Pool & Billiards

It’s hard to believe, but the modern game of pool or billiards actually evolved from a lawn game that’s quite similar to croquet. Think of it as an early table version of croquet just as Ping-Pong is a table version of tennis.

This game was popular during the 1400s in France and Northern Europe. It was an indoor game, played on a wooden table that had a green cloth on it to simulate grass. A simple border ran around the edges. Just as with croquet, players shoved balls with wooden sticks that were called “maces.”  The word “billiard” that would eventually be used came from the French word, “bille,” which meant a ball.

This early predecessor of pool was played with two balls and six pockets that had a hoop that resembled a croquet wicket. The target was an upright stick. In the 18th century, the target and hoop eventually disappeared, which left just the balls and pockets.

Originally, billiards was a game played by the wealthy and by royalty. It became known as a nobleman’s game. However, we have historic evidence that even common people played the game almost from the beginning.  As early as 1600, the game was popular enough that Shakespeare referred to it in “Anthony and Cleopatra.”  It was also in the 1600s that the first book of rules for billiards was developed in England.

As billiards continued to evolve, the cue stick was developed. It was found that the mace was inconvenient for use if the ball lay near a rail, thanks largely to the large head on the mace.  Players would turn the mace and use the handle to hit the ball. Thus, the mace evolved into the cue stick (Originally, it was “queue,” because this word meant “tail”–as in the tail of the stick.

Game-play kept evolving over the years. For instance, at first, the walls on the table were placed there only to keep the balls from falling off the table. As people developed their skills, though, they started noticing that they could bounce a ball off the wall to get it to go where they wanted it.  Thus, the bank shot was developed.

In the 1800s, billiards spread rapidly throughout England and eventually made its way to the Americas. In the United States, it became popular in saloons and bars.

The dominant version of Billiards in England from the 1770s through the 1920s was English billiards, played with six pockets and three balls, on a rectangular table.  This game is what first led to the standard billiard-table size.

Today, the most popular Billiards, or pool, variations are 8 Ball in the United States and Snooker in the United Kingdom. There are several other versions too, however. Still popular in bars, pool is also common in private clubs, on college campuses, and even in private homes.

Most recently, pool has become popular, of all places, on the Internet. Playing online pool is completely different, of course, since you’re not using a physical cue stick or ball. However, playing online helps you learn the rules and understand how angles and geometry fit into good game play.