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🏛️Official — WPBSA
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Precision Sports
1–2 players
indoor
cue, ball, table
7 essential rules
Snooker is a cue sport played on a large rectangular table lined with six pockets, in which players use a cue-ball to pot 15 Red object balls and 6 coloured object balls in a prescribed sequence to accumulate points. The sport traces its origins to 1875, when Lieutenant Neville Chamberlain, a Bri...
The Table (Section 1, Rule 1). The standard snooker table's playing area — measured within the cushion faces — shall be 11 ft 8½ in by 5 ft 10 in (3569 mm × 1778 mm), with a permitted tolerance of ±½ in (13 mm) on both dimensions.
The Baulk-line and Baulk. A straight line is drawn 29 in (737 mm) from the face of the Bottom Cushion, running parallel to it from side cushion to side cushion; this is the Baulk-line, and the intervening space nearer the Bottom Cushion is termed Baulk (Section 1, Rule 1(d)).
The Striker and Turn (Section 2, Rule 5). The player about to play, or in the act of playing, is the "striker," and it remains their turn until a stroke is played without scoring, a foul is committed and all balls have come to rest, the opponent i...
Own up to fouls the referee didn't see
Players routinely call a foul on themselves, such as a slight touch of a ball with the cue, sleeve or body, even when the referee missed it. Snooker's reputation as a gentleman's game rests on this. Top players have conceded frames or points by admitting unseen touches.
Most visible at professional level, where a self-declared foul can cost a frame. The rules require the referee's call, but custom expects honesty when the player knows.
Stay still and silent while an opponent is at the table
The player in the chair sits still, doesn't distract, and stays out of the opponent's line of sight. Spectators keep quiet during shots. This is partly written in the rules as conduct, but the specific customs of stillness, silence and not moving in the opponent's eyeline are observed as tradition.
Strictly observed by audiences at professional venues, where referees ask for quiet.
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Description of the Game (Section 3, Rule 1). Each player uses the same White cue-ball; there are 21 object balls — 15 Reds, each valued 1 point, and 6 colours (Yellow 2, Green 3, Brown 4, Blue 5, Pink 6, Black 7).
Point Values (Section 3, Rule 1(a)). Object balls carry the following values: Red — 1 point; Yellow — 2; Green — 3; Brown — 4; Blue — 5; Pink — 6; Black — 7.
Fouls Generally (Section 3, Rule 10). When a foul is committed, the referee immediately calls FOUL.
Snooker is a low-contact, non-collision cue sport, and the WPBSA's Official Rules of the Games of Snooker and English Billiards is chiefly a code of fair play and equipment integrity rather than a personal-injury safety manual. Even so, several pr...