What is three-cushion billiards?

Three-cushion is billiards on a table with no pockets. You score by making your cue ball hit both other balls, and before it reaches the second one it must touch the cushions at least three times. That one rule makes it one of the most geometric games there is.

The balls and the table

There are three balls: a white, a yellow and a red. Each player has a cue ball, one the white and the other the yellow, and the other two balls are the object balls for that player. The red is always an object ball.

The match table has a playing surface of 2.84 by 1.42 metres, exactly twice as long as it is wide, with a heated slate bed so the cloth stays fast and even. Its cushions are lower and livelier than on a pool table, and the balls are bigger and heavier: 61 to 61.5 mm across and around 210 grams. Diamonds on the rails mark the table into eighths along its length and quarters across, and players use them to aim. See The table, diamonds and spots.

How you score a point

A shot scores, a carom or point, when the cue ball:

  1. hits both object balls, and
  2. touches cushions at least three times before it hits the second object ball.

That's it. The three cushions can come before the first ball, after it, or both. They can be the same cushion twice. More than three is fine. What does not count is two cushions and then the second ball, however close it was.

Score, and you keep playing from wherever the balls stopped. Miss, and it's your opponent's turn. Each visit to the table is an inning, and a player's quality is measured by their average: points per inning. A good club player averages around half a point an inning; the best in the world average close to two. See Rules and scoring.

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Why it's hard

A pool player sees the shot: ball, pocket, line. In three-cushion the cue ball travels several metres off the cushions, and a small error at the start becomes a big one at the end. A cut half a millimetre thinner, a touch too much speed, or a little more spin all change where the ball comes off the third cushion. So the game is decided twice: once when you choose the shot, and once when you play it.

Most players learn to play strokes long before they learn to choose them. Yet choosing well is where most points are won and lost. The right shot has room for error; the wrong one needs perfection. That is what the Carombo trainer teaches.

Shots you will hear about

Where it's played

Three-cushion is the main carom game in the world. Korea has a professional league and millions of players; Vietnam, Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Colombia, Germany, Greece, Egypt, Japan and Sweden all have strong national scenes. World championships are run by the UMB (Union Mondiale de Billard), and the best matches are streamed on Kozoom.

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