_The white winning game_, played with two white balls, is twelve in
number, when two persons play, and fifteen when four play; scored
(independently of forfeitures) from winning hazards only.
_The white losing game_, also twelve in number, played with two white
balls, is the reverse of the winning; the points being scored from
losing and double, or winning and losing hazards.
_The white winning and losing game_ is a combination of the two
preceding; all balls put in by striking the adversary’s ball first,
reckon towards the game.
The preceding games should be introductory to the knowledge of those
with three or more balls, which are more complicated and difficult.
_Choice of balls_, in which the player chooses his ball each time, an
incalculable advantage, generally played against the losing and winning
game.
_The bricole game_, signifies, being required to strike a cushion, from
whence the ball is to rebound so as to hit that of the adversary,
reckoned equal to giving eight or nine points. When both parties play
bricole, the game is ten, scored from bricole hazards, and forfeitures.
_The bar-hole game_, so styled because the hole which the ball should be
played for is barred, and the player strikes for another hole. When this
is played against the common game, the advantage to the last-mentioned
is calculated at six points.
_One-hole_, in which all halls that go into one hole are counted, and
the player who best lays his ball at the brink of that particular hole,
has the advantage. The lead should be given from that end of the table
where the last hazard has been made.
_Hazards_, so styled as depending entirely upon making hazards, no
account being kept of the game. Many persons may play at a table with
balls that are numbered, though to avoid confusion seldom more than six
play at once. The person whose ball is put in pays a fixed sum for each
hazard to the player, and he who misses pays half the same to him whose
ball he played at. The only general rule is not to lay any ball a hazard
for the next player, which may best be done by always playing upon him
whose turn is next, and either bringing his ball close to the cushion,
or putting it a distance from the rest.
_The doublet game_ is ten in number, played with two balls, most
commonly against the white winning game, and no hazard is scored unless
made by a reverberation from the cushion, calculated as equivalent to
giving five points.
_The commanding game_, where the adversary fixes upon the ball which the
striker is to play at, reckoned equal to having fourteen points out of
twenty-four: usually given by a skilful player against the common game
of an indifferent one.
_The limited game_ is very seldom played. In it the table is divided by
a line, beyond which, if the striker pass his ball, he pays forfeit.
_The red or winning and losing carambole game_ consists of twenty-one or
twenty-four points, reckoned from caramboles, and from winning and
losing hazards, equally; both white and red. Each of the white hazards
and the carambole counts two; the red hazard three points.
_The winning carambole_ (or red) game is sixteen or eighteen in number,
obtained (independently of the forfeitures which every game has peculiar
to itself), by winning hazards and carom only.
_The losing carambole_ is nearly the reverse of the winning, and
consists of sixteen or eighteen points, made by caramboles, losing and
double hazards; counted as in the winning and losing game.
N.B. The simple carambole is only a trifling variation from the above.
The carambole games are played with three balls; one red which is
neutral, and termed the _carambole_: the other two white: one of them
allotted to each player. The _carambole_ is placed upon a spot on a line
even with the stringing nail at the bottom of the table, and after
leading from the upper end the striker is either to make the winning or
losing hazard, according to the particular game, or to hit with his own
ball the other two successively; for which stroke, called a _carambole_
or _carom_, he obtains two points.
The _Russian carambole_ varies from the common carambole in the
following particulars:—
The red ball is to be placed upon the usual spot; but the player, at the
commencement of the game, or after his ball has been holed, is at
liberty to place it where he pleases. The leader, instead of striking at
the red ball, should lay his own gently behind the same, and the
opponent may play at either of them; if the said opponent play at and
hole the red ball, he scores three; then the red ball is to be replaced
upon the spot, and the player may take his choice again, always
following his stroke till both balls are off the table; he gains two
points for every carambole; but if in doing that he hole his own ball,
then he loses as many as otherwise he would have obtained; and if he
strike at the red ball, and should carambole and hole that ball and his
own, he loses five points; and when he holes all three balls he loses
seven, which respective numbers he would have won had he not holed his
own ball.
_The caroline_ or _carline game_ is played either on a round or square
table with five balls, two white, one red, another blue, and the
caroline ball yellow. The red ball is to be placed on its usual spot,
the caroline ball exactly in the middle of the table, and the blue ball
between the two at the lower end of the table. The striking spot is at
the upper end, in a parallel line with the three balls. The game is 42,
scored from caramboles and hazards; the red hazard counts three, the
blue two, and the yellow, when holed in the caroline or middle pocket,
is reckoned at six points.
_The four game_ consists of two partners on each side at any of the
common games, who play in succession after every winning hazard lost.
_The cushion game_ consists in the striker playing his ball from the top
of the baulk cushion, instead of following his stroke upon the table,
and is generally played in the winning, or winning and losing game,
reckoned equal to giving six points.
_Fortification Billiards_, for an account of which see Hoyle.
As the _red_, or _winning and losing game_, is that most commonly
played, and as its regulations are, with trifling exceptions, applicable
to all the others, the following will be found a correct code of the
general laws of billiards. For tables of the odds, and a description of
particular games, the reader is referred to the later editions of Hoyle.
_Rules &c. in the winning and losing carambole game._—1. The game
commences by stringing for the lead and choice of balls.
2. In stringing, the striker must place his ball within the striking
ring; and, if his adversary desire it, must stand within the limits of
the corner of the table.
3. He who, after playing at the bottom cushion, brings his ball nearest
to the cushion, at the upper or baulk end of the table, wins the lead,
and chooses his ball.
4. After the first person has strung for the lead, if the adversary who
follows should make his ball touch the other, he loses the lead.
5. By holing his own ball, either in stringing or leading, the player
loses the lead.
6. Should the leader follow his ball, with either mace or cue, beyond
the middle hole, it is no lead; and his adversary may make him lead
again.
7. The leader must place his ball within the ring, between the striking
nails or spots at the upper end of the table: and the same must be
observed after every losing hazard has been got.
8. The red ball is to be placed on the lower of the two spots, at the
bottom of the table.
9. When either of the white balls has been holed, &c., it must be
replaced in, and played from the striking ring, as at the commencement
of the game.
10. When the red ball has been holed or forced over the table, it must
be replaced on the same spot as at the beginning of the game, and the
present striker is bound to see it thus replaced, otherwise he cannot
win any points while it is off the spot, and the stroke he may make is
deemed foul.
11. If the striker do not hit his adversary’s ball, he loses one point;
and if by the same stroke he pocket his own ball, he loses three points
and the lead.
12. If the striker force either of the balls over the table, he loses
the lead.
13. If the striker force his own, or either of the other balls over the
table, after having made a carambole or hazard, he gains nothing, and
also loses the lead.
14. If the striker hit both the red and his adversary’s ball with his
own ball, this is called a _carambole_ or _carom_.
15. If the striker with his own hole his adversary’s ball, he wins two
points.