With this book you will Play better Pool, but, if you make these mistakes you will lose a lot of games. Almost all novices do just this and some professionals, too
How do I learn to Play Pool
When you go to a billiard club or a pool club it becomes spontaneous to pick up a cue, order some balls, rent a table and play 8-ball pool with your friends, sometimes without knowing how to hit it.
Picking up the cue or positioning yourself in a certain way makes you get into bad habits when it comes to really learn how to play like a professional.
That’s why I’m going to explain what you need to know when you are starting, so that no one in billiards will ever call you a rookie, beginner or rookie again.
First are the fundamentals, which are the basis of every billiard player, these are composed of the grip (how you grip your cue from behind), the bridge (how you take it from the front), the posture and the stroke, I explain more about this in the apprentice section.
Learn to Play Pool from scratch
For beginners or for players who find it difficult to pocket easy and difficult billiard balls
🇺🇸 Amazon USA 👇
🇬🇧 Amazon UK 👇
🇺🇸 Amazon USA 👇
🇬🇧 Amazon UK 👇
The 3 levels to improve your pool game
According to your level select where you are:
- Beginner or apprentice: If you don’t know anything about billiards, you are just starting and you have problems when you hold the cue stick, you feel uncomfortable when shooting, you don’t get straight shots, you feel that your legs and back hurt.
- Semi Professional or Intermediate: When you know how to play and you feel that you have difficulties when using the cushions, the effects, that you still need to learn how to jump the mingo or cue ball.
- Professional or advanced: If you already know all this and want to improve more on some weak points of your game.
The difference between pool and billiards
Many people think it is something different, but it refers to the same thing.
When someone mentions, Let’s play pool, billiards, or pool! They mean 8-Ball.
The most played modalities on the planet
Here there are different types which most players when they say, Let’s go to “billiards”! They mean they are going to play American, pool or 8-ball.
But when they want to play another type of game they call it by its name (when you click on it, it opens in a new window):
What is billiards?
It is a precision sport where the game is concentrated on a table.
It is a slate board lined with a cloth usually green, with six pockets, holes or buchacas in which is practiced using a pool cue and driving the balls on the table trying to pocket them, the player who pockets all his balls and 8 wins.
Billiards is known in different ways, 8-ball, American billiards, pool, 8-ball pool.
And in other countries as sinuca, bilardo, biliard, bilyard, bilhar, billard, billiard, billiard, piljard.
So if you are in Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Spain, United States, Dominican Republic or any other country and you hear any of these names, come running to play some games.
The game is usually played between two people and has different types or game modes explained above.
The game is based on a cue ball or mingo ball used by both players.
With this ball helps you to drive with the cue stick the other balls, smooth or striped (you must pocket one of the two groups of balls between 7 balls, to define which is yours or your opponent’s and vice versa).
After each shot you must place the chalk on the cue stick to avoid a miscue, which is a high-pitched sound made when you hit the mingo if you don’t use it for a long time or if you try to put spin on the mingo, making a foul and losing your turn.
How do I start playing?
When you play with an opponent the first thing to do is to define who will serve first, that’s why the serve is played.
One of you must take a ball and the other the mingo, put it on the starting line and hit the ball on the attacking rail or to understand better on the rail that is in front and the ball that is closer to the hit rail.
That is who will make the initial serve and then you can define if the winner keeps serving or you can take turns serving.
After this comes the break, if you are lucky you will pocket some balls and continue playing, otherwise it will be your opponent’s turn.
When you are going to hit a ball, you must pay attention to what spot to hit to pocket the shot, for many players it is easier to place their cue on top of the ball and others measure the spot by swinging the ball into the pocket.
No matter which method you use, what I recommend is to place an imaginary ball or ghost ball at the spot where the mingo should hit because from there you will create your shot line to place your stance.
Now that you have a notion of how to play billiards, choose your level to put into practice what you have learned.
