User talk:Fuhghettaboutit/Finger billiards

Finger billiards, sometimes called hand billiards, hand-stroke billiards, digit billiards or digital billiards, is a form of billiards in which a player manipulates the balls with his or her hands directly, instead of with an implement such as a cue stick. The typical method of manipulation in finger billiards is by twisting the ball between the thumb and the middle finger. A finger billiardist normally has the privilege of placing the cue ball in any position he may desire prior to "shooting".

The name finger billiards has sometimes been borrowed and applied to games that involve similar manipulation of round objects such as for the game of Shove-Goat, a game popular in Shakespearean England, which employed a coin with similar properties to an American half dollar; and Carrom, which refers to a family of tabletop games originating in India, which have been described as a cross between "tiddlywinks and snooker" or "marbles and pool".

Spectacular amounts of spin, and notably side spin (sometimes called ) can be imparted with hand manipulation of billiard balls. In billiard's early days, before the cue tip was invented reportedly by François Mingaud, little spin could be intentionally placed on balls with the tool then predominantly in use, called a mace, which consisted of "a square-fronted box-wood head, attached to a fine ash pole, of some four of five feet in length", nor by the first cues which predated the innovation of of cue chalk, and which had a flat-fronted end, which made slippage without a central hit inescapable. Since finger billiard was practiced for many years prior to the cue tip's invention, it is probable that it the placing of such spin was known through finger billiards long before there was any way to impart it with implements.

According to the Brooklyn Citizen Almanac, Finger billiards came into professional vogue in or about 1855, and that the principal players in its early years, at least in the United States, were Yank Adams and Louis Shaw. The game never caught on with the masses as a pastime, and was mostly relegated to exhibition and challenge matches by top practitioners. In the realm of exhibition, however, it was a popular attraction.

Yank Adams
Yank Adams in particular was a huge crowd draw. He was a a finger billiards specialist, disdaining the cue stick entirely. , named by his professional peers the world's best player of finger billiards and the "greatest exhibition player who ever lived." Adams performed about 80 shots per exhibition and had a large repertoire of practiced shots—more than 500, affording him the luxury to not repeat a single shot when playing at an exhibition venue for a week's time. Over an extensive career, Adams gave exhibitions in nearly every city in the United States and a large number of cities in Europe.ref name="Years"> In 1868 Adams appeared before the Prince of Wales in London and the Comte de Paris in Paris. Adams also gave exhibitions for three U.S. Presidents and for prominent figures of the age such as the Vanderbilts and Goulds. Bullocks Billiard Guide said of Adams that he had been paid more than $70,000 for exhibition alone over 7 years, which was more than the balance of all other listed billiardists combined.

1878 Adams–Sexton matches
Starting on March 15, 1878, a series of three billiards matches at the game of straight rail took place between William Sexton and Yank Adams at Manhattan's Gilmore's Gardens that pitted a finger billiards player against a player using a cue stick for a purse of $500. The terms of the match were that Adams using his finger to propel the balls, was required to score 2,000 point to win the match, while Sexton, using a cue, was required to make 1,000 points. The venue was one of the largest at which any form of billiards had ever been featured.

On the first day of the match Adams ran 1,110 points employing finger billiards. Despite Adams' impressive opening performance, by the third and last day of the match Sexton was far in the lead. In Dewey-Defeats-Truman-style, many newspapers reported that Sexton won the tourney, as their reporters left the tournament before it was over at a time when Sexton had a seemingly indomitable lead. The New York Times, for example, reported that Sexton won the match, though they leavened the result by reporting that despite the prize fund, it was a "friendly match", geared toward exhibition, and that "Adams could undoubtedly have run the game out on three occasions, but preferred to make 'display' shots in place of his usual "nurse" play, against which a cue player stands no chance whatever." What actually occurred was that with Sexton needing only seven points to sew up the championship, Adams stepped to the table and, making 1,181 points in a row for the win.

M. Adrian Izar
New Yorkers had previously been treated to finger billiards exhibition by French master M. Adrien Izar, who had astonished spectators with his finger billiards performance in an exhibition held on September 20, 1875. The game was little known in the United States prior to that display, and Izar was considered the game's champion player, at least in France and in England, where he popularized the game. The night before the 1878 exhibition, Adams received a telegram from Izar challenging Adams to play for the championship and naming Chicago as the site for contest, though ultimately the challenge match was not arranged.

Louis Shaw
Adams' chief professional rivalry in later years was with Louis Shaw.