Sinuca Brasileira: Brazilian Snooker

One afternoon when I was browsing Wikipedia's cue sports section, I noticed a fair number of Snooker variants.

One in particular caught my eye: Sinuca Brasileira, Brazilian Snooker.

While this game, like Danish Pins, isn't terribly obscure in its home country, I can't seem to find many resources on it in English.

With that, this post will be dedicated to explain the rules for the game as simply as I can, the way I understand them.

If I get any details wrong, please let me know. I don't speak Brazilian Portuguese, so I had to rely on third party translations, Wikipedia, and YouTube for my sources.

Materials & Setup

To play this game, you need

• A Snooker table (any size)
• One of each colour Snooker ball

Sinuca only uses 1 red ball, as opposed to 15 used in the standard variant.

Note that the diagram is not to scale

To set up the game, set up all the balls the same way you would in regular Snooker, except place the red ball to the right of the pink ball, half-way between the pink ball and the cushion.

Here you can see the game set up on a real Snooker table. Image credit: noelsnooker.com.br

The Game

The object of the game is to score more points than your opponent by pocketing balls and slowly clearing them off the table.

The round ends once the last ball has been pocketed.

As with standard Snooker, the balls must be pocketed in sequence starting with the red, then the yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, then black.

The game differs from standard Snooker in exactly how you aim to accomplish this feat.
It does so via the introduction of two different types of shots, each with their own benefits.

The Break

To break, the starting player must place the cue-ball anywhere within the D behind the baulk-line at the head of the table, then shoot the red ball. The starting player has three tries at breaking. If they fail to do so, they foul and play goes to the other player.

Importantly, the starting player may never pocket the red ball nor Snooker it in the break.

To Snooker someone means to put the cue-ball in such a postition that the player who got Snookered doesn't have a direct shot at their only legal target.

Structure

The game is structured into two different types of shots:

• Free Shot
  
• Penalty Shot

On a player's turn, they may freely choose between either of these two types of shots, but they have to play it to completion. A player's turn continues as long as they don't make any mistakes.

The Free Shot is a "risk free" shot, where the active player simply tries to pocket the lowest valued ball (starting with the red ball and moving up sequentially).
Then, once the lowest-value ball is pocketed, the ball is scored, and the active player may nominate any (non-red) colour on the table to try and pocket.
If they're successful in pocketing the nominated ball, said ball is scored, then re-spotted, and they then go back to choosing between the Free and Penalty shots.
If either the Free Shot or the following nominated bonus shot is missed, the turn simply passes to the other player.

For Snooker players, this is like how you can nominate any non-red colour to pocket between each red, except because there's only one red in Sinuca, you can nominate any off-colour between every on-colour "free" shot. This essentially means a maximum break would be red, black, yellow, black, green, black, etc. (ignoring the option of penalty shots).

The Penalty Shot is riskier, as missing it is considered a foul. To perform a Penalty Shot, the active player then nominates any ball on the table as well as the pocket it has to enter. If successfully pocketed, the pocketed ball is re-spotted, and the next shot must be a Free Shot (with the accompanying nominated ball afterwards). If the player fails to pocket the ball, or fails to pocket in the nominated pocket, the shot is considered a foul.

Scoring

The scoring values are exactly the same as in regular Snooker. A ball potted through a valid shot is worth the following amount of points:

• Red: 1 point
• Yellow: 2 points
• Green: 3 points
• Brown: 4 points
• Blue: 5 points
• Pink: 6 points
• Black: 7 points

Fouls

 Everything normally considered a foul in Snooker is also a foul here.

• Hitting the wrong ball
• Not hitting any balls at all
• Pocketing the cue-ball (which gives ball in-hand)
• Pocketing the wrong ball
  
• Not pocketing the nominated ball in a Penalty Shot
• and more (see Snooker rules for the full list)
  

Committing a foul gives 7 points to the opponent and passes the current player's turn.

This is different from regular Snooker, where a foul awards the opponent 4-7 points depending on the severity of the foul. In Sinuca Brasileira, a foul is always 7 points.

End of the Game

The game ends as soon as the last ball has been pocketed. The winner of the round is the player with the most points.

Sources

• https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinuca
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinuca_brasileira
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dlIPmyui8w
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tJWiIyxZmI
  

Canadian Skittles

I discovered this little gem while searching the internets for more details regarding Danish Pin Billiards.

Among other things I discovered that another word used for pin billiards is "skittles", presumably named after the lawn bowling pins bearing the same name.

Anyway, a game that caught my eye seems to be a half-way thing between Snooker and Danish Pins. It's referred to as "Canadian Skittles" and doesn't have a Wikipedia entry for me to refer back to. The lack of such a centralised resource was actually the main motivation to create this blog!

Anyway, on with the game explanation.

From my limited research, I can see that the game comes in a number of different variants. The most notable three differ in the number of black pins used.

This writeup will introduce you to the 1, 2, and 3 black pin variants of the game. The rules shouldn't differ too signficantly between versions other than initial setup.

Materials and Setup

To play this game you need the following:

• A Snooker table, but a Pool table can also work
• 1-3 black pins (depending on variant)
• 4 non-black pins. This can either be 4 whites, or a yellow, green, brown, and red pin.
• A white cue-ball, a yellow ball, and a red ball.

The pins are between 3" (7.62 cm) and 3.5" (8.89 cm) according to the rules I found, which is taller than Five-Pin pins (2.5 cm) and shorter than Danish Pin pins (10-12 cm).

To set up for the 1-black-pin variant, put the yellow ball on the brown Snooker spot, the red ball on the pink Snooker spot, and place the black pin on the blue Snooker spot with all the other pins surrounding the central black pin as shown below:

To set up for the 2-black-pin variant, set up exactly as before, but place the second black pin on the pink Snooker spot, then put the red ball on the black Snooker spot as seen in the diagram below:

To set up for the 3-black-pin variant, place the third black pin on the brown Snooker spot, then place the yellow ball on the yellow Snooker spot in the corner of the D, as seen in the diagram below:

As usual, please note that the diagrams are not to scale.

The placement of black pins and balls may vary from variant to variant. From placing the yellow and red balls on the black and pink spots in the 1-pin variant, to swapping the black pin and yellow ball in the 3-pin variant.

I don't think there's any official standardised set of rules for the game.
The number of black pins basically just determines the difficulty level of the game.

The Game

The object of the game is to get 31 points without going over.

An optional variant is to play the game with numbered peas (nomally used for Kelly Pool), where each player gets a secret random number from 1 to 15 which determines their starting score.

Most versions of the rules I've found also sees players play for a $10 pot with additional penalties for fouls and such. Winner collects the pot plus money for each foul made by the other players.

Structure

The game is played in innings, meaning a player's turn continues as long as they make points and don't make any fouls.

Causing a foul ends the turn immediately, see Fouls for details.

The Break

To break, the starting player places their cue ball in the D, which must then exit the baulk area/kitchen, then hit a ball. This is the same as the in-hand rules.

Note that the cue ball may hit a cushion outside the baulk area then rebound and hit a ball inside the baulk area. The point is just that it must fully exit.

Scoring Points

There are a number of ways to score points in the game, all of which come from the games that inspired it.

• Pocketing the yellow ball: 2 points
• Pocketing the red ball: 3 points
• Losing Hazard/In-Off on the yellow: 2 points
• Losing Hazard/In-Off on the red: 3 points
• Carom Shot/Cannon: 2 points
• Knocking over non-black pins gives the appropriate values in points, red: 1, yellow: 2, green: 3, brown: 4.
• Knocking over a black pin gives 5 points.

Pins can be knocked over by any ball, as long as the cue-ball has made contact with another ball first.

A Losing Hazard or In-Off is a shot where the cue-ball is pocketed after hitting another ball. A Carom shot/Cannon is when the cue-ball hits both the other two balls.

All Losing Hazards give the player ball in hand.

Additionally there are three ways to get an instant win:

• Royal: Knocking down all the non-black pins by themselves. This is also knowns as a sweep.
• Natural: Knocking down all the black pins by themselves (not available in the 1-black-pin variant)
• Pocketing all three balls in the same shot (according to one rule-set)

Re-Spotting

Any pocketed balls and knocked over pins get re-spotted to their starting points as necessary. A pocketed cue-ball gets "re-spotted" in-hand within the D and must then be shot with the normal break rules.

Fouls

When a foul occurs, the foul is marked with an X on the scoreboard and the player's score resets down to zero.

• Knock over both black and non-black pins.
• Score on the same type of shot three times in a row.
• Cue-ball doesn't hit any other balls.
• Cue-ball hits the pins before hitting a ball.
• Cue-ball gets pocketed without hitting a ball.
• Cue-ball fails to make contact with a ball outside the baulk area when in-hand.
• Active player exceeds the target score.
• Active player achieves target score without knocking over any pins.
• Pins or balls get knocked off the table.
• Knock or move something in other ways than intended through normal play. i.e. with a sleeve or the side of the cue etc.

Winnings

As mentioned, the winning player wins the pot + the value for any X's the other players made in fouls.

If you aren't playing for money, call these victory points or game points instead.

Sources

As mentioned, this game didn't have one de-facto source for rules, so I had to source them from a few different places:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AroDDdGx5A0
• http://www.billiardsforum.com/pool-rules/canadian-skittle-pool-rules
• http://www.billiardsforum.com/pool-rules/canadian-skittles-pool-3-black-pins-version
  

 

Drunken Cowboy

I discovered this game while trying to find videos and info on Cowboy Pool (see earlier post) when I stumbled upon a video on a game dubbed "Drunken Cowboy".

The game outlined in the video seemed like a hybrid game between Bottle Pool (see earlier post) and Cowboy Pool combining the equipment and scoring of both games.

Materials & Setup

To play Drunken Cowboy you need the following 

• A standard Pool table
• 4 standard Pool balls: the white cue-ball, the red yellow 1-ball, a red 3-ball, and an orange 5-ball.
  
• A plastic or leather (or any non-brittle material) shake bottle

The 1-ball is placed in the head spot, the 3-ball in the foot-spot, the 5-ball in the middle, and the bottle is placed neck-down between the 1 and 5 balls. On this diagram the bottle is represented with a magenta circle.

Setup on a real Pool table

The Game

The object of the game is to reach 101 points just like in Cowboy Pool, except the game additionally also adds the bottle as a way of scoring for another way of scoring 5 points. 

Differences from Cowboy Pool

There are a few major ways this game differs from Cowboy Pool (other than the bottle of course).

1. Your cue-ball must always hit a cushion in each shot. This is to prevent a player from simply camping in front of the 5-ball and getting easy 5 points in every shot.
2. The 101st point must be a losing hazard off the 1-ball on a called pocket.
   

Structure

 As with most other billiards games, the game is played in innings, where your turn keeps going as long as you make valid scoring shots.

Once you miss or foul, the turn is over and the turn passes to the other player.

The Break

To break, the starting player shoots the cue-ball from the kitchen (the area behind the 1-ball) trying to hit the 3 ball.

Scoring

There are three ways to score in Drunken Cowboy

• Pocket any one of the object balls for the printed value in points.
• Hit two object balls with the cue-ball for one point.
• Hit three object balls with the cue-ball for two points.
  
• Hit the bottle with the cue-ball after hitting an object ball for five points.

Like in Cowboy Pool, any pocketed object balls are returned to their spot on the table.

Like in Bottle Pool, the bottle is lifted back up wherever it ended up. If you are unable to lift it, the bottle is spotted back to its original position.

Unlike Cowboy Pool, any ball must hit a cushion for the shot to be valid. This as mentioned in the Differences section is simply to prevent good players from continuously pocketing the same ball over and over by simply shooting with a bit of back-spin and having the cue-ball sit perfectly for the next shot. 

Unlike Eight-Ball Pool, simply pocketing a  ball doesn't count as hitting a cushion, thus pocketing without hitting a cushion would count as a foul.

Phases

As mentioned, the object is to get to 101 points (the video says 100, but you still need the losing hazard at the end to close the game, so it's technically 101). Just like in Cowboy Pool, the way you get there is in three phases, each of which is bounded by a specific number of points.

Phase 1: 0-90 points, where all methods of scoring are legal. The 90th point must be reached exactly. Failing to do so is a foul, garnering no points for that shot.

Phase 2: 91-100 points, where only carom shots are legal (carom shots being hitting two or more balls with the cue-ball), again the 100th point must be hit exactly. Note that hitting the bottle at this stage doesn't give points!

Phase 3: the 101st point, where you must do a losing hazard (called an in-off in Snooker), a special shot from English Billiards, where you pocket the cue-ball after hitting one of the object balls.

Fouls and Penalties

Any foul immediately ends that player's turn and forfeits any and all points scored by that player in that inning.

Fouls include

• Not hitting a cushion in every shot
• Not hitting anything at all
  
• Hitting the bottle directly
• Hitting the bottle with an object ball
• "Scratching", that is pocketing the cue-ball
• Hitting the bottle with the cue
• Pocketing the bottle or knocking it off the table
  

Additionally, should a player make three consecutive fouls, they immediately lose the game.

Bottle Pool

 

Bottle Pool is a Pool variant played with three balls and a leather or plastic bottle.

The game is played similar to Cowboy Pool in that points are scored for pocketing the balls and also caroming the cue-ball off of the object balls.

Bottle Pool adds the bottle as a new scoring objective, which is scored whenever it is truck with the cue-ball with a carom shot.

To my mind, it feels a bit like a mix between Cowboy Pool and Skomar.

Materials & Setup

To play Bottle Pool you need

• A Pool Table
• 3 balls: the cue-ball, the yellow 1-ball, and the blue 2-ball.
• A plastic or leather (or any non-brittle material) shake bottle

To set up the game, place the bottle neck down on the centre spot (here represented with a magenta circle), the 1-ball against the foot-end cushion in front of the left diamond, and the 2-ball against the foot-end cushion in front of the right diamond.

Here's an image courtesy of Wikipedia to show the setup in perspective:

The Game

The aim of the game is to hit 31 points exactly.

Overshooting 31 sets your score to however many points you overshot by.
Think of it like a clock face, overshooting 12 gets you right back around.

Structure

The game, like most varieties of billiards, is played in innings. That is to say, the active player stays active as long as they make a legal scoring shot.

The Break

The cue-ball starts in the kitchen, the area behind the middle diamond at the head-end of the table. The aim is then to hit any of the two object balls

Scoring

• Pocket the 1-ball for 1 point
• Pocket the 2-ball for 2 points
• Hit both object balls with the cue ball for 1 point
• Carom the cue-ball off one or both object balls and into the bottle for 5 points
• Manage the flip the bottle upright after doing a carom shot for an automatic win

The most points you can earn in a single shot is 9 by hitting both object balls with the cue-ball, pocketing them both, and hitting the bottle.

After reaching 31 points exactly, the player must announce this out loud before the next player takes their shot or else the score is reset to 0.

After the bottle is knocked over, it is put upright as close to where it landed as possible. If it is not possible to turn the bottle upright, or if the bottle was knocked off the table, it is instead returned to the centre spot. If that spot is occupied, it instead goes to the head spot. If the head spot and centre spots are both occupied, it instead goes to the foot spot. If all three spots are occupied, the bottle remains off the table until a spot clears.

Similar to Snooker, English Billiards, and Danish Pin Billiards, any object ball potted is re-spotted to its original starting location.
In Bottle Pool however, the 1-ball is always re-spotted before the 2-ball. This matters in case any of the spots are blocked.

Fouls

Upon making a foul, the active player's inning immediately ends and they lose any and all points gained in that inning plus one.

All the things you'd expect to be a foul in standard pocket billiards is a foul here in addition to the following:

• The cue ball fails to touch an object ball.
• The cue ball touches the bottle before contacting an object ball.
• The bottle is knocked over by an object ball.
• An object ball is pocketed on the same stroke as an illegal shot.

However, it is not a foul to knock over the bottle with an object ball if an object ball was pocketed in the same shot. In that case the inning simply ends.

 

Cowboy Pool

 On my infinite research spree through the interwebs, I stumbled upon the game of Cowboy Pool on Wikipedia.

To my dismay however, I was unable to learn much more than that.
Most Google searches just came up with results of cowboy themed pool tables; not at all what I was looking for.

I also found another (arguably really cool) Pool variant of the same name, where you have to shoot the object balls at the cue ball to then pocket them. Cool, but not the game we're talking about today.

This game is supposedly based on English Billiards, but entirely playable with a standard Pool table and Pool balls.

Materials and Setup

To play this game you need the following:

• A Pool table
• Four Pool balls: 1, 3, 5, and the cue-ball
• Two players, and some cues

The game is set up as follows:

The yellow 1-ball in the table's head spot, the orange 5-ball in the middle, and the red 3-ball in the table's foot-spot.

Sidenote: I really like how the three colours make up a perfect little sunset gradient when set up like this. It's very visually appealing. Not sure if it's a total accident or not, but it works really well!

Gameplay

Despite being played with Pool equipment, the game itself couldn't be further from Pool, as it shares much of its DNA with English Billiards.

The Break

To break, the starting player fires the cue-ball from the kitchen, the area behind the table head and the head spot, with the aim of hitting the 3-ball on the other side of the table.

Failing to hit the 3-ball may cause the other player to either request a re-shot, or attempt the break themself.

Structure

Like most Billiards, the game is played in innings, where a player keeps playing as long as they make points. Players only change sides if a foul was made or the player misses their shot.

Like in Snooker, the balls are re-spotted when pocketed.

Scoring

To score you do one of the following:

• Hit two object balls with the cue-ball: 1 point
• Hit all three object balls with the cue-ball: 2 points
• Pocket the yellow 1-ball: 1 point
• Pocket the red 3-ball: 3 points
• Pocket the orange 5-ball: 5 points

Thus, the maximum numer of points scoreable in a single hit is thus 1 + 2 + 3 + 5 = 11.

The game is played to 101 points over three phases:

Phase 1: 0-90 points, where all methods of scoring are legal. The 90th point must be reached exactly. Failing to do so is a foul, garnering no points for that shot.

Phase 2: 91-100 points, where only carom shots are legal (carom shots being hitting two or more balls with the cue-ball), again the 100th point must be hit exactly.

Phase 3: the 101st point, where you must do a losing hazard, a special shot from English Billiards, where you pocket the cue-ball after hitting one of the object balls.

Fouls

A foul shot results in the player losing all the points gained for that inning, so the game becomes a balance of trying to play it safe and score points.

 The rules I've managed to track down do not explicitly mention any fouls, that said, reasonable fouls could include

• Hitting no balls at all in a stroke
  
• Hitting a ball other than the cue-ball 
• Scratching (pocketing the cue-ball), which would give the opponent ball in-hand from the kitchen
• Not hitting a cushion in the event that nothing was scored (like in Eight-Ball Pool)
  

Closing

There's very little other info about the game, but I did manage to track down this tutorial series on youtube:

 

(updated Dec 4, 2023)

 

5-Ball Carom

 So a few days ago when I was looking for billiards equipment I stumbled upon a peculiar listing for a product I'd never heard of: Five-Ball Carom Billiards.

It's a game that seems to have been invented by the billiard ball manufacturer Super Aramith, featuring five balls that look an awful lot like Pool balls, except there are two fours and no five:

 Googling about this game yields next to no results at all, and their supposed website www.5-ball-game.com doesn't yield anything at all either.

It wasn't until I stumbled upon the link 5-ball.nl I got some results!

The balls aren't sized like Pool balls at 57.15 mm (2 1/4") but instead sized like Carom balls at 61.5 mm (2 7/16"). and it's played on a pocketless Carom table.

Equipment and Setup

To play this game, you need a standard sized Carom table (the kind used for 3-Cushion and 5-Pin Billiards) and a set of 5-Ball balls.

The game is set up as such (here on a gray table to make the green ball stand out in the diagram):

The 2-ball is at the foot-end, the 6-ball is in the middle, and the 1-ball is at the head end with the two 4-balls flanking it on either side with white on the right and yellow on the left.

The white 4-ball and the yellow 4-ball are the cue-balls for each player. White for player 1 and yellow for player 2.

Rules as I understand them

First, players agree to play a number of rounds, best of 3, 5, 7, etc.

Then, players agree on a number of points to play, this could be 51, 101, 151, etc. (a multiple of 50 + 1)

The game is then played like a game of dart, points decreasing down to zero. The goal is to not overshoot the score(!)

Structure

The game is played in turns. After a player has made a shot, the other player plays their turn.

This is unlike most other billiards, where as long as a player scores, they keep playing.

The Break

To break, the white player must hit the red 2-ball. After the break, any ball on the table is free to hit.

In case the break fails, the other player simply shoots from the resulting position.

Scoring

To score the player's cue-ball must hit two or more other balls on the table.
Their values are then added together.
If the same ball is hit more than once, its value is only counted once.
Thus, it is possible to score at most 13 points in a single shot.

Note that the player's own colour is never added.

Example: Suppose White hits the blue and the green ball, then White scores 7 points. Yellow then hits white and green, scoring 10 points.

Play continues like this until someone hits exactly 0 points, at which point that player is declared the winner.

Special Cases

While there are no fouls in the game, there are nonetheless situations a player can find themselves in in which they don't make points:

• In the event that a player makes a shot that goes below 0, the shot simply doesn't count.
• If a player gets to 1, 2, or 4 points, they are then unable to win, as no shots can bring them to 0 from there. Because of this, playing a shot that gets a player to 1, 2, or 4 points counts like undershooting 0, and the player gets to stay at their previous score.

Fouls

The official rules do not list any fouls, nor any consequences as the result of any fouls.
You either made points for a shot or you didn't. 

That said, reasonable fouls to include could be:

• Hitting anything other than your own cue-ball
• Hitting the cue-ball with anything other than the tip of the cue
• Not having at least one foot on the ground

A foul shot would then just invalidate any points scored for the shot.

Sources

• Official Dutch page with rules: https://www.carambole.nl/recreatie/5-ball
• This store page has a rather comprehensively translated set of rules: https://www.garlando-shop.com/en/Billiard/Balls-200937/Carom-200946/super-aramith-5-ball-carom-ball-set.html
• Archive of the old page for the game. Includes rules PDF: https://web.archive.org/web/20180724174544/http://www.saluc.com/html/billiard/index.php?idlien=47
  

 

Danish Pin Billiards: Kegler & Skomar

 Let's start this blog off with a game local to my own homeland: Denmark. Now, this game isn't esoteric within Denmark, but the wider world doesn't seem to know about it, so it bears mention.

It's a variation of the Italian game of Five-Pin Billiards, but aside from sharing the basic features of using three balls and five pins has basically nothing else in common.

Calling this one game is technically untrue, it's two. Both are played with the same exact equipment and setup, but the rules are quite different, the first one is simply called "keglebillard" or "kegler" (meaning "pin billiards" and "pins" respectively), and the other is called "skomager" or "skomar" (meaning "shoemaker")

Equipment

• A(n ideally heated) billiards table with six pockets roughly the same size as a standard Pool table. albeit with smaller pockets.
  
• 3 standard 61.5mm Carom balls 1 white, 1 spotted white, 1 red
• 5 wooden pins 12cm tall, which look like miniature bowling pins.

The setup should look something like this: (scale not exact) 

 

 You can see a real life photo here: (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Though that table is red with a yellow ball, the standard is teal with a red ball.

Kegler

Kegler is the most basic version with the simplest rules:

The game is played in a series of innings that only end once a player either misses or fouls.

The object of the game is to reach a pre-determined number of points in as few innings as possible. Usually between 200 and 800 depending on the skill level.

Unlike most 3-ball carom style games, the red ball is the cue-ball and the two white balls are the object balls. In a game like 3-Cushion or English Billiards, this is exactly the oppsite.

The game is "broken" (i.e. a "break" is shot) from behind the baulk-line at the ball on the opposite side of the pins, from there there are just two ways of scoring points:

• Hit a pin with a white ball (2 points per pin)
• Hit both white balls with the cue ball, called "making red" (4 points)

For a maximum of 14 points per hit.

The challenge of the game lies in its quite frankly absurd number of ways to foul a shot:

• Hitting a pin with the cue ball (at all)
• Causing a ball to jump off the table
• Pocketing the cue ball (gives ball in hand)
• Making red 3 times in a row without hitting any pins
• Not hitting a cushion in at least every other shot
• Knocking over the pins with something other than a ball
• Shooting with both feet off the ground
• "Touchéing", meaning to either hit the cue ball with somehting other than the tip of the cue or the cue still touching the cue ball when the cue ball makes contact with another ball.

Originally, causing a foul would lose you the points for the inning, but per modern rules, any points earned in the inning, except for any points earned during the foul shot are kept.

Missing altogether is not considered a foul.

Pocketing a white ball doesn't do anything. It is simply re-spotted on the oppsite side of the other white ball.

Here's a tournament in Kegler for those interested in watching.

Skomar

The "cousin" game to Kegler. According to one source I found, it was once regarded as a low-brow lower-class game associated with drinking and smoking. Danish Billiard Union players who were found playing this game supposedly had their memberships terminated on sight because they didn't want members in those circles.
The game is now officially recognised by the billiards union on equal footing with its older cousin.

The game is called Skomager or Skoma'r, Skomar, Skomagerpot, etc. depending on region. It essentially just translates to "shoemaker".
I had to look up the etymology of this, and it apparently stems from a time when calling someone a shoemaker was a bit of a slur.
Because being a shoemaker didn't require any real formal training or education of any sort, it was seen as low-class work. Thus anything and everything low-brow in Denmark was referred to as "shoemaker-something"; like "shoemaker-bass" being a simple repetitive bass-line, "shoemaker-rhyme" being bad poetry, "shoemaker-numbers" being approximations, and "shoemaker-rules" being simplified rules.

Either way the name stuck and the game is still played in pubs all over the country.

I call it a "cousin" because the game is quite different.

Returning from the other game are the following two rules:

• Hit a pin with a white ball (2 points per pin)
• Hit both white balls with the cue ball, called "making red" (4 points)

New to the game are the following:

• Game is no longer played in innings, turns change between every shot.
• It's now required to hit a cushion on every shot, instead of every other.
• Hitting a white with another white is called "making pale", and is also worth 4 points, though it can't be combined with "making red".
• Pocketing a white ball is worth 2 points.
• Hitting the centre pin alone without hitting anything else is 6 points.
• Hitting every pin all at once is 16 points.

Fouls are also much more punishing.
Instead of simply ending someone's turn, they also award the opponent points.
The amount of points awarded this way varies depending on the severity of the foul.

• Red ball topples pins having hit a white and a cushion: Scored points for the round are converted to penalty points.
• Red ball is pocketed: 2 penalty points + any other points for the shot.
• Red ball hits pins after hitting white but no cushion: 6 penalty points + points for the shot.
• Red ball hits pins after hitting cushion but no white: 6 penalty points + points for the shot.
• Topple pins with cue: 6 penalty points + points for the shot.
• Hitting the pins with any ball directly without hitting a cushion first: 6 penalty points + points for the shot.
• No ball hits a cushion: 6 penalty points + points for the shot.
• Cue-ball doesn't hit any other balls: 6 penalty points + points for the shot.
• White ball hit with cue: 6 penalty points + points for the shot.
  

Personally I find Skomar to be the more interesting game of the two.
The scoring opportunities are plentiful, and the simple act of having to change sides between shots both makes it a more interesting spectator sport, but it also makes for a more interesting game, since each shot has to both score a lot of points, but also put the opponent in a tricky spot.

Here's a video of Skomar in action:

 

Welcome Traveler!

 

I made this blog to chronicle my latest obsession: cue sports, but not just any cue sports, the ones that get no attention, but definitely should!

What's a cue sport?

Cue sports are sports like Pool, Billiards, and Snooker. They're those games you see people play in bars or sometimes on television usually involving a large green table, multi-coloured balls, and guys with long sticks poking at them.

The three most common varieties of cue sports today are:

• 8-Ball Pool
• Snooker
• 3-Cushion

Each of which have vastly different rules and vastly different cultures.

BUT! This blog isn't about those! As mentioned, this is about the games that don't see much love or light anywhere and need documenting.