British Pub Games: Pool and Snooker

Pubs are great places for socialising and meeting strangers, and the best way to do it is to play a round of traditional British pub games with a few drinks down you. The best thing about the traditional British pub games is that everyone who’s there already knows how to play them - it’s just that they’re not always good at them.

Take pool for instance. It’s a popular part of British snobbery to compare British traditions with their American equivalents, and pool is no exception to that rule. Pool is, after all, a simplified version of the British sport, snooker. Snooker is a good game, but with its complicated rules and convoluted scoring system, it’s probably not the most suitable game for the pub environment. Rather, snooker is a game more suited to formal tournaments without the distractions of noise and alcohol. Hence, whenever you see snooker games on the television, they’re almost always silent apart from the scraping of the chalk and the click-clack of the balls. Then you get the over-the-top formalities of only being allowed to handle the balls with a gloved hand, as well as having some kind of ball-butler guy standing by the table to correct any of the player’s mistakes. Snooker is arguably the politest of British games, and is becoming increasingly popular in the betting world, with the snooker world championship odds available for all to view and take bets on.

With regards to the pub culture, pool is much more suited to the pub environment. Probably the best thing about pool is the simplicity of the game. It’s an extremely simple game to pick up and learn in under 5 minutes, though it takes years of dedication to truly master. Also, the scoring system for pool is extremely simple, and doesn’t actually require any kind of record whatsoever, much unlike snooker. Pool is truly a pick up and play game and can involve as many players as you like. it’s probably the popularity of pool that’s making snooker betting look at lot more attractive these days, with some of the US open odds looking particularly attractive at the moment.