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World's Most Amazing Trick Shot trick shot billiards Billiards Domino pool table finals World wow amazing champions.
A trick shot (also trickshot or trick-shot) is a shot played on a billiards table (most often a pool table, though snooker tables are also used), which seems unlikely or impossible or requires significant skill.
They frequently organize the balls in ways that are unlikely or impossible to appear in normal play, such as balls being in a straight line, or use props such as extra cues or a triangle that would not be allowed on the table during a game.
As an organized cue sports discipline, trick shot competition is known as artistic pool.
World Champion professional trick shot artist Mike Massey setting up a trick shot.
Competition formats
Billiards trick shots are the subject of increasing international
competition, both amateur and professional.
The formats vary depending on the competition. Some, such as the World Snooker Trickshot Championship are purely exhibitions, with a panel of judges scoring subjectively to determine the winner.
Events such as Trick Shot Magic and the World Cup feature
head-to-head competition where the players select shots that have
strictly outlined requirements specified in a playbook.
Each year, players are allowed to submit their own shot inventions,
however, they are disclosed prior to the event to give all players an
equal chance to practice them.
Players or teams are given two attempts
to complete a selected shot within the given parameters, and earn one
point for each successful shot.
Each player or team gets to select a
given number of shots, generally eight or ten, and a winner is declared
when one side is mathematically eliminated.
Trick Shot Magic, ESPN's
annual artistic pool pro tournament, has been widely considered the
televised version of the World Artistic Pool Championship, and it has
held the highest ratings in televised cue sports competitions in the
United States between 2000 and 2009.
Artistic pool similarly (see below) has a program of shots (three attempts each, in a sliding-scale point system), with precisely outlined parameters requirements.
The Ultimate Trick Shot Tour [1]
features head-to-head competition between two players with no
pre-defined shots.
Players challenge each other with shots outlining the
parameters of the shots just before shooting.
Each player gets three
attempts per shot, scoring one point per shot made.
Each player gets to
select a given number of shots, generally six to ten, and the winner is
declared when one player is mathematically eliminated.
Artistic pool
Artistic pool trick shot competitions, inspired by the related discipline of artistic billiards,
began in the 1970's with international pros and coordinated by world
champion Paul Gerni, with the World Trick Shot Artists Association, and
in 2000, in Las Vegas, formed a new group, again with an international
cast.[2]
They feature a program of 160 tricks to attempt, many of which were used in the previous formats by the WTSAA,[3] and include the BCA North American Championship, EPBF European Championship, and WPA World Championship, among others.[2]
The tricks are now divided into eight "disciplines", including
trick/fancy, prop/novelty/special arts, and disciplines for extremes in
each of the core cueing techniques.[3][4]
In WTSAA and APTSA competitions, competitors would have three chances
to successfully perform each trick, earning full points if they are
successful on their first attempts and incrementally reduced points for
subsequent attempts.
Each shot has an associated difficulty rating (also
the point value) with a higher rating being more difficult.
A
preliminary round of 40 shots is performed, and the top players (the
number varies depending on the number of competitors, but usually the
top 12) proceed into a head-to-head playoff format to determine the
winner.
Proper and official artistic pool competitions feature equipment
limitations, (one cue, one stroke per trick shot, one approved
universal prop per shot per diagram if necessary, all shots on the bed
of the table, etc.), and shot requirements (e.g., preclusion of any
off-the-table tricks, such as are popular in events like Trick Shot
Magic and World Cup of Trick Shots).[6]
Objects used
As with other pool and billiards games, trick shots usually utilize a cue ball, one or more object balls, and a cue stick.
Props are
used to change the difficulty of the shot or add aesthetic value.
As
with artistic billiards pros, trick shot artists often have specialized
cue sticks for performing particular types of shots, particularly jump shots and massés.[7]
Notable trick shots
"Machine gun" (1): A line of object balls are placed in a row about a ball width away from a cushion,
and the cue ball is shot into the space between the balls and the
cushion so as to reverberate between them while traveling and hit each
one of the object balls in series, issuing a machine gun-like sound.
"Machine gun" (2): A line of object balls are placed in a row along
but not against a cushion, and are then shot directly with the cue, one
after another, around the table, each contacting three cushions, and
into the same pocket. The trick requires carefully timing the shots, so
that newly-shot balls travel between balls already in motion.[8]
"Machine gun" (3): A line of object balls are placed on the table.
The cue ball is shot into a pocket with deadweight and the object balls
are all potted into the same pocket directly one after the other with
the cue, while the cue ball is still traveling. Done right, the cue ball
is the first ball hit and the last ball falling.
"The dollar bill shot": Introduced into competition by Paul Gerni, this shot uses a banknote, typically a US$100
bill, placed on the short rail near the corner pocket as a target
landing zone. The cue ball is banked off of eight or nine cushions and
should land with the ball's edge over the banknote. This shot is used as
a tiebreaker on Trick Shot Magic with the competitor landing closest to the bill winning the match.
"Up and in": Mistakenly thought to be originated by World Champion Mike Massey,
this shot has much earlier origins, and was done in 1980 in Sweden by
European champion Bengt Jonasson of Stockholm. He showed it to the
gentleman of the American team (Paul Gerni, Jim Rempe, and Mike Sigel)
in an exhibition prior to the 1980 Swedish Open in Gothenberg, using a
wooden shoe instead of a floppy cowboy boot, and prompting both Gerni
and Rempe to stop at the gift shop at the Amsterdam airport on the way
back to pick up some wooden shoes. In this shot, the cue ball is jumped
off the table into a wooden shoe (a cowboy boot for Massey, 25 years
later) on the floor, which made a nice "klack" sound in the case of the
wooden shoe. In the U.S., the wooden shoe shot is sometimes referred to
as "the boot shot".
"The bottle shot": Two balls are balanced on top of a glass soda
bottle. The cue ball pockets a ball in the side and gets propelled in
the air, knocking the bottom ball from the top of the bottle, letting
the top ball drop to rest on top of the bottle. This shot was conceived
by Japanese player Yoshikazu Kimuraj, from Kyoto, and popularized by Polish champion Bogdan Wolkowski.
"The butterfly": For this popular exhibition shot from the days of
pool greats Willie Mosconi and Jimmy Caras, six object balls are grouped
in the middle of the table[9] in a butterfly shape; in a single shot, each ball drops into a different pocket in the billiards table.[10][11]
"Just showing off":[12] Five object balls are clustered near the left side pocket and a hanging object ball in the lower right corner.[13]
The cue ball is sent in to the cluster pocketing all five balls and
then travels 3 rails to pocket the hanging object ball. This shot was
originally designed in the '60s by Paul Gerni, combining two previously
popular trick shots, and made famous by Steve Mizerak
in a Miller Lite beer commercial in 1978. This shot and the subsequent
commercial boosted Mizerak's name recognition and vaulted him into the
Hall of Fame. Gerni still showcases this shot in his present-day
exhibitions, and it has now become a standard for most all pool
exhibitions.[14]
"The snake shot": Fifteen object balls are placed across the table.
The 15 ball is the first and it is placed 6 inches away from the corner
pocket. Each successive ball is placed 3 inches behind the previous one
in a winding chain. Each combination of balls beginning with the 1 and
the 2 should be aligned so they aim toward the next ball in the chain.
The cue ball must be set up in position to make a straight line with the
first two-ball combination. When the 1 ball is hit it should cause a
chain reaction as each two-ball set hits each other.[15]
"The Swing Shot": A rack hangs from above and swings back and forth.
The player proceeds to jump balls through the moving rack and into the
corner pockets.[16]
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Carom billiards, sometimes called carambole billiards or simply carambole (and in some cases used as a synonym for the game of straight rail from which many carom games derive), is the overarching title of a family of billiards games generally played on cloth-covered, 5 by 10 feet (approximately 1.5 × 3 m) pocket-less tables, which often feature heated slate beds.
In its simplest form, the object of the game is to score points or "counts" by caroming one's own cue ball off both the opponent's cue ball and the object ball(s) on a single shot.
The invention as well as the exact date of origin of carom billiards is somewhat obscure but is thought to be traceable to 18th-century France.[1]
There is a large array of carom billiards disciplines. Some of the more prevalent today and historically are (chronologically by apparent date of development): straight rail, cushion caroms, balkline, three-cushion billiards and artistic billiards.
There are many other carom billiards games, predominantly intermediary or offshoot games combining elements of those already listed, such as the champion's game, an intermediary game between straight rail and balkline, as well as games which are hybrids of carom billiards and pocket billiards, such as English billiards played on a snooker table and its descendant games, American four-ball billiards, and cowboy pool.[1]
Etymology
The word "carom", which simply means any strike and rebound, was in use in reference to billiards by at least 1779, sometimes spelled "carrom".[1]:41
Sources differ on the origin. It has been pegged variously as a shortening of the Spanish and Portuguese word carambola, or the French word carambole or caramboler, which were earlier used to describe the red object ball.
Some etymologists have suggested that carambola, in turn, was derived from a yellow-to-orange, tropical Asian fruit also known in Portuguese as a carambola (which was a corruption of the original name of the fruit, karambal in the Marathi language of India),[1][2][3] also known as star fruit.
But this may simply be folk etymology, as the fruit bears no resemblance to a billiard ball, and there is no direct evidence for such a derivation.[4]
In modern French, the word 'carambolage' means a multiple collision accident, similar to one ball hitting the other two.
Cloth
Cloth has been used to cover billiards tables since the 15th century.
In fact, the predecessor company of the most famous maker of billiard cloth, Iwan Simonis, was formed in 1453.
Most cloth made for carom billiards tables is a type of baize that is dyed green, and is made from 100% worsted wool, which provides a very fast surface allowing the balls to travel with little resistance across the table bed.
The green color of cloth was originally chosen to emulate the look of grass, and has been so colored since the 16th century.
However, as in green eyeshades, the color also serves a useful function: Humans have a higher light sensitivity to green than to any other color, so green cloth permits play for longer periods of time without eye strain.[1][5]
Balls
Modern billiard balls are made from highly resilient plastics, are normally 61.5 mm (27⁄16 in) in diameter, weigh between 205 and 220 grams (7.23 – 7.75 ounces; 7.5 is average),[6] and are significantly larger and heavier than their pocket billiards counterparts.
While UMB, the International Olympic Committee-recognized world carom billiards authority, technically permits balls as small as 61.0 mm (approximately 23⁄8),[6] no major manufacturer produces such balls any longer, and the de facto standard is 61.5 mm.
The three standard balls in most carom billiards games consist of a completely white cue ball, a second cue ball with typically a red or black dot on it (to aid in differentiation between the two cue balls), and a third, red ball. In some sets of balls, however, the second cue ball is solid yellow.[1]
Both types of ball sets are permitted in tournament play.[7]
Billiard balls have been made from many different materials throughout the history of the game, including clay, wood, ivory, plastics (including celluloid, Bakelite, crystalate, and phenolic resin, polyester and acrylic) and even steel.
The dominant material from 1627 until the early- to mid-20th century was ivory.
The search for a substitute for ivory use was not for environmental concerns but based on economic motivation and fear of danger for elephant hunters.
It was in part spurred on by a New York billiard table manufacturer who announced a prize of $10,000 for a substitute material.
The first viable substitute was celluloid billiard balls, invented by John Wesley Hyatt in 1868, but the material was volatile and highly inflammable, sometimes exploding during manufacture.[1][8]
Cues
Carom billiard cues have specialized refinements making them different from the typical pool cue with which many people are more familiar.
Such cues tend to be shorter and lighter overall, with a shorter ferrule, a thicker butt and joint, a wooden joint pin (in high-end examples) and collarless wood-to-wood joint (for a one-piece cue "feel"), a fast, conical taper, and a smaller tip diameter as compared with pool cues.
Typical dimensions are 54–56 inches (140–140 cm) in length, 16.5–18.5 ounces (0.47–0.52 kg) in weight (lighter for straight rail, heavier for three-cushion), with a 11–12 mm diameter tip.[9]
The specialization makes the cue significantly stiffer, which aids in handling the larger and heavier billiard balls as compared with pool cues. It also acts to reduce deflection (sometimes called "squirt"), which may be defined as displacement of the cue ball's path away from the parallel line formed by the cue stick's direction of travel.
It is a factor that occurs every time english (side) is employed, and its effects are magnified by speed. In some carom games, deflection plays a large role because many shots require extremes of English, coupled with great speed; this is a combination typically minimized as much as possible, by contrast, in pool.[10]:79, 240–1
The wood used in carom cues can vary widely, and most quality carom cues are handmade.[clarification needed]
Heated slate
The slate bed of a billiard table is often heated to about 5 °C/9 °F above room temperature, which helps to keep moisture out of the cloth to aid the balls rolling and rebounding in a consistent manner, and generally makes a table play faster.
A heated table is required under international carom rules and is an especially important requirement for the games of three-cushion billiards and artistic billiards.
Heating table beds is an old practice.
Queen Victoria of England (1819–1901) had a billiard table that was heated using zinc tubes, although the aim at that time was chiefly to keep the then-used ivory balls from warping.
The first use of electric heating was for an 18.2 balkline tournament held in December 1927 between Welker Cochran and Jacob Schaefer, Jr.[1]
The New York Times announced it with fanfare: "For the first time in the history of world's championship balkline billiards a heated table will be used ..."[1][11]
Three-cushion billiards
In three-cushion billiards, sometimes called three-cushion carom,[18] the object is to carom off both object balls with at least three rail cushions being contacted before the contact of the cue ball with the second object ball.
Three-cushion is a very difficult game.
Averaging one point per inning is professional-level play, and averaging 1.5 to 2 is world-class play.
An average of one means that for every turn at the table, a player makes 1 point and misses once, thus making a point on 50% of his or her shots.
The origin of the game is not entirely known. It is undisputed that one Wayman Crow McCreery of St. Louis, Missouri popularized the game in the 1870s.[1][19][20]
The first three-cushion billiards tournament took place January 14–31, 1878 in St. Louis, with McCreery a participant and New Yorker Leon Magnus the winner.
The high run for the tournament was just 6 points, and the high average a 0.75.[21]
The game was infrequently played, with many top carom players of the era voicing their dislike of it, until after the 1907 introduction of the Lambert Trophy.[1][22]
By 1924, three-cushion had become so popular that two giants in other billiard disciplines agreed to take up the game especially for a challenge match.
On September 22, 1924, Willie Hoppe, the world's balkline champion (who later took up three-cushion with a passion), and Ralph Greenleaf, the world's straight pool title holder, played a well advertised, multi-day, match to 600 points.
Hoppe was the eventual winner with a final score in of 600–527.
Three-cushion billiards retains great popularity in parts of Europe, Asia, and Latin America,[1] and is the most popular carom billiards game played in the US today, where pool is far more widespread.
The principal governing body of the sport is the Union Mondiale de Billard (UMB). It had been staging world three-cushion championships since the late 1920s.[23]
The International Olympic Committee-recognized World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) cooperates with the UMB to keep their rule sets synchronized.
Source: Wikipedia.org
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Semih Saygıner (born November 12, 1964,[1] in Adapazarı, Turkey)[2] nicknamed Mr. Magic and the Turkish Prince, is a Turkish professional carom billiards player.
Saygıner is the fifth of 6 brothers and sisters.
His parents died in a traffic accident when he was 14 years old. Saygıner then started playing billiards.
He had a good performance in high school but left for depression over the loss of his mother and father. He then focused on billiards.
A year later, he won his first Turkish title.[3]
He won the 1999 CEB European Three-cushion Championship by defeating Dion Nelin of Denmark.
He nearly won it again the next year but lost to Daniel Sánchez.
He was the first from his country to win that tournament. A second player named Murat Naci Çoklu won it five years later.
In 2003, Saygıner won the UMB World Three-cushion Championship by disposing of Filipos Kasidokostas of Greece.
He's the only Turk ever to win it. That same year, he won the last World Three-cushion Championship organized by the BWA by besting Dick Jaspers.[4]
Saygıner shares the world record for the highest run in three-cushion billiards, of 31, with Colombian American Hugo Patiño.
His highest average in a match is 3.571 (50 points in 14 innings).
Semih was married to the Women's Billiard Champion of Turkey Aygen Berk Saygıner.
In 2009, Saygıner signed a contract with the prominent cue-stick producer Longoni.[5][6] Under the contract, a series of cue-sticks that bear Saygıner's name has been available from the company.[7]
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Michael "Mike" Massey (born April 9, 1947) is an American professional pocket billiards (pool) player, best known as a trick shot artist since the late 1970s, and has given substantial visibility to the sport by traveling the globe to perform exhibitions and compete in a variety of disciplines.
He has won professional national and international tournaments in trick shot competition, nine-ball, eight-ball, straight pool (14.1 continuous), and one-pocket, but has been even more influential in the sport as an accomplished instructor, consultant and fund raiser.[1]
From 1989 to 1991 he served as a contributing editor for The Snap Magazine. Massey, was born in Loudon, Tennessee[2] and lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee[3] for several years where he owned a pool hall.
He has been nicknamed "Tennessee Tarzan", but currently lives in Midway, Utah.[4]
Massey was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame on April 7, 2005.[5] For 2007, he was ranked #8 in Pool & Billiard Magazine's "Fans' Top 20 Favorite Players" poll.[6]
Titles and achievements
2007 Pool & Billiard Magazine Fans' Top 20 Favorite Players, #8
2005 induction into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame
2004 Trick Shot Magic Champion
2003 Trick Shot Magic Champion
2003 World Artistic Pool Champion
2002 World Artistic Pool Champion
2002 BCA North American Artistic Pool Champion
2001 Trick Shot Magic Champion
2000 World Artistic Pool Champion
2000 BCA North American Artistic Pool Champion
2000 World Artistic Pool Champion
2000 Trick Shot Magic Champion
1996 Snooker World Trick Shot Champion
1992 Snooker World Trick Shot Champion
1997 Senior Nine-ball Masters Champion
1996 winning team member in the Mosconi Cup, Team USA
1996 Dutch National Eight-ball Champion
1996 Hall of Fame Eight-ball Champion
High runs of 9 racks of nine-ball in tournament play, and 13 racks in challenge match play
High run of 224 balls in straight pool
11,230 balls pocketed in marathon shooting (24 hours)
8,090 balls pocketed in marathon shooting with one arm
World record for most racks of nine-ball run in 24-hour period: 330 racks on live television in Austria, complete runs 1 through 9 (9 balls pocketed on the break or in combination shot did not count)[citation needed]
Source: Wikipedia'org
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While that
familiar name is still employed by some as a generic label for all such
games, the word's usage has splintered into more exclusive competing
meanings in various parts of the world.
For example, in British and Australian English, "billiards" usually refers exclusively to the game of English billiards, while in American and Canadian English it is sometimes used to refer to a particular game or class of games, or to all cue games in general, depending upon dialect and context.
There are three major subdivisions of games within cue sports:
Pool,
covering numerous pocket billiards games generally played on six-pocket
tables of 7-, 8-, or 9-foot length, including among others eight-ball (the world's most widely played cue sport), nine-ball, ten-ball, straight pool, one-pocket and bank pool; and
Snooker and English billiards, games played on a billiards table with six pockets called a snooker table
(which has dimensions just under 12 ft by 6 ft), that are classified
entirely separately from pool based on a separate historical
development, as well as a separate culture and terminology that
characterize their play.
More obscurely, there are games that make use of obstacles and targets, and table-top games played with disks instead of balls.
All cue sports are generally regarded to have evolved into indoor games from outdoor stick-and-ball lawn games (retroactively termed ground billiards),[4] and as such to be related to trucco, croquet and golf, and more distantly to the stickless bocce and balls.........
The word "billiard" may have evolved from the French word billart or billette, meaning "stick", in reference to the mace, an implement similar to a golf club, which was the forerunner to the modern cue; the term's origin may have also been from French bille, meaning "ball".[5]
The modern term "cue sports" can be used to encompass the ancestral mace games, and even the modern cueless variants, such as finger billiards, for historical reasons. "Cue" itself came from queue, the French word for a tail. This refers to the early practice of using the tail of the mace to strike the ball when it lay against a rail cushion.[5]
A recognizable form of billiards was played outdoors in the 1340s, and was reminiscent of croquet. King Louis XI of France (1461–1483) had the first known indoor billiard table.[5]
Louis XIV further refined and popularized the game, and it swiftly spread amongst the French nobility.[5]
While the game had long been played on the ground, this version appears
to have died out in the 17th century, in favor of croquet, golf and
bowling games, while table billiards had grown in popularity as an
indoor activity.[5]
Mary, Queen of Scots,
claimed that her "table de billiard" had been taken away by what would
eventually become her executioners (who covered her body with the
table's cloth).[5]
In 1588, the Duke of Norfolk, owned a "billyard bord coered with a greene cloth... three billyard sticks and 11 balls of yvery".[5] Billiards grew to the extent that by 1727, it was being played in almost every Pariscafe.[5] In England, the game was developing into a very popular activity for members of the gentry.[5]
Inset from School of Recreation, 1710. "We perceive from the
engraving of the Billiards of the seventeenth century, that the game was
altogether different from what it is now."[3]
By 1670, the thin butt end of the mace began to be used not only for
shots under the cushion (which itself was originally only there as a
preventative method to stop balls from rolling off), but players
increasingly preferred it for other shots as well.
The cue as it is
known today was finally developed by about 1800.[5]
Initially, the mace was used to push the balls, rather than strike
them. The newly developed striking cue provided a new challenge.
Cushions began to be stuffed with substances to allow the balls to
rebound, in order to enhance the appeal of the game. After a
transitional period where only the better players would use cues, the
cue came to be the first choice of equipment.[5]
The demand for tables and other equipment was initially met in Europe by John Thurston and other furniture makers of the era. The early balls were made from wood and clay, but the rich preferred to use ivory.[5]
Early billiard games involved various pieces of additional equipment,
including the "arch" (related to the croquet hoop), "port" (a different
hoop) and "king" (a pin or skittle near the arch) in the 1770s, but
other game variants, relying on the cushions (and eventually on pockets
cut into them), were being formed that would go on to play fundamental
roles in the development of modern billiards.[5]
The early croquet-like games eventually led to the development of the carom or carambole billiards
category – what most non-US and non-UK speakers mean by the word
"billiards".
These games, which once completely dominated the cue sports
world but have declined markedly in many areas over the last few
generations, are games played with three or sometimes four balls, on a
table without holes (and without obstructions or targets in most cases),
in which the goal is generally to strike one object ball with a cue ball, then have the cue ball rebound off of one or more of the cushions and strike a second object ball.
Over time, a type of obstacle returned, originally as a hazard and later as a target, in the form of pockets, or holes partly cut into the table bed and partly into the cushions, leading to the rise of pocket billiards, including "pool" games such as eight-ball, nine-ball, straight pool and one-pocket; Russian pyramid; snooker; English billiards and others.
In the United States pool and billiards had died out for a bit, but
between 1878 and 1956 pool and billiards became very popular. Players in
annual championships began to receive their own cigarette cards. This
was mainly due to the fact that if was a popular pastime for troops to
take their minds off from battle.
However, by the end of World War II
pool and billiards began to die down once again. It wasn’t until 1961
when the film "The Hustler" came out that sparked a new interest in the
game. Now the game is generally a well-known game and has many players
of all different skill levels.[6]
There are few more cheerful sights, when the
evenings are long, and the weather dull, than a handsome, well-lighted
billiard room, with the smooth, green surface of the billiard table; the
ivory balls flying noiselessly here and there, or clicking musically
together.[7]
—Charles Dickens Jr., (1889)
Illustration of a three-ball pocket billiards game in early 19th century Tübingen, Germany, using a table much longer than the modern type.
As a sport
At least the games with regulated international professional
competition have been referred to as "sports" or "sporting" events, not
simply "games", since 1893 at the latest.[8]
Quite a variety of particular games (i.e., sets of rules and equipment)
are the subject of present-day competition, including many of those
already mentioned, with competition being especially broad in nine-ball,
snooker, three-cushion and eight-ball.
Snooker, though technically a pocket billiards variant and closely
related in its equipment and origin to the game of English billiards, is
a professional sport organized at the international level, and its
rules bear little resemblance to those of modern pool, pyramid and other
such games.
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