Billiards is the generic name we give to several table games that use cues and balls. Snooker is just one of those table games. To simplify, you can say that snooker is to billiards as beach volleyball is to volleyball. But the thing is a little more complicated, because the oldest form of billiard games is obviously also called… billiards! The most widespread version is that this primitive form of billiards emerged from a French game called croqué, played on the lawns of French palaces in the 15th century. With a kind of hammer, players propelled balls through arches and holes. In winter, snow prevented the game – so it would have been taken to the halls and played on a table. More than 300 years later, in 1875, a colonel in the English army modified some rules of billiards and invented the international pool or snooker. Around here, the Brazilian way gave snooker a new look when it landed in the country, at the beginning of the 20th century. “In the pool hall, the tricksters challenged other players by betting beers. In order to beat more opponents and win big, the tricksters shortened the duration by taking balls from the game table. Brazilian snooker was born, with only one red ball”, says the coordinator of the Paulista Federation of Billiards and Snooker, Luiz Admir Fraisoli. On the side, we explain, in a single shot, the main differences between billiards, snooker and Brazilian snooker.
SNOOKER
Number of balls: 13, 17 or 22 (with 6, 10 or 15 red)
Table dimensions: 2.84 mx 1.42 m (13 or 17 balls) or 3.66 mx 1.83 m (22 balls). It has six pockets
How is the game: At the beginning, the player must kill the red balls, which are worth one point each, and can intersperse killing the other colored ones, which are worth two to seven points. When the red ones are finished, the player must kill the numbered ones in sequence. Whoever scores the most points when all the balls are in the holes wins.
BILLIARDS OR CARAMBOLA
Number of balls: 3 (red, yellow and white)
Table dimensions: 2.84 mx 1.42 m. It’s the only table that doesn’t have pockets.
How is the game: One player plays with the yellow one and the other with the white one. The red one is the neutral ball. The objective is to make your ball hit the other two balls in the same shot – this is worth one point. Whoever reaches 20 points first wins. Also known as carambola, billiards survives to this day in some cities in the Brazilian countryside.
BRAZILIAN POOL
Number of balls: 8 (red, yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, black and white)
Table dimensions: 2.84 mx 1.42 m. It has six pockets
How the game is played: The goal is to pocket the colored balls, which follow a sequence with a predetermined score — the red one is worth one point, the yellow one is worth two and so on. If you kill the ball “on the turn”, the player can kill another one out of sequence, but loses points if he misses. Whoever has the highest score when all the balls are pocketed wins.
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