Pool Table Space Requirements
Knowing how much room a billiard table takes up is more than knowing how big the table is; there are some important calculations you will need to make to find the right pool table.
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Size of Table
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All pool tables are twice as long as they are wide. Only two sizes, however, are accepted for tournament play: 9 feet and 8 feet long. Most professionals suggest a 4 foot by 8 foot table, as it provides a great amount of challenge and real game play, even if shorter sticks are needed.
Remember that the rails will actually make the table longer than the name suggests. For instance, the playable field on an 8 foot table is 44" by 88", but you have to add 11 inches for the rails, so the actual size of the table becomes 55" by 99"--or 4' 7" by 8' 3."
Length of cue sticks
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A standard pool stick is exactly 57 inches in length, and you need to make sure that you have 57 inches on each side so that you don't hit any walls on any side.
Shorter sticks are available -- they have sticks that are 52 inches, and some that are 48 inches. They actually even sell cues as short as 24 inches for really troublesome shots, and cues for small kids. -
Extra Space
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A good calculation is to take the length and width of the playable area of the table, and then double the size of your longest stick. That will be the absolute minimum space you will need. It's often recommended to allow up to 12 extra inches, because of the rails.
Adding it up
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An 8 foot table has a playable area of 44" x 88", so we take those numbers and add the length of your stick, times two--a 57" stick means you'll need an extra 114" on each side, so 158" by 202" of space is required. If your longest cue is a standard cue and you're playing on an 8 foot table, you will need 13' 2" by 16' 10" of space in your den to have the table there. To accommodate the rails and not bump into the walls, you can add 12" to that, and get 14' 2" by 17' 10".
History
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Billiards has been around for nearly 550 years. The first billiard table was played by King Louis XI of France in the mid-15th Century--the balls were struck with wooden sticks called maces. When the shot was tough to get, the mace was turned around and hit with the back end, called the "queue," which later evolved into the cue stick in the late 1600s.
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