How To Play Carrom Billiards Game: Meaning, Setup, Gameplay And More

Table of content:

• What is carrom billiards?
• Equipment of carrom billiards
• Objective of the game
• How to play carrom billiards

Billiards is a game played on a rectangular table with a set number of small balls. The balls are struck into the six pockets, one at each corner and one in each of the long sides with the help of the cue.

There are various types of billiards games such as English billiards, snooker, pocket billiards/pool. The number of balls used in each variety also differs.

In this section, we will explain the carrom billiards game. This is different from the carrom board game commonly played in India.

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What Is Carrom Billiards?

carom billiards balls is a type of billiards played with three balls (two white and one red) on a table without pockets. One of the white balls has a spot. The table in this game is pocket-less and is marked with three spots, one at its head, one at its center, and one at its foot.

It is also known as carambole billiards or French billiards since it originated from France in the 18th century. This type of billiards is more popular in Europe, and in some Asian countries such as Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Vietnam. However, this game is not so popular in the US.

There are various types of carrom billiards such as balkline, one-cushion, three-cushion, artistic billiards out of which three-cushion is most popular.

In our article, we will explain the three-cushion carrom billiards and the rules of the carrom game.

Equipment Of Carrom Billiards

Table

In carrom billiards, the billiard table is pocketless. The table is covered with a special type of cloth to provide a smooth surface which allows the balls to travel across the table with very little friction and resistance.

The table bed is often heated to about 5 °C above the room temperature. This helps to keep moisture out of the cloth so that the balls can roll and rebound consistently

Balls

There are 3 carom billiard balls- one red object ball, one plain white cue ball, and one dotted white cue ball for the other player.

The white spotted ball has been replaced by a yellow ball in modern games to make it easier for spectators to follow the game.

Cues

Cues are used to push or strike the balls. Carom billiard cues are different from the other billiard cues. The carrom cues are shorter and lighter with smaller tip as compared with best pool cues. They are also stiffer than normal cues to better handle the larger and heavier billiard balls.

Objective Of A Game

• The goal is to push or hit one of the white or yellow balls (cue ball) into both of the other balls.
• The cue ball must also touch the rail cushions (sides of the table) at least three times before the last object ball.
• All hits/strikes /rebounds made by the cue ball before coming to rest is considered as 1 carom.
• Each successful carrom completed counts as one point.
• Mostly, the cue ball hits the object balls once each. But you can hit them any number of times as long as both are hit.
• The contacts between the cue ball and the cushions may happen before or after hitting the first object ball.
• The cue ball does not have to contact three different cushions (sides) as long as they touched any cushion at least three times.

How To Play Carrom Billiards

This section will explain how to play carom billiards the three-cushion carrom billiards and the rules of the game.

• The first player can select either white or yellow ball as a cue ball.
• The red ball is kept on the foot spot and a white ball on the head spot.
• The cue ball is placed within six inches of the white object ball on either side .
• The cue ball must contact the red ball first on the first (break) shot.
• In subsequent shots, the player can hit the either red or white ball.
• If the first player scores on his opening shot, he can again choose the cue ball (white or yellow ball) for his second shot.
• Subsequently, in the game, the first player will continue with the cue ball he chose in the second shot. The other player has to cue the other ball.
• If a player fails to score then his turn is over and the opponent starts to play.
• The opponent has to play the balls as they have been left on the table using his cue ball.
• Any player shooting the wrong cue ball will incur a penalty of one point and will also lose a turn.
• The game continues until one player scores an agreed number of points. In most games it is often 50.

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