I love Carrom and have played on and off for over twenty years. My grandmother got me started on American Carroms in the eighties with my brothers and cousins, but it was not until this year that I really got good at it. I got back into it by chance - I was at an Indian restaurant and someone other patrons were talking about it. I happened to be flush with cash so I purchased a professional table from
www.billiboard.com which is funny since I bought it with money I made in Raleigh at a convention, and it shipped from Durham...
Carrom is a game of elegance. It is simple to learn, incredibly difficult to master, and is always fun to play. It is nice and social, and can be played forever without it growing old. To me it is the Chess of parlor/pub games.
There are many sites to help on how your technique, and I was about to shoot some videos of how to play and flicking techniques (though I am far from a master). The International Carrom Association website taught me how:
http://www.carrom.org/
If you do buy a table, DO NOT buy an American Carrom table - the one with a Crokinole board on the back and a checker board in the middle. The pockets are bigger and the board is very slow to play on - even with powder. I say that because if you can spend the $100+ on a real board and it will last you a lifetime - My grandmother goes through an American Carrom board every 10 or so years. That and after playing on a real Carrom board, switching to an American is easy, it is not as easy switching back. I view American Carroms as the intro version, but I no longer have a board - once I got the real one with real carrom men, I was done, one of the best gaming purchases I will ever make.
The site is giving me trouble loading, but I can probably answer most questions you have about the game.
