About Poolism
What is Poolism?
Poolism is an independent, advertising-supported site built around six free pool and billiards calculators, plus articles on technique, equipment, and competitions in The Journal. It isn’t affiliated with the WPA, BCA, any cue or table manufacturer, or any other governing body or brand its guides happen to mention.
Who is it for?
Anyone playing eight-ball, nine-ball, straight pool, or snooker who wants a straight answer to one specific number — how big a room needs to be for a table, what a fair handicap looks like, the odds of winning a race, how to draw up a bracket or a league schedule, or where to aim a kick. It isn’t a substitute for a coach, a league official, or a tournament director.
What tools are actually on the site?
- Pool Table Room Size Calculator — checks a 7, 8, or 9-foot table’s footprint plus a full cue length of stroking space on every side against the room you have.
- Pool Handicap Calculator — turns two skill ratings into a race where the stronger player goes the full distance and the weaker player’s target is scaled down.
- Race-to-N Win Probability — converts a per-game win chance into the odds of winning a whole race to N, with optional handicap support.
- Round-Robin Scheduler— builds a full fixture list for 3 to 12 players where everyone plays everyone once, with byes for odd fields.
- Tournament Bracket Generator — builds a seeded single-elimination bracket for any field size, padded to the next power of two.
- Diamond System Calculator — works out kick and bank aim points from cue-ball and target diamonds using corner-5 or system-8 arithmetic.
Where do the numbers come from?
Each calculator is plain arithmetic on inputs you provide, not a black box. The room size tool adds a full cue length of clearance (roughly a 58-inch cue) to each side of the table’s standard footprint. The handicap calculator scales a race target proportionally between two ratings — the same idea most handicap leagues already use, not tied to one official ratings system. The race-to-N tool is standard binomial probability math. The scheduler uses the circle method, the usual algorithm for round-robin fixtures. The bracket generator uses standard single-elimination seeding. The diamond calculator applies the corner-5 and system-8 diamond-system formulas players already use at the table.
Are the tools free?
Yes. No login, no email address, no paywall. The ads on the page are what pay for keeping them free.
Is any of this professional coaching or advice?
No. Every result is a general estimate based on the numbers you enter, not a ruling. For anything that actually matters — a disputed handicap, official tournament seeding, or a specific league’s rules — check with a coach, your league, or the relevant governing body.
What’s the Museum of Billiards & Cue Sports?
A bonus, deeper-dive section — a browseable, richly illustrated collection covering the origins and history of billiards, the tables, cues and equipment that make up the game, the pool, snooker and carom disciplines played around the world, and the champions and championships that defined them, with a companion Learnreference — sourced from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. It is kept out of search results so it doesn’t compete with the tool and guide content for space.
Who runs Poolism, and how does it make money?
It’s run independently and funded entirely by the display ads you see on the page — no subscriptions, no data sales, no investors.
Found a mistake, or have a question?
Get in touch on the contact page.