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31 Turns to Score 40 Points: Why Three-Cushion Billiards Is So Difficult

31 Turns to Score 40 Points: Why Three-Cushion Billiards Is So Difficult
31 Turns to Score 40 Points: Why Three-Cushion Billiards Is So Difficult

On August 1, a tournament was held again for the first time in five years at a billiards club in Gangnam, Seoul.

The winner of the men's division scored 40 points in the final, using 31 turns. That is an average of 1.29 points per turn.

That is what a top-level Korean player did. So what, exactly, is so difficult?

3-Line Summary
1. Three-cushion billiards is not a game of pocketing balls.
2. Even the champion needed 31 turns to score 40 points.
3. An average of 1.5 is world-class.

August 1, Gangnam JS Billiards Club

The 5th Silk Road Cup Carom Three-Cushion Masters was held. The tournament had been suspended after its fourth edition in 2021 because of COVID-19, and resumed this year.

In the men's division, Cho Myung-woo defeated Pyeon Jun-hyuk 40–33 in the final. It took 31 innings. In the women's division, Choi Ji-yeon beat Lee Hee-kyung 25–16, and the match took 36 innings.

A total of 82 players registered with the Seoul Billiards Federation participated: 72 men and 10 women.

First, This Billiards Table Has No Holes

It is not the kind of billiards table you see at a neighborhood billiards hall.

Three-cushion belongs to a discipline called carom billiards. Carom tables have no pockets—the holes where balls fall in. With nowhere to pocket balls, it is not a game in which points are scored by pocketing them.

There are only three balls. The white and yellow balls belong to the two players, while the red ball is shared. You score one point by using your own ball to hit both of the other balls.

The dimensions are different, too. A regulation table used in international competition is 2.84 meters long and 1.42 meters wide. With only three balls on it, most of the table is empty space.

The Rule Fits in One Sentence, But

The scoring condition is this: Before my ball touches the second object ball, it must hit the table rails at least three times.

Those rails are called cushions, and because there are three of them, it is called three-cushion.

The order is flexible. You can hit the first ball and then complete three rail contacts, or hit two rails first, strike the first ball, and then add one more. There is only one condition: by the moment the second ball is struck, the ball must have contacted the rails at least three times.

You only need to hit two balls, with one additional condition attached. But that one condition completely changes the game.

Every Time the Ball Hits a Rail, It Changes

A billiard ball does not simply travel in a straight line. Spin is applied depending on which point of the ball you strike with the cue.

When a spinning ball hits a rail, its incoming and outgoing angles differ. Depending on the direction of the spin, it may curve or slide. And with every collision, it loses a little spin and speed.

So if the calculation is off by one degree at the first rail, that error has multiplied several times by the third rail. And after all that, the ball still has to hit another ball barely 6 centimeters in diameter.

This is why it is not a game of pocketing, but a game of prediction.

The Position You Fail From Goes Directly to Your Opponent

There is another layer to it.

If I fail, all three balls remain where they are, and my opponent continues from there. In other words, my opponent begins from the layout created by my last shot.

So when players encounter a layout with a low chance of success, they make one additional calculation: Can they score, and if they cannot, where should they leave the balls? There are moments in this sport when players shoot with failure included in the premise.

That Is Why There Are Dots Along the Table Edge

If you look around the edge of the billiards table, you will see dots set at regular intervals. They are called diamonds. They are not decorative.

Players assign numbers to them and calculate. The widely used five-and-a-half system works like this: subtract the number of the position you want to send the ball to from the number of the position where your ball is, and you get the number of the first rail you need to hit.

One subtraction gives you an aiming point. Of course, in practice, adjustments are needed depending on ball position, spin, speed, and the condition of the table that day. The calculation is a starting point, not the answer.

These numbers are what longtime billiards players mean when they say things like, “Send it from number X to number Y.”

The Number 1.29

Average is total points divided by innings. It indicates how many points a player scores per turn on average.

In this final, Cho Myung-woo's average was 40 divided by 31, or about 1.29. An average of 1 is considered national-team level, and above 1.5 is considered world-class.

The comparison with amateur benchmarks helps put it in perspective. On a regulation table, an amateur who plays to 25 points has an average roughly in the 0.58–0.62 range. That is about the level of barely scoring once every two turns.

An average of 1 means succeeding on half of your turns. Failing is normal too—that is the baseline in this sport.

For reference, Korea is not a peripheral player in this discipline. Reports covering last month's Porto World Cup introduced Cho Myung-woo as world No. 1.

The Next Time You Go to a Billiards Hall

Billiards is a common hobby, but three-cushion can feel unfamiliar. It starts with playing with only three balls on a table without pockets.

There are two things to check today. Count the diamonds around the edge of the table, then subtract the number of the position you want to send the ball to from the number of your ball's position. That value is the first rail to aim for. Then count how many turns you used in one game and divide it by your score to find your own average.

40 points in 31 innings. Once you know that number, a broadcast may look a little different. There is a reason applause breaks out with every successful shot.

Sources

The amateur average ranges above follow the benchmark report cited above and may differ by organization and region.