Straight Line Pool

Straight rail is a game of billiards using a cue ball and two object balls. The game has been known by many different names, including carom billiards, the three-ball game, French billiards, the carambole game, straight billiards and the free game.

Straight Rail Equipment

The straight rail table is the same kind of table used by balkline players these days. The pocketless table is 5 feet by 10 feet.

Cue sticks are the same as in other modern forms of billiards. The balls consist of one white cue ball and two red object balls.

The Game

Straight line has simple rules. If a player can hit the cue ball into both the object balls on one shot, then that player scores a point. The first player to an agreed-upon number of shots wins the game.

Once a player fails to carom the cue ball into both other balls, the inning is over and the opponent takes over shooting.

Straight line lends itself to many controlled shots, where the balls hardly move. Unlike balkline, there are no lines or table segments in a straight line billiards. Therefore, the game is much easier to play then balkline. It is also considered less interesting to watch.

The History of Straight Line

The straight rail game is thought to have derived from France sometime in the 18th century. Straight line became popular in Europe and America in the 19th century, with competitions receiving publicity in newspapers of the time.

The first public U.S. straight rail competition took place in 1855 in San Francisco. Though the game took seven hours to complete, the winner (Michael Phelan) only scored nine points.

Not long after, the technique of crotching was developed. Crotching required shooters to trap the two object balls in one corner of the table. This allowed the shooter to strike both balls endlessly, greatly adding to one's point total. Crotching would be banned in 1862, because it was against the spirit of competition and boring for the spectators to watch.

Other techniques were developed for straight line billiards which increased the scoring potential for players. Two of these were the gather shot and the nurse technique.

The Gather Shot

A gather shot is a shot meant to bring all the balls near to one another, usually near a rail.

The Rail Nurse

When all balls were near the rail, then a player was able to "nurse" the balls along that rail indefinitely. Nursing is when a player is able to barely hit the balls, yet still make contact between them. The nearness of the balls to one another makes this a possibility, while keeping the balls near the rail is almost as important. In this way, the balls cannot move away from the cue ball.

The 1879 Straight Rail Championship

From 1873 to 1879, there was a U.S. Straight Line Championship.

Using nursing techniques and a gather shot, Jacob Schaefer was able to win the 1879 U.S. straight rail title by accumulating 690 points on one turn. Onlookers were not very pleased with the feat, as the sight of repeated nursing shots is boring.

This display brought an end to the straight line championship. New rules had to be enacted to make billiards competitions more interesting to observe. Straight line was soon replaced by balkline billiards, with a few important rules changes.

Straight Line Today

Straight line billiards is hardly ever played in the United States these days. It continues to be played in Europe, especially among players who want to practice their balkline skills.

Though straight line was considered too easy for the players of the late-19th century, billiards experts claim that straight line shooting is still incredibly hard to master. The fact that a whole new game had to be invented to challenge the players of the 1800's is a testament to the skill of those players.