In the beginning, there was English billiards. It used only three balls. Then came snooker, which -- as common snooker legend has it -- was invented by future British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain as a young military officer in India. Snooker was like billiards, except with a far more exciting number of balls. From the loins of snooker came "pool," "pocket billiards" or just "billiards" if you live in North America. The essential difference between pool and snooker is equipment size and ball count.
Pool Tables vs. Snooker Tables
Pool tables are smaller than snooker tables: pool tables measure 4 1/2 feet wide by anywhere from 7 to 9 feet long, while snooker tables measure 6-by-12 feet and are set 2 inches higher.
On pool tables and American snooker tables the rails (the raised, cushioned edges) are V-shaped in profile for sharper contact with the balls; while British snooker table rails have L-shaped profiles for flatter contact.
The pocket shapes and sizes differ as well. The lead-ins to the pockets on a pool table are sharply angled, while snooker table rails curve smoothly into the pockets. On a pool table, the corner pockets are larger than the side pockets; snooker table pockets are all the same size and smaller than any pool table pocket.
Even the table surface markings are different: pool tables have only one dot for positioning the rack of object balls and another dot for positioning the cue ball; snooker tables have seven dots for positioning the rack of red object balls and six colored balls plus a D-shape in which the cue ball is placed.
Pool Balls vs. Snooker Balls
Pool balls are larger than snooker balls -- 2 1/4 inches for pool balls, 2 1/8 inches for American snooker balls, 2 1/16 inches for English snooker balls and a larger cue ball for coin-operated pool tables. Pool balls come in sets of 16, composed of seven different solid-colored object balls, seven different stripe-colored object balls, an eight-ball and a cue ball. Snooker balls come in sets of 22: 15 red object balls, six different colored object balls and a cue ball.
Pool Cues vs. Snooker Cues
Pool cues have a wider tip than do snooker cues (11 to 14 mm and 9 to 11 mm, respectively) because of the size of the balls. Snooker cues are sometimes longer as well, because of the larger table. Pool cues are sometimes wrapped in leather at the butt end to absorb sweat, while snooker cues are left bare. Pool cues are generally made of maple; snooker cues, ash. Finally, the butt of a snooker cue is usually flat on one side for consistent orientation; a pool cue is cylindrical all the way.
Pool Rules vs. Snooker Rules
Pool and snooker both have many game variants. As with all pocket cue sports, both pool and snooker are played by striking the cue ball with the tip of the cue such that the cue ball causes an object ball to enter a pocket. Beyond that, the two sports differ radically.
The most prevalent pool games are 8-ball, 9-ball and 7-ball. They use 15, nine and seven balls respectively. In 8-ball, the most prevalent pool game, a player must sink all of the stripes or all of the solids before sinking the 8-ball. In 9-ball, the first player to sink the 9-ball wins. Seven-ball is like 9-ball, except there are only seven balls which may be sunk only into particular pockets.
The most prevalent snooker game is simply called snooker. The winner is determined by a point system. In snooker, players alternate between hitting red object balls and colored object balls. Red balls stay in the pockets, but pocketed colored balls are placed back into their starting positions until all the red balls are gone. Then the colored balls must be permanently sunk in ascending order (2-ball, 3-ball, etc. up to 7-ball.) Red balls are all worth a point. Colored balls are worth their face value (2, 3, 4 etc.) Whichever player has the most points after all the balls have disappeared wins.
Cue Sports Terminology
All cue sports are played by striking balls with cues on a covered slate table with raised edges. The similarities end there, and the terminological confusion begins in earnest.
True billiards, also known as English billiards or carom billiards, is played with only three balls. Pool, pocket billiards, American billiards or just "billiards" as it is called in North America is played with up to 16 balls including the cue ball. Snooker is played with up to 22 balls including the cue ball. Carom, not to be conflated with carom billiards, is played with three balls on a table with no pockets.
Each of these cue sports contains variants on table sizes, cushion shapes, ball sizes, cue sizes and game rules. Even the charter members of the World Federation of Billiards Sports seem confused about what to call themselves: International Billiards and Snooker Federation, World Pool-Billiard Association, Union Mondiale de Billard.
If you are ever unsure what to call a particular cue sport, your best bet is to challenge the person in the adjacent bar stool to a friendly game "at that table over there" and see how he reacts.
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