Billiards

There is nothing I know of that compares (exactly) to the game of pool. It is great fun for even the most novice beginner. And yet, watching professionals play pool leaves you wondering how hard could it be to knock those little globes into the pockets around the table. So whether you play once a year (or less) or every week with the guys, I hope you find the game as fascinating as I do.

Wikipedia Says:

Pocket billiards is the general term for a family of games played on a specific class of billiard table having 6 receptacles called pockets, or holes, along the rails, in which balls can be caused to drop from the playing surface as part of the aim of play. The contrasting class of billiards games, played on pocketless tables, are referred to generally as carom billiards.

Pocket billiards has become synonymous with "pool" and is almost exclusively referred to as "pool" today except by the cue sports industry, but the original "pool" game, skittle pool, was played on a pocketless table. The term "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, and eventually pocket billiards, by association. The billiards industry tried to distance itself from the term "pool" during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (largely unsuccessfully), due to the gambling connotations. The sport is now governed internationally by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA), which has national affiliates such as the US Billiard Congress of America (BCA), and which represents pocket billiards in the World Confederation of Billiard Sports which in turn represents all forms of cue sports in the International Olympic Committee.

There are hundreds of pocket billiards games. Some of the more well known include eight-ball, nine-ball, straight pool, and one-pocket. The game of snooker is played on a table with pockets but is considered to be its own discipline of cue sport and is governed internationally by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association/World Snooker Association (professional) and International Billiards and Snooker Federation (amateur). There are also hybrid games combining aspects of both pocket and carom billiards, such as English billiards, American four-ball billiards, cowboy pool and bottle pool.

Pocket billiards is more popular than carom billiards in most countries of the world.[citation needed] Carom billiard games thrive in Asia, Europe and Latin America, but pool (especially in the form of nine-ball and eight-ball) and snooker are gradually taking over as the most widely played cue games.

lonely cue ball
by Idle Type
8 ball side pocket
by rlr77 eight ball
by Lex in the City Aim
by CinemaCowgirl
shoot
by Lastexit Bofrost's shot
by Alberto Sechi When there were you and me
by vanarts
The Pleasures of Small Motions
by photograffic
one light
by iDream_in_Infrared a pool player's lament
by Photophool A Pool Player's Lament
If chalk could talk of games it's seen,
of wagers won and lost,
of players' dreams and railbirds' schemes
and those who've paid the cost...

If chalk could talk of faded hopes,
lost love and good-time friends,
of smoky rooms and tattered cloth
and roads that never end...

If chalk could talk, I'd listen now,
for I know these things are so.

If only I had heard the chalk
those many years ago.

Scribbled this day
July 18, 2006
by george

(Extra thanks George, you have really captured the essence of playin' pool)
Check out George's website here

One Thing

Restless tonight

Cause I wasted the light

Between both these times

I drew a really thin line

It’s nothing I planned

And not that I can

But you should be mine

Across that line

[Chorus:]

If I traded it all

If I gave it all away for one thing

Just for one thing

If I sorted it out

If I knew all about this one thing

Wouldn’t that be something

I promise I might

Not walk on by

Maybe next time

But not this time

Even though I know

I don’t want to know

Yeah I guess I know

I just hate how it sounds

[Chorus x2]

Even though I know

I don’t want to know

Yeah I guess I know

I just hate how it sounds

Even though I know

I don’t want to know

Yeah I guess I know

I just hate how it sounds

[Chorus x3]

One thing

-Finger Eleven-

So, if you're not already a fan, hopefully this post has inspired you to go look up your local pool hall and take a shot at it! Maybe your love of the game has driven you to an unhealthy obsession. (How much is too much?) But either way, I hope you had as much fun looking at these pictures as I did finding them!

Thanks to everyone for sharing
Enjoi!