Pool at Teso College Aloet

Pool, also known as pocket billiards, is played with a long stick called a cue on a felt-surfaced table with six receptacles along the side (called ‘pockets‘) to receive the balls during game play. The table usually measures about 3 ft by 6 ft on the smaller side up to 3.5 ft by 7 ft on the larger side. Cue sticks are usually about 58.5 inches long. Pool balls are about 2 inches in diameter and weigh about 6 oz.

There are hundreds of different types of pool games. One of the most popular is known as ‘eight-ball‘, which is standardized to ‘blackball‘ in the UK and other countries. It is played with a full rack of 15 balls and the cue ball. The object of the game is to claim a ‘suit‘ (stripes or solids in the USA and reds or yellows in the UK) and direct all of the balls in your suit towards the pockets by bouncing them off the cue ball, with the eight-ball (which is black) being pocketed last. The first player to legally pocket the black, or eight, ball wins. A player may also win if the other player illegally pockets the eight-ball or knocks it off the table, or commits a foul while legally pocketing the eight-ball.