Fifteen-ball pool


Fifteen-ball pool, also known as sixty-one pool, is a nineteenth century American pocket billiards game that developed from pyramid pool. Created by members of the Bassford's Billiard & Chess Rooms in Manhattan during the late 1830s or 1840s, it is the ancestor to most American pool games.

Rules

The game is played on a six pocket table with fifteen numbered red racked in triangle and a white. The 15-ball is the ball and is placed at the. Behind it are the other high numbered balls with the rest in the back rows, most likely in descending order.
The number of the ball pocketed by a player scores the player that number of points. The goal is to get the highest number of points or become the first player to get 61 or more points to win a. Tournament matches consist of winning the best out of 21 frames. It is possible to lose a frame despite sinking twice the number of balls over the winner. Three points are subtracted for each ; three consecutive fouls will cost the player the frame. In 1880, a new rule to discourage required the cue ball to make contact with an object ball in each shot. This must cause an object ball to be pocketed or at least one ball to hit the cushion.

Legacy

This game was the inspiration behind rotation which shares the point system.
The first tournament was held in 1878 at the Union Square Billiard Rooms in New York City which was won by the Canadian Cyrille Dion who defeated Gotthiel Wahlstrom of Sweden. Alfredo de Oro recalled that in 1887, an English spectator pointed out that Albert M. Frey won despite pocketing less balls than his opponent John L. Malone. He offered 200 dollars for a rematch in which the first person to pot a hundred balls would win; Frey won again. This game became known as continuous pool and its first tournament was held in 1888 which was also won by Frey. Continuous would go on to become 14.1 continuous after Jerome R. Keogh's reforms in 1910.