Balkline

Toncam

Toncam

Another Bum !
Silver Member
Greetings
I was watching Efren Reyes playing Raymond Ceulemans in a 71.2 balkine game. I used to try my hand at the 3 cushion every so often and find it a tremendously enjoyable game, extremely difficult but enjoyable. I was playing with Frank Torres when he used to own a pool room downtown once in a while and i was actually starting to grasp the game when i had to pursue other things.
Anyway, my question is in 71.2 , what are the rules ? Do you get two shots and have to drive any ball out of an area and what defines an area ? I have read its best to play this sort of billiards before embarking onto the big game. I dont know if this is true or not, but it looks enjoyable and i intend to start playing again.
Any other tips for a more or less beginner ?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Toncam said:
Greetings
I was watching Efren Reyes playing Raymond Ceulemans in a 71.2 balkine game. I used to try my hand at the 3 cushion every so often and find it a tremendously enjoyable game, extremely difficult but enjoyable. I was playing with Frank Torres when he used to own a pool room downtown once in a while and i was actually starting to grasp the game when i had to pursue other things.
Anyway, my question is in 71.2 , what are the rules ? Do you get two shots and have to drive any ball out of an area and what defines an area ? I have read its best to play this sort of billiards before embarking onto the big game. I dont know if this is true or not, but it looks enjoyable and i intend to start playing again.
Any other tips for a more or less beginner ?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
The .2 (or /2 in Europe) means that if your two object balls are in the same area at the start of a shot, you are allowed one preparatory shot before you must drive one of them out of the area. If you drive a ball out and it returns to the area, a new sequence begins. For .1 (or /1) you must drive one ball out of the area immediately when both balls are in an area.

I think beginners should start with straight rail. When you regularly run 50 once in an evening of play, consider going on to balkline. The main point of going to balkline is to prevent the rail nurse, which can be boring after the first 50 points.

A set of "small game" practice shots developed by Heinrich Weingartner from Vienna is available at: http://wbpb.blogspot.com/ (and perhaps other sites that do not require Adobe Flash to display).
 
In addition to Bob J's accurate comment: the balkline game you should start with (once you have some proficiency in the free game) is 47/2, not 71/2.
 
Bert,

I know it doesn't exist anymore officially, but one could start with the old 14/2 and ignore the anchors. Then one doesn't even need to mark the table.

For the OP: in 14/2 the balklines were drawn exactly one diamond from each rail, so even on an unmarked table it is easy to see whether both object balls are within a balk area.
 
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