Snooker

Players and equipment

Two players, or two pairs. A snooker table with six pockets, fifteen reds, six colours (yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black), a cue ball, a rest and chalk. A full-size table is twelve feet; the game is the same on a smaller one.

SquareScores keeps the frame score and counts frames won. A frame is a match on the sheet: enter every break in the column of the player who made it, put the points from a foul into the opponent's column, and the totals show who is ahead.

The deal

Rack the reds in a triangle below the pink, with the pink touching the apex red and the black on its spot behind. Yellow, green and brown go on the baulk line, left to right as you look up the table. Toss for the break, and alternate breaks from frame to frame. The breaker plays from anywhere in the D, the half-circle on the baulk line with the brown at its centre.

Play

A break starts with a red. Pot a red and you must play a colour next, naming it if it is not obvious, and if it goes down it comes back to its spot while a red is still on the table. Red, colour, red, colour, until the reds are gone; then the colours are potted in order, yellow to black, and stay down.

Miss, and the turn passes; your opponent plays from wherever the cue ball lies. If you are on a red you must hit a red first, if you are on a colour you must hit the colour you are on, or it is a foul.

When the last red goes down the colour after it is still your choice and comes back up; only then do the colours go in order. A colour whose spot is covered goes on the highest free spot.

Fouls

Missing the ball on

Four to your opponent, or the value of the ball involved if higher

The cue ball hits nothing, or the wrong ball first

Potting the wrong ball

The value of the ball, minimum four

A colour when you were on a red, or the wrong colour

In-off

Four, or the value of the ball on

The cue ball is potted

Push shot, jump shot or touching a ball

Four, or the value of the ball on

The usual etiquette of the table

After a foul your opponent plays from where the balls lie, or may ask you to play again. A snooker is the ball on hidden behind another; a player snookered by a foul may nominate a free ball.

A free ball means the snookered player may name any ball as the ball on: pot it and it scores the value of the ball they were really on, and it comes back to its spot. After an in-off the cue ball is played from the D.

Scoring

Red

1

Potted at the start of a break or after a colour

Yellow

2

Green

3

Brown

4

Blue

5

Pink

6

Black

7

Foul

4, or the ball's value if higher

Entered in the opponent's column

Enter each break as one row in its maker's column when the visit ends. A maximum break is 147: fifteen reds each with a black, then the six colours.

A worked frame

Alice breaks off against Ben. Every scoring visit is a row in its maker's column, and every foul a row in the other.

Alice's first break

29 to Alice

Red 1, black 7, red 1, black 7, red 1, pink 6, red 1, blue 5, then a missed red

Ben's visit

5 to Ben, and 4 to Alice

Red 1, brown 4, then an in-off while on a red

Alice again

12 to Alice

Red 1, black 7, red 1, green 3, then a safety

Ben's big break

37 to Ben

Red, black, red, black, red, pink, red, blue, red, black, then a miss

The last reds

19 to Alice

Red, black, red, black, the last red and the yellow, which comes back up; then a miss

Ben's foul

4 to Alice

On the yellow, Ben hits the brown first: four, the minimum

The colours

9 to Alice

Yellow 2, green 3, brown 4, then a missed blue

Ben clears

18 to Ben

Blue 5, pink 6, black 7

Alice's column reads 29, 4, 12, 19, 4 and 9, which is 77. Ben's reads 5, 37 and 18, which is 60. The two fouls are eight of Alice's points she never struck a ball for. The frame is Alice's by 77 to 60; tap End match to bank it, and the leaderboard has her one frame up.

Ending

A frame ends when the black is potted, or once the black is the only ball left and a player is more than seven points behind. Tap End match to bank the frame; the leaderboard counts frames won. If the scores are level when the black goes down, re-spot it and toss for who plays first: the next score or foul decides the frame. Play a match to a number of frames, best of three or five, and end the session when it is over.

The break-off

Nobody expects to pot a red from the break. The aim is to clip the side of the triangle and bring the cue ball back down the table to rest on the baulk cushion, behind the yellow or green, so that your opponent has no red to go at and nothing to do but play safe in turn.

Reds and the black

The black is worth seven every time it comes back up, which is why a big break is reds and blacks. When you pot a red, think about where the cue ball needs to be for the black, and land there. If the black is covered, take the pink or the blue rather than force it: a missed black hands the table over with everything open.

The colours

Once the reds are gone the frame often turns on clearing six balls in a fixed order. The yellow, green and brown sit together in baulk, so the shot that matters is getting from the brown down to the blue in the middle. If you are ahead by more than the colours are worth, there is nothing to clear: play safe and let your opponent need the snookers.

When to play safe

Play safe when the pot in front of you is one you would miss more often than not, and the miss would leave the balls open. A good safety leaves the cue ball on the baulk cushion with the reds at the far end, or tight behind a colour so that no red can be hit directly. Count the points first: ahead by more than is left, every safety is a shot towards the frame.

The snooker itself

A snooker is leaving the cue ball where the ball your opponent must hit cannot be reached in a straight line. It costs them four at least when they miss, and often leaves you a free ball or the chance to run in. When you need points you have no other way of getting, that is the shot: not a hard pot, but a soft roll behind the brown or the blue.

Six-red snooker

Six reds instead of fifteen, racked in a smaller triangle, and the six colours as usual. A frame is over in a third of the time, the maximum break is 75 — six reds each with a black, then the colours — and the game is otherwise snooker.

Snooker plus

Joe Davis's 1959 idea: two extra colours, an orange worth 8 and a purple worth 10, on spots between the existing ones. Reds are followed by any colour as before, and the clearance runs yellow to purple through eight balls, for a maximum of 210. The sheet takes it without change.

The Shoot Out

One frame of ten minutes on a clock, with a shot clock of fifteen seconds for the first five minutes and ten after that. Every shot must pot a ball or send a ball to a cushion, every foul gives ball in hand anywhere on the table, and whoever is ahead when the clock stops takes the frame.

Doubles

Two pairs, with partners taking alternate visits: when one partner's break ends, the other side plays, and then the second partner. The sheet is one column per pair, and each break goes to the pair that made it.

Handicaps

The weaker player starts the frame with points already on the board, agreed before the break — twenty, thirty or whatever makes the frames close. Enter the start as the first row in that player's column and play the frame as usual.

How many points is each ball worth in snooker?

A red is one. The colours are yellow two, green three, brown four, blue five, pink six and black seven. A red stays down when potted; a colour potted while any red remains goes back on its spot, so the black can be potted fifteen times in a frame, and then once more at the end.

What is a foul worth in snooker?

At least four points to your opponent, and more if a higher ball was involved: the value of the ball you were on, or of the ball you hit or potted by mistake, whichever is greater, up to seven. The points go into the other player's column on the sheet, as a row of their own.

What is a free ball?

After a foul, if the player coming to the table cannot hit the ball they are on in a straight line, they may name any other ball and play it as if it were the ball on. Pot it and it scores the value of the ball they were really on, one if that was a red, and it comes back to its spot.

What is a maximum break?

The most that can be scored in one visit from a full table: fifteen reds each followed by a black, which is 120, then the six colours for 27 more, making 147.

When is a frame of snooker over?

When the black is potted after every other ball has gone, or as soon as the black is the only ball left and one player is more than seven points behind. A player may also concede when the points left on the table are not enough to catch up. Tap End match and the frame is banked.

What happens if the scores are level at the end of a frame?

The black is put back on its spot, the players toss for who plays first, and the first player to score or to foul decides it: pot the black and you win, foul and your opponent does.