There are hundreds of different billiard games including the popular 8 ball pool, snooker and 9 ball pool. Every cue sport game played on a long rectangular cloth-covered table, a cue stick and a set of balls belongs to the family of billiard games.

The long list of billiard games includes single-player games (such as speed pool), games played on a billiard table with no pockets (carom billiard games like 3-cushions), billiards games combined with other popular games (pokerball, golf pool) and many more.

Basic Types of Billiards Games

Generally, billiards games divide into two basic types: pocket billiards games and carom billiards games.
Pocket Billiards Games
Pocket billiards games are played on a table with six pockets, two of them are side pockets and the remaining four are corner pockets. A standard set of billiards balls consists of 15 colored, numbered balls. Some pocket billiards games, such as 9-ball pool or 7-ball pool for example, are played with fewer balls (7 and 9, respectively).

Pocket billiards games are also known as pool games. The most popular pocket billiards games are 8-ball, 9-ball, straight pool (also known as 14.1 continuous) and one pocket. Although played on a table with six pockets, snooker is not a member of the pocket billiards games. Snooker rules are set by different governing bodies and the equipment used in snooker is slightly different.

Carom Billiards Games Carom billiards games are all played on table with no pockets and only 3 balls. Each player is assigned a cue ball and the object of most carom games is to carom the opponent's cue ball and the object ball (known as the red ball) in one shot.

In the beginning of the 20th century, carom billiards games were more popular than pocket billiards games. As you probably know, things has changed since then and pocket billiards games aka pool games dominant both the professional competitions and amateur pool halls.

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