September 12, 2024

Lodsworth Leisurely Times

Time to take it easy

The Difference in Snooker, Billiards, and Pool

snooker set on table

What is the difference between snooker, billiards, and pool?

Snooker, billiard, and pool are often considered the same games with different names. However, these might seem similar in appearance, but they all are distinctive in their rules and equipment. billiard, pool, and snooker are three different games. The number of balls, table size, pockets, cue stick size, rules and many other factors of these games are significantly different from each other. All these differences confuse us when most of us even do not know about the basic rules of a pool game. Therefore, we’ve assembled this article to clarify the confusion and give you a broader overview of each game so you can easily differentiate between each of them.

Billiard

The billiard uses three balls, which all use a combination of the colours red, white, and yellow. You can use the yellow and white billiard balls as a cue ball. Billiard is played on the table with no ball pocket and uses a cue stick. The billiard is also known as carom billiards as it includes several games played with cue sticks and tables; these games are collectively called cue sports. The billiard can be played between two individuals or between two teams; either players or teams have to string to determine that who will start the game first. The rubbery and leathery surface of the billiard table makes the movement of the ball smooth and fact. As the billiard, do not have pockets; therefore, the ball bounces around the table a lot. The diameter of the billiard ball is 7/16, and its table is 10 × 5 feet.

Pool

The pool is a subtype of the billiard game that uses pockets. In the pool, 15 coloured balls and a white ball is used. There are numbers of variation in pool game that uses the different number of balls like eight ball pool, nine-ball pool, three-ball pool each variety use the specific number of balls. The size of a common pool table is 9 feet, and the diameter of each pool ball is 2 1/4 inches. The balls with number names from one to eight are solid coloured, and the other seven balls from number nine to fifteen striped with colour moreover have one solid white cue ball. Although pool table and snooker accessories are similar, the balls used in the pool game are smaller than the billiard balls. The pool table is less bouncy than the billiard table due to the cover sheet. The pool cue stick is longer and has a thinner shaft as compared to the billiard cue stick that has a smaller size and thinner shaft. In the pool game, after the break or the first shot, the players have to decide where they want to play with the striped coloured balls or solids coloured balls. After spotting the seven balls, the eight balls decide that who has won the game.

Snooker

gray scale, man holding cue stick

The snooker uses more balls as compared to the billiard and pool as snooker has 21 different coloured balls and a white cue ball. There are 15 red, one brown, one pink, one green, one black, one blue and one yellow ball and all these balls in the snooker are referred to the object balls. The snooker is significantly different from billiard and pool as in snooker, only three balls are used to hit the other balls as a striker, and the player can only hit the white cue ball in the former. To win the game both opponents have to pocket red balls and object balls to score more points than other players to win the competition does. The table of snooker is also larger than the billiard and pool. A regulation snooker table is 12 × 6 feet. The pockets of snooker are narrower, with the diameter of snooker balls being 2 1/16.

So now that you know the difference between these terminologies, go forth and play Pool, Billiards and Snooker. The choice and confidence in definition is now yours to impress your friends and family, and most of all have fun!