Blog by Beebe Cline, PREC*

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Take Your Cue: Planning a Pool Table Room

For many people the clack of colliding pool balls recalls happy times. That’s one reason pool tables are a classic addition to the game room, basement, garage, family room, loft, man cave or even dining room. But planning for a pool table requires more than picking out a leg style and felt color. Dimensions rule with this project. Here’s how to figure out how much space you’ll need and other considerations.
Billiards, Pool or Snooker?

Though this ideabook focuses on pool tables, there’s much confusion about the game of pool and its close cousins, billiards and snooker.

Billiards” is technically an umbrella term for any game played on a billiards table. This table may have or not have pockets. Today, however, what we refer to as billiards is a variety of games played on a table without pockets. A modern-day billiards table is larger than a pool table. The popularity of billiards is higher in Europe than in the U.S.

Pool is the modern term for pocket billiards, which is played on a table with six pockets. It earned its moniker by its presence in horse-betting establishments, where the bets were pooled and collected in what was called the pool room. The game was played by patrons between races, and the room name became associated with the game.

Snooker is played with 22 smaller balls. Its six-pocket table is the largest size of the tables for the three games, as seen here. Though popular in England and Asia, snooker hasn’t made waves in the U.S.

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