Billiard ball texture

Hi.
I´d like to make a billiard game, but don´t know how to handle the texture of the balls.
First I wanted that every ball masks a his own ball-background, but that doesn´t seems to be useful.
Should I work with some Texture mapping, like described here:http://www.flashandmath.com/advanced/planets/ ?
Is there a nice way to get a good result?

Thanks
Martin