Popular Billiards Games
Billiards in a nutshell is playing pool, but there are a lot of different types of games to be played in billiards. Some of the most famous of these are 9-ball, 8-ball, snooker, One Pocket and Cut Throat. Depending on where you are from will determine the most popular for your region, I think 8-ball and 9-ball has the others beat though.
There is another billiards game played here in the United States known as Straight Pool or Fourteen and One. Back in the day this used to be the most popular game. This game takes a long time to play and involves clearing many racks to end one game, which could cause a game to last a very long time.
In my opinion Eight Ball became the most popular game because of the bar room tables. There are 15 balls and all of them are used in the game. A game consists of one rack and can be completed in a reasonable time frame.
Nine Ball is popular because it is fast paced and the game can be won with a combination any time during the game. I would have to say that Nine Ball is probably the other most popular billiards game besides 8-ball.
One Pocket is a kind of similar to 8-ball, the only difference is that you must hit all of your balls in that same pocket, making it a much more difficult game to run a rack on than 8-ball or 9-ball. The pockets are usually the bottom corner pockets, the side where the ball are racked at.
A popular game for multiple people is Cut Throat. There are three players that are in the billiards game of Cut Throat, and the rules are the same as 8-ball in most cases. One player will have 1-5, the other 6-10, and the last player will have 11-15. The object of this game is to hit any ball in but your own.
These are just a few of the famous billiards games that can be played, there are many more than this. I would recommend learning the basics of 8-ball and 9-ball first, then if you want to expand your playing skills move on to advanced billiards games like snooker or Straight Pool.
