ar X iv : m at h / 05 08 08 9 v 4 [ m at h . PR ] 1 6 Ja n 20 06 Position play in carom billiards as a Markov process

Position play is a key feature of carom billiards: players try to score while ensuring that the next position will be favorable. The difficulty of a shot therefore depends on that of the previous shot, e.g. an easy shot generally follows an easy shot. We introduce a Markov process which accounts for such correlations. It can explain the long series of easy shots and the high scores which ensue. We also show that there exist differences in the kinds of points on which players playing at different skill levels score most. The players can easily use the model through the web page http://billiards.mathieu.bouville.name/biMar/.