your opponent, the 9 pieces of your color and the red queen in the holes located at the four ends of the table. To do this, you have to hit them with a puck set in motion by a single finger on the shooting area. The winner is the one who manages to pocket all his pieces. Accessible to all thanks to the simplicity of the rule and the basic shooting technique, it can be played by two, four or even eight players depending on the version.

The Carrom, the Indian billiard
The Carrom, the Indian billiard
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