Types of Billiards

Eight-ball (often spelled 8-ball or eightball, and sometimes called solids and stripes, spots and stripes in the UK or, more rarely, bigs and littles/smalls, and highs and lows) is a pool (pocket billiards) game popular in much of the world, and the subject of international professional and amateur competition.

Carom billiards, sometimes called carambole billiards or simply carambole (and in some cases used as a synonym for the game of straight rail from which many carom games derive), is the overarching title of a family of billiards games generally played on cloth-covered, 1.5-by-3.0-metre (5 by 10 ft) pocketless tables, which often feature heated slate beds.

English billiards was originally called the winning and losing carambole game, folding in the names of three predecessor games, the winning game, the losing game and the carambole game (an early form of straight rail), that combined to form it. Origins. The winning game was played with two white balls, and was a 12-point contest.

Billiard tables: Snooker and pool basically created from billiards. Talking in so far as "carom billiards," the objective of billiards is to hit the article ball with the signal ball, hitting the rails three times, and after that reaching the second ball. There is no requirement for pockets.

Straight pool, also called 14.1 continuous or simply 14.1, is a type of pool game. It was the common sport of championship competition until it was overtaken by faster-playing games like nine-ball (and to a lesser extent eight-ball). In straight pool, the shooter may attempt to shoot at any object ball on the table.