Features

• Apart from having no pockets, the tables used in carom billiards are similar to those used in pocket billiards. Table sizes range from 4 by 8 feet to as large as 6 by 12 feet. In most carom games, only three balls are used. Cues are generally stiffer, shorter and lighter than traditional pocket billiard cues.
  
  

Games

• Three-ball, straight rail, balkline, three-cushion billiards and artistic billiards are all played on the pocketless carom table. In three-ball, three balls are placed on the table. Each player has his own cue ball, and the object of the game is to strike your cue ball and have it make contact with the other person's cue ball, as well as with the shared object ball.
  
  

Popularity

• Carom billiards tables are far less popular in America than they are in Europe, South America and Asia. As indication of its popularity elsewhere in the world, the Three-Ball Billiards World Cup Association championships have since the mid-1980s been held in places as diverse as Buenos Aires, Bogota, Paris, Athens and Tokyo. However, popularity in North America is growing.