Hiya,
As a kid I spent lots of time in pool halls. Back then the popular game was call your shot, also known as 14-1 rack. Basically, you shot till you missed, with no restrictions on shooting the balls in order. You left one ball on the table and then racked the other 14. From there you shot the left over ball into the rack, or used that ball to make the cue ball hit the rack. The idea was to open the rack up for more shots in order to keep shooting. It's the game played in the move 'The Hustler'.
There was a snooker table we'd play on sometimes for giggles. This was a good bit larger than the tables we played on and the corners and tighter holes on a snooker table are a real pain.
It wasn't until recently that I found out the table we used was 'only' 5 feet by 10. I'm guessing this isn't the size used in tournaments, with those being 6x12 I believe. Man, that must be one huge expanse of green to roll over. Even the 5x10 gave us fits, and some of use were fairly good players. Hah, I even had my own Minnesota Fats cue.
The World Championship pool tournament was held near Chicago maybe ten years ago and I went to both days events. All the top men and women players were there....all the ones I'd watch on tv. Even Allison Fisher and Karen Corr were there......ladies from the UK and Ireland who were snooker experts before switching to pool. Pretty fun couple of days.
Martin