Pool (cue sports)
[4][5] Alternatively the term could derive from the verb to pool in the sense of combining objects or stakes.
The oldest use of the word "pool" to describe a billiards-like game was made in 1797 in a Virginia newspaper.
[6] The OED defines it as generally "any of various types of billiards for two or more players" but goes on to note that the first specific meaning of "a game in which each player uses a cue ball of a distinctive colour to pocket the balls of the other player(s) in a certain order, the winner taking all the stakes submitted at the start of the contest" is now obsolete, and its other specific definitions are all for games that originate in the United States.
[8]: 143&187 Although skittle pool is played on a pocketless carom billiards table, the term pool later stuck to all new games of pocket billiards as the sport gained in popularity in the United States,[8]: 186 and so outside the cue sports industry, which has long favored the more formal term pocket billiards, the common name for the sport has remained pool.
Rotation games require players to make legal contact with the lowest numbered ball on the table or a foul is called.
The earliest rotation game, originally known as 61, started off as a variant of fifteen-ball pool during the mid-nineteenth century.
The European professional circuit has instituted rules changes to make it more difficult to achieve a legal break shot.
A hotly contested event is the annual Mosconi Cup, which pits invitational European and U.S. teams against each other in one-on-one and scotch doubles nine-ball matches over a period of several days.
Straight pool is a call-pocket game, meaning the player must indicate the intended object ball and pocket on every shot.
The most commonly played pool game is eight-ball, which appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century.
The most prestigious tournaments including the World Open are sponsored and sanctioned by the International Pool Tour.
Pool halls in North America are increasingly settling upon the World Pool-Billiard Association International Standardized Rules.
The growth of local, regional and national amateur leagues may alleviate this confusion eventually.
Artistic pool is the competitive discipline of trick shots inspired by its carom equivalent.
Played on pool or snooker tables, players must complete a set number of shots of varying difficulty.
As a competitive sport, pool is governed internationally by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA), which has multi-national, regional affiliates comprising the All Africa Pool Association (AAPA), Asian Pocket Billiard Union (APBU, including the Middle East), Billiard Congress of America (BCA, Canada and the US), Confederación Panamericana de Billar (CPB, Latin America and Caribbean), European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF, including Russia and the Near East), and Oceania Pocket Billiard Association (OPBA, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific islands).
The WPA represents pool in the World Confederation of Billiards Sports, which in turn represents all forms of cue sports (including carom billiards and snooker) in the International Olympic Committee.
