Here is the story about this book. During those early couple of decades when I got bitten by the Pool Passion Bug, the idea of winning the game by purposely dogging a shot or two was considered cowardly and the shooter was a yellow-bellied weakling, deserving of sneers and insults. Nowadays, a well-played safety is applauded by railbirds, and feared by those who can't kick or jump the cue ball. I watched many games where the sure-to-lose player, seemingly by accident, prevented the obvious-to-win player from winning. (Well, I was a little slow to learn some things, but eventually, I realized what was happening.) Defensive shooting skills are as important to winning as offensive shooting skills. I started applying this radical idea of defensive shooting to my own game - and suddenly I was winning a lot more matches - even against better players. What an eye-opener this was. And yes, occasionally I get accused of cowardice. I don't care - I won, they lost. This book is the accumulation of over ten years of study and analysis of defensive and safety shooting options. The phrase, "Knowledge is Power" sums up the contents of this book and I want to pass on these hard-learned lessons to you. These are the advanced defensive strategies and tactical tools used by professionals and road players. Just reading this material will improve your winning percentage by 10%. Yes - you do need to practice the cue ball and object ball positioning skills in the book, but just knowing the how, when, and why to play the safety will make winning a more common experience in your life. Basically, the contents of this book teach you how to trick and trap your opponent into helping you win. Winning is so much easier when you can identify your opponent's weaknesses and use them against him. There is even ways to use your opponent's strengths against him. (Who would have thought that?) You will learn about basic safety types, how to analyze opponents, use simple tricks and traps to prevent your opponent from winning, and the necessary precision exercises (which will also help your offensive game). It will be more fun to win more games

This is the mind set that a serious player must learn. This is how Sun Tzu would teach table billiards. It is the Philosophy of War as it applies to the Philosophy of Pool. The words of the famous and ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu have been read, studied, and applied by millions of students of warfare and those who compare their livelihood to be a similar life and death competition. Many advisers to the movers and shakers of the world have made their fortunes by converting his words for the applications in sports, business and politics. This 2500 year old treatise on how to wage war has a direct application to the tactics and strategies used in table billiards. Your viewpoint of how you to play will shift and adjust from "on the table" to "above the table" viewpoint. This book is available in US (amazon.com) and Europe (*.uk, *.fr, *.de, *.es, *.it). Also see the author's Billiards Blog on the Billiard Gods web site.

Inside this book are all the answers to hundreds of common questions about the Green Game: FAQs about the sport FAQs about gambling FAQs about playing situations FAQs about practicing FAQs about playing equipment FAQs about teaching & learning Rules for 25 different pool games Glossary of hundreds of pool terms This book is available in US (amazon.com) and Europe (*.uk, *.fr, *.de, *.es, *.it). Also see the author's Billiards Blog on the Billiard Gods web site.

Most Billiard instructional guides focus solely on the physical aspects of the game - the techniques, the shots, and the rules. Zen Pool teaches you all of these practical insights and skills, then goes one step further - showing you how to improve your total game by increasing your physical, mental, and spiritual awareness in the present moment. Many readers have described remarkable improvements after reading the lessons taught in this book - and many professional players have reported winning more tournaments. Zen Pool is your own private success coach: It will guide you to new levels of play and give you the knowledge you need to vastly improve your game. The wisdom and secrets herein have been distilled from a lifelong and fruit bearing quest, including study with, and of, many pool masters. So open Zen Pool, begin your journey, and let three-time national billiards champion Max Eberle awaken the master within you.

My NEW book on playing pool will help you to win every game!

"A tremendously satisfying road story. What makes Running the Table so special is not the pool prowess of its protagonist but the unlikely bond between two wildly different young men who find each other through an exhilarating, often infuriating game."--Los Angeles Times
Running the Table spins the outrageous tale of Kid Delicious, an affable skilled pool shark from New Jersey, and his studly if less talented setup man, Bristol Bob. Wertheim follows this mismatched pair of sidekicks as they go underground to learn the art of the hustle while experiencing the highs and lows of life on the road. Their four-year odyssey takes them from podunk pool halls to slick urban billiard rooms across America, some nights taking down as much as $30,000 and others ending up with just enough gas money to get home. With every stop the action gets hotter, the calls get closer, and Delicious's prowess with a cue stick becomes more widely known. Ultimately the Kid sheds his cover, becoming perhaps the biggest sensation in professional pool since Minnesota Fats. Wertheim paints a lasting portrait of an insanely talented and magnetic hustler who is literally larger than life.
"Renders the trappings of a road player's life . . . readers are taken on a sweet and varied ride."--Sports Illustrated

Originally published in the late 1800s, this is an anthology of articles on billiards by a master of the game, and is full of invaluable information that is still practical and relevant to the modern day reader. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Originally published in the 1930s. Every stroke discussed and advised on in this book has been played and measured by the author who was the finest billiards instructor of his day. The numerous diagrams and photographs will prove of inestimable value to all who are keen on improving their game. Contents Include: Playing Conditions Ball Contact Cannons Safety Play Use of Side Screw and Side Angles Spectacular Strokes Common Faults Losing Hazards Ball to Ball Contact How to Pot Billiard Knowledge etc. Keywords: Safety Play Cannons Billiards Billiard 1930s Faults Angles Strokes Keen Screw Stroke Pot Photographs Contact Game

Originally published in London in the 1920s as a revised and enlarged edition based on Hoyle's early works of the 1700s. The book is an illustrated compendium of over eighty games and their varieties including card, billiard and board games. These are fully explained with rules and advice on play. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Home Farm Books are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

The secrets of billiards--taught by two of its greatest players

Pool legend Steve Mizerak has teamed up with Ewa Mataya Laurance, the Striking Viking, to write A Quick-Start Guide to Pocket Billiards, an essential resource for players of all levels to learn the skills required to attain proficiency at the game and then take their games to the next level.

In clear, step-by-step instructions and friendly language, it teaches readers how to:

• Think like a pro
  
• Select and hold the perfect cue
  
• Sink balls
  
• Analyze and set up shots
  
• Play the offensive in a game
  

Here is the companion book to the landmark Byren's Standard Book of Pool and Billiads--what every pool player needs to perfect his or her game. Byrne treats the finer points of the game with the comprehensiveness and clarity that have won him a loyal readership among the many thousands of players who have taken up the game in the recent pool boom.

This book is a biographical story based on the true life of Combread Red", a legendary and colorful professional pool player and gambler. In billiard circles, he is known as the "Living Legend".

World Snooker Champion Ronnie O'Sullivan's frank and honest account of his astonishingly dramatic life. I used to rely on drugs and alcohol to keep me going, but now I've got the healthiest addiction going - running. This book explains how running has helped me to fight my demons - my addictive personality, depression, my dad's murder conviction, the painful break-up with the mother of my children - and allowed me to win five World Snooker Championships. It is also about all of the great things in my life - my kids, snooker, my dad's release from prison, great mates who have helped me, and the psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters, who has taught me how not to run away when things get tough. Finally, it's about what it's like to get the buzz - from running, from snooker, from life. Because when it comes down to it, everyone needs something to drive them on.

After Hurricane Higgins crashed out of snooker`s top league, Jimmmy White has been the `People`s Champion' even though he never quite made the top World spot, pipped at the post in 1995 by Stephen Hendry, after missing one single black. Aged 16, White was the youngest player to win the English Amateur Championship. At 18, he won the World Amateur title. By 1984, he`s a professional success, married but not at all settled. He`s the kind of man who goes out for a packet of cigarettes and comes home two weeks later. Gambling, women, marathon binges with showbiz friends like Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones, have threatened the stability of his marriage. But somehow White has survived, to tell in candid detail, a most unusual, often outrageous story of a very sporting life.

79 tricks and games, some solitaires, some for 2 or more players, some competitive. 40 figures.

Ronnie is snooker's most written and talked about player, and its greatest showman. His supreme talent and style have made him the People's Champion and, as one commentator put it, 'the question is not how much does Ronnie O'Sullivan need snooker, but how much does snooker need Ronnie O'Sullivan?' A honest and candid account of his extraordinary life, Ronnie tells of the infant who was introduced to legendary snooker clubs at an impossibly early age; of the boy who frightened off the bookies aged just 12; of the teenager whose life was decimated when his father and mentor was sent to prison for life; and of the man dubbed the 'genius' of the modern game who regularly threatened to quit the sport to pursue other interests at the grand old age of 28. 'A fine autobiography ... compelling' - Independent 'O'Sullivan is as frank about his spell in the Priory clinic as he is about his father's murder conviction. His accounts of snooker tournaments and sketches of the sport's personalities will fascinate fans, but even snooker haters will be rooting for Ronnie in the game of life' - OK!

Steve Davis was just a rookie from Plumstead, south London, learning how to play from an old book his snooker-obsessed father had given him, when an encounter with Barry Hearn changed his life forever. With his backing, Steve began touring the country in a clapped-out car as an amateur. Challenging established professionals and winning titles, supported by his loyal following the Romford Roar, it wasn't long before he progressed to the world's stage. By the eighties, Steve had helped transform a previously shady sport into a national obsession. He and a cast of legends such as Ray Reardon, Dennis Taylor and Alex Higgins, with other young guns like Jimmy White, were doing silent battle in front of huge audiences. Tens of millions of viewers would witness the nail-biting conclusions of his world championship finals; this was snooker's golden era. The man behind the 'boring' tag has always been the sport's smartest and sharpest man. With his cool, obsessive approach, Steve rewrote the rule book and became untouchably the best player in the world and the best paid sportsman in the country. Interesting lays it all bare: what it was like to win in those pressure-cooker situations; how to cope at the top, when everyone wants you to lose; and how you deal with the moment when a man comes along who is finally better than you. This is a memoir that closely evokes the smoke-filled atmosphere of those arenas, the intrigue behind the scenes and the personal psychology and sacrifice that is required to stay at the top of such an exacting sport.

Considered by many to be a genius at his peak, Alex Higgins's unorthodox play and exciting style earned him the nickname 'Hurricane' and led to his immense popularity and fame. In 1972 he became the youngest winner of the World Championship, repeating his victory in emotional style in 1982. Higgins's story is so much more than just snooker. Head-butting tournament officials, threatening to shoot team-mates, getting involved with gangsters, abusing referees, affairs with glamorous women, frequent fines and lengthy bans, all contributed to Higgins slipping down the rankings as he succumbed to drink and lost his fortune. After suffering throat cancer, Alex Higgins now reflects on his turbulent life and career in his first full autobiography. The Hurricane is back - prepare to be caught up in the carnage.

The best-selling guide that helped countless players improve their game is now updated, expanded, and better than ever

With "Pool Player's Edge" you will sharpen your strategy and shot-making skills while mastering tactics and techniques in the four most popular forms of the game: 9-ball, 8-ball, straight pool, and one-pocket.

In this new edition, billiards experts and tour pros Gerry "The Ghost" Kanov and Shari "The Shark" Stauch share their secrets on every aspect of the game. In" Pool Player's Edge" you will learn these skills:

- Perfect your aim and master your shots

- Control the cue ball

- Set the tone for the game with a power break

- Handle the most common and troublesome shots

- Map the table and set up shots

- Strategize your game

- Remain focused and unnerved in competitive play

Step-by-step professional instruction and over 200 full-color detailed diagrams will show you how to take your game to the next level. Whether you're a league player or a seasoned professional, if you're serious about pool and looking for a competitive edge, " Pool Player's Edge "is your best shot.