Billiards is Really Great

January 25, 2012 by destrymasterson

There are few games an intellectually stimulating as billiards. It requires a very real sense of geometry set into action, which of course takes an amazing amount of dexterity as well.

Games these days are becoming more and more virtual with every single minute that passes by. You could go browse through the internet trying to find silly little virtual "pool 3D" games, but in comparison of how much fun these are virtual games won't even come close to as much fun as real billiards.

King Louis the XIV, or maybe his father, somewhere around the fourteenth century, some king in France was so fed up by his croquet games being postponed by all the rain that he commanded his servants to fashion him an indoor lawn game. The result was a very funky version of billiards.

Back then they used a Y stick rather than the pool sticks you have today, and instead of striking the ball they would lightly push it. For some reason they didn't understand that having stupid cumbersome sticks were going to make the game lame.

Furthermore, they didn't have pockets instead they had hoops and obstacles. They would bounce the ball around the table off of obstacles trying to get it through the little croquet-like hoops.

Supposedly they didn't realize that you only needed to bars to perform the same function as a hoop, seeing how the billiards table is basically a two dimensional surface in game play. They were from a simpler time and even though their game of billiards sucked in comparison, they still carved the way for billiards games to come.

Since that time people have expounded and built upon the game drastically, now there are more than fifty variations to the game and those are just the popular ones. There are so many games there has actually become categories for each type of game.

There are the carom games, which are games like three ball, three rail, and four ball. Then there are the pocket billiards games, these are much more popular in the states, games like pool, cut throat, nine ball, 14.1 continuous, and the list goes on.

Then there are also the snooker games, supposedly people play these types of games in Europe. These games require like twenty plus balls and are complicated as crap.

Whatever billiards variation you prefer is going to require a lot of skill and technique. You are going to have to develop a good eye for the shots, and you are going to have to develop a good arm for the strikes.

If you want to be impressed by billiards, just type "crazy billiards shots" in Youtube. These should blow your mind and also inspire you, just try not to be too critical of the way these guys dress.