Billiards Vault

Definition of Century

This is a term to describe 100 break points in a game of snooker.

24 Random Essential Billiards Terms

Alternate name for the cue ball.
In carom billiards games, a term for the opponent's cue ball, which for the shooting player is another object ball along with the red.
To shoot without taking enough warm-up strokes to properly aim and feel out the stroke and speed to be applied. One-stroking is a common symptom of nervousness and a source of missed shots and failed position.
(Jack and Jill) Mixed doubles match (each team has one male and one female).
When you have completed a shot by pocketing a ball into a pocket.
Making all of the required shots in a game (rack) without the opponent ever getting to the table or getting back to the table.
One of the alternating turns players (or doubles teams) are allowed at the table, before a shot is played that concedes a visit to his/her opponent (e.g. "he ran out in one visit"). Usually synonymous with inning as applied to a single player/team, except in scotch doubles format.
USA Pool League. A pool league structured exclusively around eight-ball match play.
An intentionally amateurish stroke to disguise one's ability to play.
In blackball, a situation where the player cannot see any of the balls she/he wants to hit due to obstruction by other balls or the knuckle of a pocket. The player must call "total snooker" to the referee, which allows a dispensation to the player from having to hit a cushion after contacting the object ball, which is otherwise a foul.
When the contact between the cue ball and object ball is dead center.
Used by itself often with "low" and "high": "that's a low-percentage shot for me", "I should really take the high-percentage one".
The European Pocket Billard Federation is the European governing body for pocket billiards. EPBF is also one of the member organization of the WPA (World Pool Billard Association)
CPA is the acronym for the Canadian Poolplayers Association. The CPA is the Canadian league of the APA (The American Poolplayers Association)
Name for the ball that when pocketed, wins the game, or any ball that when made results in a payday such as a way in the game of Chicago.
This is the running score of a player during his inning of play. The sum of the continuously scored points, or where the player stands in the run on the table.
The interlocking connection between the butt and shaft ends of a two-piece cue stick. Usually connects via means of a steel or wooden pin, and may be protected by a collar of metal or some other material, or may connect wood-on-wood.
A pool room employee who plays with a good degree of skill.
Same as centre pocket.
A player skilled at very thin cut shots, and shots in which a ball must pass cleanly through a very narrow space (such as the cue ball between two of the opponent's object balls with barely enough room) to avoid a foul and/or to pocket a ball. Such shots may be referred to as "surgery", "surgical shots", "surgical cuts", etc. (chiefly US, colloquial). See also feather (US) or snick (UK).
To bungle a shot in a manner that leaves the table in a fortuitous position for the opponent. Contrast sell the farm.
A shot in which the cue ball is potted after caroming off another ball. In snooker and most pool games doing this would be a fault (foul), but the move will score points in many games in which hazards (as such) apply, such as English billiards, or in the final or game point in Cowboy pool. The term derives from this hazard costing the player points in early forms of billiards.
When you hit the object ball you are aiming for (or the manditory next ball) without the cue ball hitting other object balls first.
This is a bank shot that goes off of the head rail and then straight to the pocket at the other end of the table.
A tactic employed in UK eight-ball pool in which a player calls and pots one of the balls in a favorably lying set, then plays safe, leaving as many of his/her well-placed balls on the table as possible, until the opponents commits a foul or leaves a chance that the player feels warrants an attempt at running out.