Billiards is well known in the untied states as a game played in bars and pool halls. Usually played on a nine-foot table by four feet. Although pool is well known in the US, England and many other European countries are familiar with another type of game, called snooker. In fact, snooker was played way before anyone had even think about playing pool. Developed in England in the 16 th century, Snooker is thought to originate from outdoor games that were played on the ground, such as Croquet. Over the years as snooker became more developed it was played on a table inside. Pool was inspired by snooker and it has many of the same concepts as snooker dose, except a few key things.

Pool and snooker are considered very different in modern times. They both are played with different objectives and with different ball colors. But the main difference that is the table length of each table. Like said before a professional pool table generally come 9ft by 4ft. A professional snooker table is usually 12ft by 6ft. With a bigger table it is a lot harder to pocket tables and actually see a shot. The snooker table has smaller pockets compared to a pool table also making a shot in snooker harder compared to pool. A lot of snooker players like pool more because of the size difference. They like the fact that with a smaller table they have to pocket balls with a shorter distance; thus making shots easier. Another main difference is the different balls that are used. In pool there are fifteen game balls and a cue ball. In snooker there are twenty-one game balls and a cue ball. Fifteen snooker balls are completely red that have no numbers. As compared to pool every ball is numbered with a specific color, accept the cue ball.

The goal of Snooker is to gain more points than the opponent. As in pool, if you are playing eight ball, the object is to get the eight ball in after you have pocketed your own balls, either solids or stripes. In snooker there are different values for each ball if they are pocketed. Red balls are worth one point all the way up to seven points (the black ball). There also can be different games played on a snooker table that mainly only involve the red balls. Pool also has different games that are played like nine ball, straight pool, seven ball, etc. The sticks that are played in snooker are usually longer, but also a lot thinner than pool cues, making snooker a lot harder. Snooker cues are also a lot longer than a traditional pool cue, mainly due to the fact of the longer table. Although you can use a pool cue when playing on a snooker table and vise versa.

To put it plainly the game of snooker is a lot harder than the American version of billiards. Pool in the US is considered just a “watered down” version of the European Snooker. So if one really wants to gain the advantage of an opponent in pool, try snooker to sharpen your cue skills; a game that has been played sine the eighteenth century.