Carom Billiards
at Slate Street Billiards
in Rio Rancho, NM

Contents:

1. Introduction.
2. Some Game Rules.

Carom Billiards preceeded both Snooker and Pocket Billiards (Pool).  The skills and techniques used in carom can be employed in any form of billiards.  That doesn't mean doing so is the optimal solution for any situation in those games.  The knowledge behind those skills though could help find useful escapes from some nasty situations.

Walter Lindrum made good use of such knowledge in playing English Billiards.  Efren Reyes, one of today's top players, makes good use of such knowledge.

Here's a link to an A-Z Billiards Forum discussion on Do 3-cushion players make good pocket pool players?  Of course 3-cushion is not the only carom billiards game.

Here are a few of the 30, or so, games played on a carom table.

Any of the following games can be played for a match.  It will be left to the contestants of a match which game will be played for that match.

1. Straight Rail (Libre).
   Local rules .

   Equal innings and inning limited.

   Straight Rail matches from a BAC ladder (2007-2018).

2. One Cushion (Bande).
   Played like Straight Rail except that the shooter's cue ball must contact at least one cushion before contacting the second ball for the point to count.

   Equal innings and inning limited.

3. Two Cushion (Dos Bandas).
   Played like One Cushion except that the shooter's cue ball must contact at least two cushions before contacting the second ball for the point to count.

   Equal innings and inning limited.

4. Three Cushion (Tres Bandas).
   Local rules.

   Here are two videos of spectacular runs. Roland Forthomme's run of 28, and a run of 30 by Rui Edgar Franco at the Sporting Club de Portugal billiard room.

   Inning limited.

5. 18.2 Balkline (Cadre).
   Local rules.

   18.2 Balkline Exhibition from Sang Lee's 1996 3‑Cushion tournament.

   Inning limited.

   18.2 Balkline matches from a BAC ladder (2001).

6. English Billiards   (Requires a Snooker table).
   Local rules.

   Agreed upon number of points.

7. Cowboy Billiards   (Played on a Pocket table).
   Local rules.

   A game with three distinct segments.  The first allows pocketing and/or caroms to score points.  The second requires all scoring to be caroms only.  The winning shot is scratching the cue ball off the one (with restrictions).

   Agreed upon number of points for segments one and two.  May also be inning limited in non-completed segments.  Four player limit.

8. Four-Ball Carom.
   Rules (with variations).

   Agreed upon number of points, and inning limited.

   In the desitkovy karambol (Czech 'tenfold carom') variation we will keep with the white ball as the cue ball (to avoid marring a red ball) — as miscues can leave rather nasty pits and scratches on a ball.  It will also make things much more natural for us.  The object ball colors used (BLUE, YELLOW, & RED) can be found in the nine ball set used for Korean 9-ball Carom.)

   The starting position of the balls in desitkovy karambol can be seen around the 7:20 mark in this instructional video.  {REMEMBER that we are NOT USING the RED as A CUE BALL.}

9. Korean 9-Ball Carom.
   Local rules.

   Agreed upon number of games. Six player (or team) limit.

Five-pin billiards.
Rules.

Video explaining the main rules of 5 Pin (text inside video is the commentary).

5 Pin Euro Championships – 2022 (commentary in English).

Agreed upon number of points.

Don't have the pins for this, and the table is not marked for positioning the pins.

Goriziana (Nine-pin billiards).
Rules.

Romeo Gaetano VS Cavalli Alessandro – 44° Gran Premio (match starts around the 3:25 mark).

Agreed upon number of points.

Don't have the pins for this, and the table is not marked for positioning the pins.

If interested please call Ray.
(8/5)
Please leave a voice-mail message if you want a call back (helps avoid calling back a number that wanted to do a survey or sell something!).