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| Getting Started Here you will can learn to familiarize youself with the equpiment you need to get started in pool. Balls Each ball also has a number on it, 1 - 15. All of the balls 1 - 7 are solids, and all the balls 9 - 15 are stripes. What about the 8-ball? When playing standard pool, the 8 ball is not considered solid or stripe. It's special and it's all black. There is one more ball that you'll use when playing pool, but it doesn't have a number on it. It's the cue ball, and it's the ball that you'll hit with the cue stick. Cue stick The cue stick is the stick you use to hit the cue ball. A cue stick has three parts: The tip: the little white piece -about half an inch long-at the end of the skinnier half of the stick. The shaft: the smooth, narrow length between the tip and the middle of the stick. The butt: the thicker portion of the stick that falls between the middle and the end, with a rubber bumper on the very bottom. Table A pool table is about 4 � feet wide, 9 feet long, and usually has a velvet-ish surface (acutally, it's polyester and wool). On the table, there are 6 pockets: there are 4 corner pockets and 2 side pockets, one in the center of each long side of the table. One last thing about the table: near each end, there's a little white circle called a spot. You need those, because when you set up the balls at the beginning of a pool game, the front ball will rest on the foot spot, while you'll set the cue ball on the head spot. Rack The rack is the triangular thing that players use to arrange the balls into a neat triangle shape before the game starts.The process of using a rack is called racking, and there is an art to it: 1. Pack all the balls into the rack. 2. With your fingers inside the back end of the rack, push the balls forward and close together within it. All adjacent balls should be touching. 3. Rack with the front ball centered on the foot spot. 4. When you lift the rack, the balls should remain snugly packed together and should look something like this: |
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