5 ms·

"I saw him run over forty several times, and it was not unusual for him to put a string together of twenty or thirty" I wonder if thats 40 caroms in cowboy? or

by tln 7y ago

"I saw him run over forty several times, and it was not unusual for him to put a string together of twenty or thirty" I wonder if thats 40 caroms in cowboy? or 5 racks of 8 ball? The caption mentions (and shows) cowboy pool: you play with 1, 3, 5 and can score with carom, bouncing the cue off 2 other balls, pocketing also scores the number on the ball till 90; till 100 only caroms score. to get 101 and win, you must scratch off the 1. Fun game, my favorite when not paying for each rack.

nsfyn55 7y ago
>I saw him run over forty several times, and it was not unusual for him to put a string together of twenty or thirty They are almost certainly talking about 14:1 continuous which was far and away the most popular pocket billiards game in the 1930s,40s, and 50s. 40 is pretty good but great players regularly run over 100 and John Schmidt just ran 600+
dnate 7y ago
can you explain what "scoring with carom" means? I googled for 10 minutes and didn't fully understand it.
- ucarion 7y ago
  To "carom" a ball, in America, is to hit the cue ball into ball X, and then after that collision, the cue ball goes on to hit ball Y. In Britain this is known as a "cannon", as in you cannon the cue ball off of X into Y. In the game of cowboy, which is sort of a novelty game that is intentionally quirky, you can score points merely by making a carom. Here's an example I got by Google image searching: https://i.makeagif.com/media/10-30-2015/ODVWHH.gif https://i.makeagif.com/media/10-30-2015/ODVWHH.gif
jnewkirk 7y ago
The description of play in the article corresponds most closely to (straight) carom billiards rather than a variety of pool (or even three-cushion billiards). A run of forty is creditable; runs of 100 or more aren't uncommon among good players. There's a billiard table just behind the foreground pool table in the photo of the Quadrangle Club.
- mrbrandonking 7y ago
  “... Michelson would run ten or twelve billiards with a touch so delicate that the three balls could always be covered by a hat.” Michelson was playing billiards on a table without pockets. I agree that Michelson wasn’t playing 3-cushion because not even Willie Hoppe (best player of that era) had runs 10 or 12 on a daily basis. Balkline was still popular as an amateur game in the 1920s, so Michelson could have been playing one of the balkline variants rather than straight rail. Level of difficulty in billiards ... Straight Rail < Balkline < Cushion Caroms < 3-Cushion

by tln 7y ago

nsfyn55 7y ago

>I saw him run over forty several times, and it was not unusual for him to put a string together of twenty or thirty They are almost certainly talking about 14:1 continuous which was far and away the most popular pocket billiards game in the 1930s,40s, and 50s. 40 is pretty good but great players regularly run over 100 and John Schmidt just ran 600+

dnate 7y ago

can you explain what "scoring with carom" means? I googled for 10 minutes and didn't fully understand it.

ucarion 7y ago
To "carom" a ball, in America, is to hit the cue ball into ball X, and then after that collision, the cue ball goes on to hit ball Y. In Britain this is known as a "cannon", as in you cannon the cue ball off of X into Y. In the game of cowboy, which is sort of a novelty game that is intentionally quirky, you can score points merely by making a carom. Here's an example I got by Google image searching: https://i.makeagif.com/media/10-30-2015/ODVWHH.gif https://i.makeagif.com/media/10-30-2015/ODVWHH.gif

jnewkirk 7y ago

The description of play in the article corresponds most closely to (straight) carom billiards rather than a variety of pool (or even three-cushion billiards). A run of forty is creditable; runs of 100 or more aren't uncommon among good players. There's a billiard table just behind the foreground pool table in the photo of the Quadrangle Club.

mrbrandonking 7y ago
“... Michelson would run ten or twelve billiards with a touch so delicate that the three balls could always be covered by a hat.” Michelson was playing billiards on a table without pockets. I agree that Michelson wasn’t playing 3-cushion because not even Willie Hoppe (best player of that era) had runs 10 or 12 on a daily basis. Balkline was still popular as an amateur game in the 1920s, so Michelson could have been playing one of the balkline variants rather than straight rail. Level of difficulty in billiards ... Straight Rail < Balkline < Cushion Caroms < 3-Cushion