Billiards Vault

Letter c Vocabulary

A player's auction at a pool tournament. Each player is called and players and spectators bid on the player. The highest bidder(s) pays their bid to the calcutta, and by doing so invest in that player's success. If a player wins or places in the tournament, those who "bought" the player receive a percentage of the total calcutta payout, usually tracking the percentage payout of the tournament prize fund. Typically, players have the option of purchasing half of themselves when the high bid is won by a third party. Like english and scotch doubles, usually not capitalized.
Certain rules say you must designate your shot before taking it. Generally this is just calling the ball to be sunk in which pocket, and is not dependent on touching rails or other balls, but very well can be.
In team match play when playing one-on-one matches, if one team is short a player, a player on that team is called back to play a second match.
For example: Team A has 6 players, Team B has 4 players. There will be five individual matches played. For the fifth match Team A can pick a player from Team B to play a second match against their fifth match player.
The ball meant to be struck and sunk in your called shot.
The pocket chosen to house the selected ball in your called shot.
This describes a shot in snooker where the cue contacts more than one object ball.
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.
A particular shot where the object ball hits or grazes another object ball on the way to its pocket or toward hitting yet another object ball.
A player who was not shooting well during a match but suddenly turns it around and starts playing better and more accurately. Also known as "Finding a stroke" or "Found their stroke".
The ACS Canadian affiliate organization, the Canadian Cue Sport Association.
The precise center of the pool table.
This is an imaginary line that separates the halves of the table by crossing at the middle of the side of pockets.
In the UK, one of the two pockets one either side of a pool, snooker or English billiards table halfway up the long rails.
This is a term to describe 100 break points in a game of snooker.
Powdered chalk housed in a cube. This chalk is rubbed into the tip of your cue to help with grip between the tip of the cue and the cue ball. This is more important to use if you are using a medium or hard tip, as opposed to a soft tip, which already provides some good grip. As a warning when purchasing a type of chalk, there is much debate over which chalk offers the best friction, so you best do your research!
To apply chalk to the tip of your cue before a shot.
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.
A type of spin imparted to the cue ball to make it rebound from a cushion at a shallower angle than it would if the spin had not been used.
Nickname for the nine ball, usually only used when playing the game 9-Ball.
In the game 9 Ball, making the nine ball early with a legal shot, but not on the break.
This technique works to keep your shot aligned by eyeing your shot above the table, and then locking your chin into position as you lower down to take your shot.
A situation where the cue ball is directly in front of another ball in the line of the shot such that the player is hampered by it, having to bridge over it awkwardly with the likelihood of a foul looming if the object ball is inadvertently touched.
When the object balls in straight rail pool are lined up close to each other, but extending out from the cushion, and you choose to bounce off the first object ball at the cushion and then come back to graze the second object ball. This technique can be used to continue scoring points as long as you are efficient with the shot.
To play a shot with the stroke and speed that makes it easiest to pocket the object ball, even at the expense of sacrificing position.
To maneuver a ball on a shot so that it will be favorably positioned for later play into a particular pocket, even at the expense of sacrificing position or the inning to achieve that result.
To play a shot using a more difficult application of stroke and speed to achieve a certain desired position for the next shot, even at the expense of or sharply increasing the likelihood of a miss.
When complete focus allows you to execute quality billiards play with simplicity and seeming ease.
This refers to a shot that is not banked, does not hit a rail and goes into the pocket without contacting any other balls on the table.
When the object ball banked of a rail goes directly in a pocket without kissing or touching any other object balls.
When you hit the object ball you are aiming for (or the manditory next ball) without the cue ball hitting other object balls first.
In snooker and British pool, the successful potting of all object balls-on in a single frame.
Verb: "To Clock" To carefully note the abilities or betting inclinations of other players for future reference.
A specific way of holding the shaft in your hand. The closed hand bridge is a hand bridge where the index finger wraps over the cue stick for control.
The material which covers the bed and cushions of a pool table. The cloth used to cover a pool table is very special and can come in a variety of grades. Along with the general quality of the table itself, the cloth play a very important role in how a particular table plays.
Two or more object balls that are touching or are close together.
(Computerized Numerical Control) This is a special appliance used by many cue manufacturers to design the inlays on a cue to precision accuracy. Often times it is looked down upon because this technology departs from the previous standard of "handcrafting" inlays, using a pantograph tool. However, the new technology allows for much more precise cuts at a quicker pace. If you are looking to save some money and appreciate the man made designs that are computer inlayed in your cue, then CNC is the technology for you.
A term applied especially in snooker for a type of double off three cushions, e.g. around the baulk colours and into a centre pocket. Such a shot is very difficult to make and would not normally be played as anything more than a shot for nothing.
The collar is the portion of the joint that is attached to the top of the forearm. This is often stainless steel, wood, ivory, or molded phenolic resin, but in any case, made out of a solid material. This portion of the cue is glued on and threaded to reinforce the pin at the end of the shaft, and to offer a stabilized shot out of its solid construction.
This is when you aim at one particular object ball that is not meant to go in the pocket, but is instead meant to contact another object ball which will continue the combination process or be pocketed.
This is to step up to the table and successfully execute a difficult shot.
This is the point on the object ball where the cue exactly impacts or the point at which two balls touch when they impact.
A type of safety shot in the middle of a safety exchange that is not intended to put the opponent in a difficult situation regarding their next safety, but rather played so as to not leave an easy pot on. A typical example in snooker, which sees the most shots of this kind, is a slow roll-up into the pack.
Also known as 14.1 continuous pool. This game is played on a pocketed table with the fifteen object balls and a cue ball. Every shot must begin with a call, and if made, you get to continue calling shots. The idea is to reach a predetermined score before your opponent. When all but one ball remains, the rack is started over without the apex ball in position, and the last shot is called in such a way as to break the new rack and continue play.
When the cue ball is tucked behind the corner of a pocket, therefore not allowing a direct shot at the object ball without it bouncing of the corner of the rail.
This is the running score of a player during his inning of play. The sum of the continuously scored points, or where the player stands in the run on the table.
This is a particular ball which lends itself to be used as a "blocker" or a "protector."
To use a particular ball as security by playing a safety or leaving it where it will act as one.
CPA is the acronym for the Canadian Poolplayers Association. The CPA is the Canadian league of the APA (The American Poolplayers Association)
Confederation Panamerica of Billiards
A type of nurse shot used in English billiards in which two coloured balls are positioned on either side of the mouth of a snooker table pocket but not touching and, thus placed, can be successively contacted and scored off over and over by the cue ball without moving them.
Deviation of a ball from its initial direction of travel. Often the result of a poor-quality table and may be an artifact of the cloth, the bed, a ball with uneven weight distribution, or simply the floor the table stands on being uneven.
A set of paired balls in the game of cribbage pool that have a number value which combined equal 15. For example, the 8 ball and the 7 ball added together equal 15 and thus constitute one cribbage if pocketed in succession.
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.
This describes a shot where you bank the object ball off of a rail and then sink it in a corner pocket.
This is a bank in which the object ball hit will cross the path of the cue ball on the way to its destination.
This describes a shot where you bank the object ball off of a rail and then sink it in a side pocket.
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.
Area on the corner of a carom table, which is defined by a line between the second diamond on the side rail and the first diamond on the end rail, where only three successive points are allowed before the object ball must be cleared out of the area.
This is a term used in slang to reference the bridge tool.
This is a slang term created by Freddy Bentivegna to refer to a cluster of balls on your side of the table that do not lend to easy pocketing in a game of one pocket.
This is the stick used to contact the cue ball in pool and billiards games. The cue stick is usually made of wood, features a special contact tip, and is usually tapered to slide through your hand. The price of these tools can range from oil change to transmission change depending on the quality of craftsmanship and design.
The white ball struck by the cue (and so used to strike other colored, numbered, object balls) during play.
A material, usually leather, placed on the end of a cue stick that comes in contact with the cue ball.
This is when you strike a cue ball off center to gain control on the movement on the cue ball.
A player of cue sports.
This is the raised portion on the side of the table; the cushions are essentially rubber bumpers covered in the table cloth.
A cue made specificaly for an individual player. The term may also describe a quality product of a low volume yielding cue maker who puts more time and effort into both the design and structural integrity of the cue stick, as opposed to a cue manufacturer that builds their cues in a more assembly line fashion.
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.
Cut Throat is a game of pocket billiards created to support three or five players. Balls are assigned to each player, and the purpose is to sink all the opponent's balls first to eliminate the other players.
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