Return to my Billiard/Pool Pages
Go to my home page
© Copyright 2000, Jim Loy
In the game of straight
rail, the object of the game is to hit both of the object balls with
your cue ball (one player has the white cue ball, the other player has the
yellow cue ball). Unlike 3-cushion billiards, you do not have to hit any rails.
See my animation of the important shot, The Rail Nurse.
The animation, on the left, shows another important shot in straight rail, the pass nurse. The cueball hits both object balls very softly, hardly moving either ball, and ending with the same shot from the other side. With the use of the pass nurse, a player can run many points, even dozens of points.
This kind of position comes up fairly frequently. It takes a great deal of practice to develop a soft enough shot to run 15 or 20 points in this situation.
Similar shots can result in long runs, when one (the anchor nurse) or both (Rudolphe's nurse) object balls are frozen to a rail, or are very near a rail (pendulum cannon). In these cases, the rail may prevent the balls from separating.