page_title: Straight rail
hierarchical_section_title: Straight rail
caption_attribution_description: English: Historic black and white print depicting Michael Phelan's billiard saloon in New York City, originally published in Leslie's, a monthly magazine.
context_page_description: Straight rail, sometimes called straight billiards, three-ball billiard, and the free game, is a discipline of carom billiards that is the most basic form of the game. The game is played on a pocketless unmarked billiard table, usually 10 by 5 feet in size, and three billiard balls, one, usually white, that serves as the cue ball for the first player, a second cue ball for the second player, and a third object ball, usually red. The object of the game is to score points striking the player's assigned cue ball with a cue stick so it makes contact with both the opponent's cue ball and the object ball in the same stroke, known as a carom. Games are played to a predetermined number of points.
context_section_description: Straight rail, sometimes called straight billiards, three-ball billiard, and the free game, is a discipline of carom billiards that is the most basic form of the game. The game is played on a pocketless unmarked billiard table, usually 10 by 5 feet (3.0 m × 1.5 m) in size, and three billiard balls, one, usually white, that serves as the cue ball for the first player, a second cue ball for the second player (differentiated by a spot, or by being yellow), and a third object ball, usually red. The object of the game is to score points striking the player's assigned cue ball with a cue stick so it makes contact with both the opponent's cue ball and the object ball in the same stroke, known as a carom. Games are played to a predetermined number of points.
caption: Historic print depicting Michael Phelan's Billiard Saloon located at the corner of 10th street and Broadway in Manhattan, January 1, 1859.
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