Aren’t those scenes in The Color of Money where Paul Newman and Tom Cruise hustle pool players for money just classic? No longer considered a spurn on society as they were at the time of The Color of Money, billiards can be a fun family game or a relaxing way to hang out with friends after work at a local bar.

Pool is one of those games where you get better with practice. Even though you don’t have to be exceptionally good at either math or science, both come into play with billiards as you strategize angled shots, banking the ball, etc.

So, let’s start with the basics. Pool is played with 15 colored balls and a cue ball. Of the 15 colored balls, eight are solid and seven are striped. One solid-colored ball is a special ball, and that is the black 8- ball. Cue sticks are what you use to hit the cue ball on the table. You don’t hit any of the colored balls directly with the cue stick; you have to aim the white cue ball into the other balls to knock them into the side pockets.

The most common game in billiards is called 8-ball, and the object of the game is to get all of your balls (one player plays the solid-color balls; one player plays the striped balls) into the pockets before the other player gets all of his or her balls into the pockets, without hitting the black 8-ball into a pocket. Who shoots the striped balls and who shoots the solid ones? When the balls are racked up into the triangle-shaped wooden rack, one player “breaks” the balls apart by aiming the white cue ball at them, causing them to separate. Whoever hits the first ball into a pocket, whichever type of ball it was, striped or colored, determines who gets which type of ball. The game continues from there until someone has sunk every ball, including the black 8-ball.