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


Book 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.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Updated throughout, Byrne's New Standard Book includes four new sections: the keys to winning eight-ball, strategy on nine-ball, favorite trick shots, and collecting billiard memorabilia. For novices and experienced, players alike, for players of both pool and three-cushion billiards, Byrne's New Standard Book is the most comprehensive, clearly diagrammed, and user-friendly instruction manual for the cue games.

FROM THE CRITICS

National Billiard News

The definitive work on pool and billiards.

Billiards Digest

The quintessential manual to improving your game.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

"The best book ever written on both pool and billiards. Should be on ever player's shelf." -- Billiard historian and curator of the Billiard Archive — Michael Ian Shamos

"Byrne's book is the bible -- the definitive and complete work on all the games of pool and billiards (games I've been playing for fifty years)!" — Jerry Orbach

"Marooned on a desert island with only a pool table? This is the book you should have grabbed when the ship sank." -- twice U.S. Trick Shot champion — "Chef Anton" Riniti