The games: pool, snooker and carom.

The biggest difference between the cue sports is the table. Pool and snooker are played on tables with pockets, and you score or win by sending balls into them. Carom billiards is played on a table with no pockets at all, so every point comes from the cue ball contacting the other balls. Within each family, the games differ in how many balls are used, which ball you may hit, and what counts as a win.

The three families

Pool (pocket billiards)

The World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) publishes the international rules for pool. Its current Rules of Play, effective 15 September 2025, open with general rules, definitions and fouls, then give separate sections for 8-Ball, 9-Ball, 10-Ball, 14.1 Continuous (straight pool), Blackball, Heyball, Pyramid, Artistic Pool, One-Pocket, Bank Pool and the IEPF International Rules. Heyball, Pyramid and Artistic Pool are marked as under review, with the rulebook pointing readers to the WPA website for them.

The pool games covered here use a cue ball plus a set of numbered object balls: fifteen in eight-ball, straight pool and one-pocket, the 1 through 9 in nine-ball, the 1 through 10 in ten-ball, and either nine or fifteen in bank pool. Start with the general rules, which define the fouls and ball-in-hand rules the individual games build on.

Snooker

Snooker's rules come from the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA). The game uses a white cue ball, fifteen reds worth one point each and six colours worth two to seven points. The WPBSA sets the playing area at 3569 mm by 1778 mm (11 ft 8.5 in by 5 ft 10 in) and the balls at 52.5 mm across. The same rulebook covers English billiards, which is played on a table of the same size with balls of the same diameter. See snooker.

Carom billiards

Carom is played with three balls: a white cue ball, a yellow cue ball and a red object ball. Each player shoots their own cue ball, and the opponent's cue ball serves as one of the two object balls. The Union Mondiale de Billard (UMB) governs carom and is one of the three federations in the World Confederation of Billiards Sports. The best known carom game is three-cushion. Other carom games include straight rail, where any stroke that sends the cue ball into both object balls scores; balkline, which divides the table into spaces and limits how many points can be made while the object balls sit in one of them; and one-cushion, where the cue ball must reach a cushion before the second object ball.

The families side by side

How to pick a game

The rules themselves tell you a lot about what each game asks of you. A few ways to choose:

• You are joining a league. Learn the rulebook that league uses, not just the WPA version. The APA, the CSI leagues (BCA Pool League and USA Pool League) and the VNEA each publish their own eight-ball rules, and they disagree on several common situations. Our league and bar rules comparison lays out where.
• You want a game where you choose your own targets. Eight-ball gives each player a group of seven balls, solids or stripes, to clear before the 8.
• You want short racks played in a fixed order. In nine-ball you must always hit the lowest numbered ball first, and legally pocketing the 9 on any shot except a push out ends the rack. Ten-ball uses the same order but makes you call every shot after the break, and the 10 only wins when it is the last ball on the table.
• You want a long game played to a score. In straight pool each legal pot on a called shot is worth a point, and the balls are re-racked as the game goes on.
• You want a game built around one target. In one-pocket, each player owns a single foot pocket and needs eight balls in it. In bank pool only called bank shots count.
• You want a different table entirely. Snooker is played on a 3569 by 1778 mm playing area with 52.5 mm balls, and its balls are worth one to seven points. Three-cushion has no pockets, and every point needs the cue ball to touch at least three cushions before it reaches the second object ball.

Bar rules and house rules

Many people learn pool, especially eight-ball, without ever reading a rulebook. Wikipedia's eight-ball article notes that casual players often follow house rules that change by region and even from one venue to the next. Those versions are real, but they are not written down in one place, so we only describe the variations that a source actually documents. If you are playing a stranger, agree on the rules before the first break.

How these pages are sourced

Every rule here comes from a published rulebook or a named secondary source, listed at the bottom of each page. The WPA rules were read from the September 2025 edition hosted by the Hong Kong Billiard Sports Control Council, because the WPA's own site could not be read directly. Rule numbers on our pool pages refer to that edition. Carom rules come from the US Billiard Association, the WCBS and the European carom federation (CEB). Where an item could not be confirmed against a primary rulebook, the page says so.