Black pool, originally known as everlasting pool, was a form of

pocket billiards Pool is a series of cue sports played on a billiard table. The table has six pockets along the , into which balls are shot. "Pool billiards" is sometimes hyphenated and/or spelled with a singular "billiard". The WPA itself uses "pool-billiar ...

(pool) mainly played in the late 19th century, first being recorded in 1862. This game was derived from

life pool Life pool (also known as 3 lives Snooker) is a form of pocket billiards (pool) that was mainly played in the 19th century. Its rules were first recorded in 1819 simply as ''pool'', which remained its most common name among the British for about a ce ...

but lacked the pooling of bets and players had unlimited lives. It had as many as players with an additional that was placed on the . A player is paid a life (stake) from the opponent whose ball was potted. The player is then allowed to pot the black ball which meant all opponents must pay a life. Balls are respotted after being potted and the best strategy is to alternate potting colour and black to maximize money. Around 1875, black pool was merged with

pyramid pool Pyramid pool, or simply pyramids, is a form of Pool (cue sports), pool that was played mainly in the 19th century. It was one of several pool games that were popular at this time, and was forerunner to modern games such as eight-ball, Blackball ( ...

to form the new game of

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets: one at each corner and ...

, today one of the most popular

cue sports Cue sports are a wide variety of Game of skill, games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a Baize, cloth-covered billiards table, table bounded by elastic bumpers known a ...

in the world.

References

Pool (cue sports) History of snooker {{notstub