Four-ball billiards or four-ball carom (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.
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Transcription
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] KEITH O'DELL SR.: Pool is a huge part of our lives. Everybody in our family plays. Our pool table takes up the biggest room in the house and we have a storage unit that's full of furniture that we don't use because we don't have room for it . [CHEERS] GRANDFATHER: We get together every week to shoot pool. My dad shot pool his whole life, her dad shot pool. All three of our kids got into it and now our grandson. KEITH O'DELL SR.: I would play 100, 200, 300 racks of 9-Ball every day. Junior...I just put him in the highchair and he would be one hand with the Cheerios and the other hand with the sippy cup and he'd watch me play pool all day. COURTNEY O'DELL: That was his form of watching the baby while I was at work. [LAUGHS] KEITH O'DELL SR.:This pool table here is the original and very old Keith Jr. pool table. And this kid started making shots and pocketing balls like you would not believe. [MUSIC] GRANDFATHER: The game's about physics and geometry basically. GRANDMOTHER: You either see the shot or you don't. GRANDFATHER: You need to be able to see the angles on the table. You need to be able to tell how hard to hit it and how fast the ball is going to move after you hit it. GRANDMOTHER: And for such a young little boy, he can do it. KEITH O'DELL SR.: I put this video up on YouTube and it was picked up by a local news station. COURTNEY O'DELL: It went up. The news station came out the next day and filmed. COURNEY O'DELL: Pool is much more of a daddy Keith thing. KEITH O'DELL SR.: What's the matter? Your pants coming down? KEITH O'DELL JR.: Yeah. KEITH O'DELL SR.: I'll help ya. Just slow it down a little, okay? 1, 2, 3. KEITH O'DELL SR.: What didn't you do? KEITH O'DELL JR.: Didn't do 1, 2, 3. KEITH O'DELL SR.: 1, 2, 3 and you have to hit it harder to get into the pocket, right? KEITH O'DELL SR.: I try to get him focused. Slow down. Concentrate. Me and Keith since he's been 2 years old we've been playing pool together. And my job is to keep him going. Keep it fun, keep it interesting. KEITH O'DELL JR.: Hey, remember that one that I keep shooting to hit the four balls? KEITH O'DELL SR.: Yeah. KEITH O'DELL JR.: I like that. KEITH O'DELL SR.: I saw that Keith Jr. had this talent and I saw that there was money to be made here. And college these days is really really expensive and I want Keith to go to college and I believe he should. It's really important to me to utilize the talent that he's been given and do something positive with it. Helping a cue company sell cues or a piece of chalk, that could put him through college. KEITH O'DELL SR.: Almost. You're getting there. Easy. KEITH O'DELL JR.: I wanna go play. KEITH O'DELL SR.: He's 5 so sometimes he gets frustrated. KEITH O'DELL SR.: Take a break. Take a break. COURTNEY: Whether Keith wants to play pool for the rest of his life or not, we will support him in anything he wants to do. KEITH O'DELL SR.: If you can see this ball doesn't really go in there very easily and he jumps it um..from about 5 feet away. It's definitely one of the hardest shots in the world. There's a professional pool played named Mike Massey who used to use a cowboy boot with a big opening..um..and it was a huge deal that he made that. And we have our 5-year-old making a ball in a shoe that is like 6 times smaller. KEITH O'DELL SR.: Go ahead. Go ahead. Woah. [Laughs] KEITH O'DELL SR.: I'm gonna wait until he's 8 or 9 until I allow him to compete. He needs time to enjoy the game and then he can decide whether if he wants to be competitive or not. KEITH O'DELL SR.: You're almost there. Get it. FAMILY: Woah! KEITH O'DELL SR.: There's no question. Keith was born to play pool. KEITH O'DELL SR.: Get it. FAMILY: [CHEERS] [LAUGHS] KEITH O'DELL JR.: I made it in the shoe! KIETH O'DELL SR.: A little bit of work on the table could change his entire life.
Asian variations
A variant of four-ball is the East Asian game yotsudama (四つ玉, Japanese for 'four balls'), or sagu (四球, 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:
- Starting position: In the Korean version, the cue ball is placed beside one of the red object balls for the opening shot, and play commences by hitting the red ball on the opposite side of the table (as in three-cushion billiards). In the Japanese version, the cue ball is placed behind the second red object ball, and play commences by hitting the red object ball nearest to the cue ball.
- Object balls: In the Korean version, a player is penalized a point if the cue ball caroms off the opponent's cue ball. In the Japanese version, doing so is legal, as the opponent's cue ball is available as an object ball; caroming on all three balls scores two points.
- Winning: In the Korean version, after having scored the final point, a win is secured by doing a three-cushion shot; until one is successfully played, the player lagging behind can still catch up and win. In this respect, it is similar to the game play of the darts game cricket. In the Japanese version, the game is simply over when a player reaches the agreed-upon score.
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 white ball, a blue ball, a yellow ball and a red ball which serves as the cue ball for both players. Players score a point by hitting two of the other three balls with the cue ball. 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 two or 20 points in one shot.
References
- ^ Froeshcle, Robert (1971). Official Rule Book for All Pocket & Carom Billiard Games. Billiard Congress of America.
External links
- Photo of yotsudama balls from a commercial supplier
- Article (in Japanese) explaining the differences between the Korean and Japanese variants, and with images showing the different placement of the balls for the opening shot
- Link to a Czech Republic source (in Czech) explaining the rules of Czech four-ball
- Instruction video for Czech four-ball carom (in Czech)
- German game of saupartie, identical to Czech rules (in German)
- Dutch four-ball rules (honderden) (in Dutch)
- "4-Ball" Rules Presentation video by the Fédération Française de Billard. Rules are similar to the East Asian ones but using Central European balls and a standard carom starting position.
- 1914 rules for four-ball carom by Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company on pages 9 and 10.
- An 1866 excerpt about a historical American game, a variation of English billiards played on a table with four pockets unlike the versions listed above. Points are scored either by caroming at least two balls or potting balls, but performing in-off rebounds is a foul.
- A website of another form of 4 Ball Billiards complete with explanation of rules and variations. Unlike the versions listed above, this one is played on an ordinary Pool/Snooker table and points are scored by potting balls or performing in-off rebounds as well as caroming at least two balls; hence the game borrows most rules from English billiards
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This page was last edited on 2 May 2022, at 17:54