I am of the age that when hearing the word billiards, I automatically think of a game played on a snooker table but with three balls, one red and two white.  Pocket billiards or pool refers to a game played on a six pocket billiard table. 
Anyone interested in billiards must have played a game of [...]

I am of the age that when hearing the word billiards, I automatically think of a game played on a snooker table but with three balls, one red and two white.  Pocket billiards or pool refers to a game played on a six pocket billiard table. 

Anyone interested in billiards must have played a game of pool at any one time.  By the year 1674 the game of billiards was still very similar to the version played on the ground.  Early billiards was actually closer to golf or croquet and there were a number of variations on the game. 

After the cue itself, the next radical change to the game of billiards was the invention of the cue tip by Captain Mingaud, an imprisoned French soldier, in the early 1800’s. 

Chaos theory as it applies to billiards is basically the theory, and this is simplified of course, that when you strike the pool table cue ball with the cue stick and it gets sent hurtling towards the rack of balls, once it hits those balls they will react in a random pattern rather than is a predictable one.  A game is considered open as soon as the balls are positioned and the cue ball struck with the cue stick across the head string. 

Unless specified by the game it is considered foul if the cue ball jumps in shot.  Most of us know that when we miss a shot and it bounces off the horn of the pocket, it is because we were off just slightly on the pinpoint we were targeting on the cue ball or the object ball.  When playing a combination shot on a hanger, and that hanger is any ball but the nine-ball, try to keep the first object ball from grazing the rail on the way in. 

There are almost as many theories as to the origin of billiards as there are billiard players in the world, therefore you have to take what you will be reading in these articles with a grain of salt, at least as far as early history is concerned. 

Lately some of the leading billiards players are very young and extremely physically fit.  So the typical nutrition recommendations that go with weight training for strength will be found in the special Billiards nutrition that leading experts are recommending for billiards players they happen to be coaching or mentoring. 

With the market and demand for billiards increasing at an alarming rate, a demand for standardized rules, tables and equipment had to be met.