What was Balkline?

Texas Carom Club

9ball did to billiards what hiphop did to america
Silver Member
In north America yes, but the Europeans are the best now because that's where it's primarily popular, not like as popular as 3c
I don't think balkline ever was that popular, if it was it was before 3c was created


Some in Vietnam Korea and Japan as well

Possibly some south America

And probably no one but myself plays it or 1 cushion in the us

For everyone it's straight rail or 3c

The small games get the least amount of love but just like straight pool
It's never going to be the most popular, but there are pockets of enthusiasts that will carry it on because we love it dearly
 
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RichSchultz

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
In north America yes, but the Europeans are the best now because that's where it's primarily popular, not like as popular as 3c
I don't think balkline ever was that popular, if it was it was before 3c was created


Some in Vietnam Korea and Japan as well

Possibly some south America

And probably no one but myself plays it or 1 cushion in the us

For everyone it's straight rail or 3c

The small games get the least amount of love but just like straight pool
It's never going to be the most popular, but there are pockets of enthusiasts that will carry it on because we love it dearly
But what is it?
 

philly

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I remember reading somewhere that Efren was a big Balkline player at one time.
 

Texas Carom Club

9ball did to billiards what hiphop did to america
Silver Member
Cool...thanks. Yeah, I easily could have googled it, but don't you guys feel special that I would come here first?

You'd have trouble finding the videos either way
The DVD is out of print and searching balkline on YouTube doesn't bring up very much

Your welcome:thumbup:

As long as you or anyone else is interested in balkline
My work is done
 

Danimal

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
From what I understand, Balkline evolved from Straight Rail to make the game more challenging.

In Straight Rail, you have to carom the cueball into each of the other balls to score a point. The great players would group all three balls along a rail, and would then proceed to nurse the balls up and down and around the table with mini-caroms. They would literally run thousands in a row like this.

To make the game more inviting for spectators and the like, they decided to start marking the table into zones, which was the start of Balkline. To explain it simply, one of the two object balls has to be driven out from your present zone after a carom has been completed. This was done to eliminate the rail nurse from Straight Rail.

The great Balkline players are still able to "straddle" the boundary lines connecting two zones (leaving one object ball on either side) and make very high runs, but nothing like the crazy runs made from rail nurses in SR.

To make an analogy, Balkline is to Straight Rail as we, as pool players, made 10 Ball in order to make 9 Ball a tad more difficult.
 

Texas Carom Club

9ball did to billiards what hiphop did to america
Silver Member
Straight rail, aka free game and libre
Matches are now to no longer than 400 points in competition

Many players can run 400 and out in a single inning,
There's video up of 2 Spanish player's doing this

I haven't seen a balkline nurse as it's quite a bit more difficult
But still balkline player's can run 150,200,250 and out in a single inning

This yrs European championships 47.2 final saw

Both Eddy leppens and raymun swertz both run 250 and out in the first inning

Eddy won in the shootout afterwards

In the same event during a final match of 71.2
Spanish player raul Cuenca runs himself a 200 and out
71.2 is much more difficult because the boxes are much bigger

Quite a fantastic display
The videos are only up to view however on kozoom with a premium Carom subscription
 
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Mr. Bond

Orbis Non Sufficit
Gold Member
Silver Member
~History Nerd Alert~

The balk line was originally devised to thwart (or balk) Chicago's billiard master, Jacob Schaefer, also known as "The Wizard" the world over.

The cue ball was under his control for hundreds of points at a time and it consequently put the audiences to sleep.

Balk lines were put in place on the table but Schaefer still prevailed no matter where they placed the lines. It took several "reinvented" versions to ultimately slow down The Wizard. ( some of them were pretty far-out)

Even so, Schaefer ultimately died and so did Balkline popularity in the U.S., however, it was immediately succeeded by 3-cushion, and the party raged on...

1910 Feb 6 Balkline origins Part 2.jpg
 

pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
In Robert Byrne's book, McGoorty said Schaefer and Cochran would run billiards...
...til you turned a firehouse on 'em.

They broke the game, like Walter Lindrum broke English billiards....
..three cushion was the way it had to go.
 

Texas Carom Club

9ball did to billiards what hiphop did to america
Silver Member
The fact that there are no more wizards like those gentleman goes to show how special they really where

Because as the equipment has evolved, making the games easier, as we see with the 3c averages

You'd think that balkline averages would also be absurd, with the knowledge and experience

Sure they're higher, but there's not droves of fellows running for hrs and hrs at it anymore

Jacob sr jr hoppe and the others were just masters
Born to play the great games

3c is by far the most difficult game because no one to this day can break and run 40 or 50 or however many

Snooker,14.1 to libre and balkline there's standouts that can and do ever so often break and runout
This doesn't mean However the game needs to disappear or go away, hence my ever persistent promotion of the small games
 
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Bob Jewett

AZB Osmium Member
Staff member
Gold Member
Silver Member
The record for best tournament performance ever at balkline was set in the post-ivory era (April 1973 to be exact) by Ludo Dielis who in his first five 18.2 (47/2) matches in a tournament ran 400-and-out in his first inning of each match. He then ran 10 in the next match for a total of 2010 points in a row in competition without a miss.

Even more remarkable is that this was in a "pentathlon" carom event in which each player was competing in five disciplines.
 

Mr. Bond

Orbis Non Sufficit
Gold Member
Silver Member
This post image didn't display right
 

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