Pool vs snooker vs billiards: the differences in tables, balls and rules

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"Billiards", "pool" and "snooker" get used almost interchangeably, but they are different games with different tables, balls and aims. Here is a plain guide to what is what, so you know what you are watching, or what you are walking into at a club.

Billiards as the umbrella term

"Billiards" is often used for all cue sports played on a cloth-covered table with cushions. It also names specific games: carom billiards and English billiards. Pool and snooker sit under the same broad family.

Pool (pocket billiards)

Pool is played on a table with six pockets and a set of numbered or coloured balls.

American-style pool: tables come in several sizes, commonly 7, 8 or 9 feet long, with larger balls, 2 1/4 inches (about 57mm) across. Balls are numbered 1 to 15: 1 to 7 are solids, 9 to 15 stripes, and the 8 is black.
UK-style pub pool (often called English pool or blackball): smaller tables, typically 6 or 7 feet, with smaller balls, commonly 2 inches across. Instead of solids and stripes you have two colours, usually reds and yellows, plus the black.

The best-known pool games:

8-ball: each player takes a group (solids or stripes, reds or yellows), pots all of them, then pots the 8 to win.
9-ball: uses balls 1 to 9. You must hit the lowest-numbered ball on the table first on each shot, and whoever legally pots the 9 wins.

Snooker

Snooker is played on a much larger table: a full-size table is 12 feet by 6 feet, with narrower pockets and smaller balls (about 52.5mm). It uses 22 balls in all:

the white cue ball
15 reds, worth 1 point each
six colours: yellow (2), green (3), brown (4), blue (5), pink (6) and black (7)

Players alternate between potting a red and then a colour. While reds remain, potted colours come back to their spots. Once the reds are gone, the colours are potted in order of value, from yellow to black. Points also come from the opponent's fouls. It is a game of long break-building and tactical safety play, and frames can take much longer than pool.

Carom billiards

Carom (or carambole) tables have no pockets. The standard game uses three balls: two cue balls (one usually marked with a dot or in a different colour) and a red. You score by making your cue ball hit both other balls in one shot. In three-cushion billiards, a popular competitive form, the cue ball must also touch the cushions at least three times before it contacts the second object ball. It is a game of angles and precise ball control, especially popular in parts of Europe, Latin America and East Asia, including Korea.

English billiards

English billiards is played on a snooker-sized table with three balls: two cue balls and a red. You score from pots, in-offs (potting your own cue ball off another ball) and cannons (hitting both other balls). It is less common today but is the ancestor of a lot of snooker technique.

Which should a beginner play?

Pool is the easiest way in: tables are everywhere, games are quick and the pockets are forgiving.
Snooker rewards patience and precision; a full-size table can feel enormous at first.
Carom teaches cue ball control and angles better than almost anything else, and is worth trying wherever there is a club.

Skills carry over between all of them: stance, a straight cue action and an understanding of how the cue ball moves. Which cue sport do you play, and how did you get started? Share your questions and experiences in the comments below.