Pool and Billiard Equipment

For example, the bed of the billiard table has to be at least 29.25 inches high but not higher than 31 inches. In order to avoid injuries, the billiard table cannot have sharp edges or any other materials that can even damage the players' clothes.

The slates in a standardized billiard table must be a least 1-inch thick. In pool tournaments, the tables are required to have a set of slates with three equal sized pieces with a wooden frame, which must be at least 0.75 inch.

Billiard tables can come in different sizes, but the playing surface of the table has to be rectangular. In 9 foot billiard tables, the playing surface should be 100 X 50 inches, without the cushions; in 8 foot table the playing surface is limited to the sizes of 92 X 46 inches.

The rail of the billiard table has to be at least 4 inches wide but cannot be wider than 7.5 inches; the rubber cushions are included. The rubber cushions have to be in a shape of a triangular and to be located about 2 inches from the outer edge of the feather strip.

The pocket jaws must be made of rubber facings at least as thick as 1/16 inches but no more than 1/14 inches. According to the WPA recommendations, the rubber facings should be as thick and as hard as possible.

The sizes of the pocket openings in billiard tables also known as the mouth, also have standardized measurements: the corner pocket mouth is required to size between 4.25 inches to 4.625 inches and the size of the side pocket mouth can ranger from 5 to 5.125 inches.

The pocket liners and boots should be covered by either plastic, rubber or leather as long as the material won't stain neither the billiard balls nor the cue sticks. In any case, the upper part of the inner wall must to be designed in such a manner that when a ball hits the pocket liner wall, the ball will be directed downwards.

The cloth that covers the billiard table has to contain at least 85% of wool fabric and no more than 15% nylon and it cannot pill or fluff. The World Pool-Billiard Assassination permits only billiard table clothes in the colors of yellow-green, blue-green or electric blue.

The WPA billiard equipemnt rules requires that the set of standardized billiard balls have to be made of cast phenolic resin plastic. They should be measured 2.25 inches and weigh between 5.5 and 6 oz. Polishing and waxing the billiard balls is not allowed; the balls can be cleaned only with a towel or a clean cloth.

A set of billiard balls has to consist of one cue ball, colored white and a group of fifteen colored object balls numbered 1 through 15. The numbers have to be visible, so they must be printed twice and black on a white background.

According to the official billiard equipment rules, the cue sticks used in pool tournaments must be at least 40 inches long and to weigh no more than 25 oz. The cue tip cannot be wider than 14 mm. Additionally, the cue tip must be made of an especially suitable leather or any other material, which would naturally fit in with the line of the shaft end and will not be able to damage the billiard balls.