Definition of Percentage

This term refers to a low percentage one pocket shot.

A rare and extremely difficult trick jump shot that turns into a massé upon landing. Requires very precise application of spin in addition to the precise application of ball pressure to effectuate the jump. Turn-of-the-20th-century World Balkline Champion Jacob Schaefer Sr. was known to daringly perform jump massés in competition.

Also in the zone. Describes an extended period of functioning in dead stroke ("She's in the zone").

This is the imaginary line that a ball would need to follow in order for it to result in an effective bank shot.

When a player is playing flawlessly, just "cannot miss" and the game seems effortless.

To reach a certain position in a tournament. "I placed 17th." "She will probably place in the money this time."

The angle from which a ball rebounds from a rail, as measured from the perpendicular to the rail.

This is a shot where the cue ball contacts an object ball and moves it along a path, but because the cue ball is still in motion it re-contacts the object ball and pushes it in the pocket after it stops.

Successive games won without the opponent getting to the table; a five-pack would be a package of five games.

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.

Same as visit.

The number of balls pocketed in an inning in pool (e.g., a run of five balls), or points scored in a row in carom billiards (e.g., a run of five points). Compare British break (sense 2), which is applied to pool as well as snooker in British English.

This is a ball that is resting on the edge of a pocket, and would be a very easy shot to pocket.
This is also used to describe the ball when it rests on the edge of the pocket, almost begging to drop.

Ten Ball is a rotation is a rotation game very similar to nine-ball, using ten balls instead of nine, and with the 10 ball instead of the 9 as the "money ball".
The object of the game is pocket the 10-ball on any legal shot.

Also straight eight-ball. Same as bar pool. Not to be confused with the games of straight pool or straight rail.

See overcut.

Carambole billiards is a French billiards game involving two cue balls and a single red object ball. The purpose of carambole billiards is to obtain points by contacting the object ball and the opponent's cue ball in the same shot.

Describing a situation where a pot is made more difficult, either by a pocket being partially blocked by another ball so that not all of it is available, or the cue ball path to the object ball's potting angle involves going past another ball very closely.

Asian Pocket Billiard Union. The APBU is a member of the WPA.

This is to direct the cue ball by barely contacting an object ball.

To "give someone weight" is to give them a handicap so the game is more even in skill level. If one player is significantly better than the other in a game, then you can add some weight, more or less balls for someone, to even the difficulty load between each player.

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.

When a ball goes into a pocket then pops back out. It really is not witchcraft, but is usually because the pocketed ball was traveling to fast and either ricocheted off the back or sides of the pocket opening. Sometimes,on tables with plastic inserts, the object ball can bounce out from the bottom of the pocket.

A pool table spread in which the balls are extremely easily positioned for a run out, and where little movement of the cue ball on each shot is necessary to obtain position on the next.