Snooker vs Billiards

[Marvin Gardens]

Snooker seems to growing in popularity of late. I was a mediocre snooker player decades ago. A friend offered to give me an old 9' Brunswick pocket billiard/pool table in need of new cushions, pockets, and felt. I know the difference between the regulation tables. Before I pursue this, any thoughts as to whether a standard pool table would be useful for practicing snooker? I've heard yes and also no.

I loved to play but just don't like going inside bars anymore.

thanks.

Bob

 

[walkin jack]

I have never played Billiards but I did play a lot of pool and snooker in my military days back in the early 60s. I did pretty well in tournaments in San Diego playing pool. I loved to play snooker. I would get ready for a pool tournament by playing nothing but snooker for a few days before. The longer table and smaller pockets in snooker seemed to help sharpen me up for the 8-ball or 9-ball tourneys. After a week on the snooker table those 8-ball pockets looked like garage doors to me....couldn't miss.

 

[Moonman]

Good Snooker players seem to THUMP pool players.

Allyson Fisher was a Snooker player before she came to
this country to win everything in sight for years at pool.

 

[Fishslayer]

Snooker seems to growing in popularity of late. I was a mediocre snooker player decades ago. A friend offered to give me an old 9' Brunswick pocket billiard/pool table in need of new cushions, pockets, and felt. I know the difference between the regulation tables. Before I pursue this, any thoughts as to whether a standard pool table would be useful for practicing snooker? I've heard yes and also no.

I loved to play but just don't like going inside bars anymore.

thanks.

Bob

Given a choice I would have a snooker table in my house rather than a standard pocket billiards table. Practicing on a snooker table is much more useful than practicing on a regular pool table. I used to shoot a lot of snooker and when I got on a regular pool table the pockets looked like garbage cans.

Snooker also requires a finer eye & more strategy.

 

[fat tom]

Pretty much paid my way through Clemson via the pool table. There was only one snooker table anywhere around. The Corner Pocket in Greenville,SC. I would kill time on that table waiting to find a game. I really liked it a lot. Definitely sharpened the skills. No such thing as "rattling one in",that's for sure!
f.t.

 

[Fishslayer]

No such thing as "rattling one in",that's for sure!
f.t.

There was one particular table in Redondo Beach that was notorious. The most infuriating thing was, you knew that if you rolled one down the rail absolutely perfectly it would go in, but anything but perfection was gonna leave a hanger for your opponant's next shot.

 

[mkk41]

When I got my table , I had the guy that does my Am. Legion Pots table as well as most of the local bars tables recover mine. He did it on the side (cash) and it cost half of what the local billiard supply house wanted to come out and do. And they contract with him!

 

[WuzzFuzz]

Along with the snooker table, did any of you set up the pins, to play pin pool?

I wish I could remember the set up...

.......... I


..........I

..........I

........ I I I

That was using the snooker balls to play.


WuzzFuzz

 

[growr]

A medicore snooker player will clean the clock of a very good 8 ball player everytime...

Sort of like using a stone to get a good edge on a knife and then use the steel to make it REALLY sharp.....the snooker table is much like the steel....makes you REALLY sharp...then again so will playing 3 cushion Billiards which is nearly a lost art....

Snooker is very demanding and unforgiving which is why I said what I did.

If I had the choice I would have the snooker table in a nanosecond!

Randy

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Pretty much paid my way through Clemson via the pool table. There was only one snooker table anywhere around. The Corner Pocket in Greenville,SC. I would kill time on that table waiting to find a game. I really liked it a lot. Definitely sharpened the skills. No such thing as "rattling one in",that's for sure!
f.t.

We were probably separated at birth. We used to play snooker at the union during the day and then go make money on the 8 ball tables at the bars at night. That and playing gin got me through undergrad and law school in style (probably also the reason I didn't make Law Review either )

 

[Fishslayer]

Meanwhile, back to my original question. Is a 9' pocket billiard table pretty much useless for practicing snooker shots?

Not "useless" but I think the point people are making is that it's kind of doing it backwards. You can practice your stroke, etc. but when you get to a snooker table the pockets are still gonna look incredibly small & the strategy won't be second nature. If you have to think TOO much you can get in your own way...

 

[williamlayton]

I have no experience with billards but I sure wish i could play it.
Just something about it appears sneaky and fun.
Blessings

 

[Fishslayer]

I have no experience with billards but I sure wish i could play it.
Just something about it appears sneaky and fun.
Blessings

8 ball & nineball are checkers.

Billiards & snooker are chess.

 

[labworm]

Willie Mosconi was a checker player, oh my.

Is it pool or pocket billiards?

 

[Fishslayer]

Willie Mosconi was a checker player, oh my.

Is it pool or pocket billiards?

Mr. Mosconi was an alien from another planet...the same one that Jerry Miculek is from. If there was any money in snooker or billiards in America at the time Mr. Mosconi would have been a champion at those I'm sure.

Dunno about the pocket billiards thing, but I never hung out in a "Pocket Billiards" hall when I was younger...

The Music Man "Ya Got Trouble" - YouTube

 

[Kinman]

Just being an average pool player and never taking the time to learn either billiards or snooker I wonder if due to the difference between snooker and billiards is where a term I remember hearing when I was kid came from. If somebody pulled a good one on you or beat you out of a deal on something I remember the old boys saying "You got snookered." Just wondering if the sharp players practiced playing snooker in order to have the advantage over the pool players and in so doing were "snookering" their opponents.

 

[labworm]

I will tell you one thing for sure.

If you played some billiards I guarantee your pool game would improve, it's all about angles and English.

Me, never chalked up at a snooker table, but looking at the table I am sure it would also help improve ones game.

 

[growr]

Didn't Willie Mosconi learn on a real 3 cushion billiards table? Could be poor memory but I thought that is where he learned his unbelivable precision and control.

Randy

 

[labworm]

Didn't Willie Mosconi learn on a real 3 cushion billiards table? Could be poor memory but I thought that is where he learned his unbelivable precision and control.

Randy

To be totally honest, I don't know but I will look it up.

I do know he was very instrumental helping out Newman and Gleason in making the movie "The Hustler".

 

[Fishslayer]

If somebody pulled a good one on you or beat you out of a deal on something I remember the old boys saying "You got snookered." Just wondering if the sharp players practiced playing snooker in order to have the advantage over the pool players and in so doing were "snookering" their opponents.

In snooker you must hit your object ball with the cueball first. By "snookering" somebody you hide the cueball where they don't have a shot at it. There are point penalties for missing your object ball but I don't recall them off the top of my head. It's been years.

I believe in eightball or nineball when you hide the cueball it's called a safety, but you're still "snookered." .