8 ball pool is a variant of billiards and is one of the top games played both popularly online and offline. The game is exciting, and it is not so much of a surprise that so many youngsters have developed such a vested interest in taking up the game in modern times.
Since the pandemic, online games have become really popular; among them, billiards have taken quite the center stage. To play a pool game online, you need to download the best app from the app store or visit websites to avail of the top-rated game. The online Pool games are as fun as the actual game and do not take up much space on the device, so they are easily a good option on your phone, given you decide to indulge in them in your free time.
Let’s look into some cool facts about the game so you can be a star of the show at the Pool table next time you are at a game with your mates.See all information about mbc 2030
First World Championship Game
Believe it or not, the 8-ball pool was the first game with its official world championship tournament in 1873. In 1870 the first match was organized in the heart of London and took place at St. James Hall on February 11. It is hard to believe, but no other game had a world-class tournament before this, and in all certainty, the 8-ball pool opened the gates towards the possibility of organizing such tournaments in the future.
Cue from ‘Queue’
The word cue evolved from the french word called ‘queue’, meaning tail. During early times when the game was introduced, a mace was used to play the game, and the balls were comparatively larger since croquet, the mother of billiards, was played on a lawn. The mace had a rounded structure, but the tail of the club was sleeker, wooden and slightly bent. When players started using the mace, they found it difficult at first to direct the ball towards the goal, so they turned it around and used the curved tail of the stick. The name cue was born from this instance and has been used since, reminiscent of the original tactic used to play the first games.
The Name ‘Pool’
The name Pool was not used previously but rather borrowed from something else. In the 19th century, horse betting areas had rooms where people would gather and wait as the races started. This area was popularly termed the pool room, and to make the passing of time more interesting, a billiard table was added to these rooms so people could engage in something as they passed the time. In the future, this name became synonymous with the game, and players became accustomed to calling it by the new name of Pool.
Largest Billiards Hall
The largest hall of billiards was established around the year 1920 in the city of Detroit. The statistics for this structure are unimaginable, with over 100 billiards tables arranged in one spot. There were 88 bowling alleys, three stands where you could get a manicure and twenty barber chairs. There was even a theatre packed into this space with 250 seats and a restaurant that could house 300 guests. If you fancy a cigar, you could have one anywhere at the fourteen cigar stands and also, there were lunch counters on every floor of the place making the place nothing short of royalty.
Bank Shot
When you’re making a shot on the billiards board, and it supposedly bounces off the side of the board, it is termed a bank shot, a terminology everyone is well familiar with in modern times. In the introductory phase of billiards, people found similarities between the side of the billiards board made with rails to riverbanks and decided to name the shot a bank shot. The name has stuck till this day, and rebounds from the sides of games like carrom are also called the same, similar to an 8-ball pool game.
Ivory Balls
Since 8-ball is a descendant of a royal game, the balls used to play the games were initially sourced from the tusk of elephants and made out of Ivory. Plastic had not been invented then; therefore, there was also no other alternative to create a well-polished ball with suitable friction to be used on the table. Only two to three balls could be made from a single tusk at a time, but the act still drew the high cost of poaching a beautiful animal.
In some places, ivory balls are used to date but not at the cost of the life of an elephant. They are sourced from usually diseased animals, come at a luxurious price, and are therefore accessible to only a select few.
American Civil War and 8-ball
The 8-ball game climbed to peak popularity during the American Civil War and got fantastic footage worldwide. In fact, the war was doused under the news of the sport and players were marked as literal celebrities. Reaching a crescendo of popularity and public acclaim, players started to get advertised on cigarette cards with their images circulating everywhere around America.
Final Words
The 8-ball pool is a game shrouded with innumerable hidden facts, and only a handful have been presented above. Even if you are a die-hard enthusiast, some of these facts must have surprised you. The more you love a game, the more you are bound to dig out things about it, so future generations can take the history forward and enrich themselves with the wealth of this unearthed knowledge about 8-ball.
