Pool

Tom Paris playing pool

Vulcans hustle a game of pool for food

File:Oxmyx plays pool.jpg

Bela Okmyx trying to impress James T. Kirk with his pool skills

Pool, or pocket billiards, was any of several games played on a six-pocket billiard table, usually with fifteen colored, numbered balls, and one white cue ball.

While people such as Tom Paris saw pool as a game of skill and entertainment, Tuvok viewed it as a simple exercise in geometry. They were able to play on many occasions using USS Voyager's holodeck despite limited power reserves, as the holodeck ran on a separate generator from the rest of the starship. (VOY: "The Cloud")

One strategy the desperate pool player might have tried was called a "safety". When using this strategy, the player tried to force the cue ball into such a position that the opponent could not win in one shot, allowing the first player extra time. Paris recommended this strategy to Neelix, and while the strategy worked, Tuvok was sure he could beat it. Unfortunately, Tuvok was unaware that Sandrine's table was tilted slightly to the east. (VOY: "Jetrel")

In order to get to know him better and to socialize, Lieutenant Tuvok invited Crewman Kenneth Dalby to a pool game. Dalby mentioned that he played pool often when he was younger but hadn't played the game recently. (VOY: "Learning Curve")

At Sandrine's Paris offered to make a game with Kim "interesting", but Ricky warned Kim that Paris was being a hustler. (VOY: "Meld")

Boss Bela Okmyx of the Northside Territory on Sigma Iotia II was also known to play pool, which means that the game must have been mentioned in Chicago Mobs of the Twenties upon which Iotian society was based. (TOS: "A Piece of the Action").

Vulcans, with their mathematical reasoning, seemed to play pool very well. The first known instance of a Vulcan playing the game was in 1957 in Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania. (ENT: "Carbon Creek")

A variation of pool was played at a bar in Paradise City, on Nimbus III, which involved an actual pool of water for a table in which the balls floated. (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)

The bar at the Phoenix launch location in Bozeman, Montana had a pool table. (Star Trek: First Contact)

Pool was going to be the reoccurring game played by Doctor Bashir and Chief O'Brien on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but when the writers heard that Star Trek: Voyager was going to be using it, they decided to switch to darts. ^{(citation needed • edit)}

Variations

• Eight-ball

Other references

• TOS:
  • "A Piece of the Action"
  • "Requiem for Methuselah"
• VOY: "Investigations"
• ENT: "Carbon Creek"

External link

• Cue sports at Wikipedia