Pool glossary
Kick
The cue ball off a cushion first.
What it means
A kick shot sends the cue ball into a cushion before it contacts the object ball. It is the standard escape when you are snookered and cannot see the ball you are required to hit.
Where the word comes from
American usage; British players more often say "escape" or "swerve" depending on method.
How it sounds at a table
"You're hooked." "I'll kick at it one rail."
What it means in a three-strikes night
The kick is your get-out when the previous player has left you nothing — and because you get one shot, a kick that pockets anything at all is a genuinely great outcome. In houses that count a scratch as an extra strike, kicking is also risky: the cue ball is travelling further, with less control, past more pockets.
The mistake people make
Kicking softly to be safe. In a one-shot game a soft kick that touches nothing is the same strike as a hard one, so you may as well try to make something happen.
Terms that come up alongside it
Written out rather than linked only, because looking up one term usually means you are standing at a table and do not want four more taps.
- Bank
- An object ball played off a cushion before it drops. A bank shot sends the object ball into one or more cushions on its way to the pocket.
- Snookered
- Having no direct path to the ball you must hit. You are snookered when another ball blocks every straight line between the cue ball and the ball you are required to contact.
- Safety
- A shot played to leave your opponent with nothing. A safety is a deliberate defensive stroke: rather than trying to pocket a ball, you aim to leave the cue ball somewhere your opponent cannot do anything useful from.
- Strike
- A missed turn. Three of them and you are out. In three-strikes pool, a strike is what you collect when your turn ends without a ball going in a pocket.
Where it comes up
Kick matters most in three-strikes pool, where a single turn is one shot and the cost of getting something wrong is a life rather than a visit to the table. If you are learning the game, the guide to running a night puts most of this vocabulary in context, and the format pages show which games the term applies to and which it does not.