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| Home > Indoor Recreational Activities > Billiards
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| | Billiards
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The first pool tables made an appearance in the 19th century horse racing betting- poolrooms, though at that time the game was known as Billiards and tables were put up there for people to kill time between races. Because the game was set up in `pool rooms`, it was eventually named pool. Though Pool or Billiards as it was known then, has always been seen as a "bad boys` " game, it is today one of the most popular sports across the globe.
 Billiards is a family of games played on a table with a stick, known as a cue stick, which is used to strike balls, moving them around the table. All billiard games are generally regarded to have evolved into indoor games from outdoor stick and ball games.
The word "billiard" may have evolved from the French word billart, meaning "mace", an implement, similar to a golf club, which was the forerunner to the modern cue.
The word "pool" generally refers to pocket billiard games such as 8-ball, 9-ball, straight pool and one-pocket. The word "pool" comes from "poolrooms," where people gambled off track on horse races. They were called poolrooms as money was "pooled" to determine the odds. Because such rooms commonly provided billiard tables, pool became synonymous with billiards by association. The terms "pool" and "pocket billiards" are now interchangeable.
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