Taken from That English Game by Nick Prinsloo
Dateline: 06/01/97
OK. It has come to my attention that there is a distinct ignorance in general about snooker among the American pool-playing public, amongst others, but particularly among those residing in the US of A. I'm here to remedy that, once and for all, whether you like it or not. Some of you have seen Steve Mizerak play snooker against some of the top British snooker players in the Mosconi Cup. But you probably didn't have a clue what was going on. So, let me tell you how snooker is played, in plain and simple American.
Snooker is played on a table that measures about 12ft. by 6ft. The table is similar to a pool table, except that it is not a pool table. It has six pockets, or bags if you wish. It is covered in green cloth, similar to that of a pool table. (Yet different in texture. Email me if you want to know the exact difference.)
It is played with cues similar to you average pool cue, but the tip is smaller - about 9-10.5mm, whereas the average size of an average American pool cue tip is 12mm or more in diameter. Some snooker cues are made from Ash wood, which has a dark grain running along the length of the cue, as opposed to the "grainless" maple wood that pool cues are made of.
There are 21 object balls in total, and one cue ball. Snooker balls are slightly smaller than American pool balls - snooker balls are 2 1/16 inches in diameter as opposed to the 2 1/4 inches of American pool balls - but then so are the pockets. Fifteen of the object balls are red in color (reds each count one point when pocketed). The remaining six are made up of a yellow ball (counting two points), a green (three points), a brown (four), a blue (five), a pink (six) and a black (seven points).
Each of these six colored balls (red is not a color in snooker) has its own spot, marked on a specific place on the table. (Refer to the diagram below.) The reds are racked in a triangle behind the pink ball, as close to it as possible without touching it. That is it for the equipment - there is other equipment too, like the mechanical bridge (the "rest", as it is known in snooker), but that is as much as you should know for now.
Now that the balls are racked, you are ready to play. To decide who gets the break (break-off), flip a coin. The game commences by the first player playing the cue ball from the "D", onto the pack of reds. The object is to first pocket a red. It is very difficult to pocket one from the break, so the idea is to run the cue ball off the side of the triangle of reds, bringing it back down the table off one or more rails so that it comes to rest behind the baulk line (referto the diagram) for safety. While on the subject of safety: because of the size of the table, and the accuracy needed to pocket balls over the length of the table, safety is achieved by leaving the cue ball at the bottom end of the table, away from the reds, which usually gather at the top end of the table.
Your opponent now has a turn at trying to pocket a red. Once a red has been pocketed, the player may try to pocket a color, if he can see one. If he can't, due to being obstructed by an intervening ball (no direct path from cue ball to object ball in question), he would then be "snookered" or "in a snooker". He must nominate the color to be played, unless the choice and path from cue ball to object ball is obvious. If he pockets the color, it gets re-spotted on its allocated spot on the table (reds stay down). Then it is red again. Then color, and so on until he misses and forfeits his turn at the table. He gets one point added for every red pocketed, and the fixed value of the color(s) for every color, as set out above.
If he doesn't pocket the color, he loses his turn at the table, and it is your turn to play a red again. So it carries on until all the reds have been pocketed. Then, with only the colors remaining, the player at the table now has to play the yellow. When that is pocketed, another two points is added to his score, and he has to play the green. Then brown, blue, pink and black. Obviously, if he misses on, say, the brown, it is your turn to play brown and then the rest of the balls in sequence, if brown is pocketed. The winner is the one with the most points at the end of the game/rack (frame).
If there is a tie in points at the end of the game, the black ball is respotted, and a coin is once again flipped. Whoever wins the toss may decide who has to play first (from the "D", of course). Then the players take turns at trying to pocket the black. Whoever pockets it wins the frame, or whoever commits a foul, loses. This is the case whenever only the black is left on the table, and the difference in points is seven or less.
Fouls are much the same as with pool, but these are the important and most common ones:
Points penalties are added to you opponent's score if you were the offender and vice versa: four points for fouling on any red, the yellow, the green or the brown; five points on blue, six on pink and seven on black. Points penalties are the same for every foul, but the value of the highest ball involved in the foul is incurred as the penalty, e.g. if you are playing a red, but you first make contact with the blue, and before the cue ball comes to rest, it knocks the black into a pocket, the penalty is seven.
In general, there is a lot of safety play in snooker. The idea with safety or with "laying a snooker" is for your opponent to "stick you up" and leave you with a chance of making a high-scoring run, called a "break". With there being a total of 147 possible points (fouls excluded) on the table (15 reds + 15 blacks = 120, + 27 for the remaining six colors when all the reds are down = 147), the maximum possible break is 147 (actually, it is 155, but I'm not going to go into that now).
The "147" is a magic feat for the top professionals, and an elusive one for mere mortals like you and me. It is an achievement simply to make a century break (100+) in a tournament. There have only ever been six televised maximum breaks in the history of snooker. Steve Davis was the first to achieve this, in 1981. Kirk Stevens (yes, he plays pool too) from Canada was the second. (So that's what all this fuss is about this Davis guy.) Jimmy White earned £147,000 for his in the 1992 World Championships.
So, beyond pocketing a red and then a color, the idea would be to make a game-winning break. A 75 would be enough, generally speaking, or two separate 30-odd breaks. Once you have scored 75 or more, assuming that there have been no fouls on your behalf, your opponent will then be left needing snookers, so as to try and force a foul from you. But he will usually first have to score all the possible points left on the table up to the remaining colors. No good trying to lay a snooker on a red if there are still six of them left on the table. It is much easier laying a snooker on a single object ball.
So, now that you know how the game is played, you might want to find a proper table (you might have to go to great lengths to find one in the USA) and try playing it. Some billiard halls may have snooker balls that you can use to play on a pool table, if you can't find a proper snooker table. It is not the same though, but it will give you a good grasp over the concept of snooker.
Don't be disappointed if you don't make a half-century straight away. It takes lots of practice. But trying to will make you appreciate exactly how good those British professionals are. But then again, that's all they do in their miserable climate over there, apart from playing soccer.
You can get the proper rules for snooker
here.
Also have a look at how snooker can help you improve your game of pool
in an earlier feature of mine, called
Snooker
Aids Pool.
Questions or comments? Email me: billiardspool.guide@about.com
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