FINAL BALKLINE 47/2 - European Championship Antalya 2023 - Sven DASKE (GER) vs Marek FAUS (CZE) 

So, the rules are, make the most amount of caroms (counts as possible). Typically, it’s a race to 250 or 300. You don’t need to hit any cushion before hitting the second ball. However, there are limitations to how you make points. The table is drawn into regions, the middle rectangle is called the free space, and the outer rectangles/squares are called the “ball spaces”. When both the object ball and the opponent’s cue ball are in a ball space, after 2 counts, one of the balls has to exit the balk space. It can re-enter the balk space and the count making continues, or both balls move into another balk spaces, or the object ball and opponent’s cue ball can be on separate balk spaces. This prevents excessive “nurse shots” where the the player can softly hit both balls and make infinite counts (this is why English billiards lost popularity, because they didn’t account for this problem until snooker became popular). You can only make as many nurse shots as possible when both balls are on opposite balk spaces and your cue ball is on the “balkline” which is why positioning balls near the balkline is a good positional strategy. The small boxes bordering the balk lines are called “anchor spaces”, when both balls are on each side of the balkline in the anchor space, you can only score 4 counts in order to prevent “chuck nursing” which is repeatedly hitting both balls on the cushion. It is nearly impossible to play position for all balls to be in the free space because of the physics of the balls and the way how the break-off shot works, which forces you to position all 3 balls on a certain side of the table. These rules are in place make the game more difficult, but there are few resources on how they actually work, because the official rule set is in French. The game is called “47/2” because the balk lines are 47 cm (18 in) from the sides of the table, and because of the aforementioned rule about number of shots in the balkline. I hope this helps. I didn’t understand the rules at first, but after watching a lot of games, and reading up on the history of the game, I managed to understand them somewhat, but hopefully, someone more knowledgeable than me can correct me for an misconceptions. Put it this way, there’s a reason why 3-cushion is more popular internationally.

I guess Strickland doesn't even know what they are playing here. 😂😂😂