What is "Striaght-Rail"
- Thread starter ndakotan
- Start date
ndakotan said:
I can't remember just now where the name came from (in other languages it's usually called "free billiards"), but I can explain the game. It's the simplest form of caroms where there are (virtually) no restrictions concerning contact with cushions or limiting the number of caroms that can be made within certain areas. If your cue ball contacts both object balls, you get one point and you continue to shoot. (Back to the restrictions: in some rule sets there are areas in the corners where the number of caroms is limited.)
Other forms of billiards require that the cue ball make some minimum number of contacts with the cushions before the second object ball is hit; or zones are delineated (called "balk areas" or "anchors") and the number of caroms allowed (while both object balls remain within a zone) is limited.
Hope this helps.
Mark
More Clarification?
I saw a description once where it appeared that the intent was to keep the two object balls near the same rail and thin the CB off the first, into the rail and into the second, keeping the balls near the same rail for another similar shot. In true straight rail, do they actually go into multiple rails or get the balls into an area near a rail and keep hitting both of them softly enough to keep them in the area?
mbvl said:
I saw a description once where it appeared that the intent was to keep the two object balls near the same rail and thin the CB off the first, into the rail and into the second, keeping the balls near the same rail for another similar shot. In true straight rail, do they actually go into multiple rails or get the balls into an area near a rail and keep hitting both of them softly enough to keep them in the area?
ndakotan said:
Click me & don't sleep on it ! This is the Korean version of Straight-Rail, called 4-ball (a.k.a. Danggoo or Yostudama). Enjoy... especially if you're still up.
There is a "cushion carom" technique that does what you describe at first. That game is also called "one cushion" since a cushion contact is required.ndakotan said:
In true straight rail you don't need any cushion contacts, so the goal is to get the two balls together by a cushion as quickly as possible using as many cushions as it takes, and then walk them along the cushion with a sequence of shots that is called the "rail nurse." The simplest form is shown on Jim Loy's page at http://www.jimloy.com/billiard/rail.htm
For the English billiards version of the rail nurse, see Walter Lindrum in the last 30 seconds of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zNwemKarDU and especially how quickly he scores in the last part when he is playing double kisses.
If you want to watch a wonderful demonstration of all the "small games" of carom billiards (free game, balkline, one cushion) by one of the best, see if you can get your hands on a DVD featuring Frederic Caudron called "The Master of Billiards". It came out about a year ago, and I know you can buy it on the kozoom.com website, but it will cost you. You will also need a multi-region DVD player because this DVD is encoded for play in Europe, not the US. But if you can get past these hurdles, you are in for a real treat.ndakotan said:
Yes, it is a very good DVD. I've tried to make copies region free, but it does not work.
It's often easier to 'hack' your DVD player into a region-free mode by hitting a sequence of buttons in the same manner as you'd program a universal remote control than it is to get DVDs region-free (but DVDShrink and DVDDecrypter are free and do work well for that).
This page should do it for you, or use Google to find the directions for your specific model:
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks
This page should do it for you, or use Google to find the directions for your specific model:
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks
An example of Caudron's ability and the main problem with straight rail was shown in the recent Belgian national straight rail championship. There were five entrants who played a round robin with matches to 400 points. Caudron never missed in 1600 points. No game lasted more than two innings among any of the five participants. Every player had at least one run of 400. Many games were 400-400 ties. (The non-breaker gets an "equalizing inning" if the breaker wins, so if your opponent runs out from the break, you get to try the same from a break shot.)Bruce Warner said: