All About Playing Pool

Series Summary

Pool is a game of technique, geometry, and finesse. Developing a mastery of billiards technique, and learning the rules and game play for billiards is paramount for beginner pool players. This series has almost everything for beginners to intermediate pool players, for those who need to find out what pool is exactly and for those who need to hone their billiards skills.

In this free online video series, learn how to play pool from expert billiards player Michael Lamendola. Michael will teach you the basics of pool as well as some advanced techniques to develop your pool game. He will teach you the first steps of pool to help you get started including: how to choose a pool cue (stick), how to use a pool cue, how to hit the cue ball, how to lag (to choose who goes first), how to rack the billiard balls, and how to break. Our expert will also demonstrate how to make a straight cut shot, how to make a bank shot in a billiard game, how to make a kick rail pool shot, how to make a combo shot in pool, how to make a jump shot in a billiard game.

Our expert billiards player will teach you how to play 8 ball, including 8 ball rules; how to play 9 ball, including 9 ball rules; how to win 8 ball; what happens when you scratch in 8 ball or 9 ball. He will demonstrate how to play cutthroat pool, how to play carnie ball, and finally how to make trick pool shots.

Video Transcript

"Hi! I'm Michael Lamendola with expertvillage.com and we are here at Fantasia Billiards in Burbank, California and today I am going to show you how to play some pool. I am going to talk about a lot of things. For example how to pick out a cue, how to hold the cue, how to make a bridge so the cue can hit the cue ball, how to hit the cue ball, different English for the cue ball. But then we are going to get into some fun things too. Such as different kind of shots we are going to encounter. There's a straight end shot, there's the bank shot, there's the kick shot, there's the combination shot, there's a shot off one ball, there's a snooker shot, there's a safety shot and then there's a scratch shot. You are not going to like that one so much but it is going to happen eventually. After that we will talk about the games we are going to play like 8 ball, 9 ball, rotation, cut throat and carney ball and finally I am going to show you some fun trick shots that you can play on your friends to show them that you have more skill than you actually have. So grab your pool cue. Let's play some pool. "