Pool and Billiard Supply

Pool - a Family Game

Pool and/or billiards is a great family game. With a little bit of money to obtain a table and the needed supplies and a bit of patience and your set.

Billiards is a family of games played on a table, with a stick, known as a cue stick, which is used to strike balls, moving them around the table.

All billiard games are generally regarded to have evolved into indoor games from outdoor stick and ball games. The word 'billiard' may have evolved from the French word billart, meaning 'mace', an implement, similar to a golf club, which was the forerunner to the modern cue.

The word 'pool' generally refers to pocket billiard games such as 8-ball, 9-ball, straight pool and one-pocket. The word 'pool' comes from 'poolrooms,' where people gambled off track on horse races. They were called poolrooms as money was 'pooled' to determine the odds. Because such rooms commonly provided billiard tables, pool became synonymous with billiards by association. The terms 'pool' and 'pocket billiards' are now interchangeable.

There are many sizes and styles of pool and billiard tables. Generally, tables are perfect rectangles — twice as long as they are wide. Most pool tables are known as 7-, 8-, or 9-footers, referring to the length of the table's long side. Snooker and English billiard tables are 12 feet long on the longest side. Pool halls tend to have 9-foot tables and cater to the serious pool player. Bars will typically use 7-foot tables which are often coin-operated. Formerly, 10-foot tables were common, but such tables are now considered antique collectors items; a few, usually from the late 1800s, can be found in up-scale pool halls from time to time.

The length of the pool table will typically be a function of space, with many homeowners purchasing an 8-foot table as a compromise. High quality tables are mostly 9-footers, with a bed made of three pieces of thick slate to prevent warping and changes due to humidity. Smaller bar tables are most commonly made with a single piece of slate. Pocket billiards tables normally have six pockets, three on each side (four corner pockets, and two side pockets).

All types of tables are covered with billiard cloth (often called 'felt', but actually a woven wool or wool/nylon blend called baize). Bar or tavern tables, which get a lot of play, use 'slower', more durable cloth. Good quality pool cloth is 'faster' (i.e. provides less friction, allowing the balls to roll farther), and the best quality pool cloth is made from worsted wool. Snooker table cloth traditionally has a nap (consistent fiber directionality) and balls behave differently when rolling against the direction of the nap. The cloth of the billiard table is typically green reflecting its origin[2] (and thus the name of the pool movie The Color of Money--adapted from the Walter Tevis novel of the same name--referring to the color of American currency notes). (Wikipedia)

This site, has combined some of the best online information for pool and billiards enthusiasts. From lights to table and cues there are online sources available. Take advantage of them to find the best for your situation.

Most Popular Articles

The idea of a Billiards Nirvana, or the perfect aiming system is almost as extinct as the Dodo bird and that’s a good thing. This article is excerpted from “Billiards Basic Blueprint�, an e-Book I authored to provide casual billiards players with a thorough grounding in this game. There is no practical aiming system that will
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Pool table lights are hung from the ceiling above the pool table. They should be used whether playing in the day or the night, for consistent visibility. Pool table lights come in many forms. You can window shop for them at your favorite pool halls and bars, or you can go to a lighting outlet. There
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There has been over the years a lot of conversation about the balance of cue sticks, both in the U.S. and overseas, so let us look at all the aspects so you might be an informed buyer when making a purchase. ## How should a cue be balanced? ## The late Willie Mosconi stated in his books to hold the
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