Three-cushion billiards, also called three-cushion carom, is a form of

carom billiards Carom billiards, also called French billiards and sometimes carambole billiards, is the overarching title of a family of cue sports generally played on cloth-covered, billiard tables. In its simplest form, the object of the game is to score ...

. The object of the game is to the off both while contacting the at least three times before contacting the second object ball. A point is scored for each successful carom. In most shots the cue ball hits the object balls one time each, although hitting them any number of times is allowed as long as both are hit. The cue ball may contact the cushions before or after hitting the first object ball. It does not have to contact three different cushions as long as it has been in contact with any cushion at least three times in total.

History

Three-cushion dates to the 1870s, and while the origin of the game is not entirely known, it evolved from

one-cushion billiards One-cushion billiards is a carom billiards discipline generally played on a cloth-covered, , pocketless billiard table with two cue balls and a third red-colored ball. In a one-cushion shot, the cue ball off both with at least one rail being str ...

, which in turn developed from straight rail billiards for the same reason that

balkline Balkline is the overarching title of a group of carom billiards games generally played with two and a red on a -covered, 5 foot × 10 foot, billiard table. The object of the game is to score points, also called ''counts'', by a play ...

also arose from straight rail. Such new developments made the game more challenging, less repetitive, and more interesting for spectators as well as players, by thwarting the ability of highly skilled players to rack up point after point at will by relying on . Wayman Crow McCreery, the Internal Revenue Collector of the Port of

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, born June 14, 1851, in St. Louis, popularized the game. At least one publication categorically states he invented the game as well. The first three-cushion billiards tournament took place January 14–31, 1878 in C. E. Mussey's

billiard room A billiard room (also billiards room, or more specifically pool room, snooker room) is a recreation room, such as in a house or recreation center, with a billiards, pool or snooker table (The term "billiard room" or "pool room" may also be use ...

in St. Louis, with McCreery a participant. The tournament was won by

New Yorker New Yorker may refer to: * A resident of New York: ** A resident of New York City and its suburbs *** List of people from New York City ** A resident of the New York (state), State of New York *** Demographics of New York (state) * ''The New Yor ...

Leon Magnus. The high run for the tournament was just 6 points, and the high average a .75. The game was infrequently played prior to 1907, with top carom players of the era voicing their dislike of it. However, after the introduction of the Lambert Trophy in 1907, the game became increasingly popular both in the United States and internationally. By 1924, three-cushion had become so popular that two giants in other cue sport disciplines agreed to take up the game especially for a challenge match. On September 22, 1924

Willie Hoppe William Frederick Hoppe (October 11, 1887 – February 1, 1959) (surname rhymes with "poppy"), was an internationally renowned American professional carom billiards champion. Hoppe is widely considered one of the greatest billiards players of all t ...

, the world's

champion (who later took up three-cushion with a passion), and

Ralph Greenleaf Ralph Greenleaf (November 3, 1899 – March 15, 1950) was an American professional pool and carom billiards player. Greenleaf is widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time. Between the years 1919 and 1938, he won the World Str ...

, the world's

straight pool Straight pool, which is also called 14.1 continuous and 14.1 rack, is a Cue sports, cue sport in which two competing players attempt to as many s as possible without playing a . The game was the primary version of Pool (cue sports), pool play ...

title holder, played a well advertised, multi-day to 600 . Hoppe was the eventual winner with a final score of 600–527. The game's decline in the United States began in 1952 when Hoppe, then 51-time billiards champion, announced his retirement. Over time, three-cushion completely supplanted balkline billiards, once the world championship carom game. Three-cushion retains popularity in parts of Europe, Asia, and Latin America. The game's slow resurgence in United States popularity is due in part to the introduction of the

Sang Lee International Open The Verhoeven Open is a three-cushion billiards tournament held in Flushing, Queens in the US state of New York. The event is sanctioned by the Union Mondiale de Billard and the United States Billiard Association. The event was known as Sang Lee ...

tournament in

Flushing, New York Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial and retail area, and the ...

, in 2005, with first-place prize money up to US$25,000. The game has also seen increased coverage in cue sports publications based in the United States, such as ''Billiards Digest'' and ''Pool & Billiard Magazine''.

Records

Three-cushion billiards is a difficult game. Averaging one point per is usually national-level play, and averaging 1.5 or more is world-class play. An average of 1 means that for every turn at the table, a player point success rate is 50%. An average of 2 means a success rate of roughly 67%. The high run at three-cushion billiards for many years was 25, set over two games (fourteen and out and starting with eleven in the next game) by the American

in 1918 during an exhibition in San Francisco. In 1968

Raymond Ceulemans Raymond Ceulemans (born 12 July 1937) is a Belgian billiards player who won 21 UMB three-cushion World Championship titles, more than any other player. Along with 48 European titles ...

improved the record to 26 in a match in the Simonis Cup tournament. In 1993

Junichi Komori (11 July 1941 – 26 July 2015)
Obituary on Kozoom.com. Retrieved 11 Nov ...

set the record to 28 in a Dutch league match, a feat repeated by Ceulemans in 1998 in the same league.Billiard Congress of America, R. A. Dyer
Billiards: the official rules & records book
p.189, Lyons Press, 2005 In 2012

Roland Forthomme Roland Forthomme (born 3 November 1970) is a Belgian carom billiards player. He won the Three-Cushion World Cup in 2005 and 2006, and finished second five times and third twice from 2007 to 2019. In 2012, he equaled the world record run in thre ...

tied the record in Zundert. In the 2013 European Championships in Brandenburg, Germany,

Frederic Caudron Frederic may refer to: Places United States * Frederic, Wisconsin, a village in Polk County * Frederic Township, Michigan, a township in Crawford County ** Frederic, Michigan, an unincorporated community Other uses * Frederic (band), a Japanese r ...

became the fourth member of the "28" club. Ceulemans reputedly had a high run of 32 in a non-tournament, non-exhibition match. The highest run so far in a World Cup match is 26, set by Torbjorn Blomdahl on 26 May 2023 in

Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. (see result sheet on the right). When allowing for interruptions by opponents starting new games, the current record high run is 34 by the Dutchman

Dick Jaspers Dingeman Jacobus Johannes "Dick" Jaspers (pronounced yas-pers) (born 23 July 1965) is a Dutch professional carom billiards player who specializes in the three-cushion event. Early life Jaspers started playing billiards when he was three years o ...

: in his 2008 European Championship Final match against the Swede

Torbjörn Blomdahl Torbjörn Blomdahl (born 26 October 1962 in Gothenburg) is a Swedish people, Swedish professional carom billiards (and to a lesser extent pocket billiards, pool) player from Helsingborg, Sweden who plays for FC Porto (billiards), FC Porto. He is ...

, played in three games of 15 points each, he ended Game One by going 13 and out, ran 15 and out in the only inning of Game Two (started by Blomdahl), and ran six in his first inning of Game Three. The best game at the standard 50 points in a league is six innings (8.333 average) by

Eddy Merckx Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx (born 17 June 1945), known as Eddy Merckx (, ), is a Belgian former professional road and track cyclist racer who is the most successful rider in the history of competitive cycling. His victories include an ...

(:4-9-26-7-0-4) in the German Bundesliga in 2011. The best such game in a tournament is nine innings (5.555 average) by

in 2000, while South Korean and later U.S. national champion

Sang Lee Sang Chun Lee (; January 15, 1954 – October 19, 2004), most commonly known simply as Sang Lee, was a Korean-born American professional three-cushion billiards player and world champion. Professional career Born and raised in South Korea, Lee ...

scored 50 points in four innings (: 19-11-9-11, a 12.5 average) in a game at Sang Lee Billiards in

Queens, New York Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

. The best tournament match average is 5.625 (45 in eight innings over three games; i.e. only five misses), scored by Dick Jaspers in the above-mentioned European Cup finals in

Florange Florange (; Lorraine Franconian: ''Fléischengen''/''Fléschéngen''; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments of France, department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. History Between 1870 and 1918, ...

, France, in 2008. His opponent Blomdahl averaged 3.0 in his losing effort. The highest average at an international tournament is 2.537 (345 caramboles in 136 innings) by Dick Jaspers in 2002 at a seven-match Crystal Kelly tournament in

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

, while Jaspers reached a record average of 2.666 (200 caramboles in 75 innings) at a four-match national tournament in

Veldhoven Veldhoven () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and town on the Gender (stream), Gender in the southern Netherlands, just southwest of Eindhoven, in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. Topography Map of ...

in 2005.

from Belgium has won 21

UMB World Three-cushion Championship The UMB World Three-cushion Championship is a professional carom billiards tournament in the discipline of three-cushion billiards Three-cushion billiards, also called three-cushion carom, is a form of carom billiards. The object of the game ...

s.Sports123.com (2000–2007)
Men: World 3 Cushion Championship
Retrieved February 5, 2007

Governing bodies

The principal governing body of the sport is the

Union Mondiale de Billard The Union Mondiale de Billard (English language, English: ) is the world governing body for Carom billiards, carom (carambole) Cue sport, billiard games. History The organization was founded in Madrid, Spain on 1 June 1959, and is dedicated t ...

(UMB). It had been staging world three-cushion championships since the late 1920s. It is a member organization of the

World Confederation of Billiard Sports The World Confederation of Billiards Sports (WCBS) is the international umbrella organization encompassing the major cue sports (billiards-type games), including carom billiards, pool games of several varieties, and snooker.Billiards World Cup Association (BWA) organized the

Three-Cushion World Cup The Three-Cushion World Cup is an international tournament series in three-cushion billiards, which is held every year since 1986 between three and ten times a year. History The World Cup was founded in 1985 by German Werner Bayer, a carom bil ...

with UMB, but later shut down due to financial problems, with UMB assuming full responsibility for the tournament.

In popular culture

The game was featured in the 1959 animated

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

short film ''

Donald in Mathmagic Land ''Donald in Mathmagic Land'' is an American live-action animated featurette produced by Walt Disney Productions and featuring Donald Duck. The short was directed by Hamilton Luske (with Wolfgang Reitherman, Les Clark, and Joshua Meador as se ...

'', in which Donald Duck attempts to learn the game by mastering the , which uses the diamond markings on the rails as a guide for calculating where the cue ball will strike based on player aim and cueing technique. The game also features prominently in the 2007

Goya Award The Goya Awards () are Spain's main national annual film awards. They are presented by the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain. The first ceremony was held in 1987, a year after the founding of the Academy of Cinematographic Ar ...

-winning Spanish film ''Seven Billiard Tables'' ('), about a woman who inherits a troubled billiard hall and is searching for her missing husband. An opening theme for an anime of ''

Lupin III , also written as ''Lupin the Third'', ''Lupin the 3rd'', or ''Lupin the IIIrd'', is a Japanese media franchise created by Monkey Punch. The series follows the endeavors of master thief Lupin III (character), Lupin III, grandson of gentleman t ...

'' shows

Lupin ''Lupinus'', commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet, is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centres of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centres occur in No ...

and Jigen playing three-cushion billiards.

References

External links