Billiards is a game of skill, not a puzzle: a table seen from above, eight balls and one rule worth taking home — angle in equals angle out, at every cushion. Clear the table in as few shots as you can, or play eight-ball rules against another person; both happen right here in your browser, free and without signing up.
No process of elimination helps here: you aim, and the balls do the rest. The table is twice as long as it is wide and has six pockets. Eight balls lie on it: the white cue ball you shoot with, and seven object balls — three each in two colours, plus the black. A shot consists of exactly two things, an angle and a strength. There is no spin.
You aim from behind, the way a hand holds a cue: put your finger behind the cue ball and pull back. The direction runs from your finger through the ball; the further you pull, the harder the shot, and letting go shoots. A short tap does nothing, so a slip never costs you a shot. For fine work, the slider sets the strength exactly and the arrows ‹ and › turn the angle by 0.2 degrees at a time. On a keyboard, Enter shoots.
Against the table: choose whether the balls start in the rack or scattered, then pocket all seven. The black counts like any other ball here. Your score is the number of shots, and fewer is better; time only breaks ties. There are no fouls. If the cue ball drops, it returns to the break line.
Against a person: a duel online over an invitation link, with 30 seconds per shot. Who breaks is drawn by lot. Whoever pockets a ball first takes that colour, and pocketing one of your own lets you shoot again. If one ball of each colour falls in the same shot, the table stays open and the turn passes. The black comes last, and whoever plays it calls a pocket beforehand.
Nothing begins on its own: a game starts only when you pick a layout or create a duel.
A ball game seen from above — and not tournament billiards: there is no requirement to play off a cushion and no ball in hand. What it takes from a real table is the physics: every cushion mirrors the angle, every contact costs speed, and a ball rolls out instead of stopping abruptly.
No, not on any level. On Easy the line ends at the first contact — a ball, a cushion or a pocket — and, if it is a ball, shows the direction it will take. Medium shows only a short ray in the aiming direction, without a contact point; Hard shows nothing ahead at all. The cue behind the cue ball shows your strength on every level. What happens afterwards is yours to work out, and that is the point of the exercise.
Hitting no ball at all, hitting one of your opponent's balls first, or hitting the black first while you still have balls of your own on the table. The consequence is mild: the turn passes, nothing more. Whatever dropped stays down.
If it drops into the pocket you called, you win. If it drops into another pocket, or the cue ball goes down with it, you lose. If it does not drop, the turn passes.
No. Your 30 seconds start only once the opponent's shot has finished playing out. Running over them loses the game.
Yes, under “Sound” in the settings. The sounds are generated in your browser, and nothing is downloaded for them.
No and no. Billiards runs free of charge in your browser, and you can play at once without signing up. Only the duel needs saved progress on your device — a random key, no email address. An invitation link that nobody accepts expires after a while; how long which data is kept is set out in the privacy statement. Anyone who opens the link after it has been accepted watches the game.
The full guide with a worked example: Billiards online: angles and bank shots.