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A billiards table or billiard table is a table on which billiards games are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables, regardless of whether for carom billiards, pocket billiards or snooker, provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that is covered with cloth and surrounded by resilient cushions, with the whole elevated above the floor.^[1]

Contents 1 Carom Billiards tables 2 Pocket billiards tables 3 Length 4 Cushions 5 Snooker table 5.1 Dimensions 5.2 Pockets 5.3 Cushions 5.4 The bed 5.5 Markings 6 References 7 External links

Pocketless carom billiards tables are used for such games as three-cushion billiards, straight rail, balkline, artistic billiards and cushion caroms. Regulation carom billiards tables are close-to-perfect rectangles, with the bed of the table (the playing surface) measuring 10 ft by 5 ft (though 9 ft by 4.5 ft are increasingly common).

The slate bed of carom billiard tables are often heated to about 5 degrees C (9 degrees F) above room temperature, which helps to keep moisture out of the cloth to aid the balls rolling and rebounding in a consistent manner, and generally makes a table play faster. A heated table is required under international carom rules and is an especially important requirement for the games of three-cushion billiards and artistic billiards.^[1]

Heating table beds is an old practice. Queen Victoria of England (1819-1901) had a billard table that was heated using zinc tubes, although the aim at that time was chiefly to keep the then-used ivory balls from warping. The first use of electric heating was for an 18.2 balkline tournament held in December 1927 between Welker Cochran and Jacob Schaefer, Jr. The New York Times announced it with fanfare: "For the first time in the history of world's championship balkline billiards a heated table will be used..."^[1][2]

Pocket billiards tables, sometimes called pool tables, are specific to the various pool games such as eight-ball, nine-ball, straight pool and one-pocket. As the name implies, pocket billiards tables have pockets; normally six of them—one at each corner of the table (Corner pockets) and one at the midpoint of each of the longer sides (side pockets).

Pockets might have bags to hold the balls or lead to rails inside the table, where balls roll down falling into a drawer. These are common in coin-based tables found regularly in bars. The pockets are usually made of Plastic or leather and can be connected into a ball-return which channels all the pocketed balls into one chamber on a side of the table.

The word pocket might be used as a verb, meaning "to sink" a ball, that is, to throw it into the pocket. (eg. "I'm pocketing the Eight ball.")

Many people are confused by the use of the word "regulation", using it when what they mean to refer to is the size of tables used for professional tournaments. Regulation tables come in 3.5 ft by 7 ft, 4 ft by 8 ft, and 4.5 ft by 9 ft, with play areas twice as long as they are wide (plus or minus 1/8 in) from the nose of the cushion to the nose of the opposite cushion, i.e., perfect or close to perfect rectangles. The largest of these sizes, 4.5 ft by 9 ft, is the standard size for tournament play and is "regulation" when the side to side internal width is 50 in and the length is 100 in (plus or minus 1/8 in), when measured cushion nose-to-cushion nose. In previous generations 10 ft tables were standard, and can still be found as antiques in some pool halls. For home use, 8 ft tables are somewhat common. Snooker tables are typically approximately 12 ft long, with smaller pocket aperatures. Seven-foot coin-operated tables are typically found in bars due to limited space, and are also used for the Korean game of "four ball".^{[citation needed]} Coin-operated pool tables use multiple ways to determine the cue ball from the object balls, including light sensors, different ball sizes/weights, or magnetic triggers.

While most tables are perfect rectangles, there are novelty tables which are round, hexagonal and even zig-zag shaped. These variants, however, are all far less popular than the ubiquitous, traditional rectangular tables.

On the sides of all varieties of billiard table are "rails" (or "cushions"), which are made from elastic materials such as synthetic or vulcanized rubber. The cushion's purpose is to rebound balls without letting them lose too much kinetic energy. The playing surface (the "bed") on all quality tables is made of 3/4 in to 2 in thick slate, typically imported from Italy, Brazil or China. Cheaper table surfaces are usually made of artificial substances such as Slatron or some composite wood variant like medium-density fiberboard. These surfaces are usually more susceptible to warping and do not have the same playing qualities as slate.

Both the rails and slate beds are covered with 21-24 ounce billiard cloth which is most often green in color (representing the grass of the original lawn games that billiards evolved from), and consists of either a woven wool or wool/nylon blend called baize. Most bar tables, which get lots of play, use the slower, thicker blended cloth because it can better withstand heavy usage. By contrast, high quality pool cloth is usually made of a napless weave such as worsted wool, which gives a much faster roll to the balls. This "speed" of the cloth affects the amounts of swerve and deflection of the balls, among other aspects of game finesse. Snooker cloth traditionally has a directional nap, upon which the balls behave differently when rolling against vs. toward the direction of the nap.

A billiard table designed for the game snooker is called a snooker table.

A standard tournament snooker table measures 11 ft 8.5 in by 5 ft 10 in (3569 mm by 1778 mm). The height from the floor to the top of the cushion is between 2 ft 9.5 in and 2 ft 10.5 in (851 mm and 876 mm).

A snooker table has six pockets, one at each corner and one at the center of each of the longest side cushions. The pockets are around 90 mm (3.5 in), though high-class tournaments may use slightly smaller pockets to increase difficulty. The amount of "undercut" in the pocket determines how easily a ball is accepted. Compared to a billiards table, snooker table pockets are rounded, while pool tables have sharp corners. This affects how accurate shots need to be to get in a pocket and on rail shots from one end of the table to the other.

The cushions (sometimes known as rails, though that term properly applies to the wood sections the cushions are attached to) are usually made of vulcanized rubber.

The playing surface or "bed" of a good quality snooker table has a base of slate and is covered with green baize or worsted wool. The thickness of the cloth determines the speed, accuracy and responsiveness of the table to spin, thicker cloths being more hard-wearing but slower and less responsive. The nap of the cloth can affect the run of the balls, especially on slower shots. A snooker table traditionally has the nap running from baulk to the top end and is brushed and ironed in this direction.

The baulk area is marked by a line drawn at 29 in (737 mm) from the bottom cushion. A semicircle with a radius of 11.5 in (292 mm) centred on this line within baulk forms the "D" in which the cue ball must be placed when breaking or after the cue ball has been potted or shot off the table. The position of four of the colours are marked along the long string (lengthwise centre) of the table, perpendicular to the baulk line: the spot, or black spot, 12.5 in (324 mm) from the top cushion; the centre spot, or blue spot, located at the mid-point between the bottom and top cushions; The pyramid spot, or pink spot, located midway between the centre spot and the top cushion; and the brown spot, located at the mid-point of the baulk line. The exact placing of these markings will be different on smaller tables, such as a 5 ft by 10 ft pub table.

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