American pool is a term used in the United Kingdom, and sometimes more broadly outside North America, to refer to pool (pocket billiards) cue sports that make use of formerly American-style and now world-standardised numbered billiard balls that have a standard diameter of 57 mm (2 1⁄4 in), as opposed to British-style unnumbered 56 mm (2 3⁄16 in) balls. (See for example the British streaming video site AmericanPool.CueSport.tv devoted entirely to various pool games using "American" balls.) Other "American" pool differences from British-style pool include larger pockets to accommodate the bigger balls, and diamond system markings on the rails.
The term may apply to any pool game variety using such a ball set, and is commonly applied especially to the most internationally competitive of these sports:
- Eight-ball, the most commonly played form of pool (as distinct from blackball, a.k.a. British eight-ball pool)
- Nine-ball, the leading professional variant of pool, with historical roots in the United States in the 1920s
- Ten-ball, a rotation game very similar to nine-ball, but more difficult, using ten balls instead of nine, and played called-shot
- Straight pool (a.k.a. 14.1 continuous), formerly the common sport of championship competition until overtaken by faster-playing games like nine-ball
- One-pocket, an extremely challenging game in which each player must make all shots into a single pocket.
Famous quotes containing the words american and/or pool:
“It is not more people that are needed in the world but better people, physically, morally and mentally. This question of raising the quality of our American population must also be taken into account in the question of immigration.”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)
“I caught a blackjack right behind my ear. A black pool opened up at my feet. I dived in. It had no bottom. I felt pretty good—like an amputated leg.”
—John Paxton (1911–1985)