Pool Empire

Pool Empire.com is an online billiards hall, where people can play simulated eight-ball and nine-ball. Players at PoolEmpire.com can join games against online competitors from around the world, or challenge friends to showdowns. Players can play online pool at Pool Empire for free or for real money. Everything is legal, because online pool is a game of skill and not a game of chance.

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Pool Empire bills itself as "the world's biggest online pool game room". When I last visited, there were nearly a thousand games available. The playing field is from all around the world. Poolempire.com's software supports 13 different languages, including English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Greek, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Turkish and Japanese.

Pool Empire.com Payment Options

Payment options on Pool Empire are Visa, Mastercard, Neteller, Paypay, Wire Transfer, Diners Club International and Moneybookers. Pool Empire is part of the Geotrust network, meaning their payment methods have top-of-the-line security features and its partners are trusted in the online money transfer community.

PoolEmpire Sign Up Bonuses

If you refer other players to the site, you get an extra $20. Refer 10 players and you receive an extra $200 bonus, and if you can signup a full 50 friends, you receive $1,000 bonus money. Everyone who signs up gets a standard $2 welcome bonus.

Getting Started at PoolEmpire.com

Sign up at PoolEmpire.com takes a matter of minutes. On the homepage you'll find a "getting started" link, which explains everything you need to know. Other links include articles on playing at Pool Empire.com and news from the online billiards industry. Both of these help players learn a few of the tricks of playing online pool.

Before you get to the tutorial, you will need to download the software. This is quick and simple. There's a "Download" link at the top of the Pool Empire homepage. When you hit this, you'll be taken through a six-button process for downloading the online billiards software. It took my computer about 2 minutes to finish the download.

Training

Once players finish the download, they can click on the training link. This gives a player a chance to practice their online pool skills before putting money on the line.

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When training starts, you'll see a simulated billiard table from a top view. You'll see the balls already racked, as well as the cue ball and cue stick aimed at the balls and primed to shoot. On the wide left of the screen is a power bar, which lets you gauge how hard you will strike the cue ball.

The Pool Empire Power Bar

The power bar is marked with the number 1, 50 and 100. Between each of these numbers is three dashes. So every 12.5% along the power bar is marked off. In this way, players can decide what percentage of maximum strength will be used on any given shot.

When striking the ball, you place your cursor on the cue stick. You then right click while the cursor is on the cue stick. Then you manipulate your mouse in the direction that will simulate pulling the stick back. For instance, at the start of the game, the stick is pointed left, so you pull the stick to your right. You'll see the stick being drawn back, as if the (invisible) players is getting ready to strike the cue ball.

As the cue stick draws back, the line on the power bar goes up. When it reaches the level you want, you click the button once more and the cue ball is struck.

How to Aim on Pool Empire

Aiming your shot is equally simple. You left click on the cue stick once more (instead of the right click to shoot). Then you use the mouse to rotate the cue stick on a 360 degree radius around the cue ball.

As you rotate the cue stick, a white line will show where the cue ball is being aimed. This line will go so far as to show where on the object ball it will hit. A second short white line will show which direction that object ball will go once it is hit. This line isn't long enough to give you a 100% idea of where the ball will go, but it juts out enough to give you a pretty good idea.

On longer shots, you'll have to eyeball the trajectory, which is the way a billiards simulation should be.

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Apply English

You can also apply English to the cue ball when you shoot it. Underneath the power bar on the left of the screen, there is a simulated cue ball. The cue ball has a blue dot on it. You can click on this ball and move the dot around using your mouse. Depending on where you strike the cue ball, English will be produced.

This is easy and intuitive. Once you practice a little while applying English to your shots, you'll probably be more skillful applying English online than in a real pool hall setting.

The Pool Empire.com Game Lobby

Once you have practiced your online game, you will need to proceed to the Pool Empire Game Lobby. This is where you can see all the games in progress. Also, you'll be able to see games being offered. In the game lobby, you'll be able to see exactly what kind of games are on the schedule.

You'll see the names of the players, as well as the stake or money being wagered. Also included are the length of the match (how many games will be played to determine a winner) and the score (in games won, if there are multiples games being played). If it it a one-game match, this box will say "single".

Fast or Normal Game Times

Also, you can choose which type of game you wish to play: fast or normal. Fast games are for those billiards players who don't want to waste all day while their opponent sets up a shot. In either mode, there is a timer to determine how much time you have to shoot. In the fast mode, the timer simply goes faster.

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Don't worry that you'll be rushed, though. The standard timer is 20 seconds. Also, each player receives 2 bonus minutes. When the timer runs out, your personal two minutes begin to tick away. Once your 2:00 are up, then you will only have 20 seconds to make your shot. I wouldn't sorry too much about the timer, though. During the time I was playing, it never became an issue.

Types of Online Pool Games Available at PoolEmpire.com

You can also choose from three types of competitions: live regular tables, "sit and go" competitions and tournaments. The "live regular tables" are for people who want to go online and play a game or two, or who want to meet a friend online to play a few games. This is what most people will play most of the time.

The tournaments are scheduled events, which usually require an entry fee and come with big prize money. You'll might have to wait on tournaments to play.

"Sit and Go" events are mini-tournaments. Instead of battling your way through a whole field, you play a small number of opponents in a competition lasting an hour or so. This is for players who want the fun of a tournament, but don't want to spend a whole evening online.

The Price Range

You can play billiards at all variations of prices. I saw games at $5 a match or those that range into the hundreds of dollars for those high rollers out there. There are 50 pool rooms at PoolEmpire, so you'll find the right game at the right price for you. You'll also be able to find the right level of competition.

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The Competition at Pool Empire.com

As players win and lose, Pool Empire gives customers their own rating. This way, you'll know the level of competition you are challenging to a match. Pool Empire has incentives for players to play opponents at their skill level. Games with players at or around the same rating cost less. Those with a large disparity in skill level cost more.

Pool Empire Help

Pool Empire is simple and intuitive to use. If you do have problems, though, the Game Lobby has a "help" button where players receive instant technical assistance.

Playing at PoolEmpire.com

After you select the game you wish to play, you will go to a screen much like the one in the training level. You'll need to become familiar with the "personal information box", which tells you all you need to know about your game status and that of your opponent.

The Personal Information Box

The top of the personal info box has your name, the flag of your country and your rating. When you select an opponent, you'll be able to see their personal information.

As the game progresses, this box keeps track of the number of balls you've pocketed and your "global timer". That is, the timer shows you how much time you have left to make a shot.

The information box also shows the doubling, stake and limit you are playing at.

Pool Empire Chat

Pool Empire has a chat feature, which lets you communicate with your opponent while you play. Once again, this chat supports over a dozen different languages. If you don't want the distraction of chatting, you can pull up a "settings" function and hit "Mute Chat". Using settings, you can also hit the "Play Sound Effects" option, giving you the sounds of billiard balls hitting against one another.

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Pool Empire Comments

The people at Pool Empire online billiards go a long way to recreating a real world pool simulation. There are enough settings that you can choose exactly the sort of game you want to play. If you simply want competition and no chatter, you can have it. If you want to make friends online while enjoying a nice game of online pool, you can do that, too.

It took no time to learn the interface. With a little bit of practice, you'll have all the shots down. I was amazed at how close to a brick-and-mortar billiards game this simulation was. Shots that were simple on the "outside" were simple. Long shots and bank shots were suitably difficult.

Once I learned to put proper English on the balls, I became as good or a better online player than I ever was at traditional billiards. That's probably the main difference I could find. I was always inconsistent at applying English to my shots, so I found Pool Empire was able to take that inconsistency out of my game.

PoolEmpire.com is a great way to compete for money online. The best thing is that online billiards is legal in most U.S. states.

Because billiards is a game of skill, it is legal to wager on the outcome of your games. This isn't online poker we're talking about, which (rightly or wrongly) is looked at in the eyes of the law as a game of chance. Whether you win or lose is directly dependant on your skill level, as well as the skill of your opponent.

The online billiard room's cut of the action is minimal, usually less than a dollar a game. If you consider that you are spend $0.50 to $0.75 for every game of pool you play in a brick-and-mortar pool hall, then you are spending the same to play billiards online. So give PoolEmpire.com a try. You can be playing online eight-ball or online nine-ball in less than ten minutes.

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