Further up the table is the pink ball, which sits midway between the blue spot and the top cushion, followed by the red balls (one each), placed in a tightly-packed triangle behind the pink. In nine-ball games where a handicap is given by one player being spotted a ball, some tournament venues enforce a rule that the spotted ball must be racked as one of the two balls in the row directly behind the 1 ball. It is played using a cue stick, one white ball (the cue ball), fifteen red balls and six colours: a yellow (worth two points), green (three points), brown (four points), blue (five points), pink (six points) and black ball (seven points). If a player is awarded a free ball with all 15 red balls still in play, they can potentially make a break exceeding 147, with the highest possible being a 155 break, achieved by nominating the free ball as an extra red, then potting the black as the additional colour after potting the free-ball red, followed by the 15 reds with blacks, and finally the colours.

It is normally the first coat applied, then it is sanded and followed by other coatings that bond to it. An easy way to remember these positions is with the mnemonic, 'God Bless You', with the first letter of each word being the first letter of the three colours as they are racked from left to right on the baulk line. One of its first major uses was as guncotton, a replacement for gunpowder as propellant in firearms. It was also used to replace gunpowder as a low-order explosive in mining and other applications. The explosive applications are diverse and nitrate content is typically higher for propellant applications than for coatings. In 1832 Henri Braconnot discovered that nitric acid, when combined with starch or wood fibers, would produce a lightweight combustible explosive material, which he named xyloïdine. Guncotton was originally made from cotton (as the source of cellulose) but contemporary methods use highly processed cellulose from wood pulp. Wood tables, particularly those made of MDF, what is billiards are more susceptible to warping from environmental conditions like humidity and temperature changes. Glycine and chloride ions make protein transfer more efficient.

Some shots may require the use of props such as a small pin placed precisely on the table surface and around which the player is required to make the cue ball pass on a designated side (see Figure A10 illustration). As a medium for cryptographic one-time pads, they make the disposal of the pad complete, secure, and efficient. Rack may also be used as a verb to describe the act of setting billiard balls in their starting positions (e.g. "to rack the balls"), or as a noun to describe a set of balls that are in their starting positions (e.g. "a rack of balls", more often called a pack or a pyramid in British English). If the shooter doesn’t have any object balls on the opposite side of the head string, he or she must bounce the cue ball off of one or more cushions at the opposite end of the table before it’s able to legally contact an object ball in the kitchen. The further away you get from center, the more pronounced the English. The current world governing body for this sport is the WPA Artistic Pool Division, while the current largest league and player organization is the US-based Artistic Pool & Trick Shot Association, which organizes the World Artistic Pool Championship (WAPC) annually, held concurrently with the more general VNEA International Pool Championship.

A version of the game, played on a pocket billiards table known as artistic pool began in the 1970s, with official competitions starting in 1993. These events are run and organised by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA). As travelers from around the world began to discover pool for themselves, the game took on a global appeal, and now you can find it in pubs all over the world. So now you know that white balls are heavier in the pool than snooker.What difference would you notice in playing with a larger cue ball? The balls should be pressed tightly together without gaps, as this allows the best break possible. If the referee has also called a "miss"-meaning that the referee has deemed the opponent not to have made their best possible attempt to hit the object ball-the player has the option of having the balls replaced to their original positions and forcing the opponent to play the shot again. In both one-pocket and bank pool all fifteen object balls are racked entirely at random, with the center of the apex ball placed directly over the foot spot. The apex must be as close as possible to the pink ball without touching it.