Billares in Mexico

Pockets is a very popular place in Tijuana, Mx to play billiards, or pool - Juego de billares, or billares for short. Luckily I had a few friends to help teach me the lingo.

The table is called a mesa de billar. The cue sticks are called tacos. Or tacos de billar to make sure you don't get them confused with the oh-so-tasty comida called tacos.

The pockets are called buchacas. The corner pocket is called esquina. The middle pocket is called medio.

The balls are called bolas. You quebra (break , from quebrar) with la bola blanca. The balls are divided into las chicas (solids) y los grandes (stripes). And the eight ball is called la bola negra.

When it's your turn to shoot, you're going to tirar. You can say, "Voy a tirar". And if you're like me, the next thing you'll hear is your friends telling you "Perdiste el tiro" - you missed the shot. I'm very familiar with that one.

And sadly, I also became quite familiar with "No tengo tiro" or "No tienes tiro".

By the way, Pockets is a great place. If you're ever in Tijuana, think about stopping by.

If you want to brush up on the reglas (rules) of the game, take a look at this page. It's in Spanish, but it's not terribly hard to read.

I had a great time playing pool, but unfortunately playing pool in Spanish didn't improve my game. Now I suck at pool in two languages.

Oh well...