My game of choice is 3-Cushion billiards. It's the most popular of the carom games. There are only 3 balls and the tables have no pockets. To make a billiard, or carom, the player must cause his cueball to hit both of the other balls and at least three cushions. It's a challenging game and, because of the difficulty of the shots, very rewarding. I'm fascinated by the physics of the game and the creativity it requires. 3-Cushion gives players a chance to execute big stroke shots that just don't come up in pool. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at it. That's because, like most Americans, I took up billiards after learning pool. In other countries they do it differently. In Europe, Asia and Latin America billiard players start by learning the so-called small games; straight-rail, balkline and cushion caroms, often on smaller tables. They play these games a while before moving to the larger table and the 3-Cushion game. This diary offers an introduction to straight-rail billiards, click through if you're interested.
It hasn't always been this way. Americans used to excel at the carom games. The rail-nurse demonstrated in the video below is still sometimes referred to as the serie américain by the French. Straight-rail is the American term for what the rest of the world calls the free game, or libre. It was once a popular spectator sport. As players learned to gather the balls together, to herd the ivory sheep, they were able to run up fantastic scores. Long runs with very little ball movement were boring for the fans so restrictions were added to keep the game moving. Finally, contact with at least three cushions was required and the 3-Cushion game became the one that decided championships. The greatest billiard player in American history, and maybe the history of the world, was Willie Hoppe1 who held championships in all the carom games. As 3-Cushion began to overtake straight-rail in popularity, recreational players played the small games less and less, thinking them "too easy." Here's what Willie Hoppe had to say about that:
Perhaps the reason straight-rail is not more generally played is the fact that most players, unless they are just starting to learn to play, have the false idea that it is too easy. Try to make a run of 50 points at straight-rail some time – and you’ll find out how “easy” it is. You will, but with “reverse” English.
Willie Hoppe, Billiards as It Should Be Played, 1940
The video embedded below is a demonstration of straight-rail billiards by Belgian champion Frédéric Caudron.
2 He'll run 250 points in about 20 minutes, narrating the whole run. Note that the game he is playing is not completely "free." There are balklines drawn across the corners. This is to prevent players from lodging the balls in a corner and scoring by going back and forth across the faces of the "crotched" balls. The value of straight-rail for 3-Cushion players is obvious. Straight-rail is where you learn to manage
all three balls. In pool, the contact point on the first ball is determined within very narrow limits by where you plan to pocket that ball. If you're successful the ball falls into a hole and goes away. In billiards you have to be conscious of where that first ball ends up, you must learn to control it. 3-Cushion players who started in pool aren't used to thinking about the path of the object ball, it's not instinctive with us. We tend to get kissed-out a lot, we sell out a lot and we don't play good position.
First a word about the break. Nowadays everybody uses essentially the same break for both straight-rail and 3-Cushion, illustrated in the clumsy diagram below. The only difference is speed. For both games the initial hit on the red is the same. The cueball goes three rails for the point and the red takes off along the dotted line for point A on the end rail. Straight-rail players want to drive the red three rails, to points A, B and C before allowing it to die in a position zone near the other two balls. 3-cushion players hit it a little harder so the other player's ball is driven into the corner and the red continues up the table, maybe catching a fourth rail at D before dying in a position zone along the long rail.
Hoppe used an elegant little two-rail break for the small games. I play around with it every now and then. You hit it softly with straight high-ball, no English. The balls take symmetrical paths and, if you've done it right, they all stay close together after the point.
OK, here's Caudron's demo. Watch how he controls all three balls. It takes him about 4 minutes to get "the perfect position," up against a rail for the rail-nurse. First the break as diagrammed above. His second shot is a straight-forward draw off the yellow, driving it three rails for shape, then a dead-ball follow, driving the red up the table and back, then another drive and draw ..... and so on. Enjoy.