Product Description

Now updated throughout and expanded with new material on strategy in eight- and nine-ball, trick shots, and billiard memorabilia, this comprehensive guide to cue games remains “the definitive work on pool and billiards” (National Billiard News). Index; diagrams and photographs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28043 in Books
• Published on: 1998-07-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780156005548
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
In the world of cue sticks and side pockets, this is the gospel, the 1998 revised, standard version of the 1978 bible. A champion player, indefatigable writer, and inexhaustible promoter of his sport, Byrne racks his book into two halves, the first a primer on pool, the second on three-cushion billiards. Beginning with the fundamentals, he goes on to run the table with lots of readable advice and detailed diagrams for how to play individual shots, including trick shots, strategies for eight- and nine-ball, and rules for the major pool games. Then it's on to billiards, where he banks from the fundamentals to the art of shot making and tactics for play at every level, touching on every conceivable cushion along the way. --Jeff Silverman

Review
In the world of cue sticks and side pockets, this is the gospel, the 1998 revised, standard version of the 1978 bible. A champion player, indefatigable writer, and inexhaustible promoter of his sport, Byrne racks his book into two halves, the first a primer on pool, the second on three-cushion billiards. Beginning with the fundamentals, he goes on to run the table with lots of readable advice and detailed diagrams for how to play individual shots, including trick shots, strategies for eight- and nine-ball, and rules for the major pool games. Then it's on to billiards, where he banks from the fundamentals to the art of shot making and tactics for play at every level, touching on every conceivable cushion along the way. (Amazon.com Review - Jeff Silverman )

About the Author
Robert Byrne is the author of seven novels, five collections of humorous quotations, seven books on billiards, two anthologies, and an expose of frauds in the literary world. One of his novels, Thrill, was made into NBC’s Monday Night Movie, which aired for the first time on May 20, 1996. Four of his novels were selections of Reader’s Digest Condensed Books and published in many languages. His style is widely praised for its clarity and wit. Byrne’s Standard Book of Pool and Billiards, published in 1978 and expanded in 1998, has sold over 400,000 copies. In the world of pool and billiards, his books, hundreds of instructional magazine articles, six videotapes (shot on sound stages in Burbank and Hollywood, California), have established him as the preeminent teacher and commentator. As a player, he has won tournaments in almost every form of the game. He finished third in the National Professional Three-Cushion Championship in 1977 held in North Hollywood. In 1999, he won both the National Amateur and the National Senior billiard tournaments. His contributions to billiards and pool were recognized when he was awarded the greatest honor in the sport: induction into the Billiard Congress of America’s Hall of Fame. The honor, for Meritorious Service, was bestowed on July 21, 2001, at the Las Vegas Hilton at a banquet closing the annual world billiard trade show. He was inducted with many-times world billiard champion Raymond Ceulemans of Belgium. Byrne was born and raised in Dubuque, Iowa, spent forty years in the San Francisco Bay Area, and returned to Dubuque in 1996, where he now lives with his wife Cindy, a painter and graphic artist. After graduating with a civil engineering degree from the University of Colorado in 1954, he edited a trade journal in the heavy construction industry. He became a full-time writer in 1977.

Customer Reviews

Robert Byrne is brilliant!
This is a book I come back to time and time again. As someone who plays off and on, I often refer to the book when pool is 'back' in my life. This is a keeper!

The diagrams, the history, why shots do what they do, how to play the angles, you can't beat it. Its both informative and entertaining.

How to run a table & Shot you can't learn anywhere else!
Robert Byrne has set the standard. As a state ranked player I decided to read this book. My game went to the next level. His checklist for running a table, his description of different types of "throw" shots and his simplifying the stroke all were instrumental. In pool, unlike other sports, there are few real teachers, Robert Byrne is a great teacher for the beginner to the very advanced player. It's the least expensive pool lesson you'll ever get.

All I Needed
I have only been playing for about six months, so I am not too good. If you are like me, and you want to improve your game, buy this book. It is fun to read and extremely helpful. I probably won't be able to master every technique in the book in ten years, but the two or three things I have learned have taken my game to a whole new level. I love it. It is all I need.