Billiard table all six pockets), with rounded entrances and nearly parallel sides, like those on a snooker table. One tactical consequence of this design difference is that the jaws of the WPA-type pocket are often used exactly like a horizontal version of the backboard of a basketball goal, to rebound the ball into the pocket; this technique does not work on blackball tables, and even shots down the cushion into a corner pocket are more difficult. For tournament competition under WPA world-standardized rules (and league play under derived rulesets), the bed of the pocket billiard table must be made of slate no
Billiard table less than thick. The flatness of the table must be divergent by no greater than lengthwise and across the width. A table designed for the games snooker and English billiards is usually called a snooker table today, though English billiards pre-dates snooker. The playing area of a tournament snooker table, as standardized by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA or World Snooker) and the amateur International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF) which uses WPBSA rules, measures 11 feet 8.5 inches by 5 ft 10 in (356.9 cm by 177.8 cm) with a tolerance of ± 0.5 in (13