Four-ball billiards

Four-ball billiards (often abbreviated to simply four-ball, and sometimes spelled 4-ball or fourball) is a carom billiards game, played on a pocketless table with four billiard balls, usually two red and two white, one of the latter with a spot to distinguish it (in some sets, one of the white balls is yellow instead of spotted). Each player is assigned one of the white (or yellow) balls as a cue ball. A point is scored when a shooter's cue ball caroms on any two other balls in the same shot (with the opponent's cue ball serving as an object ball, along with the reds, for the shooter). Two points are scored when the shooter caroms on each of the three object balls in a single shot.[1] A carom on only one ball results in no points, and ends the shooter's inning.

Asian variations

A variant of four-ball is the East Asian game yotsudama (四つ球, Japanese for 'four balls'), or sagu (사구, Korean for 'four balls').

The game is played with two red object balls, one white cue ball and one yellow cue ball (or sometimes both cue balls are white, one having a red spot). Each of the two players is assigned a white or yellow cue ball; whether the opponent can use it as an object ball is a difference between the Japanese and Korean versions. A point is scored when the shooter caroms on two balls. A carom on only one ball results in no points, and ends the shooter's inning.

There are a few differences between the Korean and the Japanese variants:

Central European variation

A variation of four-ball called desítkový karambol (Czech for 'tenfold carom') is popular in Central Europe, especially in the Czech Republic. It is played with two white balls, a blue ball, and a red ball which serves as the cue ball for both players. Players score a point by hitting on any other three balls with the cue ball, scoring one point for single or double strikes. A carom off all three object balls in one shot, however, scores 10 points. The score is doubled by hitting a cushion before hitting any of the other balls for a total of either 2 or 20 points in one shot.

References

  1. Froeshcle, Robert (1971). Official Rule Book for All Pocket & Carom Billiard Games. Billiard Congress of America.
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