Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
This pool trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and starts at the table: how eight-ball and nine-ball are racked and won, why the cloth is green, what balls were made of before plastic, how long a cue is and why you chalk it, plus the people who made the game famous, from Willie Mosconi's 526-ball run and Minnesota Fats to Efren Reyes, Jeanette Lee and Paul Newman's Fast Eddie. Snooker and carom get a look-in for context. Because 'pool trivia' means two things, the last stretch heads to the swimming pool: the Great Bath of Mohenjo-daro, Rome's first heated pool, Olympic dimensions and the largest pool on Earth. It works for a pool-hall league night, a bar quiz or a poolside party. Easy questions any casual player will get; the hard ones dig into records, dates and equipment specs. Every answer was checked against encyclopedic sources before publishing, and each question explains itself as soon as you pick.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many pockets does a pool table have?
Six
Carom billiards is played on a table with none at all, and snooker on a larger six-pocket table.
Q 02Around what year did eight-ball arise in the United States, as a development of pyramid pool?
1900
The game arose around 1900 in the United States as a development of pyramid pool.
Q 03In eight-ball, which balls are the stripes?
9 through 15
The solids run 1 to 7, and the black 8 must be racked in the centre of the triangle.
Q 04Where must the 8 ball sit in a standard eight-ball rack?
In the centre of the third row
The two back corners must hold one stripe and one solid.
Q 05In nine-ball, which object sits at the front of the diamond rack?
The 1
The 9 goes in the centre, and whoever legally pockets it wins, even on the break.
Q 06In nine-ball, what must the cue ball contact first on every shot?
The lowest-numbered object on the table
The game was established in America by 1920, and it is now the main professional format.
Q 07Straight pool is also known by what name?
14.1 continuous
Players call any ball into any pocket for one point each; after 14 are sunk the balls are re-racked around the fifteenth.
Q 08Which body governs the game as an international competitive sport?
The World Pool-Billiard Association
The WPA specifies balls of 2 1/4 inches weighing 5.5 to 6 ounces.
Q 09Modern pool tables range from 3.5 by 7 ft up to what size?
4.5 by 9 ft
Every size keeps the 2:1 ratio of length to width.
Q 10On a high-quality table, the playing surface under the cloth is made of what?
Slate
The cushions around it are vulcanised rubber, and the rail markers are called sights or diamonds.
Q 11Why is billiard cloth traditionally green?
It represents the grass of the original lawn games
Cue sports evolved indoors from stick-and-ball lawn games now called ground billiards.
Q 12Which French king is recorded as having the first known indoor billiard table?
Louis XI
Mary, Queen of Scots later complained when her table was taken away during her imprisonment at Tutbury Castle.
Q 13The word 'billiard' may come from the French 'billart', meaning what?
Stick
The predecessor of the cue was the mace, a golf-club-like implement for shoving the ball.
Q 21Willie Mosconi set the straight-pool record in 1954 by running how many consecutive balls?
526
'Mr. Pocket Billiards' did it in an exhibition in Springfield, Ohio, and won the world straight pool title 19 times between 1941 and 1957.
Q 22The Mosconi Cup, founded in 1994, pits the United States against which team?
Europe
The nine-ball event is modelled on golf's Ryder Cup and was created by Sky Sports and Matchroom Sport.
Q 23Which 1961 film starred Paul Newman as pool shark 'Fast Eddie' Felson?
The Hustler
Jackie Gleason played Minnesota Fats and Willie Mosconi was technical adviser; the film earned nine Oscar nominations.
Q 14Until the early 20th century, high-quality billiard balls were made from what?
Elephant ivory
No more than eight balls could be cut from a single elephant's tusks, which is why a New York supplier offered $10,000 for a substitute.
Q 15Which inventor patented an 'ivory imitation' billiard ball of nitrocellulose and camphor in 1869?
John Wesley Hyatt
It was an early celluloid, and the search for a ball material helped launch the plastics industry.
Q 16Under what brand does Belgian firm Saluc make the phenolic resin balls used in pro play?
Aramith
A regulation pool ball is 2 1/4 inches across; snooker balls are smaller at 52.5 mm.
Q 17A standard pool ball has what diameter?
2 1/4 inches
The WPA tolerance is plus or minus 0.005 inch.
Q 18A pool cue is typically about how long?
57 to 59 inches
Most weigh between 16 and 21 ounces, and quality pool cues are made from hard rock maple.
Q 19Why do players apply chalk to the tip of a cue?
To add friction and avoid miscues
Ideally you chalk every other shot; the tip itself is leather, glued to a cuff called the ferrule.
Q 20Snooker cues are almost always made from which wood?
Ash
Pool cues, by contrast, favour straight-grained hard rock maple for the shaft.
Q 24Paul Newman won his only Academy Award for reprising Fast Eddie in which 1986 sequel?
The Color of Money
Both films are based on novels by Walter Tevis, who also wrote The Queen's Gambit.
Q 25Real-life player Rudolf Wanderone took the name Minnesota Fats from where?
The character in the 1961 film
Previously 'New York Fats', he never won a major tournament but hosted Celebrity Billiards on TV.
Q 26Which Filipino player, nicknamed 'The Magician' and 'Bata', is widely called the greatest of all time?
Efren Reyes
In 1996 he came from 17 racks down to beat Earl Strickland 120-117 for the largest purse in pool history.
Q 27Jeanette Lee, world No. 1 in the 1990s, is known by which nickname?
The Black Widow
The Korean-American from Brooklyn always wore black and won World Games gold in 2001.
Q 28Snooker's first rules were finalised in 1882 by British Army officers stationed in which country?
India
The word was army slang for a raw recruit; Neville Chamberlain, the officer, is not the later prime minister.
Q 29What is the maximum break in snooker?
147
Fifteen reds each followed by a black, then the six colours in order.
Q 30Since 1977 the World Snooker Championship has been staged at which Sheffield venue?
The Crucible Theatre
A full-size snooker table is 12 by 6 feet, far bigger than any pool table.