Different Types of Billiard Games to Play

The Billiard Family of Games

When people hear 'billiards' they often picture 8-ball on a bar table, but the billiard family is enormous, dozens of distinct games across three major traditions: pocket billiards (pool), carom billiards, and snooker. Each has its own table, equipment, rules, and strategy culture, and each rewards different skills.

Over fifteen years I've sampled most of them, and the depth of the family surprised me. 8-ball is just the tip of an iceberg. If you're looking for your next challenge after mastering standard pool, there's a lifetime of variant games waiting, some harder, some easier, all of them teaching new skills that transfer back to your main discipline.

Pocket Pool Variants

8-ball is the most common pocket game in America and much of the world. Fifteen balls, players split into solids and stripes, clear your group then pocket the 8 to win. Simple to learn, deep enough to master over a lifetime. 9-ball is pro pool's marquee game. Nine balls, rotation rules (hit lowest numbered ball first), pocket the 9 to win. Fast, aggressive, heavily positional.

10-ball is the pro tour's newer standard, using the 9-ball rotation format with one extra ball and stricter call-shot rules. Harder than 9-ball because safety battles are more common. Straight pool, also called 14.1 continuous, was pool's original championship game. Players accumulate points by pocketing any ball, racking up long runs, Willie Mosconi's record is 526 balls in a single run.

One-pocket is the chess of pool, two players, eight pockets on the table, but each player can only pocket balls into one specific corner pocket. Fifteen balls on the table, first to eight wins. One-pocket rewards patience, safety play, and multi-ball strategy more than any other common pool variant. Cutthroat is a three-player game where each player defends a group of five balls and tries to eliminate opponents' groups.

Snooker, Pool's Older, Harder Cousin

Snooker is played on a 12-foot table with 22 balls, fifteen reds worth one point each, plus six colored balls worth 2 through 7 points (yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, black). Players alternate potting reds and colors, with colors returning to their spots after each pot until all reds are gone. It's the dominant cue sport in the UK, Ireland, and much of Asia.

The table is larger than a pool table, the balls are smaller (52.5 mm vs 57 mm for pool), and the pockets are tighter and angled more sharply. This makes potting considerably harder than in pool. Professional snooker frames often take twenty minutes or more, with safety battles making up a large portion of play.

If you've never played snooker, a session on a proper snooker table will humble you. The shots that feel routine on a pool table become genuinely difficult. But the strategic depth is immense, and top players like Ronnie O'Sullivan are considered by many to be the finest cueists in any discipline.

Carom Billiards, No Pockets

Carom billiards is the continental European tradition, games played on pocketless tables with just three balls. The biggest variant is 3-cushion billiards, where you must hit three cushions before completing a carom off both other balls. It's extraordinarily difficult and the dominant cue sport in Belgium, Netherlands, Turkey, and Korea.

Straight rail and balkline are older carom variants where you must simply hit both other balls with your cue ball, with balkline adding restrictive zones to prevent players from racking up points by nursing the balls in a small area. Straight rail is mostly a historical curiosity today, but balkline still has competitive play in Japan and parts of Europe.

Artistic billiards is a carom discipline focused entirely on trick shots, players execute a predefined series of difficult shots and score based on execution. It's less a game than a technical showcase, and the top artistic players can do things with a cue ball that seem to violate physics.

Bank Pool, Rotation, and Niche Variants

Bank pool requires every ball to be banked (sent off one rail minimum) before being pocketed. It's a shooter's game that punishes sloppy geometry and rewards players who've mastered bank angles. Bank pool tournaments are smaller but have passionate followings, especially in the American South.

Rotation is a numbered-order game played worldwide. Players must hit the lowest numbered ball first, and any legally pocketed ball scores points equal to its number. First to 61 points wins. It's the ancestor of 9-ball and still popular in parts of Latin America and Asia.

Golf pool is exactly what it sounds like, each player picks a ball and tries to pocket it in specific pockets in order, like playing a round of golf with one club. It's a casual variant but fun for groups. Kelly pool is another variant where players draw numbered pills and try to pocket their assigned ball secretly.

Home and Casual Variants

Bumper pool is played on a small rectangular table with bumpers arranged around the playing surface and just two pockets, one at each end. Players shoot at their color balls and try to pocket them in their own end while the bumpers complicate every shot. It's a party-room and basement-bar game rather than a serious billiard discipline, but it's been in American homes for seventy-plus years.

Three-cushion pool (different from 3-cushion carom) is an informal variant where every shot must hit three rails before pocketing a ball. It's essentially a training drill dressed up as a game. Poker pool uses cards and pool balls together, each pocketed ball reveals a poker card, and the best five-card hand wins. It's a fun party variant for mixed-skill groups.

Scotch doubles is a format rather than a game, two-player teams alternate shots on the same rack, one shot each before passing the cue to their partner. It works with any base game (8-ball, 9-ball, anything) and is the most common league partner format in America.