Snooker is a pool table game that is very popular in Europe, especially Great Britain, but probably because snooker rules are more complicated than other pool games, it is not as popular as eight or nine ball in the United States. Snooker is traditionally played on a table that differs from most U.S. tables--an official table is a 6’ x 12’ English billiards table. The pockets are narrower than on a normal pool table.
In pool, the balls that you are trying to hit and send into the pockets are called object balls. According to snooker rules, the game has fifteen object balls which are red (appropriately called reds), and six additional object balls that have different colors (called colors) but no numbers on them. The cue ball is known as the white ball. Snooker rules tell us that the whole point of snooker is to score more points than your opponent.
The snooker table is felt-covered and has six pockets just like an eight-ball table. Pockets are located on each corner and two are opposite one another at the center of the table. There is a balk line at one end of the table, and all shots must be taken from behind this line. The snooker table also has a semi-circle which connects with the balk line, and snooker rules state that the cue ball must be struck from within this semi-circle to start a game.
How to start a game of snooker
In snooker, you begin by racking the balls just as you would if you were playing eight-ball. It’s the fifteen solid-colored red balls that are placed in the rack to begin the game. The other six colored balls have their own various positions on the pool table. Until all the red balls have been pocketed, the colored balls are returned to these original positions on the table after being pocketed.
The pink ball is placed directly in front of the tip of the rack, while the black ball is placed a few inches above the rack. The blue ball is placed in the middle of the snooker table, halfway between each of the side pockets. The red and yellow balls are located on each end of the semi-circle where it connects with the balk line. The brown ball is situated on the balk line halfway in-between the red and yellow balls.
The first player must break up the racked balls with the first shot, and hit a red ball. If you are that player and are successful you get to try to next pocket a colored ball, then a red ball, then a colored ball, on and on until you miss a shot. At that point your opponent takes over and continues in the same way until he or she misses a shot. Shots are always alternated between first, a red ball, and then a colored ball.
How to Play Snooker
One of the most important snooker rules mandates that a player must use the cue ball (white ball) to pocket a red ball. You must pocket a red ball to get a chance to pocket a colored ball. Every shot must be completed in sixty seconds or a foul is called. The point values of the colored balls are black = 7, pink = 6, blue = 5, brown = 4, green = 3, yellow = 2, and red balls = 1. The red balls all count as one point each. The legal size for the balls is 2-1/16 inches in diameter.
The official snooker rules guide play from the beginning to the end of the game. Snooker, like most pool games, begins with the racking of the balls and an opening break. The two players can toss a coin to determine who wants to break first. The person breaking the balls must hit a red ball with his or her cue ball. If that doesn’t happen, a foul is called and the other player can choose to take over the shot or let the person try again.
Whichever player first pockets a red ball can continuing shooting, alternately pocketing red balls and colored balls until there are no more reds. Each colored ball is repositioned on the table where it was in the beginning as long as there are reds left to pocket. Should a player fail to get a red ball into a pocket, the other player then has his or her turn. When all the reds have been pocketed, the colored balls are next, moving from the lowest to the highest point values. When all of the colored balls have been pocketed, the game ends and the player with the highest total points wins.
If a player was good enough to make the break and then continue to alternately pocket reds and colors, plus the colors a final time, lowest to highest, he or she would score a total of 147 points. Snooker is a very difficult game and the chances of accomplishing this feat are highly unlikely. However, it is not impossible, so if that is one of your goals, keep going for it until you succeed. (continued...)