Billiard Law and Learning

• Always play off the red ball when either ball presents equal scoring possibilities, for one thing it counts three instead of two, and if it is pocketed it makes its reappearance on the spot instead of being lost to the striker.
• More games are lost through want of thought than are lost through lack of skill.
• Strength is a matter of practice. When playing on a strange table, always try and gauge -the pace of it as early as possible in the game.
• When playing a half-ball loser from hand, place your own ball on the baulk line, if the stroke is required to be played slowly ; but if it is necessary to bring the object ball round the table towards the middle pocket, then place the cue ball as far towards the rear of the D as possible.
• The amount of strength that may safely be employed to make the half-ball stroke a certainty decreases considerably the closer the cue ball is to the object ball.
• A novice usually has a good enough hand and eye, but often does not know where to aim.
• In winning hazards the first thing to be kept in mind is that the margin of error is exceedingly slight.
• When potting the red, the near shoulder of the pocket must be avoided at all costs.
• Play these winners slowly when the balls are near together, as it is the pace that finds the pocket; when the cue ball has a long way to go, the shot is easier played hard.
• In winning hazard striking, first sight is everything. Amateur billiardists should not strive to play the top of the table game to any great extent.
• Losing hazard play is the backbone of the amateur game.
• The close game is the province of the man who can devote his life to billiards.
• Do not walk about the room while your opponent is playing his stroke.
• There is no game that requires physical fitness in its devotees so much as billiards.
• In a half-ball stroke, always aim at the outer edge of the object ball.
• The natural angle is the "known quantity" at billiards, and the first thing a player should learn is to train his eye to recognise it.
• Ordinary players often fail to realise that nothing is easy at billiards.
• Many players invariably break down when they have made between ten and twenty, simply because they grow careless and begin to take liberties with the game.
• Always remember that each stroke must be played carefully and on its merits, then forty or fifty breaks will soon result.
• Speaking generally, the quicker the first ball can be struck to make a ball-to-ball cannon the better will the result be.
• No game can be played for money on licensed premises.
• No play is allowed within prohibited hours and within prohibited days.