24 Random Essential Billiards Terms
Also bigs, big balls, big ones. In eight-ball, to be shooting the striped suit (group) of balls (9 through 15); "you're big, remember", "you're big balls" or "I've got the big ones". Compare stripes, yellows, high, overs; contrast little.
The precise center of the pool table.
The full fifteen ball set of pool or snooker object balls after being racked, before the break shot (i.e., same as rack, definition 2, and triangle, defn. 2). Chiefly British today, but also an American usage ca. World War I.
This is any game of pool played with money on the line. You can "put some action" on the game.
Same as cheating the pocket. Principally used in snooker.
This is when you win a game of one pocket on your opponents break.
This is a certain type of system used to determine who plays first in the next game. These methods are not synonymous with pool skills, and are more along the lines of flipping a coin, paper-rock-scissors, or drawing straws.
Either of the two shorter rails of a billiards or pocket billiards table.
A combination shot, where hitting the first ball rubs it against the center connecting line of two frozen object balls throwing the second out.
Usually a one-piece cue freely available for use by patrons in bars and pool halls.
This describes a shot where you bank the object ball off of a rail and then sink it in a corner pocket.
The tip of your cue is the smallest but most important piece on all of the stick. Ranging between 12 mm and 14 mm depending on the taper of you shaft, the average and most common tip size is 13 mm. The tip is usually made from treated and compressed leather and is attached at the top of your cue by screw or glue to the ferrule. There are variances in cue tip resistance from soft to hard. The softer offering more chalk retention, and the harder offering more longevity and power transferred through your shot (the hardest, phenolic tips are often used on the break). Because the surface of the tip is beveled it offers you control on the spin and direction of the cue ball in your shot. To keep this control, it is important to scuff up the surface of your cue a little so as to enhance the chalk retention potential. In addition to keeping you tip chalked, you want avoid it mushrooming over the ends of the ferrule after too many impacts without refinement. To much use, and not enough care with proper tools can hinder your ability to master the control from your cue tip to your shot.
In snooker, the pocket nearest the yellow spot.
1- This is a knowledgeable shot showing skill on the movement of the cue ball.
2- This is an experienced one pocket pool player that shows extraordinary skill at coordinating the cue balls and object balls for safety plays.
You can cheat the pocket by angling your shot to go in at the right or left of the pocket opening when sinking a shot. This permits the cue ball to strike the object ball at a different contact point than the most obvious one.
The ornamentation on a cue is often made by inlaying exotic materials into the wood of the butt portion of the cue. Inlays of ebony and ivory are quite common. The value of a cue is often based on the number inlays.
This is the final object ball you need to pocket in order to win a game of one pocket.
A tournament format in which a player must lose two matches in order to be eliminated.
For a player to place money for a wager in an openly visible spot (typically on the hanging light above the table, thus the origin of the phrase); this demonstrates that the money is actually present and obviates any need to demand its production from the loser's pocket. "You want to play for 500? Put it up!"
On a coin-operated bar table, to place one or more coins on the rail, or on the bed of the table under the Template:Cueglosss, as a marker of one's place in line (on queue) to play. "You didn't put your quarters up." And alternative is to put one's name on a list, e.g. on a chalkboard.
On a coin-operated bar table, to place one or more coins on the rail, or on the bed of the table under the Template:Cueglosss, as a marker of one's place in line (on queue) to play. "You didn't put your quarters up." And alternative is to put one's name on a list, e.g. on a chalkboard.
(Jack and Jill) Mixed doubles match (each team has one male and one female).
This describes a shot in carom games where the cue ball is driven all the way across the long rail, crossing the table, to score a point.
Describes a cue ball sliding on the cloth without any top spin or back spin on it.
A shot where the cue ball must hit the object ball so as to make it travel out of a straight line, at a different angle, toward its destination.
The useless but common practice of contorting one's body while a shot is in play, usually in the direction one wishes a ball or balls to travel, as if in the vain hope that this will influence the balls' trajectories; the term is considered humorous.