| American snooker | |
|---|---|
| Governing body | Billiard Congress of America |
American snooker is acue sport played almost exclusively in theUnited States, and strictly on a recreational, amateur basis. Diverging from the original game ofsnooker, rules for American snooker date back to at least 1925, and have been promulgated by theBilliard Congress of America (BCA) since the mid-20th century. The game is in decline, as thestandardized international rules have largely supplanted it.
American snooker has a simplified rule set compared to the international game, and is usually played on smallertables. Depending upon equipment availability, theballs andpockets may be larger than those for standard snooker, up to the size ofpool balls and pockets.
TheUnited States Snooker Association is not connected with the game of American snooker, being the IBSF-recognized USgoverning body of standard-rules snooker.
American snooker made its first known in-print appearance in the 1925 edition ofBrunswick–Balke–Collender Co.'sRules Governing the Royal Game of Billiards, a rulebook given away by the company (with illustrations of their tables) as a promotional item.[1] The previous edition, published in 1914, included snooker, but it was a summary of the originalBritish version, as defined then by theBilliard Association of Great Britain and Ireland, whom the Brunswick booklet credited. The 1925 American version had a longer ruleset,[2] opposite the situation today. Since at least as early as 1946, the Billiard Association of America (BAA), later theBilliard Congress of America (BCA), has published rules for American snooker in every edition of its near-annual rule book.[3][4] The BCA describes the game as "a cousin of snooker as it is played broadly around the world, the regulations giving it a distinctive direction toward the configuration of many American pocket billiard games".[4]
American snooker often uses 54 mm (2+1⁄8 inch) balls,[5] but may use standard 52.5 mm (approx.2+1⁄16 in) balls. It is typically played on a 10 by 5 ft (3.0 by 1.5 m) table (and in private homes, often on even smaller tables), as full-size regulation 12 by 6 ft (3.7 by 1.8 m) British-style tables are rare in the United States, although they are legal for American snooker.[4] Most serious players obtain proper snookercues, though novices may settle for a thicker-tippedpool cue. The game can easily be adapted informally to standard, large-pocketed 9 by 4.5 ft (2.7 by 1.4 m) pool tables, with snooker ball sets the same size as regular American pool balls (to compensate for the larger poolpockets);Saluc, for example, manufactures such a 57 mm (2+1⁄4 inch) set, under their Aramith brand name.[6] American snooker sets often come withcolor balls that are numbered with theirpoint values.[5][6]
While American snooker shares many similarities to that of the modern international game of snooker, it has some differences. Foul shots are always awarded as a 7-point foul, as opposed to 4–7 depending on circumstances in the traditional game.[7] Fouling can also occur if the cue makes contact with the table cloth, causing a 14-point foul.[7] Colored balls must be pocketed cleanly, meaning that once the cue ball has struck them, they cannot make contact with any other ball before being pocketed, or it is a foul.[7]
As is more traditional with pool games, alag is used in place of acoin flip at the beginning of the match, and also in the case of arespotted black.[7][8]
