Since the early 15th century, billiard games have been popular among nobles and rich people. Today, pool and snooker are correctly recognized as a professional sport organized at an international level.

Almost everyone has tried billiard in some form or other. Pool tables are custom in pubs, and billiard halls can be found in most cities. Still, not many realize that the history of billiards, or cue sports in general, stem from the 15th century. Famous names, such as Shakespeare, Mozart, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln and Lewis Carroll have appreciated billiard in their spare time. Charles Dickens Jr. wrote the following about billiards:

“There are few more cheerful sights, when the evenings are long, and the weather dull, than a handsome, well-lighted billiard room, with the smooth, green surface of the billiard table.”- Charles Dickens Jr., (1889)

Variants

Cue sports are often divided as below, feel free to read more about the different variants by clicking their name.

Today, Eight-ball and Nine-ball are the most popular forms for pool, and the interest for snooker is growing. Eurosport has been regularly broadcasting snooker tournaments, and I have been following these for the past 5 years. I've noticed a gradual increasing interest for snooker through my friends and other media. Here in Trondheim we have a billiard hall with 3 snooker tables. Recently I've started thinking about starting a snooker club, and you can read more about that here if you want to.

Carom is a special type of billiard, played on tables without pockets. There is normally only three balls on the table, one cue ball for each player and an object ball. The clip below show three-cushion carom, where your cue ball, after hitting an object ball, must bounce of three cushions before hitting the other object ball. It is very impressive.

In the Olympics

Billiard in some form has been proposed as an Olympic sport for many years, but has never been accepted. I think this is a shame, as I think 8-ball or 9-ball and snooker would be great as Olympic sports. The biggest problem has been that the IOC demands an international organization to prepare standards and coherence for cue sports. This has now been taken care of, and the WCBS has been formally granted recognition as a pool and billiards overseer billiards.about.com - Pool in the Olympics.

In my opinion, what better place or time, than the next Summer Olympics in England, can there be to introduce snooker as an Olympic sport? I think it would be a great success, and people would be very interested in watching. With that said, I can understand some of the reasons why snooker is frowned upon in the Olympic Committee. Snooker and pool is strongly connected to gambling and hustling. Recent news show a bad side to snooker, and the sport has a history of foul play behind the scenes. The IOC naturally do not want to be connected to any of this.

Russian Pyramid

One billiard variant that is interesting is Russian pyramid. Played on a table similar in size to a snooker table, but with smaller pockets and larger balls. The photo to the right illustrates how tight the pockets are in this game. The rules are very simple: except for the first shot, you can play any ball you want, and pot any ball you want. The first player to pot 8 balls wins the frame. Sounds really easy, but the precision needed to pot a single ball makes it difficult. The video below shows a frame of Russian pyramid.