Snooker Rules Explained: Balls, Breaks and the Crucible
Snooker runs on ball values from 1 to 7 and breaks built one shot at a time. Here is everything a beginner needs to follow a frame.
Snooker can look baffling at first: a green baize table, 22 balls and players who sometimes stare at the table for a full minute before playing a shot. But the rules are logical, and once they click, the tension of a tight frame at the Crucible makes complete sense.
The Table and the Balls
A snooker table holds 22 balls: one white cue ball, 15 red balls, and six coloured balls, each worth a fixed value:
| Ball | Points |
|---|---|
| Red | 1 |
| Yellow | 2 |
| Green | 3 |
| Brown | 4 |
| Blue | 5 |
| Pink | 6 |
| Black | 7 |
How a Frame Is Played
While reds remain on the table, a player must pot a red first, then nominate and attempt a colour. Potted reds stay down; potted colours are respotted on their marked spot and stay in play. Once all 15 reds are gone, the six colours are potted in strict ascending order: yellow, green, brown, blue, pink, then black.
The player with more points when the final ball is potted (or who cannot be caught) wins the frame.
Breaks
A break is the running total of points a player scores during one unbroken visit to the table, continuing until they miss, foul, or the frame ends. A break of 100 or more is a century break, a mark of real class. The highest possible break is 147: potting all 15 reds with 15 blacks in between, then the six colours in order. A 147 is known simply as a "maximum."
Fouls
Fouls happen for things like potting the cue ball, hitting the wrong ball first, or failing to hit any ball. A foul hands the opponent penalty points, a minimum of 4, rising to match whichever ball carries the higher value in the foul, up to 7 if the black is involved. The fouling player's break ends, and the opponent can choose to make their rival play again from the same position if it is unfavourable.
The Snooker Itself
The game's name comes from the tactic of leaving your opponent "snookered": unable to hit any legal ball directly because another ball blocks the path. Playing a deliberate snooker, or escaping one, is often more decisive than potting.
Frames and Matches
A match is a set number of frames, and whoever wins more than half takes the match. Early professional rounds are often best of 7 or 9 frames; the World Championship final at the Crucible is contested over the best of 35 frames, split across two sessions on each of two days, which is why it is one of the most gruelling finals in any sport.
The World Championship at the Crucible
Every spring, the sport's biggest event is held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, a 980-seat venue that has hosted the World Championship since 1977. The 2026 final saw Wu Yize beat Shaun Murphy 18-17 in a deciding-frame thriller, with defending champion Zhao Xintong eliminated in the quarter-finals. The tournament's mix of total silence during shots and roaring applause after long breaks is part of what makes it such distinctive television.
Why British Audiences Love It
Snooker has been a fixture of British sport since colour television arrived in the 1970s, and the BBC's and Sky's coverage of ranking events throughout the year, building to the Crucible in April and May, remains a national habit few other countries share.
For more cue-sport and target-sport explainers, see our guide to darts scoring, catch up on Luke Littler's darts career, or browse all our darts and snooker coverage.
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Background from Wikipedia
Snooker
Snooker (pronounced UK: SNOO-kər, US: SNUUK-ər) is a cue sport played on a rectangular billiards table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets: one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in India in the second half of the 19th century, the game is played with 22 balls: a white cue ball, 15 reds and six colours – yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black. Using a snooker cue, players take turns to strike the cue ball to pot other balls in a defined sequence, scoring points for each pot and for fouls committed by the opposing player. An individual frame of snooker is won by the player who has scored the most points, and a snooker match ends when a player wins a predetermined number of frames.
Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the ball values in snooker?
Red is worth 1 point, yellow 2, green 3, brown 4, blue 5, pink 6 and black 7. Players must pot a red before any colour.
What is a break in snooker?
A break is the total points a player scores in a single uninterrupted visit to the table. A century break is any break of 100 points or more.
What is the maximum break in snooker?
The maximum possible break is 147: potting all 15 reds, each followed by the black, then clearing the six colours in order.
How long is the World Snooker Championship final?
The final at the Crucible is played over the best of 35 frames, spread across two days, making it one of the longest finals in any sport.
What happens when a player fouls in snooker?
The opponent receives penalty points, a minimum of 4, rising to match the value of the highest ball involved in the foul, up to 7 for the black.
Sources & Official Resources
Rules, schedules and statistics in this article are checked against these official sources. See our editorial policy for how we fact-check.
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