Five-pin billiards

This article is about the originally Italian and now internationally standardized billiard game. For the Danish five-pin game, see Danish pin billiards.
"Five-pins" redirects here. For other uses, see Five-pins (disambiguation).
Five-pins game at the European Carom Billiards Championships 2015.

Five-pin billiards or simply five-pins or 5-pins (Italian: [biliardo dei] cinque birilli;[1] Spanish: [billar de] cinco quillas or casín), is today usually a carom billiards form of cue sport, though sometimes still played on a pocket table. In addition to the customary three balls of most carom games, it makes use of a set of five upright pins (skittles) arranged in a "+" pattern at the center of the table. The game is popular especially in Italy (where it originated) and Argentina, but also in some other parts of Latin America and Europe, with international, televised professional tournaments (for the carom version only). It is sometimes referred to as Italian five-pins or Italian billiards (Italian: biliardo all'italiana),[2] or as simply italiana (in Italian and Spanish). A variant of the game, goriziana or nine-pins, adds additional skittles to the formation. A related pocket game, with larger pins, is played in Scandinavia and is referred to in English as Danish pin billiards, with a Swedish variant that has some rules more similar to the Italian game.

  1. ^ Sezione Stecca: Organigramma della Sezione - Attività agonistica - Calendari - Regolamento Tecnico Sportivo, 2004–2005 Archived 2007-06-28 at the Wayback Machine (in Italian), Federazione Italiana Biliardo Sportivo, 2004, Italy.
  2. ^ Biliardo all'italiana manual at Wikibooks, accessed February 1, 2007. (in Italian)