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Carom Billiards

Carom billiards is a type of cue sport played with three balls on a table without any pockets. The objective of the sport is to carom a player's own cue ball off of the opponent’s cue ball and the object ball in a single shot. The sport was invented in France in the 18th century.



Of the three balls used, there are two cue balls, one for each player. One cue ball is of solid white, and the other cue ball is solid white with a black dot. Lately, a solid yellow ball has also been used as the second cue ball. The object ball is always solid red in color. Though most games use only one object ball, there are a few where a second object ball is used.

Players are awarded points when their cue ball strikes the opponent’s cue ball and the red object ball in a specific order, in a single shot. Players take turns when one is not able to successfully strike both balls in a single shot. A match is played for a fixed number of points, and the player to reach the points first is declared as the winner.

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Depending on the game play a few variations in carom billiards are straight-rail, balkline, cushion, three cushion and artistic billiards.



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