Billiard and Muscles, Billiard vs. Golf

And more on the subject of billiard and muscles, this time I'll start with a quote of Richard Carrier, the sports columnist of Powhatan Today:

"…golfers actually have physical skill levels equal to that of billiard players. They both have the ability to make a ball curve, the ability to read the speed of the green/felt and good hand-eye coordination. The only difference is that, with the golfer, success is in the tools he uses and, more often than not, he who has the more expensive tools/toys wins. And billiard players cut down an insignificant number of trees."

And once again, billiard players get the upper hand; playing billiard requires you neither to build an iron body nor to spend tons of money on expensive equipment!

(Only Kidding; it is known that the billiard pros must have a Spartan training routine, which often requires a home pool table and that my friends isn't cheap at all! But seriously, the guy had a smart point, I couldn't say it any better.)

And speaking of golf and billiard, here's another analogy between the two types of sports:

"…snooker (and golf) are the easiest sports to fix. Both are individual sports often gambled upon and in both of them missing a shot does not have to look that obvious. But unlike golf players who’ve been practicing their sports on green grass among white collars, the natural habitats of snooker players are smoky billiards parlor swarming with dubious characters."

(from Play89 blog who comments to L A Odicean weblog)

Play Pool for your Tuition Fees

If neither your brains nor your muscles can gain you a college scholarship, you still got hope. Assuming you know how to play pool. The University of Akron, Ohio has founded a unique scholarship program for extremely talented pool players.

Founded by the UA alumni Barry Lefkowitz and a former billiards champion of the institute, the program will cover $1,000 tuition fees or books of three students each fall or spring semester. Due to his generous contribution to the university billiards culture, the billiards parlor is named after him.

If you reckon your pool shooting skill are scholarship worthy, you can reveal them at the upcoming Lefkowitz scholarship tournament scheduled to Saturday, March 29 at the Barry Lefkowitz Billiard Parlor. The 9-ball pool tournament offers $1,000 prize to the winner, $500 to the finalist and $250 prize to the semi finalist.

Unfortunately, no one pays you to play online pool yet...

On Billiards and Physics

What sets apart a natural born pool player from the average one? On top of the obvious gifts (focused eye, steady hand and good correlation between them), a pool player usually has an intuitive understanding of physics.

In an interview to Frontline – India's National Magazine, Sheldon Lee Glashow, co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics and the proud owner of a home antique billiards table, talks about his upcoming book on the relations between billiards and physics. Prof. Glashow bases the billiards part of the book on his past experience as a student who has been spending long hours at the university pool room studying the movements of billiards balls.

"Physics and the Game of Billiards" will discuss "variety of mathematical methods and applies them to the motions and impacts of hypothetical spherical bodies" such as the interactions between billiards balls, cue tips, billiards table rails during a pool game. The book intends to be approachable to every pool fan, including those who've majored in arts, but its main objective is to introduce mathematical physics theories to students in a very vivid way.

More Billiars Blogs

In my previous post I reviewed some of my favorite billiards blogs on the web. But, why should you trust my opinion? You shouldn't, I am telling you. There are dozens of billiards blogs out there, and an even number of billiards blogs directories. These are only some of them:




Blog Directory - Directory, reviews and more. Your one-stop blog spot!
Games Blog Directory


Blog Directory
BloggerNow.com





The Blog Resource
My Blog Directory
Blog Sweets
Blogging Fusion Blog Directory

Top 5 Pool-Billiard Blogs

There's more than one thing a pool enthusiast can do with the internet; on top of playing online pool 24/7 one can also read (as well as manage) blogs about pool and billiards!

From in-depth reviews on the history of billiards to blogs written by pro players through silly little pool blogs, the blogosphere is loaded with pool and billiards fans who enjoy sharing their insights, experiences and impressions on the game.

In this post I want to recommend on my favorite pool/billiards/snooker blogs. These recommendations are entirely based on my personal liking, so all you unmentioned pool bloggers out there, despair not! You still have the chance to be included in my next review of pool and billiard blogs.

Best Pool-Billiards Blogs (in my opinion and in random order)

Ace's Pool Blog

Is Ace my lost soul mate? Could be! The guy who describes himself as "an incredibly lousy pool player" and later confesses on spending too much time in front and too little around the pool table, is a sharp writer and, at least according to his blog posts, a knowledgeable pool player.

Diary of a Pool Shooter

First thing you notice when you enter Fast Mikie blog is its beautiful design. This is exactly how my dream pool room looks like! Additionally, the blogger knows how to rhyme! And most importantly, he shows to support to his fellow bloggers! In one liner: informative pool blog written in verses with pool videos, info on pool tournaments in California (not to mention Fast Mikie's pics as a toddler …)

Kendrick’s Billiards Blog

The greatness of Kendrick’s Billiards Blog (which has recently celebrated its 3 years anniversary) is known and acknowledged. Written by the owner of a billiards hall in Bellingham, Washington, Kendrick's blog is filled with smart, funny and fascinating stories from his workplace. Moreover, he is not skimping in providing tips and advice for pool hall owners and wannabes.

Guardian's Games Blog

Not exactly a pool-billiards blog, still if you are interested in online pool games, there is more than the slightest chance that you'd appreciate the Guardian's blog dedicated to online games, mobile games, game consoles, game culture and so on. Updated on a daily basis, the blog is one of the best places on the internet to keep track on the ever changing gaming market.

Snooker Billiards Pool

A relatively new blog ran by a guy who lives world of pool (and snooker and billiards) equipment. But technical specifications of all sorts of billiards accessories is not all you can find here; Snooker Billiards Pool blog is seasons with snooker-billiards-pool news from both sides of the Atlantic. Its main hitch is that it updates rarely. Anyway, if you are a sucker for new, shining cue sticks, Snooker…blog is worth following.

Chalk Chalk

One of the things I like about playing online pool is not having to get my hands all filthy with chalk (which by the way, contains nothing but actual chalk). Anyway, not everyone is like me and I know that many of my readers do tend to mess up their hands once in a while.

In a "survey" I bumped into not long ago I learned an interesting fact: while the newbie pool player chalks the cue tip very often, the intermediate player remembers to use that white substance only once in 3-4 shots. And if you thought that the average of chalking decreases with level, think again: apparently, the pros chalk after each and every shot.

I believe the lesson here is pretty obvious - if you want to play like the pros, chalk constantly. However, if you want to maintain you stick properly, do not forget to clean it from the remains of the chalk when you're done shooting them balls.

New World Record Billiards Break!

The world's record billiards break was broken! It happened two days ago, on the first day of the New Zealand Open Billiards Championships by Peter Gilchrist, a 39 years old English billiards pro and the Singapore Snooker & Billiards Association Coach.

The new world record billiard break is 1346; 100 points more than the former world record, which was set by the Indian billiards master Geet Sethi about 15 years ago.

The new world record is also a new record for Gilchrist, whose former highest break was 917.

Things you can do with a Billiard Ball...

A former Chicago policeman is charged for allegedly smashing an insurance office's window using a billiards ball. Even though today's billiard balls are no longer made of wood or ivory (today's billiard balls are composed of plastic composition like phenolic resin, polyester, acrylic etc), they can surely damage a window!

Billiard balls have a long and destructive history. At the beginning, they were made of wood, and the only thing they could damage was themselves. Let's just say that after a few games the balls didn't look much like balls and you could hardly tell the colored balls from the white ball.

Later on, billiard balls were made of ivory. It means that for every set of billiards balls you had to kill about 2-3 elephants. Not that the anyone cared about the elephants lives, the main problem was that the elephants' hunters lives were risked at the process.

Later on, a special composition called cellulose nitrate composed the billiard balls. Though its inventor, John Wesley Hyatt was induced to the Billiards Hall of Fame, the preparation of the billiards balls materials was explosive. Literally.



More on billiards balls history

Pool Poll

OK, I don't exactly know how to manage it technically (to tell you the truth, besides playing internet pool I'm not much of an internet freak) . Anyhow, one question, few answers, feel free to comment.

Which pool video would you like mostly to watch (embed in your site and spread across the World Wide Web)?

1. Pool Trick Shots
2. Pro pool matches and championships
3. Amateur pool games or funny home pool videos (such as cats playing pool)
   
4. pool tutorials

Play89 Pool Blog

In this post I want to recommend on a new pool and billiards blog I ran into, called Play89 Pool Blog. First I thought it's Play89 pool site official blog, but it isn't. It's a personal blog of someone whose entire life surrounding around online pool games, billiards news, and so on... So familiar so it almost hurts...

Why Play Pool?

If you already play pool, you don't need to look for reasons to play pool. But if you're not addicted to pool yet, this might convince you:

Pool is a fun and exciting game with a long and rich history. Pool rules are quite easy to grasp and once you get the basics of pool your achievements improve significantly.

Moreover, as opposed to other sports game, you can play pool at any age and with (almost) every physical disability. Especially if you play pool online...

So, why do you play pool?

More Reasons to Play Pool

All about billiards....

If you are fans of useless trivial information, like myself, you will enjoy reading this: an article about billiards' unknown facts.
Actually, some of this "unknown facts" did ring some bells, but maybe I'm not such as a good example...
Other facts, like the story about the first billiards female champion, I won't spoil you the surprise, but it is quite an amazing story.
The bottom line, if you are interested in billiards, history, or of you like to fill your head with trivial data and then pour it out in some boring dinner, you should read this.

Billiards (more or less) unknown facts

More pool games

One thing I like about billiards is that the diversity of pool games is never ending. At the beginning, 8 ball was the only game I've ever known. When I got deeper into pool and billiards, I learned about 9 ball (which is currently my no. 1 pool game), straight pool, snooker, one pocket, and cutthroat.

But I keep hearing and reading about more and more pool games: cowboy pool, kelly pool, cribbage pool... Are there any other pool game I'm not aware? Please let me know.

When you play pool online, you'll mostly find online 8 ball, 9 ball, and snooker games. Some online pool sites have straight pool, and fewer have carom billiard games. I read somewhere that yahoo pool intends to add cutthroat pool game. If you know something I don't, do let me know.

What happens to the cue ball on coin-op pool tables?

What causes the cue ball to return from a scratch when playing pool on a coin operated tables?
Where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over?
Did you ever wander about it?

Well, I don't have any breaking news about the ducks, but if this cue ball paradox has held you from sleeping, I've got some relaxing news for you.

It turns out that the cue ball happily returns to the table after the scratch because it is slightly bigger than the object balls or because a magnetic mechanism controls the mechanism of the table.
If you want clearer explanations, you can find them in this article:
Pool Cue Ball by Play89.
I know what you are asking now... How can I play pool with a heavier cue ball? Will the Earth's magnetic field spoil my aim?
Well... I guess you'll have to answer these by yourself

Coolest Pool Room in the World!

Hi

I have a question:

Do you have a home billiard room?

I don't, but hey, I can play pool 24/7! no fuzz and no attachment.

Anyhow, I'll be happy to receive pics of your home billiard room.

Here's a pic of a cool pool room I found on the net:

Crazy Billiards!

Hi my two and a half readers! (hi mom)

Another crazy billiards trick shot is coming up: