Table Games: Billiards and 8 ball Pool
The original game of the table games is Billiards. It is played with fifteen balls excluding the white ball called the cue ball. The fifteen balls include five colored balls one each of black, brown, yellow, green and blue, the rest ten being red in color. The table is made of the finest slate stone covered with cloth. The manufacturer has to ensure absolutely smooth surface along with there being no slope at all.
The table has six pockets, one in each corner of the table and one in the centre of the side wall on both sides. The ten red balls are put in triangular shape at a predetermined position and the color ones at their predetermined positions. The players have to pot the balls in either of the pockets with the black one being the last one. Each of the red balls gets you one point where as the colored ones get you different number of points ranging from two to seven points.
Eight ball pool is a version which came much later and is now more popular among people who like the table games but want a more quicker and energetic version. In this the some balls have a stripe on it whereas the others are solid colors with one Black in color with number 8 on it. The Black one has to potted in the end. If potted earlier the player doing so looses the game.
The eight ball pool picked up like wild fire in the world especially in United States which today boasts of the largest number of eight ball pool players in the world, be it amateurs or professionals. There are also intercontinental championships between USA and Europe at fixed intervals, thus showing the competitiveness and the popularity of the game across the board