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 used in the 16th and 17th centuries. Cushions (also sometimes called "rail cushions", "cushion rubber", or rarely "bumpers") are located on the inner sides of a table's wooden . There are several different materials and design philosophies associated with cushion rubber. The cushions are made from an elastic material such as vulcanized rubber (gum or synthetic). The chiefly American jargon "rails "more properly applies to the wooded outer segments of the table to which the cushions are affixed. The purpose of the cushion rubber is to cause the billiard balls to rebound off the rubber while minimizing the loss of