Rules, table, equipment
Rules, table, equipment
Know the balls, values, fouls and the kit before you touch a cue.
The table and the balls
A full-size snooker table has a playing area of about 3.57 m by 1.78 m (12 ft by 6 ft), with six pockets: one in each corner and one in the middle of each long side. The end you break from is baulk. The baulk line runs across the table 74 cm from the baulk cushion, and the D is a half-circle on that line, 29 cm in radius.
There are 22 balls: the white cue ball, 15 reds worth 1 point each, and six colours. You only ever strike the white.
- Yellow 2, green 3 and brown 4 sit on the baulk line: yellow on the right corner of the D, green on the left, brown in the middle.
- Blue 5 sits in the exact centre of the table.
- Pink 6 is halfway between the blue and the top cushion, and the reds are racked in a triangle just behind it.
- Black 7 sits on its spot 32 cm from the top cushion.
How a frame is played
While reds remain, you must pot a red, then a colour of your choice, then a red, then a colour, and so on. Each potted colour comes back to its spot. Your turn (a visit) carries on for as long as you keep potting; the points you score in one visit are your break.
When the last red has gone and you have taken a colour after it, the colours are potted in order of value, yellow first and black last, and they stay down. The highest score wins the frame. If scores are level after the black, the black is re-spotted and the first player to score wins.
The maximum break is 147: all 15 reds with the black after each one, then all six colours.
Fouls
A foul ends your visit and gives your opponent points: 4, or the value of the highest ball involved if that is more, up to 7. Your opponent can then play from where the balls lie or ask you to play again.
- Missing the ball you are on, or hitting a different ball first.
- Potting the white (an in-off).
- Potting a ball you were not on.
- Touching any ball with anything other than the cue tip, or striking the white twice.
- Playing without at least one foot on the floor.
- If a foul leaves you unable to hit both sides of the ball you are on, you may get a free ball: you can nominate any colour as if it were the ball on.
Your equipment
A snooker cue is usually about 145 cm (57 in) long and weighs 16 to 19 oz, with a tip of 9 to 10 mm. Choose a cue that feels balanced, not one that is as heavy as possible. Chalk the tip lightly before most shots: a dry tip is the most common cause of a miscue.
Watch next
- 1The Rules of Snooker – EXPLAINED!Snooker(opens on YouTube)
- 2The Basic Rules of SnookerSnooker(opens on YouTube)
- 3The Rules of 8 Ball Pool – EXPLAINED!Pool(opens on YouTube)
- 4HOW TO PLAY 8 BALL … The "Official Rules" of PoolPool(opens on YouTube)
- 5BS #47 The Cue – Part 2 Important aspectsBoth(opens on YouTube)
At the table
Set up a snooker table from memory, with every colour on its spot. Then explain to a friend what happens after a foul.