The World Billiards Championships 2007 is taking place in Singapore at Orchid Country Cluband this year, Singapore Cue Sports has made the finals more challenging and exciting by upping the prize money of US$8 000 (SGD $12194.37) with an additional S$3 000 for the highest break.

To win is no easy feat, as proven by Peter Gilchrist, Singapore’s strongest contender, who said “My highest break under competition conditions was 917 points, and I was standing at the table for 55 minutes. Achieving a break of 750 points would mean that a player has to shoot perfectly every time, for at least 40 minutes”.

But before you can truly appreciate the beauty of billiards, a slightly more complicated and sophisticated sport compared to the simple game of pool, here’s a simple guide to understanding and appreciating Billiards brought to you by UrbanWire.

What is Billiards?

Billiards is played on a table containing 6 pockets and it is 12 ft (3.66m) long and 6ft (1.83m) wide and areas to take note of on the table at the beginning of the game include the ‘Red spot’, the ‘Middle spot’ and the ‘Pyramid spot’, as seen in the figure shown below.

In case you’re wondering, billiards is played using only 3 balls, a red ball and 2 cue balls. If you notice, the 2 extreme ends of the table are named top and bottom cushion. This is important as each of the players chooses from 2 different coloured cue balls, yellow or white at the start of each game. If a player chooses a white ball, the yellow cue ball and red ball become his ‘object balls’, which basically are balls hit by any other ball.

In order to start first, the player has to bounce off the top cushion and roll the ball closest to the bottom cushion.

While the regular snooker which most people play has lesser rules and objectives, it might be easier for snooker players to understand billiards as these two sports are rather similar.

To start off, the black spot in snooker is known as the red spot in billiards while the blue spot in snooker is known as the middle spot in billiards. Also, the pyramid spot, as termed in billiards, is known as the pink spot in snooker.

5 Ways to Score and become the World Champion in billiards

1. Cannon

The cue ball strikes 2 other balls and 2 points are awarded. If the cue ball strikes only 1 ball, the player will lose his turn and not score any points.

Eg. Your cue ball strikes your opponent’s ball, which in turn, strikes the red ball.

2. Potting the Red Ball

The player’s cue ball hits the red ball and causes it to fall into a pocket. 3 points will be awarded and the red ball will be placed back on the ‘Red spot’. The player will then resume play from wherever his cue ball landed.

3. Potting the Opponent’s Ball

If the player’s cue ball causes the opponent’s cue ball to fall into a pocket, the player will score 2 points. He then continues play with only 2 balls, thereby limiting his techniques of scoring. When the opponent comes back into play after the player’s turn, the opponent’s cue ball will be replaced.

4. Inn-off the Red

This happens when the player’s cue ball strikes the red ball but the cue ball itself falls into the pocket. 3 points is awarded and the cue ball is placed back on to the table anywhere within the ‘D’, which is the white semi-circle as seen in the diagram.

5. Inn-off the Opponent’s Ball

This is similar to the previous method, but the opponent’s cue ball falls into the pocket and the red ball is left untouched. In this case, only 2 points are awarded.

How the Experts Do It

1. Top of the table

Experts try to keep all 3 balls around the Red spot to set up opportunities for cannons and inn-offs. The challenging part in this play is trying to get both the red ball and the opponent’s cue ball to the top of the table.

2. Drop Cannon

A method used to get all the balls to the top of the table, a favoured zone, so they will be in close proximity to one another.

When the Balls touch

If the player’s cue ball touched any object ball, all the balls have to be moved back to the spot position, meaning they have to be spotted (as shown in the figure below).

The red ball goes onto the Red spot, the yellow goes onto the Middle spot and the cue ball can be placed anywhere within the ‘D’.

What makes a Foul?

When:

1. There’s a ‘miscue’. (a cue ball touched a ball accidentally)

2. Any part of the player touches a ball accidentally, being it the player’s hands, clothes or body.

3. A shot is taken but the cue ball doesn’t hit any ball.

When any of the above happens, the player loses his turn and 2 points is awarded to the opponent who can choose to begin his play by leaving the balls in their current positions or have them ‘spotted’.

What are you waiting for?

Now that you know how to appreciate a game of billiards, what are you waiting for? Head down to Orchid Country Club where the tournament will be held from 5 to 14 September.

For those who prefer to watch, you can view the tournaments daily, free of charge! What’s more, free shuttle service is available daily from Yishun MRT station at 20 min intervals. Just hop on board the service next to the NTUC Fairprice supermarket to catch Singapore’s Billiards professionals Peter Gilchrist, Alan Puan and Glenn Yeo against other international players!

Click here to find out more about the schedule, or here to warm yourself up with a virtual game of billiards!