Snooker the fabulous cue sport is a pool hall classic. It is played on a large baize-covered table with pockets in all four corners and one in the middle of each of the long sides of the table. A regulation (full-size) table is 12 ft × 6 ft (3.6 m x 1.8 m). The necessary equipment is, a cue and snooker balls: 1 white cue ball, 15 red balls (worth one point each) , and 6 balls each of a different color yellow (2 points), green (3), brown (4), blue (5), pink (6) and black (7).
Score the most points and collect your winnings.
How do you do that?
You do this by sinking object balls in a predefined order. At the start of a frame (a single game), the balls are positioned. Competitors take turns using the cue ball to sink one of the red balls and score a point. If they do sink at least one red they shoot again, but this time the trying to sink one of the colors. If sunk they get the value of the color sunk. It goes back on the table in its original position. Then back to red again. The game continues until all the reds are sunk leaving only the 6 colour balls. Then they sink the colors in this order yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, black. When a colour is made now it stays in the pocket. When the final ball is sunk, the player with the most points wins.
Points are also scored when a player's opponent fouls. A foul can occur for the following reasons:
Hitting a colour first when attempting to hit a red
Sinking the cue ball
Failing to escape from "a snooker" (a situation where the previous player finished their turn leaving the cue ball in a position where the object ball cannot be hit directly).
Points gained from a foul vary from a minimum of 4 to a maximum of 7 if the black ball is involved.
One game, from the balls in their starting position until the last ball is made, is called a frame. A match usually consists of a certain number of frames and the player who wins the most frames wins the match overall. Most professional matches require a player to win five frames, and are called 'Best of Nine' as that is the maximum possible number of frames. Tournament finals are usually best of 17 or best of 19, while the World Championship uses longer matches - ranging from best of 19 in the qualifiers and the first round proper, up to 35 frames in length (first to 18), and is played over two days.[19]
Professional and competitive amateur matches are officiated by a referee who is the sole judge of fair play.
